Health & Fitness
To Boldly Go: Cubes, College and Captain Kirk
This column describes the long route I took to become an ardent fan of the original Star Trek series. After a negative first encounter, I became a huge fan of Trek and all its "generations."
A world without Star Trek. That's what life was like until 1966, when the television series debuted to disappointingly low ratings.
My twin brother Wayne and I were growing up in Taylor, Pennsylvania, and our Mom, who loved to read and especially liked science fiction, said she'd heard about a new sci-fi TV series that was being aired on NBC.
When the time arrived, we gathered around the television to watch an episode I later learned was entitled “By Any Other Name.”
During that episode, several crew members on the U.S.S. Enterprise were turned into cubes and crushed. (Yes, I know they were actually 12-sided dodecahedrons, but that wouldn't have helped if we'd known it at the time.)
That show had an immediate impact on my brother and me. We didn't get a wink of sleep that night because we were afraid that if we dozed off, someone would come in, turn us into cubes and crush us.
The following morning, when our Mom saw Wayne's and my bloodshot eyes, she declared there'd be no more watching that show for us!
About a decade later, during what fans call the “Syndication '70s,” my brother and I were away at college, and it seemed that every time I went into the Recreation Room in the men's dormitory, several folks were watching a Star Trek episode at 6 p.m. on Channel 20 in which Kirk and Spock fought “to de det.” (Or “to the death,” as the Vulcan priestess would have said if she didn't have such a thick accent.).
I didn't remember much about the series, but I knew that Captain Kirk and Mister Spock were friends, so why were they always fighting?
After seeing several bits and pieces of this episode (which I later learned was called “Amok Time” and eventually became my favorite installment of Classic Trek), I finally asked a friend of mine who was watching just what was going on.
“Take a seat and see for yourself,” she replied and pointed to an empty chair.
“OK,” I said. After all, it's not like this was going to change my life or anything.
It wasn't long before I wanted to see or buy everything Trek. Also, we used to see which one of us could most quickly guess the title of the episode that was coming on every night, and I was pretty good at that.
But one night, I couldn't figure out which episode had begun. Someone else shouted out the title “This Side of Paradise,” and I realized that this was the only Trek episode I hadn't yet seen. I was thrilled and saddened at the same time, but I still enjoy watching the episodes over and over since there's still so much to enjoy in them.
My favorite character has always been Captain James T. Kirk. I've never figured out what's so awful about saving the universe and getting the space babe every week. (And yes, that's meant to be a joke since that's what usually happened in TV shows of the 1960s.).
The captain was usually in an alien environment, facing challenges he never imagined he would, and he was not only surviving but thriving!
At the time, I was in a college hundreds of miles from my home town, and it often felt like it was an alien environment. Also, I was facing challenges I never imagined I'd do, such as writing extensive term papers and taking tough tests, which always culminated in a huge final exam.
As a result, I would try to respond to those difficulties by wondering what Captain Kirk would do. I decided that he would give it an extra effort that helped me do my best when I was writing that long term paper or taking what felt like a really difficult test.
When I was about to graduate, one of my teachers asked me who had inspired me to get good grades, Without thinking, I replied “Captain James Kirk.”
She nodded her head and said: “I'm glad you know someone in the military.”
Since then, I've watched the other “generations” of Star Trek, and even though I like them all, none of them have surpassed the original series, although one came close, which is a topic for another time.
Next time around, let's take a look at The Avengers, the record-breaking blockbuster movie based on the Marvel Comics super-heroes and its curious connection to Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.
Until then, ahead Warp Factor 9!
