10 Obscure Star Trek Secrets That Took Years To Discover 

Nichelle's story may have gone "viral" in 2011 but she's been telling that great story on the Convention circuit for decades.

When I was a kid, maybe 5 years old, my dad bought and built a model of the original enterprise and he let me play with it sometimes while he watched to make sure I didn't damage it. After doing this a few times he (foolishly) trusted me with it and wouldn't watch me while playing with it anymore, and one time I went outside with it, flipped it upside down, and began scooting it through the dirt, then used the saucer kind of like a shovel to dig a hole. It got a little scratched up and certainly dirty. When he came outside to check on me and saw it, I remember it so clearly. At first he looked at me so angry but then his face quickly softened and he started smiling and he said, "You know what? In 10 years, I probably won't even know where this thing is anymore anyway." He didn't let me play with it anymore without supervision, but after a while I lost interest in it, he ended up packing it up somewhere. Years later I happened to think about it and asked him if he knew where it was, and he had no idea, it was lost to time like most things he bought that he never really needed. Seeing that upside down enterprise in this video reminded me of all of that. It reminds me of another story. I was really big into Legos as a kid, and one year for christmas one of my aunts bought me a Merlin lego minifig on a keychain. When it came time to open presents, in my big family everyone had big piles of gifts in front of each person and sometimes they were mistakenly given to the wrong people and stuff like that, and that merlin keychain ended up in my dad's pile. It just had my name on it and nothing else, and somehow or another someone thought it was from me to my dad rather than for me. When he saw it was from me and opened it, he really loved it and thought I had wanted to give it to him. My aunt pulled me aside and told me what happened, that she had got it for me, but he thinks I got it for him, but he loved it so much I let him keep it and never told him it was actually for me, so in a way, I did give it to him. He put it on a lanyard and hung it around the rear view mirror in his car. Throughout the years as he got new cars, he always moved merlin to hang right there from the rear view mirror right up to the day he died. Even after he got into a bad car accident that crushed his knee, he took Merlin out of the car with him when he went because he was scared it would get lost and they would total his car. Now I have Merlin, the gift I was always meant to have in the first place. It probably wouldve been lost or destroyed if it had been mine as a kid, but now it is my most precious possession and I hang it around the rear view mirror of my cars because every time I look at it, it reminds me of my dad and how much he loved me.

I'm surprised no one mentioned Scotty's hand in the Season 3 Episode 17 '"That Which Survives". In the episode there is a considerable amount of time where the camera will be focussed on James Doohan's (Scotty's) hand as he is fixing a delicate part of the warp drive while it is in operation. James Doohan reportedly stated that this is all fine but the set will have to be built reversed so as to focus on his left hand. When questioned on this bizarre request he is reported to have said "This is why." as he shows them he is missing half of his right hand ring finger due to a WWII war injury. Apparently eyes bugged out and coffee cups hit the floor as no one on the set had known until that moment.

Andrew Robinson is SUCH an underrated talent. DS9 had a great cast, but they struck latinum landing him for Garak.

Ted Cassidy (Lurch) voicing the TOS Gorn is beyond legendary.

For those of you who don't know, some behind the scenes footage of TNG was taken for an episode of Reading Rainbow, Levar Burton's then concurrently running series for kids on PBS.

If you're going to tell a story about models, talk about the Mysterious Romulan Warbird that was designed during the original series, shown to Gene, approved, accidently knocked over, and shattered. To make schedule, they "re-used" the Klingon warship as a Romulan vessel and even added dialogue between Scotty and Spock to cover over why it was that way.

The Dominion war was very important. It showed how the highly evolved humans of Starfleet and the Federation fared under adversity. Some like Commander Sisco actually made a deal with the devil in order to save everything that they held dear.

Garak, a favourite character of mine, and his scenes with Quark, among the best.

Honestly I think if you took Gene's belief about what Star Trek ought to be to their logical extent, I think you would eliminate almost all of the episodes, literally, each episode revolves around some conflict usually just about the aliens, but often involving humanity itself as well. The only difference with the dominion war is that it wasn't over in one episode like the original series would've done.

