Indeed, I often feel as if I was born two or three centuries too early. I ought to be out there with Captain Kirk.
Of course, lots of people tell me I am out there with Captain Kirk. Been out there for a long time, in fact!
Your own views why you like star trek so much ?
- Thread starter Nero's Shadow
- Start date
Of course, lots of people tell me I am out there with Captain Kirk. Been out there for a long time, in fact!
L
Lord Garth
Guest
1. Good Writing
2. Interesting Characters
3. Earth isn't some post-atomic waste-land. The future is depicted as such in the mid-21st Century but that was far in the past from Star Trek's point of view. When all is said and done, we don't destroy ourselves, and the future actually looks like something we can look forward to.
2. Interesting Characters
3. Earth isn't some post-atomic waste-land. The future is depicted as such in the mid-21st Century but that was far in the past from Star Trek's point of view. When all is said and done, we don't destroy ourselves, and the future actually looks like something we can look forward to.
I grew up in the late 80s/early 90s as an only child with separated parents, no neighbors to speak of and not too many friends. When my old man first showed me TNG at six or so, it was love at first sight. Not only were the characters awesome adventurers, they were joiners, all dedicated to a common group/family. Now, I've been a joiner by inclination as long as I can remember. I'm a fiercely loyal political partisan, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to join the military for largely similar reasons.
My old man also exposed me to Episcopalianism, but it never really stuck. I read the picture-books of the Bible while watching the adventures of the Enterprise, and concluded that both were equally fictitious, only Trek had the decency to be honest about its fakery.
Later, growing up and changing schools a few times, I'd often find that, if Trek wasn't an early icebreaker in making friends (and it often was), those I gravitated towards as friends anyway were often sympathetic to, if not outright members of, Generation TNG.
The thing is, I don't "like" Trek all that much: I watch maybe two or three episodes a year, and my Netflix queue is filled with more terrestrial characters and stories.
Nonetheless, I can't ever quit Trek; it's simply too hard-wired into my persona. So I visit the trekbbs, only occasionally discussing Trek itself, because it sorta feels like home.
There'll always be, in short, a part of me wandering the decks (but especially the bridge) of the 1701-D.
My old man also exposed me to Episcopalianism, but it never really stuck. I read the picture-books of the Bible while watching the adventures of the Enterprise, and concluded that both were equally fictitious, only Trek had the decency to be honest about its fakery.
Later, growing up and changing schools a few times, I'd often find that, if Trek wasn't an early icebreaker in making friends (and it often was), those I gravitated towards as friends anyway were often sympathetic to, if not outright members of, Generation TNG.
The thing is, I don't "like" Trek all that much: I watch maybe two or three episodes a year, and my Netflix queue is filled with more terrestrial characters and stories.
Nonetheless, I can't ever quit Trek; it's simply too hard-wired into my persona. So I visit the trekbbs, only occasionally discussing Trek itself, because it sorta feels like home.
There'll always be, in short, a part of me wandering the decks (but especially the bridge) of the 1701-D.
Mulgrew/Janeway really turned me into a proper Trek fan. I'd seen some of the other Treks and quite enjoyed them but it wasn't until I started watching Voyager that I really got into Star Trek.
Voyager I like for the characters, the crazy concept based episodes and the humour.
DS9 I like for the darker storylines, complicated characters and interesting villains.
I've also got into sci-fi a lot more the last few years so I even enjoy the technobabble.
Voyager I like for the characters, the crazy concept based episodes and the humour.
DS9 I like for the darker storylines, complicated characters and interesting villains.
I've also got into sci-fi a lot more the last few years so I even enjoy the technobabble.
That's just an example of Star Wars being botched by George Lucas who is afraid of real conflict, drama and emotion since he's long since given up on grownups and is now churning out pablum for kiddies.
Star Wars could be every bit as great as Star Trek, if completely opposite. Star Trek is scientific and rational, and asks the question "what if humans continue to strive to be better (not perfect) in the future?" Star Wars is magical/mystical and emotional and asks the question (or should ask the question, it doesn't have enough brains now to ask any question), "what if the eternal theological struggle between good and evil were something that beings could literally see and even participate in?" Both great premises for ongoing world-building sci fi but only one has been able to make much progress in realizing its potential.
I think it goes back to childhood for me. I was a tween in the mid 80's, and had a submarine computer game that I would play all night during the summer. Lights off, no sounds but the game, and you're wandering the Pacific, the captain of your own ship, going anywhere you want. Around the same time, I started watching TOS and I guess the Horatio Hornblower aspect of it appealed to me and captured my imagination.
