Star Trek Getting Postal Stamps in the UK

Star Trek’s iconic characters will soon grace a set of new postage stamps from the Royal Mail. Announced last week, the Royal Mail will issue 12 stamps designed by artist Freya Betts of London. The stamps depict characters from every live-action television iteration of Star Trek, celebrating 50 years of the venerable sci-fi franchise. The characters represented include Captain James T. Kirk, Spock, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Commander Deanna Troi, Captain Benjamin Sisko, Doctor Julian Bashir, Captain Kathryn Janeway, Captain Jonathan Archer, Lieutenant Malcolm Reed, Captain Gabriel Lorca, Lieutenant Ash Tyler, and Commander Michael Burnham. There’s also a short sheet of six additional stamps featuring Star Trek movie characters played by British actors. Those stamps feature Montgomery Scott, Shinzon, Tolian Soran, Klingon Chancellor Gorkon, Carol Marcus, and Krall.

Philip Parker of Royal Mail said, “For more than 50 years Star Trek has enthralled and inspired generations of loyal fans with extraordinary adventures and an optimistic vision of humanity’s future. We celebrate the Star Trek Universe with stylish new stamps of its iconic characters.”

Betts tells StarTrek.com, “It was one of my childhood memories to watch Star Trek: The Original Series with my dad on a cozy rainy Sunday afternoon, so you could imagine he was just as excited about this job as I were! My favorite character would be Spock. It took me years of practice and teachings from my dad to accomplish the Vulcan salute!”

These stamps celebrate more than 50 years of the Star Trek franchise, but the franchise is still expanding. There are plans in place at least through the year 2027.

“Heather Kaden and Aaron Baiers, who work with me at Secret Hideout — we literally just got off a call with the network mapping out with us through 2027,” Star Trek television head Alex Kurtzman recently said. “Now when I say that, it’s not like it’s set in stone. It’s just, ‘Here’s a plan. Here’s what we’re looking at. Here’s how the different shows are going to drop.’ Consider the fact that it takes a year from inception — from starting production — to airing, you have to plan way, way, way in advance to get these things done, and you have to stay on top of the zeitgeists and make sure that what you’re doing is relevant. So you have to plan so far in advance now in different kinds of ways [like safety and budget] to seem loose and improvisational, but there’s nothing loose and improvisational about it.”

Every Star Trek television series is streaming now on CBS All Access. New Star Trek: Discovery episodes stream Thursdays on CBS All Access.