Star Trek

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My dad got me interested in Star Trek when I was a teenager. We used to watch the new episodes of Star Trek: TNG when it was still on. Later, when I went to college, I discovered other fans among the girls in my dorm, and we used to gather on Saturday nights, when new episodes aired, and watch together. I really enjoyed the show a great deal, but I confess I was never able to translate my admiration for Trek into its other franchises. I didn’t care for the orginal series, though I did like Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. I initially tried to watch DS-9 and Voyager, but couldn’t get into them, even when some of my favorite characters from the other series became characters on those shows (Lt. Worf is one of my favorite characters). I also couldn’t get into Enterprise, but it seems like I’m not alone in that.

I discovered some time ago that Spike shows a three-hour block of TNG reruns in the afternoon. Recently, I found out that G4 shows the reruns for two hours in the evening, too. I suppose there is such a thing as too much Trek. However, whenever I find sites on the Internet, it never ceases to amaze me how developed and fully realized the Trek world is. I suppose one could argue it is the largest and most famous “fandom” currently in existence.

I spent way too long on Wikipedia last night, reading about Trek. It’s funny — the way articles are linked encourages you to flip from one to another to another. Before I knew it, I had become seriously embroiled. In the process, I discovered there is a Star Trek wiki called Memory Alpha. It’s really quite good and extremely comprehensive. It’s kind of nice to imagine a future in which humanity might be like those representatives from the Enterprise.


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2 thoughts on “Star Trek

  1. For some time now we have been plowing through DS9 and Voyager DVDs. They really are good shows. Maybe I'll force you to watch my DVDs one day! Janeway rawks!

  2. Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek 3 are very, very good. The villians are easy to figure out; Khan is obsessed with revenge, the Klingon in the latter movie obsessed with glory and, indirectly, power. The themes of the movies emerge when you see how the "good guys" respond to the threat: I like to contrast Carol Marcus and her arrogant scientists with Kirk, who is really Spock's pupil in a deep sense.

    I think the themes are a lot richer and darker in those two movies than TNG. They're more than brain candy; they've enabled me to ask more serious questions about classic works that are sometimes impossible to relate to.

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