From there it became about affinity for Kirk, Spock and McCoy as beloved characters.
From there it became about affinity for Kirk, Spock and McCoy as beloved characters.
Well, prepare for what will perhaps be a surprisingly somber little tale, but here goes nothing.
My mother was a crack addict. I mean that in the nicest and most sincere of ways, for there are certainly variations of the term that either come off all the more harshly or sugarcoat the truth. I won't do either. My mother... was a crack addict.
I never met my father until a little over a year ago, when he quite literally found me via facebook. Growing up, people told me all these variations on the tale, but none seemed to be the reality of the matter that I eventually learned at twenty-one years of age. So that's depressing, too.
Growing up... yes, growing up, my grandmother raised me. She was a remarkable woman of whom I could spend hours citing positive qualities. In the 1960's, she took part in civil rights rallies and fell in love with a little show called Star Trek, adamantly believing in Gene Roddenberry's vision of a brighter future. When my mother was but a baby, she would watch the episodes of that series as they debuted, enthusiastically soaking in the ahead-of-their-time messages and discussing the implications of various fan-favorite episodes with her friends at all those rallies. (Fun fact: she learned at some point in the 80's that her name was listed in the White House as someone to be 'watched', which apparently happened to a bunch of people at these events during the 60's.)
My grandmother was hit by a van while crossing the street in New York City back in '85, two years before I was born. She had just obtained her Master's in Fine Arts after going to college for the first time at 37. She was also engaged to the son of a Japanese man who assisted in the development of Linotype. This is pretty heavy stuff. Unfortunately, the accident left her a cripple, caused all sorts of emotional problems and her life kind of slowly fell apart from there. But despite the immense pain and agony she endured, she refused to give up entirely. No, instead she took me in after my first couple of years with my unstable mother proved... dangerous, and when she did so, she happened to be watching a new show at the time called Star Trek: The Next Generation. You may have heard of it; it had a British guy playing a French guy on an American television show or something.
My grandmother told me countless times as we would sit by the television and watch TNG that there was a big reason she kept watching, even after the less-than-stellar first season of the new show. I still remember at least the major gist of those words, spoken to me sometime in the early 90's when I was so young, so impressionable. "Star Trek is the sci-fi embodiment of so many things I believe in, and so many things I've fought for. Equality for all and a reason to persevere. To make that future possible for mankind."
Let me tell you something. When you're five or six years old, and you're already watching Trek because you think Data is cool, Geordi's VISOR is hip and happening, and the space battles are outrageously entertaining, and then your guardian, your caretaker, sits you down and tells you all this philosophical stuff that reminds you of that bald captain guy's nifty-sounding monologues... it sticks with you. It really sticks with you.
We watched DS9 and Voyager together, and then Enterprise after that. Periodically my grandmother would stop watching Voyager for a while, and I'm still to this day not entirely sure why. I think some of the cast didn't do it for her. But she would still watch it most of the time. And she owned the first nine films on VHS, and eventually when I was working I bought a PS2 and we started collecting them on DVD. We even went to the theaters together to see First Contact through Nemesis.
My grandmother passed away on April 5th, 2006. She had suffered a long and grueling battle with cancer, not to mention the ceaseless pain and emotional distress brought on from her injuries twenty-one years ago. April 5th is also my mother's birthday, and when news of her mother's death reached her, it deeply affected her and has changed her for the better. We're much closer now than we ever were, and in that way, my grandmother, civil rights activist and avid Star Trek fan, gave me yet another gift in passing.
April 5th is also First Contact Day in Trekkian lore. For a woman who devoted so much of her life to the very fabric of hope, I could think of no better day for her to go forth into the next realm, whatever that may be.
Why do I like Star Trek so much? Well, there are other reasons, but the one I find myself bringing up most often is simple: like my grandmother before me, I believe in what it stands for and it gives me a wellspring of faith that maybe someday, just maybe, we'll put the more blatant darkness behind us in order to unite toward a common, positive goal.
And the space battles are totally outrageous, too.
My mother was a crack addict. I mean that in the nicest and most sincere of ways, for there are certainly variations of the term that either come off all the more harshly or sugarcoat the truth. I won't do either. My mother... was a crack addict.
I never met my father until a little over a year ago, when he quite literally found me via facebook. Growing up, people told me all these variations on the tale, but none seemed to be the reality of the matter that I eventually learned at twenty-one years of age. So that's depressing, too.
