I am really showing my age today.

While glancing through my shelf of Star Trek memorabilia I saw my old TV Guide from September 8, 1966 and sighed. On this day, 41 years ago
the first episode was featured and I remember sitting in front of the tube with a "Do Not Disturb" sign prominently displayed so all knew that I did not answer the door, phone or voice.

This was a series that I absorbed like a sponge for its adventure, characters and storyline. Here, for me, was the science fiction show to bridge the gap in my yearning for something new.

Happy Anniversary Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and the rest of the crew of the Enterprise!

Without a doubt, Star Trek defined an era and a generation.

Among the five series, DS9 was my favorite (they couldn't run away from their troubles!). The last few episodes of Voyager became intriguing (most of the rest I felt was pseudo-spiritual gobbledygook) and the Enterprise prequel finally started becoming interesting just before the network cancelled it.

Things were much more optimistic and outward-looking then. Gullible naivete, almost certainly, but (in my opinion) preferable to sophisticated malaise. After all, one distinguishing characteristic of humans is that they have the capacity to remain playful even as adults -- and while dreaming of things that can never be, sometimes they bring them into existence.

Hurray! Star Trek will long remain an iconic constellation in the SF heavens, and a deeply enjoyable one. It really had that sense of wonder, while also struggling with issues of power, responsibility, and new insight on the universe (and, uh, social structures).

I think I still like the original series the best, I think because the trinity of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy worked so well. I hope the reboot of the movie series by J J Abrams is a success.

Well, about the new TOS movie...

I'm not a hardcore trekkie, far from it. Though I did enjoy seeing ST on the telly whenever I could manage to catch it. Sometimes I couldn't understand anything because of references to other episodes, but who cared? I do not construct my life around telly programmes, especially now that you can catch up on DVDs.

Still, I'm reasonably well versed in the ST concept, and the idea to take it back to the original seems rather interesting. If anything, my trekkie friend will drag me to the movies, and I will gladly comply.

Further, the idea of having Eric "Hector" Bana as the villain Nero (an apt name if I ever saw one) and Karl "Eomer" Urban as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy is quite enough to make me move my butt to the theatre when the time comes.

Noo, 'tis a verra fine doctor I wouldna mind seein' more than the once, that's fer sure... A braw laddie indeed...

Cheers,

Eloise

I had to read up on the ST episodes when I wrote my book, I don't think I ever saw any of the series in their entirety. Still, to think of the original McCoy being a Southerner and the present incarnation being a Kiwi... not that Urban is not easy on the eyes, mind, just a sea change!

Odd how these franchises are never laid to rest, but reincarnated in multiple forms...

Windwalker wrote:

Odd how these franchises are never laid to rest, but reincarnated in multiple forms...

Very much so, especially for a franchise with so many elements that can be considered universal. To me that strikes as the mark of something truly enduring.

Heather