How to Enable ‘Star Trek’ Emoji  Reactions on Facebook

You can celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek in a variety of ways, but if you want to react to friends’ Facebook posts with trekkie-themed icons, you’ll have to specifically like the official Star Trek page on Facebook first.

While the regular thumbs-up like button gains some stars behind it, all other reaction icons are in full Star Trek mode. The love heart becomes a “live long and prosper” Spock hand. The laughing icon looks like an insane Captain Kirk (maybe the evil version?). The surprised icon transforms into a surprised Spock (meaning Spock is on here twice). The sad icon alters into a crying version of LeVar Burton’s Lt. Commander Geordi LaForge, which must be a reference to his treatment in The Next Generation. Maybe. Finally, the red anger face appropriately mutates into the ridged forehead of an enraged Klingon warrior.

The actual characters on Star Trek never had a 23rd or 24th-century version of Facebook, but a 2011 YouTube parody series called “Spock’s Scanner” did give us a bawdy taste of what the Enterprise crew might post on their version of Facebook if given the opportunity.

For now, expect all your friends to give you the Vulcan “Live Long and Prosper” hand salute on Facebook a lot. But we’d encourage you to flash the positive hand gesture IRL today, too.