Google Doodle Celebrates Star Trek's 46th Anniversary

Space… the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Google. 46 years ago, an entirely new kind of intense fandom was kicked off with the premiere of the original Star Trek TV series. Google is celebrating in the way it usually does, with a Google Doodle on the homepage.

The Doodle has the letters of the Google logo spelled out by the Enterprise’s bridge crew. Uhura is an O, Spock is the G, and so on. Most of the letters are non-interactive, but you can open the turbolift to send Kirk on an away mission with a very nervous “red shirt.” On the planet’s surface, you have to take out Gorn the lizard creature in the usual way (diamond cannon, duh).
In case you were wondering how deep the Star Trek geekery at the Googleplex goes, you can click on Uhura to get a soft focus close up that imitates that often used shot on the show. There is also a console you can click on that plays the classic Enterprise sound effects. I won’t ruin all the surprises, but there are some tribbles to be found in the Doodle as well (it’s not in the video above).

The Doodle will be around all day Saturday, but come Sunday it will disappear. However, it will forever be accessible by visiting the Google Doodle archive allowing you to play around with it whenever you need a Star Trek hit.