Growing up... yes, growing up, my grandmother raised me. She was a remarkable woman of whom I could spend hours citing positive qualities. In the 1960's, she took part in civil rights rallies and fell in love with a little show called Star Trek, adamantly believing in Gene Roddenberry's vision of a brighter future. When my mother was but a baby, she would watch the episodes of that series as they debuted, enthusiastically soaking in the ahead-of-their-time messages and discussing the implications of various fan-favorite episodes with her friends at all those rallies. (Fun fact: she learned at some point in the 80's that her name was listed in the White House as someone to be 'watched', which apparently happened to a bunch of people at these events during the 60's.)
My grandmother was hit by a van while crossing the street in New York City back in '85, two years before I was born. She had just obtained her Master's in Fine Arts after going to college for the first time at 37. She was also engaged to the son of a Japanese man who assisted in the development of Linotype. This is pretty heavy stuff. Unfortunately, the accident left her a cripple, caused all sorts of emotional problems and her life kind of slowly fell apart from there. But despite the immense pain and agony she endured, she refused to give up entirely. No, instead she took me in after my first couple of years with my unstable mother proved... dangerous, and when she did so, she happened to be watching a new show at the time called Star Trek: The Next Generation. You may have heard of it; it had a British guy playing a French guy on an American television show or something.
My grandmother told me countless times as we would sit by the television and watch TNG that there was a big reason she kept watching, even after the less-than-stellar first season of the new show. I still remember at least the major gist of those words, spoken to me sometime in the early 90's when I was so young, so impressionable. "Star Trek is the sci-fi embodiment of so many things I believe in, and so many things I've fought for. Equality for all and a reason to persevere. To make that future possible for mankind."
Let me tell you something. When you're five or six years old, and you're already watching Trek because you think Data is cool, Geordi's VISOR is hip and happening, and the space battles are outrageously entertaining, and then your guardian, your caretaker, sits you down and tells you all this philosophical stuff that reminds you of that bald captain guy's nifty-sounding monologues... it sticks with you. It really sticks with you.
We watched DS9 and Voyager together, and then Enterprise after that. Periodically my grandmother would stop watching Voyager for a while, and I'm still to this day not entirely sure why. I think some of the cast didn't do it for her. But she would still watch it most of the time. And she owned the first nine films on VHS, and eventually when I was working I bought a PS2 and we started collecting them on DVD. We even went to the theaters together to see First Contact through Nemesis.
My grandmother passed away on April 5th, 2006. She had suffered a long and grueling battle with cancer, not to mention the ceaseless pain and emotional distress brought on from her injuries twenty-one years ago. April 5th is also my mother's birthday, and when news of her mother's death reached her, it deeply affected her and has changed her for the better. We're much closer now than we ever were, and in that way, my grandmother, civil rights activist and avid Star Trek fan, gave me yet another gift in passing.
April 5th is also First Contact Day in Trekkian lore. For a woman who devoted so much of her life to the very fabric of hope, I could think of no better day for her to go forth into the next realm, whatever that may be.
Why do I like Star Trek so much? Well, there are other reasons, but the one I find myself bringing up most often is simple: like my grandmother before me, I believe in what it stands for and it gives me a wellspring of faith that maybe someday, just maybe, we'll put the more blatant darkness behind us in order to unite toward a common, positive goal.
And the space battles are totally outrageous, too.
Jeff, that was beautiful! No kidding.
Like you, Star Trek reminds me of my family. My dad was an avid fan and so was my mom. The best memories I have are of the three of us watching TOS and then me and my mom watching TNG together. My dad died in 1970 and my mom in 2002.
I wanted to let you know your post hit it right on the head about how I feel about Trek. The series was a gift by two people I really loved and when I watch the series somehow I am with them again.
I wish you and your mom all the best and I hope the two of you continue to get closer.
Like you, Star Trek reminds me of my family. My dad was an avid fan and so was my mom. The best memories I have are of the three of us watching TOS and then me and my mom watching TNG together. My dad died in 1970 and my mom in 2002.
I wanted to let you know your post hit it right on the head about how I feel about Trek. The series was a gift by two people I really loved and when I watch the series somehow I am with them again.
I wish you and your mom all the best and I hope the two of you continue to get closer.
