When Exploration was Appealing

I wasn't going to write an entry for Star Trek Day, which was two days ago. But then Caitlin wrote a nice entry about it and I realised I wanted to, too. It is the 55th anniversary. About the franchise generally, I don't have much to add to what I wrote on the 50th anniversary. In that entry, I joined a number of people in complaining about the lack of acknowledgment of the anniversary shown by Paramount or CBS. Maybe I should've counted my blessings because the past few years have seen a painful attempt to replicate Disney's hit-and-miss exploitation of Star Wars, including marking a particular day on the calendar for the franchise. The current state of Trek is sadder than it was five years ago. I guess there were some episodes of Discovery's first season that weren't so bad but I found season two too excruciating to finish. And I'm baffled that anyone has managed to get past episode two of Picard. One person has told me she truly likes it so maybe I'll force myself to give it another chance.

Star Trek is not well known here in Japan. Neither the students nor the other teachers at the school where I work are aware of it at all, another contrast to Star Wars, which is not only well known but also somewhat popular. No-one knows who George Takei is. Ironically, given Star Trek's mission of diversity and universality, it seems distinctly, culturally more American than other American Sci-Fi franchises. Perhaps that's part of its DNA, having been pitched by Gene Roddenberry originally as a "wagon train to the stars".

I watched an episode of The Next Generation last night, just the next in line in my gradual, decades long, slow rewatch. A not particularly interesting sixth season episode called "Face of the Enemy" with a teleplay by the talented Naren Shankar. Deanna Troi wakes up to find herself disguised as a Romulan aboard a Romulan warbird in an effort to help some defectors get to Federation space. I guess it was appropriate since Deanna Troi was my favourite character as a kid, essentially because she was the most beautiful woman on the show. Watching the opening credits, though, nice and remastered with good sound, I thought back to the fantasy the show gave me as a child to go out and explore space. Where is that desire now? Actually, that much can be found in Japan. I've seen a lot of NASA shirts lately and students doing projects about their dreams sometimes talk about wanting to go to space. It's nice to hear.