I just started and EdX class about Star Trek: Inspiring Culture and Technology from the Smithsonian. I have watched Star Trek since I was a little girl. My dad watched The Next Generation. I didn’t fully embrace my love until my early twenties, though. I got really sick, and spent years in bed watching television and movies. Star Trek always made me feel less alone, made me feel like I was still a part of something, even while laying in bed.
Due to the massive stigmas I believed about Trekkies, I never considered myself one, but because I have grown into my authentic self now, I know I am one. I’m pretty sure I have seen every series, every movie, and most of them multiple times. The original is the only series I haven’t seen every episode.
The truth is I have allowed my love for television to be closeted because I associated it with being ill. I yell from the rooftops, now, how deeply connected to Star Trek I am. Gene Roddenberry has given me so much comfort and joy over the years. I watched Voyager lying in bed, moaning from pain, amounting to very little in life, but Captain Janeway helped me remember that women are powerful and we can have times of massive darkness without losing ourselves completely. I believe I’m thinking of the episodes in the void.
After I was held against my will for six weeks, I was inspired by Captain Picard as he was tortured and changed by the Borg, but never kept fighting for his humanity.
Enterprise gave me Phlox and T’Pol, who each inspired my perseverence, in different ways, to heal myself, and I did.
The orginal series inspires my writing.
I watched the entire Deep Space Nine series for the first time when my son was born. I will always associate Sisko, Kira, Odo, ad Quark with the precious time I was bouncing him, feeding him and soothing him to sleep.
Picard was a miracle to sooth the fear and frustration of lockdown in the beginning of the Covid pandemic.
And now, I watch the third season of Discovery, and I am in awe. I definitely cried A LOT at the first episode of the third season. I won’t give anything away, but the spirit of Gene Roddenberry lives on. ( I do believe he was somewhat prophetic, if not completely psychic. I know he channeled his work from a greater Source.)
Star Trek has meant more to me than I even realized until I started taking this class. Star Trek has been with me my whole life, guiding me and providing me with hope for the future, both socially and personally. I am proud to be a Trekkie. And I am proud to be personally connected to this entertainment franchise that has fundamentally changed the world. . . for the better. Now, that’s saying something.
