Mr. Spock and the Gang

I was a young teenager when I first became aware of the Star Trek series on television--the original series.  It came on every evening by then, and I found it--fascinating!  ;)

Many people have speculated on why the show was so popular.  A common theory is that it showed people a hopeful view of the future--everyone working together, all over Earth and the rest of the universe, and doing pretty well at getting along.  There was also an important role for women--although, too often, it was as bed-warmers for the captain.  Oh well....

I thought Mr. Spock was great.  I even had a crush on the character and would daydream about him, about learning to mind-meld with him, about a man you could really understand and be understood by.  A man who couldn't lie! 

My favorite episode was "The Trouble With Tribbles," the one with the cooing little fuzzballs that reproduced so quickly they even began appearing in people's soup, and in the captain's chair.  I did not like the way they finally got them off the ship.  The Klingons would probably not have treated them very well, don't you think? 

I've been to 2 Star Trek conventions, probably over 10 years ago, but never bought or wore a uniform, or even a pair of pointy-ear add-ons.  I narrowly missed buying a cooing fuzzball; not sure how I resisted.  Maybe it was the price.

I have an almost-complete set of Original Series paperbacks, many of which I found to tell stories as good as the TV shows or better, but didn't enjoy the comics.  I taped a lot of the original series episodes from cable years ago, and recently transferred my favorites to about 8 DVDs.  There again, the cartoons didn't interest me.  

I liked the first few movies, up to IV, The Voyage Home--it was nice to see more humor after such heavy topics and plots in the first three.  (I agree with almost everybody that the first movie didn't have enough of a story--too much time spent gazing out the window in awe--but hey, it was Star Trek and we all loved it when it first came out just because it was the first new Star Trek we'd had in a while.)

As for the other versions, I liked Voyager the best.  The Next Generation seemed to me like a bunch of yuppies in space, and the characters were so stiff, and the women so silly... and there was Wesley Crusher--yuck!  I think the appealing thing about the original series characters was their imperfections, and Wesley had no imperfections except that he was too perfect.  This was true of a lot of the cast, except for lovable Reginald Barkley--sorry if the spelling is off. 

Didn't like Deep Space Nine--especially Ferengi, who were like humanoid rats, and detestable.   

I grew to sort of like Enterprise, but not enough to make an effort to see each episode. 

Now they're all gone, except for probably some reruns on some cable channel, but I hear there's a new movie coming out.  Leonard Nimoy will be in it--and a new younger Spock?  If he can come back from the dead, I suppose it'll be easy for him to get young again.  :)  I'll probably part with the $8 to see that in a theater, in 2008 I think they said.