My First Trek And Beyond

We all touched on this subject very early in the existence of Talk Trek, but it’s a subject that I’d like to touch on a little further. Do any of you remember what you felt like the first time you saw an episode of Star Trek/TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT (whichever was first for you)? I remember what I felt like, as if it were yesterday. In my case, the first episode I saw was the TNG episode “Ship In A Bottle” in 1993. It was a school night (I, along with Damien and Erik, was a junior at Notre Dame de la Baie Academy in Green Bay, WI at the time), and I was flipping through channels at the time, my homework done, looking for something to pass the time until I went to bed.

On WGBA, channel 26 in Green Bay, I happened across something. Because of where my parents lived, our reception was rather poor. My family did not have cable (satellite TV was restricted to the big C-band satellite dishes at that time, and we lived out in the country, so we could not get cable), so needless to say, something special was on the air that night for me to stop and pay attention. I don’t remember exactly what caused me to stop, as that has faded into the memories of my past. I watched for a little while, intrigued by the story of Geordi, Data, and Capt. Picard attempting to wrest control of the ship back from a holodeck recreation of Dr. Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes. And I kept watching. And kept watching. And, by 10 PM that night, I was hooked for life. After that, I eagerly watched TNG every night (TNG was still in its original run on Thursday nights in Green Bay, with reruns every other weeknight). “The Best of Both Worlds” is, in my mind, one of the best things to ever be broadcast on TV. Even now, 15 years after watching my first episode of Star Trek, the cliffhanger of that episode is simply mind-blowing, and every time I see it, I am still convinced that there is no way Capt. Picard is going to come out of this alive (though, of course, he does).

Very few shows on television have ever had an effect on me like Star Trek. Based on its large, worldwide, fanbase, many of you feel the same way. Only a few other works of literature, movies, or TV shows have ever resonated with me the way Star Trek did, and still does. As far as works of literature go, one that has stayed with me through the years is John Steinbeck’s masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath. I had to read that as a sophomore in high school. Considering that we had to read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter earlier that year, I was not looking forward to having another so-called “masterpiece” foisted upon me solely for the purpose of reading it because it is a “GREAT BOOK”. However, the story of the Joads and their quest throughout pre-World War II American life was a book that had a profound effect on me. It shows a very real portrait of the United States during the Great Depression. In a way, it showed me how the thoughts and feelings of an entire generation were shaped because of their experiences with the Depression. I can certainly relate to the Joad’s long voyage to California to make a better life for themselves only to find themselves, in the end, not wanted. I’ve had that experience in my not-too-distant past, but that is a story for a different time.

Another set of works, both print and film, that have really stuck with me are the three Lord of the Rings movies that Peter Jackson did so well, as well as J.R.R. Tolkien’s wonderful novel of the same title. It reminds me of the stories I read and heard as a child of gallant warriors, powerful wizards, beautiful ladies, terrible beasts, and truly evil enemies that the good folk only barely defeat in the end. Perhaps Peter Jackson did not copy Tolkien’s novels word-for-word (and that’s a good thing–some things on the written page do not translate well to the screen) but in my opinion he kept to the spirit of the novel. The scene where the beacons of Minas Tirith are lit, one by one, across the mountains, signaling Gondor’s plea for help, was beautiful. Perhaps people once thought New Zealand was full of sheep but Peter Jackson has no doubt shown otherwise.

While we are on the subject of high fantasy novels, I have only recently gotten into George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. My goodness, those books are good. I got into these books purely by accident. I was in a Half-Price Books in Virginia in January looking for something to read on the plane ride back to Texas (we were in the DC area to see my brother). My wife saw A Game of Thrones on the shelf there, and she told me that she’d heard that these were good (she’s now starting the series herself). So, not seeing any other better options around, I gave it a shot (I am not normally a fantasy fan) and am glad I did. Though they are rife with sex and violence (none of it gratuitous, to the author’s credit), all three I have read have a tight plot, and most of all, involve characters that you can relate with and care about on a personal level. For example, I see a lot of Catelyn Stark in my wife, from their looks (at least in how Catelyn’s described) to their demeanor. Perhaps I am just projecting one onto another, but when Catelyn is described, somehow my wife pops into my head. Somehow, she’s the character I tend to like the best. The scene at the Red Wedding where she is murdered is heartwrenching. The Stark family in many ways reminds me of my own family (though we’ve turned out to be a lot luckier than them). There is a scene towards the end of A Storm of Swords that is almost as heartwrenching, where Sansa, alone with her thoughts as the snow silently falls around her at the Eyrie, finally seems to be waking up to the fact that a knight like those in the stories she enjoyed as a little girl is not coming to her rescue, and that she has to make the best that she can of her current situation. Sansa is a character that seemed rather one-dimensional at first, but she has, in my opinion, grown more than any other character in terms of depth as the series has gone on. I look forward to finishing A Feast For Crows and, if they ever get published, A Dance With Dragons, The Winds of Winter, and A Dream of Spring. (And even if the aforementioned titles don’t get published, we’ve been blessed with four wonderful books that many have enjoyed, and will continue to enjoy for years to come.)

So, folks, what’s your first experience with Star Trek? And what are some of the other TV shows, movies, books, comic books/graphic novels, or other forms of media that had a profound impact on you?

Live long and prosper, folks.

Explore posts in the same categories: Miscellaneous

Tags: A Song of Ice and Fire, Catelyn Stark, George R.R. Martin, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson, Sansa Stark

You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.