Monday, May 16, 2005

No Bones About It

"I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!"

"Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not an actor!"

"I'm just a little ole country physician, not a pole dancer!"

Leonard McCoy. Who could forget the country doctor of the 24th century? I think that in Rocky-Horror-Show fashion I could recite the dialog from every Star Trek. I saw the originals, you know. Well, not all the originals. Star Trek came on Friday nights at 8. Since I was the high school yearbook sports photographer, I was always at football or basketball games and rarely saw Star Trek "live." But, I caught up with the adventures of the Enterprise crew during the summer through re-runs. In the 70's when Star Trek entered syndication I was able to watch it every night and saw many episodes I had missed. Over and over.

My favorite original Star Trek episode was City on the Edge of Forever which starred a young Joan Collins. I always liked the time travel stories.

I was quite excited when Star Trek - The Next Generation, or TNG, aired and watched it religiously week after week. I must admit that I wasn't too keen on Jean Luc Picard at first, but I grew to appreciate his approach to leading the Enterprise from one galaxy-saving adventure to another.

My favorite TNG episode by far was The Inner Light where Picard lives a lifetime under the influence of an alien probe. I found that episode to be very touching and thought provoking.

When Deep Space 9 started on UPN, I had a hard time getting into the show. Although I grew to appreciate the characters, I eventually stopped watching, possibly because it was on at an inconvenient time, and missed several seasons. I don't even have a favorite episode.

I guess it goes downhill with Star Trek Voyager. Again, I missed so many episodes I never really developed an interest in the characters. Again, I don't have a favorite episode.

And, finally, the latest incarnation of Star Trek which I don't even know the title of, I confess, I've never seen. Not one episode. When I read that Scott Bakula was going to be the Captain I lost interest totally. Come on! He's the Quantum Leap guy. How can he follow, or precede, the footsteps of Kirk, Picard and Janeway? No way.

So, I didn't even give him a chance. I don't even know how many seasons they've had. Pitiful isn't it. Nearly 40 years of Star Trek devotion down the tubes.

Whoa, baby, maybe they're doing me a favor!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My interest in Star Trek followed the same path. Sometimes I would have dreams where I was a crewmember on Picard's Enterprise. I appreciated the few episodes of real "science fiction" that Data's character provided. But I could never get into the subsequent incarnations. I saw a couple eps of "Enterprise" (with Bakula) and appreciated the retro future look, but... meh. I think even Paramount has given up on the franchise.
--Anonymous Gen