Rebeccas Starlog - Where My Heart Will Take Me

Star Trek and The Business of Network Television To what extent did the business model of network television enable Star Trek: The Original Series to appeal to such a wide range of audiences? In ways did that same model constrain it? Due to major national differences in the broadcasting landscape, I would first like to contrast the situation in Germany and the U.S. and explain terms relating to this, and then answer the question posed. In Germany, where I live, there is a different television system. There are public broadcasters that are financed mainly by broadcasting fees and to a small extent by advertising revenues. For example, ARD / Das Erste (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunkanstalten der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) has been broadcasting since 1952, ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) since 1963, and ARD's third programs, i.e. regional stations such as SWR (Südwestrundfunk) since the mid to late 1960s. In the 1980s, there was a fundamental change: privat...

Hurray! I 've completed the first unit of my course. This means that I can put on the rank of Chief Warrant Officer. Isn't that cool!?

 Welcome to my Starlog! I currently started Smithsonian's course "Star Trek: Inspiring Culture an Technology" because I wanted to challenge myself, take my first edx course and complete it. And of course, I am a huge Trekkie. But before the age of 18, I haven't watched a single episode Star Trek. Then, a friend introduced me to new things and Star Trek was one of them, thankfully. At that time, I often worked night shifts on the weekend to earn some money while I still was in school for my A-levels. On Sundays, I slept in and watched Star Trek. On TV there were always two episodes of the series Voyager, Deep Space Nine and Enterprise. I enjoyed it a lot and got to know the series more and more. But since I was watching the episodes as they just aired, it was a mess. Years later I made the decision with a friend to watch everything Star Trek related, series and movies completely and in chronological order, in English. So the foreign language part was a challenge and I ...