Space, the final frontier…

Few programs in television history have set the stage for anticipated excitement like the opening credit sequence of Star Trek. 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of this ground-breaking show – a colossal idea of the future from the mind of Gene Roddenberry. That idea has spawned 6 television series (including a animated series, 12 motion pictures, countless novels, comics and merchandise. This year will also give us the 3rd reboot movie (Star Trek Beyond) and a new series from CBS that will be a weekly streaming show. Star Trek might convey the stories of the United Federation of Planets, but it truly is an empire unto itself.

When I was a boy, I couldn’t wait to see the next mission for Captain James T. Kirk and the brave crew of the USS Enterprise. Even though the show was long cancelled and was shown in reruns on syndicated TV, it was all new to me growing up in the early 1980’s. Trek gave to me exotic locales, amazing aliens, and interesting story lines. It also provided to me the hope for a future that was bright and inclusive with people of different races, sexes, religions, and abilities working together for a common goal.
I grew up in a small Central Connecticut town as an only child to an abusive, substance-addicted father who was gone by my 5th birthday and a mother who turned to religion as a support system for her life. Life was anything but easy. My mom had to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, meaning I was alone a lot with the television being my babysitter at times. I enjoyed a multitude of shows, mostly gravitating to fantasy and science fiction, but Star Trek was always my go-to show because of the way that it made me feel. I learned that you can have swagger but still do the right thing from Kirk, that it is ok to be intelligent and still be cool from Spock, and that my cranky sense of humor is acceptable from McCoy. I do not tell you this to gain sympathy, I came to terms with my past a long time ago. Rather, I share this in order to set the stage to convey how Star Trek helped me through some dark times in my life.
The original series debuted in 1966, with Roddenberry pitching the premise as a “Wagon Train” to the stars. It followed the interstellar adventures of Captain Kirk (William Shatner), his First Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and Chief Medical Officer Leonard “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley) along with the rest of the crew of the Enterprise. The show only lasted for 3 seasons, cancelled for low ratings. For the normal production, that would be the end. For Star Trek, being cancelled from network tv was only the beginning.

The 70’s were full of Trek content from literature, comics, conventions, and the short lived animated series. A decade of fan demand culminated in the 1979 release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. While visually stunning, the film was an odd offering. The plot of a wayward Earth satellite becoming a living computer fit into the Trek model but the vibe was off. The first time I saw the movie as a child, I honestly didn’t get it. It was a long jumble of scenes that almost put me off Trek. It wasn’t until later in life that I could appreciate the beauty of the film and the excellent score by Jerry Goldsmith.

What this lead to though remains one of my favorite movies to this day, The Wrath of Khan. Khan was the central character in the original series episode, “Space Seed”. If focused on the discovery of humans on a ship in cryogenic freeze. Once reanimated, we are introduced to Khan Noonien Singh (Ricardo Montalban), a genetically enhanced super-human that tries to take over the ship but is thwarted by Kirk and exiled to an uninhabited planet. The film affected me profoundly, not for the action or the plot, but for the deep-rooted friendship between Kirk and Spock, and the ultimate sacrifice that Spock performs to save not his crew, but his family. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one.” I have based my adult life on that premise in many ways with my wife and children. Being selfless in your personal life is an admirable quality, as long as you do not allow others to take advantage of you of course.

The success of the film franchise gave birth to a new television series in 1987, Star Trek: The Next Generation. It is set 100 years after the original series and follows the crew of a new USS Enterprise. What I loved about the show was that it wasn’t a rehash of the original but at the same time keeping true to the spirit of Trek. Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) is the polar opposite of the brash James Kirk. He is stoic, disciplined, and maintains order in his life and with his crew. He taught me that a good leader listens to the people he is in charge of, weighs every option, but at the end of the day makes his own decision and sticks to it. Rather than being the token logical “Spock” of the crew, the android Data (Brent Spiner) made me stop and think what it really means to be human.

New series and films came along throughout the years, some great (Deep Space Nine, First Contact) some good (Voyager, the 2009 reboot), and some not very good at all (Enterprise, Insurrection, Nemesis), but as I reflect on the 50 years of Star Trek, the main point I want to make is this: I learned that a quirky little space show from the 1960’s can change the world. In a time where American Citizens were fighting for the right to choose their seat on a bus, to use the same bathroom as others (even though we seem as a species to never learn from previous lessons), for women to go to work, make a living wage and NOT have their ass slapped by their boss, Star Trek showed me a world where people work in harmony for a common purpose. The differences between us were celebrated rather than looked down upon. The show featured an alien, an African-American female, an Asian, and remarkably a Russian officer at the height of the Cold War. It taught me not to look at the exterior. Get to know a person’s character.

Star Trek taught a lonely young boy to look to the future; because no matter the present, there are frontiers to be explored. It is a nice catchphrase but I think it is incorrect. Space is not the final frontier, there is no final frontier. Not as long as the human spirit endures.