Austin Star Trek Fans Are SOOOO Lucky! April 8, 2009
Posted by tonywgoodwyn in Star TREKKIN'!.add a comment
Holy hell! What I wouldn’t have given to be in Austin on Monday! The coolest surprise in the world was sprung on Star Trek fans! Let’s just say I would have already gone to see Wrath of Khan followed, by a 10-minute preview of the upcoming Star Trek film. What they got instead was about the best present a Trekker could get right now.
Lucky fans-who-were-there!! I’m very jealous.
A note to friends, loved ones, etc.: if you can ever get the drop on me in this way, and surprise me the way these fans were surprised, you’ll pretty much have made my year. Or decade. Or even life. :)
Mother’s Day Musing: The Monster She Created May 14, 2006
Posted by tonywgoodwyn in Holiday Hijinx, Star TREKKIN'!.2 comments
My mother is a Trekkie.
It’s a love that certainly predates my existence. I can remember when, waaay back when I couldn’t have been more than 4 years old, her crying at the death of Spock in the second Star Trek movie. When I was 9, I took mom out to see Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home for her birthday (which, it turns out, is the day after mine), which I seem to remember pleasing her immensely. And in between those events, I remember countless paeans about the original series and Spock and Kirk, and Spock, and Spock…
(Hmmm, new thought: is mom a Spockie?)
Then came Star Trek: the Next Generation to television in 1987. I can’t BEGIN to count the number of instances where I’ve rolled my eyes at her enthusiasm for the upcoming series. While I certainly found it good for her, I couldn’t understand what was so exciting (keep in mind, I was 9): the movies were OK, but I didn’t know how the series related to it. No one was there that I knew, and it seems things had taken on a different tone. After hearing about the premiere, I decided to leave mom alone for one hour a week so she could have her show.
Things went on in this way for about five years. Sure, I would catch the occasionally interesting episode of the show, but mostly had a touch-and-go relationship with it. Mom would try to tell me more about the characters in it, but I really wasn’t interested. It was nice to be able to come and go as I pleased from a TV show without being an obsessed fan (though, I will point out that I hardly EVER missed an episode of TMNT).
Then came the episode, Chain of Command.
It was in spring of 1993, and my mother, who had seen the episode when it first aired in late 1992, told me to sit down with her and watch this episode. I hadn’t really watched the show in a while, so I agreed. What my mother had failed to mention was the intriguing little detail that this episode ended on a CLIFFHANGER, with Captain Picard being taken prisoner by the Cardassians. So naturally, I was already dying to see the next episode.
When we saw it a week later, I was hooked.
In seeing Picard get tortured, his crew desperate to retrieve him, and an enemy in the Cardassians that was both dark and especially complex, I found myself asking all kinds of questions about these people. Who were the Cardassians? What kind of commander was Picard, to inspire such loyalty in Riker that he risked a insubordination to fight for his release? And, who created Data? What was his story? Did he have emotions? Why not? What was that thing Geordi LaForge wore?
From that moment on, much to what I imagine was my mother’s delight, I became a devoted TNG fan, tuning in not only each week for the new episodes, but watching the now-syndicated previous episodes EVERY DAY. My quest for information about the characters, situations and universe bordered the obsessive, and when Star Trek: Deep Space Nine reached my radar, I started watching this new Star Trek, following it after TNG went off the air and as I went off to college. Mom started to watch that series for a while, but eventually switched to "me" mode, catching the occasional episode, while I followed it almost religiously.
It’s kind of a sad reversal, in my opinion, because I think mom missed out on the best-written, most well acted of the Star Trek series made (I’ve since seen enough of the episodes from all Star Treks to make what I feel is a very informed judgment). Even so, I also sometimes wonder if she thinks she created a monster in getting me started on Star Trek, as I can recall my own enthusiasm for DS9 prompting several "Leave-me-alone!" type responses at various times.
Of course, it could be argued that she created a monster long before that. 
My mom is one of the smartest people I know, and I like to think I’ve inherited her mental sharpness as well as her sarcastic wit. She’s influenced me in many ways, from how I argue to my sense of ethics and morality, but I have to say, the Star Trek connection, in addition to being the most fun, is also one of the more rewarding aspects of our relationship. It’s just too bad about Enterprise, eh?
Happy Mother’s Day, mom.