People always use the scene from “Mirror, Mirror” when talking about how they filmed the Enterprise’s left side. Except they didn’t do it that way for that episode in the original effects. They used the old three-foot model which was finished on both sides. It still had the bussard collectors and deflector from “The Cage” so in homage when they updated the effects they kept that look for the ISS Enterprise. The “old look” was scene in original stock shots throughout the series anyway.

Another little known fact was that the Smithsonian owned model of the original Enterprise spent years on display there in the basement of the Gift Shop of the Air and Space museum. This was before it's most recent "overhaul" :)

To add to the lyrics story, once it was discovered that Gene would receive 50% of the royalties for the theme song, Alexander Courage was so angry that he never worked for Paramount again.

LOL, no, the Dr. King story did not suddenly come out in 2011. Star Trek fans knew about that many, many years before. I'd heard that story already in the late 70's as an ST fan. It was not some hidden secret at all.

Nichelle’s fan mail wasn’t hidden from her. The 1st couple of letters she received were racist rants so she stopped asking for them. After talking to Dr. King she talked to Gene who showed her that she had a lot of fan mail. He kept them for her when she didn’t want them.

Nichelle has literally told that story in every Star Trek documentary she's ever been in, decades before 2011.

11th obscure Star Trek secret: Sean hates into darkness

I've known about the lyrics to the TOS theme since the 1970s, not 1997. We had fanzines and paperbacks that sought out anything and everything Star Trek and printed it. Plus we had an LP entitled Inside Star Trek relating facts of the show.

Uhura was one of my favourite characters, and one of the most iconic to this day. So glad she chose to stay on.

As great as Gene Roddenberry was, I'm glad he was surrounded by people who would push back on some of his ideas. Star Trek is at it's best when it's a result of a collaborative effort after all. That and I can't imagine how wrong that really long flyby of the refit Enterprise in the first movie if the ship were upside down.

Funny thing about upside-down starships. During the making of Star Trek II, the Reliant originally had nacelles atop the saucer, but when the drawings were sent to Havre Bennett he viewed them upside-down and liked it, so he signed off on it. They decided they really have didn't have time to correct him so they ended up tossing on the rollbar to balance things out

The Roddenberry lyrics to the theme song were included in the classic 1968 book, "The Making of Star Trek." So, it hardly took "years" for this knowledge to come out. The "upside down Enterprise" saga was also described in the aforementioned book.

It always bugged me that ships never run into each other at random angles. Even if there was a reason to use the galactic plane as up/down, ships should still encounter each other upside down.

Gene's lyrics were printed in the front of "The Making of Star Trek", published in 1968.

I think when they say "obscure" facts that took years to discover, they mean it took them years to discover, Trekkies knew the "obscure" facts long before they were born.

I think the dominion war was the single best arc in Star Trek. No matter how perfect federation society is, (which it’s not, but still) there would ALWAYS be other factions that disagreed and wanted control. If someone fights you your only options are fighting or surrender.

The story about the Borg was also that they were actually planned to be Insectoids. But that would have conquered with the idea/concept of the Jarada. The Jarada were never shown on screen in TNG and the Borg's technological design was done because it simply was too expensive to create believable insect-like costumes.

Both the Gorn and the Caitians/Ferasans have been redone very tastefully in the game, Star Trek Online, which does a great job including all of the Trek universe, from TOS to Discovery and Picard, as well as everything in between, such as Lower Decks and the alternate reality movies started in 2009, and continues to incorporate new canon as it becomes available. They are even playable as your captain, as well as many other non- human races/species in the Trek universe.

First entry - Iow Gene Roddenberry was an unapologetic thief who stole money that should have gone to composer Alexander Courage. For all his vision of a bright future where everyone gets along (one of the best, most unique, and sadly most unrealistic aspect of the Star Trek franchise imo), GR could be a real bastard to other people in real life.

The correct terms are Starboard for the right side and Port for the left.

Andrew Robinson gave a masterful performance as Garak, and while maybe a little subtle flirtation would have been in character, I feel more would have taken away from his mystique. Having him remain detached was part of what gave his character a dangerous allure.