I love Trek because it is in complete opposition to the rest of my interests. I'm an avid naturalist--my main interests all lie in exploring the fauna and flora of our planet. I am also a primitivist--while I do not wish to engage in a debate about it here, I believe that the human species was better off before civilization. I believe that the end of the human species will be within the next 100 years. This knowledge is difficult to bear in day-to-day life, and I enjoy entertainment that depicts an alternate version of the future from the vision which I believe to be true. It's a different world in which human civilization is no longer driven by the death-urge to consume their planet and its resources. I enjoy getting lost in this fantasy, some might say, as a foil--to my activist work and other interests.
It's a little hard to explain, but that's it.
It's a little hard to explain, but that's it.
I'm glad someone connected with that. Thanks for the kind words and yours were equally inspirational. That's the thing about long-running tales, and especially those chronicling hope in some way -- they really do have a tendency to go beyond the realm of entertainment into something one might list in the prime thoughts of their lives.
It's just... memories are like that, anyway, you know? Something, no matter how trivial that something may be, can become important to someone because it connected them to someone else, or taught them a powerful and compelling lesson. Somewhere out there, there's probably a guy whose strongest memory is of accidentally stepping on a bug, because from that day forth he endeavored to look in all directions at every point in his life. Memories are funny like that.
That was an interesting read. I can't say I've ever seen someone list that as a reason they love Trek. Quite fascinating. Without getting involved in said debate or even simply derailing the topic much, I would like to state that on some levels I do agree with you.
My reasonas aren't quite as interesting as some above but,
umm, the characters!! I loove the characters
and how they interact with each other, so many funny moments lol (this is talking about TOS, I'm currently watching it and I havne't seen much of other star trek series)
Also, because there's always interesting story lines, and I'd LOVE to go visit space and different planets, so I enjoy watching it
umm, the characters!! I loove the characters
and how they interact with each other, so many funny moments lol (this is talking about TOS, I'm currently watching it and I havne't seen much of other star trek series)Also, because there's always interesting story lines, and I'd LOVE to go visit space and different planets, so I enjoy watching it
I opened this thread only to post this. I blame my not being here much these days for missing the oppertunity
Seriously though, at first it was pretty much the only thing I had in common with my dad. It possibly still is the only thing we have in common. On the rare occasions we speak, other than polite conversation, Star Trek and TV in general is the only thing able to get a real discussion going.
But I've stayed with it as I just plain enjoy it. There's not much I can pull apart, I likes t because I likes it.
I agree with all of the above, but this answer puts it in a way I don't think I could. For me this is the ultimate answer.
There are more reasons why I like it so much. First of all, crew is somewhat family, they work together, care about each other, they are always there for each other. And it's not something anyone should be grateful too much about, it's natural thing, just as it is, and should be, but I guess most of people still haven't figured that out.
The other reason is that in every ST episode there is so much passion. They always fight - to protect others, themselves, moral values, to get home, to save their home... They always have something worth enough to give their lives for.
I enjoy ST fully and completely, every episode I see, I try to get the point of it, and even to learn something from it. Just hearing theme songs puts a smile on my face
.I always say that ST put in decades and hundreds of years in future is more realistic than most of the shows we see that are set in real life. It's just smart, philosophical and unique. And watching it since EVER really it's just the part of me. There's never time I don't want to watch it, especially since I was a child when I watched most of it and could really watch it all all over again.
I have no one else in my family even interested in watching it, except my sister, so I have always been the black sheep, staying up till 3 am to watch it, it used to make my parents crazy
.Still, nothing compares to it and every time I watch it feels like coming home...
Even though I have some other interests, who would say...
Apart from the popular all of the above, geek etc, it was the real first scifi show which made sense to me when I was a kid. The stories were great, the Enterprise, aliens and my hormones were starting to fire up so the women became really intersting. When it came (TOS) to an end I was disappointed and upset. So, when the first movie hit the screens it was fantastic to find that TRek was back. And the whole concept is addictive.
Extremely well said, and I couldn't agree more. I have been a fan for over 30 years. My mom was a fan of TOS, and later, TNG. We saw the first seven Trek movies together in the theater (even saw TWOK at a drive-in). When I was a teen, and TNG was on the air, we even went to a couple conventions together. And we went together to see Abram's Trek on opening day. My mom is 70 now, and just started getting into watching VOY on dvd (she thinks Janeway is pretty cool). Star Trek has always been a huge part of my life, and will continue to be, until the day I die.
I don't think it's something a non-fan could understand, but I suspect a lot of people here will understand when I say, that every time I watch an episode or read a novel, I feel like I'm home. Star Trek gives me comfort in an uncomfortable world.
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