Guinness World Records was on hand to honour Star Trek on Friday as a host of the show’s cast members were beamed down to Birmingham in the UK to celebrate 50 years of the sci-fi franchise.

Stars from the original series including William Shatner (Captain James T Kirk), George Takei (Hikaru Sulu), pictured above, and Walter Keonig (Ensign Pavel Chekov) were present at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre as official Guinness World Records certificates were presented by our Editor-In-Chief Craig Glenday, recognising the show for two major achievements.

The classic space exploration series, which was created by the late Gene Roddenberry, was honoured for being the Most successful TV sci-fi franchise of all time, with the show now estimated to be worth in excess of $6 billion. 

The figure comprises revenue from syndication and DVD/home-video sales from 726 TV episodes, a worldwide movie gross of $1.73 billion from 13 films, an estimated 70 million books in print, 88 videogame titles with sales of more than 1.6 million units from the top ten titles alone, and numerous toy and game licences.

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Star Trek Next Generation star Wil Wheaton with Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief Wil Wheaton

Star Trek was also recognised for being the Longest running video game franchise, having inspired games for 45 year’s starting with Mike Mayfield’s text-only computer game Star Trek in 1971

Meanwhile, Shatner received a certificate of his own at the event for a somewhat unusual achievement. 

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The actor was presented with an official Guinness World Records certificate for the Most expensive kidney stone, with the star having set the record back in 2006 after selling a kidney stone that he had passed the previous year for $25,000 (then £12,700) to online casino GoldenPalace.com. Shatner at the time donated the money from the sale to the Habitat for Humanity housing charity.

The weekend-long convention in Birmingham gave Star Trek fans the opportunity to meet the cast and production crew and to explore interactive exhibits, with the event illustrating how the series has affected scientific thinking, space exploration and related technology.

During the event, Craig also spoke to real-life space pioneer Colonel Alfred M. Worden who holds the record for 'Most isolated human being’, who was also in attendance at the show. 

Al was Command Module Pilot for NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Apollo 15 lunar mission in 1971.