Listen: I was never a huge Trek fan. I was always Star Wars all the way. After school my sister and I watched cartoons — Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Superfriends — and then, because we were usually with my grandparents, the standard early 80s grandparent shows: Happy Days, Barney Miller, Alice, and M*A*S*H. It was a rare event when we caught an episode of Star Trek. I thought it was goofy, mostly. I mean, hello? Warp drive is not even close to hyperdrive, and Kirk was simply pathetic compared to Han Solo.
But my mom was a big Star Trek fan. She, too, loved Star Wars much more; there was (is) just a special place in her heart for Shatner and Spock, I suppose. I somehow got it at the time, but this article at Salon does a really good job of summarizing it. Ironically, my dad sent me the link.
I absolutely loved the new Star Trek movie, by the way. It was awesome and I hope that it manages to get an entirely new generation of kids hooked on science fiction.
It seems ludicrous now, yes, but in that simultaneously chaotic and innocent time it hovered just over the horizon as a distant possibility. A future where we would all agree that war and poverty and economic depression were barbaric, and where the girls would all wear miniskirts and nylons.
One Response to “Why the Original “Star Trek” Still Matters”
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Yes, the new Star Trek movie was good. I used to watch the original series every weekday at 5pm – Kirk is still the bomb and being a red shirt ensign is still a guaranteed death sentence. I’m also glad to see he chased alien skirt in college, at least we know now where the habit started.
And yes, if I ever end up on the event horizon of a black hole, I will eject my warp core and save myself from a relativistic death.