The original Star Trek series was heavily inspired by the 18th-century exploratory voyages of British Royal Navy Captain James Cook.

Creator Gene Roddenberry modeled the concept of a starship charting unknown space on Cook’s maritime expeditions, famously taking the iconic catchphrase "to boldly go" from a line in Cook's own journals.

The Name: Captain James T. Kirk's first name is widely believed to be a direct nod to Captain James Cook.

The Mission: The USS Enterprise’s core mission to seek out new life and strange new worlds mirrors the exploratory scientific mandate of Cook's voyages aboard the HMS Endeavour.

The Famous Quote: Star Trek's iconic opening monologue—"to boldly go where no man has gone before"—was inspired by Cook's journal entry: "Ambition leads me not only farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go."