I was around eight years old when I first stumbled upon Star Trek. We lived in an area that only received a few channels and none of them happened to be the ones rerunning episodes of the series in syndication.
A friend of our mother asked if we could feed their cats during a summer vacation. The first day we went into the house we did what curious young boys do and explore the rooms. When we hit the basement office space I laid eyes on her for the first time. A nice foot long scale model of the Enterprise.
“Cool a spaceship”.
Little did I know what impact that would have on my life. The next day was a hot one. The house was cool and while I was feeding the cats my younger brother suggested we hang out for a while and watch a movie. We looked at the wall of Betamax tapes carefully trying to find one. Then I saw that same ship.
“Star Trek? Let’s watch this.” I suggested.
And welcome to a new world, a new universe. Kirk. Spock. McCoy. Adventure. It was my first introduction to science fiction and that youthful love carried into adulthood as it did for many others. As I grew older so did Star Trek, it changed with the times but always at its core was about something better. I’ve been lucky enough to hear many of the original actors talk. And we’ve lost many of them, one by one. Star Trek was a small job over long careers for many of the writers, directors and actors involved in its creation but its influence will be around long after everyone alive today is gone.
That is a legacy worth celebrating.
Happy 50th Star Trek.