"I'VE BEEN TOLD by people in the space administration," says science fiction writer Gene Roddenberry, "that if Star Trek had still been on the air at the time, NASA would not have had a cut in its budget."

Few producers of television shows can make such boasts with any accuracy, but as creator and producer of Star Trek, Roddenberry is well aware of the power of his show. Before cancellation by NBC in 1969, the show received unprecedented critical acclaim including an Emmy, an International Hugo Award and the Image Award from the N A A C P. When NBC announced cancellation of Star Trek, over a million letters poured in demanding that show be kept.

Even though Star Trek is now shown only in reruns, it is more popular than ever. "When we threatened to drop the show, we received two bomb threats," said a beleaguered employee at WPIX, the station that airs Star Trek reruns in New York. "The reaction to the show is absolutely wild." Three thousand miles away, an official at KCOP in Los Angeles said, "When the program is on schedule and we pre-empt it for a special, that's really when the fans come out of the woodwork. We receive maybe several hundred letters a week."

Recently, when The Detroit Free Press took a poll on whether Star Trek should be brought back, it drew over 6000 responses--second only to the busing issue--with fully 83 per cent of the respondants in favor of returning the show. The show has plenty of fans in New England, and Star Trek is one of the most popular offerings of Boston station WKBG.

The reaction is the same in the 100 U.S. cities and 55 foreign countries in which Star Trek reruns are shown. TV viewers from Argentina to Zambia have seen Captain Kirk and his crew, and in Germany and England the show is among the most popular aired. Dubbed in Spanish, Portugese, French, German and Japanese, it is hard to believe that anyone within range of a television set hasn't seen at least one episode of Star Trek.

Set in the 23rd Century, Star Trek revolves around the adventures of the Starship Enterprise and its interplanetal, international, interracial crew. There's the Waspish Captain Kirk, played in a father-like manner by William Shatner; communications expert Uhura portrayed by the black and beautiful Nichele Nichols; Sulu, the oriental helmsman played by Walter Koenig; Dr. McCoy, the pacifist, depicted by DeForest Kelley; and of course the one and only Mr. Spock, half-Vulcan and half-human, portrayed by Leonard Nimoy. The crew becomes involved in a variety of intriguing tales, all of which make some comment on today's society. The shows deal with everything from sex to war, from racism to religion.

THERE ARE almost as many reasons for Star Trek's continued popularity as there are fans of the show. Some people are attracted to Star Trek because of its sophisticated use of technology. Roddenberry had the help of several Ph.Ds, including scientists from the Rand Corporation, who acted as technical consultants for the show. "Each episode cost $185,000," explained Roddenberry, "and all of the special effects people in the business think that for the money we spent we were tops in the field."

Most of the special effects center around the Starship Enterprise, itself a marvel. Nine hundred and forty feet long, the Enterprise carries a crew of 430 in perfect comfort. Quarters are spacious and luxuriously appointed, and turbo elevators that operate both vertically and horizontally provide speedy transportation from one part of the Starship to another.

In order to travel around the universe, the Enterprise must move at speeds faster than light. Since this is impossible physically, the Enterprise must "warp" space. The Enterprise's engines use matter and anti-matter for propulsion, the annihilation of dual matter creating the fantastic power required to "warp" space and exceed the speed of light.

Large "phasers" (a takeoff on laser) protect the ship from outside attack, and each crew member carries a smaller phaser for self-defense purposes. Other features of the ship include a space transporter that disassembles the atoms of a person on board ship and reassembles them at the desired location in a process called "beaming."

Communication is no problem between the international crew and the galaxy of beings in the Universe because each crew member carries an automatic language converter.

Such meticulous attention to detail has endeared Star Trek to college students. Describing some of the mail he receives from them, William Shatner (Capt. Kirk) said, "We get letters which analyze matter and anti-matter. Then they proceed to give us mathematical formulae that I can't understand." Student interest in the show ran so high at Emerson College that last year the school gave a series of seminars on Star Trek.

Still others find the show compelling because of its optimistic view of the future. In the Star Trek world war is abolished on earth, and all of mankind is united in keeping peace in the universe. As one fan explained, "it gave you hope for the future."

Whatever the reason for their attraction to the show, Star Trek fans, or "Trekies" as they call themselves, are a devoted lot. In between watching Star Trek reruns they keep themselves busy collecting Star Trek magazines, books, bumper stickers, wall posters, pendants, spacecraft models and assorted memorabilia from the show. Most of the items are sold by Roddenberry's firm, Star Trek Enterprises, but the 24 or so Star Trek magazines, or "fanzines," are put out by the fans themselves.

One of the most ambitious products by a fan is the 84-page Star Trek Concordance, an index that includes not only plot summaries of the Star Trek episodes, but also definitions and references to every character, planet and term in the series. Co-authored by Bjo Trimble, the 39 year old housewife-artist who organized the "Save Star Trek" letter-writing campaign, the book has sold one thousand copies at five dollars each.