"Star Trek: Nemesis" released 2002

Star Trek: Nemesis, the fourth and final movie to feature the Next Generation cast, debuted in US theaters December 13, 2002.  The film was the first to feature the Romulans primarily.  Unfortunately, it was not the box-office success as the previous Star Trek movies.  It was the first film that did not open at #1 its first weekend.  Due to its poorer than expected performance, subsequent movies featuring the Next Generation cast were cancelled. 

The original crew of Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn and Marina Sirtis, appeared.  Tom Hardy and Ron Perlman played antagonists.  There were cameos by Kate Mulgrew as Admiral Kathryn Janeway, Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher, Majel Barrett as the computer's voice and Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan.  

Tom Hardy was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor. 

Star Trek episode "The Immunity Syndrome" airs 1968

Episode 18 of the second season of Star Trek (the original series) The Immunity Syndrome aired January 19, 1968.  The crew of the Enterprise (sans Sulu since George Takei was filming The Green Berets) encounters a large dark area of space where the stars have gone out.  They find an enormous amoeba draining energy from everything around it.

Kirk has to choose between Spock and McCoy to send into the amoeba with a shuttlecraft to study it and find a way to destroy it before it kills them all.  Scotty, Uhura, Chekov and Nurse Chapel appeared in this episode.

Star Trek episode "The Tholian Web" airs 1968

The ninth episode of the third season of Star Trek (TOS), The Tholian Web, aired November 15, 1968.  The crew of the Enterprise finds another Constitution-class spaceship, Defiant, which had been presumed lost.  It appears to be in flux between two universes.  Captain Kirk is assumed to be dead when he is aboard the Defiant when it finally disappears.  Before they can wait for an opportunity to rescue him, they are attacked by a Tholian ship.  They return fire and disable it, but a second ship appears and the two being to weave an energy web around the Enterprise.  Spock has to also deal with a growing epidemic of violence aboard.

The Tholian Web is one of three episodes that does not have a single guest star.  It is one of the few episodes to star all of the second and third season regulars: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov and Chapel.  An uncredited Barbara Babcock provided the voice of the Tholian commander Loskene.

The Tholian Web was nominated for an Emmy for special effects.  SyFy ranked it as one of the top ten essential episodes of the original series.  The Hollywood Reporter ranked it as the 75th best episodes of all the Star Trek franchise television shows (prior to Star Trek: Discovery), but not the movies.

"Star Trek: The Motion Picture" premieres 1979

Ten years after the television show went off the air (but only four years after the events in the Turnabout Intruder), Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released onto the big screen December 8, 1979.  Us Trekkies were excited to see our crew again but underwhelmed with the movie.  I remember discussing it in high school and we agreed it was just a glorified television episode.   It also seemed to me it was written by someone who didn't like Star Trek.

Still, it managed to restart the franchise, which is going strong today.

Majel Barrett born 1932

Majel Barrett, born February 23, 1932, is one of the most endearing characters of the Star Trek franchise.  She appeared as Number One in The Cage, the pilot for the series, and then as Nurse Christine Chapel for the rest of the run.  She appeared as Lwaxana Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space 9.  She is the voice of the computers in all of the spin-offs.

Majel married Gene Roddenberry in 1969 and remained together until his death in 1991.  She  passed away in 2008 from leukemia.