1980s – Sunday mornings, Doordarshan.
1990s – Weekday evenings, Star Plus
“Space.. the final frontier.” An entire generation got its thrills from those lines, and fashioned homemade communicators and phasers that at least stunned their parents, mostly because some other objects would’ve been dismantled in the construction. 🙂
On the day that I posted the Lego tales, I happened to see this – Creative misuse + Lego Star Wars = Lego Star Trek, and smiled at “as someone raised on both universes”.
And a few weeks back, I caught Star Trek, the 2009 film, on HBO. I missed it in the theatre, partly because I didn’t want to spoil the images of an era gone by. Though Captain Jean Luc Picard and Lt. Commander Data did make good attempts at engaging viewers, Captain James T Kirk, Spock, Dr.’Bones’ McCoy, Scotty and the remaining crew would always be Star Trek. But curiosity meant that I couldn’t miss it on television.
And it was an amazing experience. To see the old characters played by new faces, to wait for characters to appear, and to see the back stories fit like pieces in a puzzle, to see the cameo by Leonard Nimoy, to once again behold the USS Enterprise…. a “mind meld” of sorts and “emotional transference” was an effect too.. 🙂
It was difficult to see Zachary Quinto as Spock, more so because I’m used to him as the evil Sylar in Heroes. But I thought he did a stellar job. Incidentally the original Sulu, also stars in Heroes as Kaito Nakamura, Hiro’s father. Eric Bana was disguised enough for me to not have Hulk visions. It was great to see a new version of Uhura without the Amrish Puri like hairstyle.
It was impossible to see Chris Pine and not remember the inimitable William Shatner as the original James Tiberius Kirk. I still remember my initial difficulty in accepting Shatner as Denny Crane in Boston Legal, but my affection for the series was much increased by his Star Trek references, especially one season finale in which he told Alan Shore that he had once captained his own ship. 🙂
When I see the word ‘epic’ used these days, I wonder how many of those experiences would stand the test of time. Star Trek belongs to an earlier era, when we had fewer epics and our options to step out of reality were limited.
until next time, live long and prosper 🙂
I dont remember how old I was when I saw Star Wars for the first time. But I very young and I still remember how dark Vader’s armor looked against the white of the Rebel ship’s wall!
I think I’ve kind of reached a point where I need a break. I’ll admit, I’ve got a lot of frustration with Lucas. That being said, there is just so much awesomeness in all three of those movies ( the only three that matter ) that I know I’ll come back around to them. Yoda got to me long before any minister, and I suppose that the Force was my first touch with the divine; that sort of thing sticks with you. 🙂
🙂 I think i was much older but it kind of revived the ‘storytelling’ concept for me 🙂
Sunday mornings. Kirk. Spock. Sulu.
‘Enterprise’ is a more mainstream term now 😉