The upside down Enterprise reminded me of an old ST novel, where McCoy was the only senior officer left to command the Enterprise because...reasons... and he had to meet a Klingon vessel. Taking advantage of the Klingon misconception of Kirk as a warlord, McCoy impersonates Kirk and acts like a crazy warmonger by meeting the Klingon ship upside down, which presents both the phaser banks and the photon torpedo launchers towards the other vessel while hiding and thus protecting the bridge dome.

Another TOS Enterprise model fact is that its covered in an overall "Ghost Grey" paint scheme, the same as all US Navy vessels.

Errrr didn't Nichelle Nicholls recount the MLK story during the 30th anniversary special in 1996? thats a smidge sooner than 2011.

Trivia: On the cover of the 1978 children's record "Duck Wars," there's a spaceship that's obviously an upside-down version of the Enterprise.

A Gorn was also depicted in TAS: “The Time Trap.”

The lyrics are _Beyond the edge of the starlight_ _My love is wandering in starflight_ _I know he'll find in star clustered reaches_ _Love, strange love a star woman teaches_ _I know his journey ends never_ _His Star Trek will go on forever_ _So tell him as he wanders his starry sea_ _Remember, remember me_ And that, folks, is from memory.

I've often felt like Garak reminds me of some people I know who have a sort of undefined sexuality. I love the way he is portrayed and the way he and Bashir go on to form an interesting and complex relationship. Also, I'm so glad Nichelle stayed on and influenced us all for the better!

Dominion War arc is one of my favorite in all of Trek. Im semi glad Gene didnt get a chance to stop it.

uM... Don't know where you got your info but Nichelle was telling her story about Dr. King years and years before the date you cite. Like, during the 20th century!!

Regarding the Gorn I prefer the way they currently look in Star Trek online. It's more refined to a lizard-like appearance. Some people may not know this about STO but the current models for the Gorn in the game are an upgraded look. The early game before any expansions had them looking more like the one from TOS. lol

Nice! Brie’s back. 🖖 The lyrics for Star Trek’s original theme were first seen in The Making of Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry & Stephen E. Whitefield. The Dominion War was one of Trek’s best ideas. Starfleet DOES have a military role, something those spoiled by TNG’s utopia aspect. Apparently Roddenberry ignored the episodes Balance of Terror and Errand of Mercy. The Ferengi captain out to kill Picard in The Battle was out to avenge his son who was killed at Zeta Maxia, a tale recounted in the novel Star Trek: The Buried Age.

The uniform change also gave us the Picard Maneuver 😉

I appreciate that this video’s thumbnail, despite the clickbaity appearance, is actually a genuine part of the video. Even better, this video has interesting information about Star Trek!

I saw Trek in first run; I thought Uhura was the most important 'face' in Star-Fleet! The Enterprise was the Fleets best and most capable ship, but it was Uhura who spoke! Not the Captain...'hailing frequencies open' means she has already negotiated communications protocols, made introductions, found the real leaders and not some underling. The first voice and face anyone in the Galaxy ever saw of the Federation was hers!

When you're discussing the season 2 model's left side, the clips you show are from the modern (1990's) rendering that went into the remastered version. It does not depict the model being discussed!

The real reason the Star Trek theme has lyrics is because, in those days, a song couldn't be copyrighted without them.

Thank you for the awesome info and tidbits. :) Great job in the writing, narration, and presentation.

I learned about the lyrics to the TOS theme from the Doctor Demento Show in the 80s.

"...a hopeful look at things if we did things right." "You can do everything right and still lose." Capt Picard, TNG The Dominion War is about a great many things. One of them being the Federation/Starfleet doing everything right, according to them, and everything still goes "ass end up". Albeit mainly because they were dealing with the totally unreasonable Founders, who viewed all others beneath them. And anyone who dared "stand upright and tall" needed to be conquered, culled, or rendered extinct.

Who doesn't know the Star Trek theme lyrics? "Aaah aaaaaah, aah aah aah ah aaaaahhh. Aaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaaah, aaah aaah aaah ah aaaaaaah."

