George Takei will always be remembered as the unflappable Enterprise helmsman Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek, but there’s far more to him than that, as David Sutton discovered when he caught up with him in Fulda, Germany, to talk about Star Trek’s past and future, growing up in an internment camp and coming out as a gay man.

How does it feel to be celebrating the 40th anniversary of Star Trek this year?

The 40th anniversary? It’s something we never dreamt would be happening. Because when we were doing Star Trek as a TV show back in the 1960s our ratings were very low and every season we were hanging on by our fingernails.