Overview of and topical guide to Star Trek
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Star Trek:
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise, created by Gene Roddenberry, which started in 1966 with the television series Star Trek (now known as Star Trek: The Original Series). With spin-offs, the franchise now includes twelve television series (nine live action, and three animated) totalling 814 episodes across 38 television seasons, as well as 13 feature films. The Star Trek franchise also includes a large number of novels, comic books, video games and other materials, which are generally considered non-canon.
Star Trek
Star Trek can be described as all of the following:
- Fiction – a form of narrative which deals, in part or in whole, with events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary and invented by its author(s). Although fiction often describes a major branch of literary work, it is also applied to theatrical, cinematic and musical work.
- Science fiction – a genre of fiction with imaginative but more or less plausible content such as settings in the future, futuristic science and technology, space travel, parallel universes, aliens, and paranormal abilities. Exploring the consequences of scientific innovations is one purpose of science fiction, making it a "literature of ideas".
- Space opera – a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, usually involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to "soap opera".
- Space Western – a subgenre of science fiction, primarily grounded in film and television programming, that transposes themes of American Western books and film to a backdrop of futuristic space frontiers; it is the complement of the science fiction Western, which transposes science fiction themes onto an American Western setting.
- Setting – setting includes the historical moment in time and geographic location in which a story takes place, and helps initiate the main backdrop and mood for a story. The setting has been referred to as story world or milieu to include a context (especially society) beyond the immediate surroundings of the story. Elements of setting may include culture, historical period, geography, and hour. Along with plot, character, theme and style, the setting is considered one of the fundamental components of fiction.
- Fictional location – a place that exists only in fiction and not in reality. Writers may create and describe such places to serve as the backdrop for their stories to take place in. The setting may be of any scope, from a specific spaceship or building to a neighborhood, city, country, world, galaxy or universe.
- Fictional universe – self-consistent fictional setting with elements that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed or fictional realm (or world).
- Intellectual property – creations of the intellect for which a monopoly is assigned to designated owners by law. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols and designs. The typical intellectual property rights granted for fictional works are copyright and trademark.
- Media franchise – licensing of intellectual property of an original work of media (usually a work of fiction), such as a film, a work of literature, a television program or a video game, to others. This licensing may involve trademarked characters and settings. Generally, a media franchise means that a whole series is made in a particular medium, along with licensing to others for merchandising and endorsements.