Here's an obscure bit of trivia about the TOS theme song: In music, a "contrafact" is when a new melody is written over the existing chord changes to another song. Jazz musicians have been doing this since the beginning, with the changes to Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm" being the most widely used (the theme song to "The Flintstones" uses Rhythm changes). TOS theme is actually a contrafact over the changes to the jazz standard "Out of Nowhere," but that's not the most obscure part! In the season 1 TNG episode "The Big Goodbye," Picard enters his holodeck Dixon Hill detective program. As he's walking down the hallway to his office, he passes a cleaning lady who has a radio playing in her cart. Which song is on the radio? "Out of Nowhere," of course!

I remember reading an old Gold Key issue of Star Trek where the Enterprise was shown upside down. Figured it was just a mistake. Now, not so sure.

The original TNG uniforms were made from a material that was hard to clean… and they began to smell awful. Also they had to make a special jacket for Ensign Ro when she took the jacket part off to put on a refugee, so they put magnets in the “invisible” center seam to make it look like it had no discernible fasteners.

5:57 "a three-episode trilogy" Me: you don't say! 😂

I like how whenever Berman comes up, it's always to do something stupid, or argue against good ideas... Yet it took a pile of scandals for them to finally fire him.

What do you mean "Nichelle Nichols said about the encounter in 2011" - she already mentioned it during 25th anniversary special.

Dominion War thoughts: I’m all for the optimistic future but Trek also has its foot firmly in reflecting where we are and showing us how we might triumph over these issues, not just having already triumphed over them in the past

7:38 Good reference! I *highly* recommend the Television Academy interviews! ⭐️ They’re long form, hours and hours, but it’s just so wonderful to see and hear all our favorites tell their story. Nicholls’ interview is captivating. Other interviews include Shatner (twice!), Nimoy, Takei, Koenig and Burton in the cast; writer DC Fontana; Solow, Justman, Finnerman (also Moonlighting), Harve Bennett and a few more behind the scenes. And also Berman gives his side… I hope the Academy does many more interviews from the TNG/DS9/VOY era.

Got me thinking about old trek again. Today was a good day.

I read about the upside enterprise in a fan book in the 1970's. The original plan was for it to be upside down as we know it. But they flipped in part so that it obviously couldn't land on a planet surface They didn't have the budget to film landing sequences which is why they created transporters.

On Garak crushing on Bashir. Several years ago I got to talk to Fraser Hines, who was one of the Second Doctor's companions on Doctor Who. I mentioned that his character and another companion named Victoria seemed to have a little crush on each other. He said they played it that way on purpose, but they had to be subtle, because if it was too obvious, then they'd have to write that the two characters had fallen in love, and if they fell in love, the BBC would order that they'd have to get married, and married people couldn't be companions, so they'd be off the show. Funny how TV execs' minds work sometimes.

Of course there are lyrics to the TOS theme song. I sing them every time I watch it: "Ahhhhhhh ahhhhhhh ahhhh ahhhh ahhhh ahhhh ahhhh..."

@3:05 I remember the CG work for the Gorn on Enterprise being considered hilariously bad even when the episode first aired. It was not "impressive for the time".

One of the things that irked me in the 3rd season onward, when they were using the 1st/2nd season uniforms for background players, that no one thought to run a $1 black magic marker over the colored bead on the black shoulder inserts.

*let the geeky commentary begin*

07:00 There is a funny scene in one of the Star-Wreck parody books, where Georgie LaForgie has to go to the toilet, and is heard commenting "I cant wait to get one of those fancy new two piece uniforms like the bridge officers, I hate having to strip half naked to use the toilet!"

At 7:10 ...as a young white kid watching Star Trek reruns in the early 70's, I fell in love with Uhura...she was beautiful, smart, and kind...If she had left the show, I would have been devastated...I finally got to meet Nichelle in 2014 at Pensacon...she was still lovely...

Forgot one of the other huge reasons they ditched the original TNG uniforms. They smelled terrible. The material trapped BO and no amount of washing could get it out. The entire set wreaked because of it.

5:38 "We never learned who destroyed these colonies" -- Yes, we did. It was the Borg. In _The Neutral Zone_ the Romulans investigating the destroyed colonies state that when they saw the level of destruction, they knew it could not have been the Federation. In _Q Who_ the Enterprise finds a planet which was attacked in the same manner by the Borg.

