Star Trek celebrated its 47th anniversary on September 8. And while I wasn’t around on the day the first episode aired, I can remember Star Trek as a constant in my life from some of my earliest days. I can still remember being around 5 or 6 and having a gold, Captain Kirk shirt, with an emblem sewn on, that for me, seemed very authentic. I would pull my parents’ armchair (sadly not a swivel chair) into the centre of the room and pretend the room was getting rocked by enemy fire right along with the episode on the TV. I can still remember how much the Lights of Zetar scared the shit out of me.
My mom watched it, and I must have started watching because of her. I have her to thank for both the good and bad it’s brought to my life.
What was bad about liking Star Trek? Nothing insofar as the show itself was concerned. But at the time I was growing up, geek culture was not in vogue the way it is now, and so being a Trekkie, or Trekker, made me a target of some bullies/jocks. It just wasn’t cool.
Fortunately, the good far outweighs the bad. Star Trek gave me hundreds of hours of entertainment over the years. It’s given me characters I can relate to, and characters I can look up to. It’s given me inspiration for writing and for looking to a future that can be better than what we have. It shows us people working together in spite of their differences. It shows us that enemies can become allies. And it shows us faith in each other over the mystic.
I’ve made friends with people over a shared affection for the show and its spinoffs. And I’ve started to share it with my children, to keep what the show represents going boldly into the next generation.
Dispatches from Obscurity 