For the series’ 50th anniversary, Facebook users who’ve liked Star Trek will see reactions themed around the show when they hover over the Like button. To commemorate the occasion, Facebook has chose to come up with custom reactions as a tribute. According to Facebook Messenger marketing lead Lindsey Shepard, they’ll appear for “some” Trek fans – meaning you’ve liked something Star Trek-related – in the US and Canada.
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First, MeTV will air the premiere broadcast episode of Star Trek, “The Man Trap”, at its regular time, Saturday at 8 p.m. “Love” has been turned into a Vulcan split-finger greeting, the “Haha” face has a Captain Kirk hairdo (sadly there is not enough detail to imply a toupee), “Wow” gets the Spock treatment, “Sad” looks like Geordi La Forge from The Next Generation and “Angry” has the ridged brow of a Klingon.
On Thursday, people in the US and Canada will be able to show their excitement for their friends and families’ posts and photos with a special set of Star Trek reactions.
Subscribe to Orbital, The Gadgets 360 podcast via iTunes or RSS and just hit the play button below to listen to our iPhone 7 special episode.
Not everyone will see the Star Trek-inspired content, however.
According to Shepard, the social media giant wanted to stay true to the “original design and spirit of Reactions” while making sure the characters were clearly identifiable for fans. Whereas “Star Trek: The Original Series” reflected the uncertainty, instability and violence of its time, West said, the Enterprise crew in “The Next Generation” “really seemed on a mission of peace and exploration, not about to conquer anything or promote war, not out to conquer other planets”.
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“We may test experiences like this in the future, and will focus on community and moment-driven events like this one”, she says. “We, we’ve invented, through science fiction, a mythology, and “Star Trek” is a huge part of that”.
