Live Long and Proper

Today is the 60th anniversary of the first broadcast of the television show Star Trek. Owing to my young age I never did watch Star Trek in those first few years. But I was a massive fan of the next generation when it came out in the late '80s.

You see despite the fact that I never watched the original Star Trek, mom sure did. And I remember distinctly when the Next Generation was coming out, how she encouraged me to watch it because she enjoyed the original show so much. In fact, we watched it together. 

I've been asked over the years whether I'm more a Star Trek fan or a Star Wars fan. And like enjoying Metallica or Megadeth. I'm not sure why I need to pick just one. I can enjoy both. 

But I do like them both for different reasons . 

For Star Trek I've always enjoyed the ships and the space battles. For Star Wars. I never liked the space battles. I was more into the Jedi stuff and the things that happened on the planets. I guess I like the space opera part of Star Wars. 

I never could fully articulate what I like most about the ships and the battles in Star Trek until the series Picard came out and I was watching some post analysis videos. It was often pointed out that the Enterprise is as much a character as Data, Riker or even Picard. I love the Enterprise and there are few ships that I would more like to have a model of hanging from my ceiling or sitting on my desk. 

And I always idolized Commander Riker. Was never as much into Picard. He's cool and a great Captain but Riker was a swashbuckler and very cool. I played trombone because he played it. Even my beard is based on the classic. William Riker beard. 

And of course, as I got older and more familiar with Star Trek, I did learn to love some of the stuff from the original series. In particular, the movies were were a ton of fun. I really loved Star Trek IV where they go back in time to steal a whale. And Star Trek 6 was a big favorite in late junior high - early high school. I even had a copy of the novel that I read to bits. 

Star Trek has always been held up as a mirror to what's happening in the modern world as well as an oracle into what the future could look like. Of course, if we let Trump keep doing his bullshit, we probably won't reach that future. No matter how many Starfleet academies he tries to build.

So happy birthday to Star Trek. Thanks for bringing so much entertainment to my life and for giving me just one more thing to be a complete utter nerd about. Thank you for bringing me the Borg to terrify me at night. And for bringing me Deanna Troy. For other things at night.