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Everything I Know in Life I Learned From Star Trek

Space, the final frontier..... Those words echo deep down inside my psyche, reverberating over and over again, like the memory of an old lover or a particularly good concert. They wrap around my cerebral cortex, sharing space with the 1977 Marshall Tucker Band Homecoming show and the Skynyrd show that same year that would be their last with Ronnie at the helm. The words bounce off the inside of my brain walls, bumping into Hunter S. Thompson, Lester Bangs, Swampland, Kate Bush, old friends and family, Byrnes High School, long forgotten scenes from plays I was in, learning to drive and my very first beer. (Thanks Larry.)

Star Trek was indeed one of the most important elements of my youth, influencing me in ways I would not realize until adulthood. The episode with Frank Gorshin, where he and the other guy were Bele and Lokai, the  half black and half white time travelers was a classic example that taught me the stupidity of racism. Two identical men, fighting each other tooth and nail as they traveled through time. Then comes the punch line. Captain Kirk asks them, “Why do you fight one another? You are the same.” To which one of them replies, “Have you not even noticed? He is black on the left side.” Natch.

I learned so much more from Star Trek as well. There were countless life lessons on that show, vaguely disguised as science fiction. It taught me the importance of friends and family, and the duality that can exist inside each of us, the good and the bad. Episodes like Turnabout intruder and Mirror, Mirror took these themes to new levels.

No wonder I was so excited when I first heard that there was to be a new Trek movie. Not only that,  but a genuine reboot of the original series with new, young actors playing the characters we had all grown to love.

This past weekend, I went to see the movie, not knowing if I would like it or not. I mean, William Shatner is Captain Kirk, right? Well, it seems, after seeing the film, so is young Chris Pine.

This movie would have made the late Gene Rodenberry, the series creator, so proud. It is a near perfect prequel to the 1966 series launch. Sure, there are a few inconsistencies, but they are all explained with the whole “time travel” thing that cumulates in a face to face between the ancient, time traveling Leonard Nimoy's Spock and the young, just out of Starfleet Academy Zachary Quint'so  Spock.

Star Trek, directed by J.J. Abrams (LOST) is a non-stop thrill ride that will grab the non-initiated Trekkers while simultaneously giving all sorts of stuff to us old schoolers. Everything from that brain controlling brain creature from Wrath of Khan to the green babe Kirk is in bed with that harkens back to the green babe on the original series. And the cast is near perfect. The guy who plays McCoy was my favorite. I almost felt I was watching a young DeForest Kelly.

It’s been a while since I saw an audience stand up and applaud at the end of a movie, but that’s exactly what happened. And at a one o’clock matinee at that.

Sound effects and costumes identical to the ‘60’s versions, a super hot Uhura (that Spock gets to know very well) and a lot of the funny moments we have missed in recent Trek movies, along with Eric Bana as a tattooed, understated yet evil Romulan, help to make this a wonderful kick off for the future of Star Trek.

After 43 years, Rodenberry’s concept still works like a new car. And as the film wraps, we hear that familiar voice of Leonard Nimoy - “Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise...” And I get cold chills all over again.

Keep it Real. Keep it Vulcan.
Buffalo

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