I always knew there was something with the Borg in the neutral zone episode due to it's the same wording that worf uses about (some great thing scooped it up from the ground) as well as in Q-Who.

At 2:55 ...I've been to the Vasquez Rocks in California where the famous battle took place...and, yes...they sell Gorn and Kirk souvenirs in the gift shop...

I didn't care for the Dominion war overall; however, there are a number of great moments from it that I don't think we would have gotten otherwise for which I wouldn't wish it gone.

This was a great list, Brie. Thank you.

It's like how the Stargate SG-1 theme has lyrics.

in Star Trek Strange New Worlds the Online Game from the 90s.. my character.. a Ferengi.. had a number of troops.. including some Gorn.. as well as Klingons which is a long story but it boils down to some RP I did with the Qang & metal I sold them to make new ships after their war with the Federation & the Romulans.. I would spar with the Qang & they had so much respect for my Ferengi, about 50 Klingon troops (NPCs) followed me around 24/7/365 & I also had authority over tens of thousands of Ferengi troops as I was a high level Liquidator in the FCA.. I could buy just about anything in the game & also had a Romulan cloak ship which no one had.. except me and the Romulans... I actually pitched the idea for Lower Decks to Trek & they badmouthed it actually as I wanted it to be a Live Action show more along the lines of Game of Thrones but this was before Game of Thrones even existed.. in fact... I am the one who got Alexander Siddig his role on Game of Thrones & also GRRM himself wrote me back in 2005 & HBO thanked me for my contributions to the franchise.. long story I know I know but I was a very well known Trek fan since the 90s as far as that goes, I knew Aron who played Nog & others plus after they rejected my idea for Lower Decks even Rod wrote me & said.. no joke.. you know the whole Guinan thing where he says to Picard that Ro is her friend.. ROD wrote me & said... that he didn't want to be my friend... I remained friends with Aron until he died... and I know some other Trek actors.. anyway.. I said to them finally, after they mocked my idea for a GoT style Lower Decks I said fine make it a cartoon and a comedy.. I said it jokingly .. and they sat on it for a long time.. and then ultimately did it.. anyway... Star Trek Strange New Worlds Online was a great game that ran from what around 1997 until 2004 I believe was when it ended.. and it had a full combat / space and economy system as well as advanced character generation.. my main character was a Ferengi & I had other characters & I was one of two players allowed to actually 2 box since it was controlled 24/7 by moderators.. you could do the coded game at any time including trade but all combat was under review & any story outside the main story had to be submitted as a tiny plot .. approved.. and then it could be done.. and yeah combat still happened out of nowhere but a lot of times the admins would freeze it to review or even sometimes overturn it.. one time a Romulan was on Ferenginar trying to break into the FCA tower to steal my cloak ship back & I exploded the turbolift with him in it ... he didn't realize I had so many privileges including the ability to seal the lift.. so basically I put an explosive in the lift & then sealed it up & yeah he was pretty upset.. I also fought a Pakled.. Orions.. Klingons.. all sorts in that game.. I actually got pretty notorious & my character got into his 130s and was one of the longest living characters.. see if you died in the game that was it, you had to restart through character generation with a new character.. I had enhanced hearing & combat instincts on my character which wasn't completely coded into the game so I would always announced "Rolling for combat instincts" & do a roll like in a D&D game & almost always won that roll which got me things like the first attack or a dodge... I had the best armor in the game.. ships from multiple empires.. and Ferengi ships.. shuttles.. factories.. the largest privately owned building on Ferenginar which is a huge thing if you know about Ferengi economics.. a hotel.. hidden barracks & a prison.. weapon lockers.. full access to our starbase & underground command center.. some of the best guns.. including Federation and Klingon rifles.. I even had some extremely rare ancient Gorn weapons.. which I don't even recall where I got those.. I had like 3 ... and the Qang gave me a knife which I believe had zero weight so I always had that extra weapon.. I'd always carry an explosive on my character too.. I had a tricorder that could scan anywhere.. but enhanced hearing let me hear people from other places in the zone so I didn't always need it..

