Looking back on the 1966-69 Star Trek television series it becomes clear that Gene Roddenberry’s imagination was light years ahead of his time. Alright, well maybe a little closer to 40 years. We still might not be able to beam our sexy selves from one location to another or to regenerate our kidneys with a blue pill, but the cell phones we use today have far surpassed his predictions for the 23^rd century.

Despite the clunky, primitive look of his communicator, no one flips open a phone like Captain James T. Kirk. Not only did it allow Kirk to keep in touch with his ship and crew, but whenever he suffered from inter-galactic snack attack he could use the flip top to grate cheese.

Notice the circular display screen at the center. Once in motion, the spider-esque pattern spirals outward, generating endless circles which could easily hypnotize the untrained eye. Always one step ahead, Captain Kirk never stared directly into the communicator when he used it.

We laugh at Star Trek’s attempt to create futuristic gadgets, but have we really come that far? Are cell phones today that different? It’s easy to trace the inspiration for many of today’s models.

Sure they’re sleeker, sexier, more colourful and certainly more versatile, but they share many similarities with the 1966 Roddenberry version. The display screen is now where the cheese grater used to be and the old hypno-circle has been replaced with the OK button and its surrounding navigational pad. But cell phone designers should take note: Kirk never had to clumsily dial no numbers.

You’ll never get a date flipping open your phone like this:

He may not have been able to take planetary pictures, watch Romulan music videos or send nasty text messages to the Klingons, but Kirk knew his way around a phone. He kept his flips simple, and the results speak for themselves: