I've heard some people say Star Trek has saved their lives. Fortunately, having never been such a social pariah that suicide has ever been a consideration, I can't say that. I've always had friends, and Star Trek is one of the things is one of the things me and my friends enjoyed together.
As a child and young adult, I had what many would call an overactive imagination. Although it wasn't ADHD, I would often let my mind wander in class because I was building stories in my head that I intended to write, or thinking about the things I was into. At a young age, Star Trek was one of a trinity of interests--the other two being Dungeons and Dragons, and Star Wars. While D&D and Star Wars are fun and have also provided a lifetime of enjoyment, Star Trek was different. Even though it had its share of action and excitement, Star Trek was also cerebral in a way the other two aren't... at least not in the same way. I feel it helped me develop a sense of morality, an inquisitiveness toward science, space, and the natural world, and a love of adventure.
But let's back up.
Like many people my age, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is what drew me into Star Trek. Before that I'd seen my uncles watching reruns of the show, and as a young child I didn't understand it. I didn't have a concept of why starships, green women, giant green hands in space, and aliens that looked like burned marshmallows were cool. When I was a kid and very much into Star Wars, Star Trek the Motion Picture was released and I wasn't interested. I'd seen the reruns and that was a movie for adults. Whatever. in 1982, a friend and his family took me to see Star Trek II, and it was something that the original series had not been: accessible.
Of course, having seen the movie, and very much liking it, then I wanted to watch the show. It just so happened that it was on TV every evening. So I watched it, and while I felt the special effects were campy, the uniforms looked like pajamas, and some of the aliens still looked like burned marshmallows, I was beginning to appreciate the show for what it was, as well we the kinds of stories it told. Star Trek was rarely about stopping the bad guy. Instead, it was about solving problems-problems that took place on a galactic scale.I learned about Vulcans, Klingons, and Romulans. I learned about the Federation, the Prime Directive, and IDIC. I learned that genetically engineered people could be put in suspended animation for hundreds of years as a way of solving the problem of them trying to take over the world, and despite their lack of knowledge of the 23rd century, they could become a major threat again, and this required a new solution. I learned that the differences that some allow to define us as humans beings are usually trivial and inconsequential. I learned that you couldn't cold start an anti-matter warp core without potentially blowing up your starship. I learned that maybe what ancient cultures thought were gods and magic were just highly advanced aliens and technology. I learned that time travelling to the past and saving the life of one person could cause massive damage to the timeline. I learned that tribbles were bad news, and Klingons hate them. And along the way, I learned that Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu, and Checkov could use their brains and their specialized sets of skills to get out of any jam. I learned that there were rewards in being people of high moral character, intelligence, and education. I wanted to someday be the kind of person who could sit on the bridge of the Enterprise and explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, and boldly go where no one had gone before.
I remember I was at my aunt's house when Star Trek the Next Generation premiered. She refused to watch it, so I had to flip the stations between commercials, and try to catch what I could when no one was paying attention. I would be a few years before I actually got to see Encounter at Farpoint. At the time we lived in the country, and while we did get the channel they were shown on via antennae, the station was so fuzzy that I never could really watch it, so I tried to arrange time at friends' houses when new episodes were shown. I knew the characters through the few episodes I was able to see, and the magazines I picked up at the bookstores, and through the novels. I was one of the few people who probably read just as much Star Trek as I watched... and that's still the case. A few years into its run I finally had access to cable, and I never missed an episode. A friend who ran the local comic books store loaned me all of his Next Gen tapes, so I was finally able to get caught up on the show. Later, I was there for the premier of Deep Space 9, and I learned to love those characters too. I was at the movie theater for every movie with the original cast, and I watched the final episode of TNG, and then I was there for the premier of Voyager... at which point I was finally introduced to a Star Trek show I didn't love. I felt Enterprise was an improvement, but it didn't last. Nemesis came out, it was bad, and then Star Trek went into a hibernation that it wouldn't come out of until the 2009 movie. Once again, I thank the books for keeping it going during one of its extended slumbers.
And I want to talk about the books, because to me they're just as important as "official canon." Yes, there are some bad ones, and I've read them. But there are also some amazing ones as well. You can read about some of the better ones in this article, which was written for Star Trek.com by Dayton Ward, who just happens to be one of my favorite Star Trek authors. The books allowed me to access Star Trek at a time when I couldn't get it on TV, it continued the entire Next Generation era after Nemesis, and did so in a way that I sincerely hope is never invalidated by anything they put on TV or the big screen. As far as I'm concerned, that era now belongs to the books and the amazing authors who are crafting some of the best stories ever told in this universe.
Even with all the words I've written above, I'm still not sure I've properly conveyed my appreciation and love of Star Trek, so I'll just finish by saying that while Star Trek may not have saved my life, it did play a large role in making me the person I am today. I'm a father, a writer, a game designer, someone who works hard to support his family, and still an avid fan. It's still looking like I might be doing some work for the next incarnation of the Star Trek roleplaying game (I'm told I'll get the brief I've been waiting for by early next week).
In fact, upon further consideration, maybe Star Trek did save my life after all. Happy 50th anniversary, Star Trek,
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