Saturday, November 11, 2017

Where No One Has Gone Before

I'm in a bit of a Trek daze these days... the new series Star Trek: Discovery has rekindled my love of Gene Roddenberry's futuristic outer space creation. This new show bears some striking resemblances to the original 60's TV phenomenon. Not in every department, and sometimes only in a subtle call-back, but still... something here resonates with the old Trekkie (Trekker?) in me. The music of the opening credits of the show rings with familiar old Trek motifs... that sends a tingle down my spine every time I hear it. Discovery's phaser weapons and the communicators are fashioned much like the original show's technology. The sound effects on the Discovery's bridge seem lifted directly from that of the Enterprise on the 60's program. The tone of Discovery reminds me a lot of old Trek, too. Hey, it all works for me.


Click Play to see and hear my fun little Star Trek communicator

When I was a kid during the 70's, I was all about Trek. The show was in heavy syndication, so I could catch an episode after school Monday to Friday. I bought a lot of Star Trek-related stuff, too, like a toy phaser with lights and sounds, a tricorder with sound effects, model kits of the Enterprise, the shuttlecraft Galileo, and a phaser and communicator. Through mail-order from Hollywood, I purchased a whole wack of Trek goodies: embroidered uniform insignias, still photos, film clips, magazines and fanzines, and probably more that escapes my memory at the moment. In print, I got the ST Concordance, the ST Puzzle Manual, the Star Fleet Technical Manual, and the ST Blueprints. I also bought a pile of the Alan Dean Foster paperback adaptations from the animated TV episodes. Not to mention a trade paperback compilation of a bunch of the ST comic books and a few other softcover ST-related books. All of these items were from the 1970's, so I'm sure they'd have some serious value to collectors. Some of these things are long gone, sold off to a more serious ST fanatic, but I'm hanging onto my surviving memorabilia forever.



Though I never fully latched onto Next Generation or any of the other spin-offs, I find Discovery refreshing in an old-school way. Maybe Next Gen isn't so far off that Discovery flavour after all, and deserves a second look, especially since it's so readily available on Netflix. Maybe I'll buy into it now that I'm in the right frame of mind. And I feel the urge to re-visit some of the old adventures of Kirk, Bones, and Spock. 

I just got myself a 2018 poster calendar that celebrates artists' renditions of Star Trek, mostly the original series, but also a few Next Generation. Most of the images are worthy of framing, and I will when the time comes. I'm looking forward to hanging and enjoying this very sharp poster calendar. Take a look here at Amazon.

Warp speed ahead, Mr. Sulu...

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For more about Star Trek on my blog, do a site search or check out these links:

50 Years of Star Trek
I Grok Spock
The Final Frontier

Enjoy!

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