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This is a special day for lovers of sci-fi and especially to Trekkies worldwide as today marks the birthday of Captain James Tiberius Kirk – otherwise known as the Priceline man, himself, William Shatner!William Shatner became a cultural icon when he donned the Captain’s uniform to command the U.S.S. Enterprise on the original ‘Star Trek’ series. While the show only lasted for 3 seasons, the role of Captain Kirk would be forever linked to him and at one point even threatened his acting profession due to typecasting. Luckily, he was able to resuscitate his career with a job that went against typecast when he was signed on to star in his own police series ‘T.J. Hooker’.

Since then, Shatner has gone on to play many memorable roles such as The Big Giant Head in ‘Third Rock from the Sun’, Denny Crane in ‘Boston Legal’ and also sang in an episode of ‘Castle.’ This year you can hear him as he voices the character General Shanker in ‘Escape from Planet Earth’.

At 82, Shatner is still going strong and just opened this year’s Oscars Awards Ceremony with Seth McFarlane.

To help celebrate Shatner’s birthday, starting today and going through March 31st, Hulu will be streaming every episode of the original ‘Star Trek’ series and all of its spinoffs for free! That’s right! Not only can you watch ‘ST:TOS’ at no charge, Hulu will also be streaming  every episode from ‘The Next Generation’, ‘Deep Space 9’, ‘Voyager’, ‘Enterprise’ free of charge! That’s a whopping 693 hours of pure Trekkie heaven and 9 days to watch them!

To help navigate the ‘Star Trek’ universe, the streaming network created mini playlists grouping episodes with similar themes. Want to spend an evening watching only episodes of Kirk? Then check out the ‘Kirk Outsmarts Computers’ playlist. Feeling like you need a little Q to top of your evening? Then check out the 11 episode ‘Star Trek’s Favorite Trouble Maker’ playlist which features Q’s episodes not only from ‘ST:TNG’ but also ‘Deep Space Nine’ and ‘Voyager.’ There’s also playlists that feature the Borg, holodeck malfunctions and of course, our favorite android, Data.

So let’s all raise a glass, boot up the computers and celebrate William Shatner’s 82th  birthday in true Trekkie manner!

Happy Birthday William Shatner!