1:53 "Gene Roddenberry's vision" I've grown to hate this term so much...

Regarding the uniform change for TNG, Michael Dorn (If memory servers) would basically flex and stretch towards the end of a shoot and rip out all the seams of his costume. Also the color of those costumes are actually different than what you see on screen, do the film tech (not sure if this was just cameras used in TV) but the shades would be different which caused them to have to switch colors until they found the correct reds and greens etc. And that came directly from a member of STNG staff (who looked exactly like Jonathan Frakes but was not Jonathan Frakes. If you know you know)

Any time they made up a landing party, you know the extras are not coming back. lol

All the chapters in this video have Ss substituted for Gs, Os substituted for Qs, and Vs substituted for Us “Theme gong’g” “Garak’g gecret” “Reagon” “Quer the upgide down” “The Enterprige”

keep up the good work!

LOTS of facts left out with Nichelle's story. Almost as if they were painfully omitted for dramatic affect, as if her ordeal wasn't already dramatic enough... Kinda sleazy to present it the way you did. She's the one who requested to not receive any more fanmail after she saw the first few that were horribly racist. The producers were never 'hiding' them, they were protecting her by doing what she asked. That's a BIG difference. She didnt threaten to leave because because they were hiding the good fan mail either, it was due to the trauma if the racists ones she saw. She had an affair with Gene so the idea of leaving seemed rather... an excuse more than a threat. After her talk with Dr. King, she sees all the fans that she hadn't not seen due to her fear dominating her judgemrnt and asking not to see the mail. That is a completely different set of circumstances and context than what's presented on this video.

Wow, it’s so easy to make a bad listicle video, but this is great! I didn’t know most of these, and every topic was actually very interesting!

No mention of the Gorn in 'Into Darkness's tie-in video game, that look a LOT like the proposed Gorn for '09.

There is no "up" or "down" in space, so there's no reason why they couldn't show the Enterprise upside down just for fun. Maybe on approach to space dock it comes into frame upside down then does a roll to align with what is "up" for the space dock or something, that'd be kinda neat.

Behrman was right. Making the second half of DS9 all about space battles made it drop all the things that made the original premise of the show interesting.

Most people didn't read the book or the magazines, so this is new information.

The Dominion War is the best Star Trek story arc ever written.

As a viewer from Germany I have to say that I have to stop watching these videos because of spoilers. Please keep in mind that, as you mentioned yourself, in some countries strange new worlds cannot be seen yet. The same goes for Disco S4! A spoiler warning at the beginning would be nice. Thx for noticing

A small spoiler warning for the Gorn one for SNW would have been nice, Non US fans haven't got that far yet....

The Gorn actually made an appearance in the early 1970's animated ST.

I always found the character of garak as camp. Never questioned it. The character was awesome and brilliantly portrayed by AR.

I'm glad they didn't do the Bashir/Garak relationship because Garak falling for Ziyal and losing her made for great character development even though I was really mad they killed. I had hoped they would live happily ever after lol. And I didn't know about the hate uhura got. Not surprised given the times but that's some bullshit

Love Brie as a narrator & presenter. Keep it up!

"A very welcomed callback." In SNW? Nothing about any of these new series is welcome to fans. And yeah, duh. We all noticed Garak crushing on Bashir. And we were all creeped out by it. Which is how it seems to have been intended.

the Innuendo between Garak and Bashir was damn obvious to fans. to this DAY, they're still shipped together in artwork :P

None of these are obscure. None of these are secrets. None of these took years to discover. The upside down Enterprise and the theme lyrics were written about and shown in The Making of Star Trek, which was published in 1968 while the original show was still being made. The only thing here that took any time to learn was that Robinson played Garak ambiguously queer. Your title is absolutely false. Misleading.

Garrak being gay makes sense 😂 Dude totally fucks with Bresheers mind, like a chick 😂😂 "How much of it was real?" Garrak "all of it, every word." "Even the lies?" Garrak "especially the lies" 😂😂🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️👍🏻

I feel the upside-down one looks not only better, it would also take so much force off of the connector pipes when the ship is landed. I'm not sure if the ship did ever land anywhere, though.

6:53 Carpet shim under Data's seat