To Boldly Go Where Literally Everyone I Know Has Gone Before
A confession about... Star Trek
I’m going to introduce this issue of the newsletter by making a confession: contrary to any expectations you might have about me, I have not (with the exception of a few episodes smattered across a variety of series, and some movies) watched Star Trek.
I know! How?!
Alas, reader, it’s true— as much of a cultural staple as you might expect Star Trek is to those of us who think a lot about space (and particularly folks who think about value systems and ethics in space!), it turns out you can have a whole career in those things and still not have really watched it.
So, here on what feels like the sixteen millionth rainy day of quarantine here in Chicago (it was sunny yesterday, but that doesn’t excuse it raining today), I am beginning to set myself on the path to Star Trek redemption… by writing episode summaries and sending them to you.
Some questions you may have:
There are roughly a bajillion different iterations of Star Trek! Where are you going to start?
Reader, don’t I know it. Look, after my friend (and Biggest Trek Fan I know! invite her to give a talk about it) Chanda convinced me to rectify my shit last year, I dove right in and started trying to watch Deep Space Nine. I am here to tell you that I need more of an on-ramp into the Star Trek universe than that! I was so overwhelmed by different aliens and their histories I felt like I was sitting in on a session of Parliament. I’m going to leave it ambiguous whose Parliament I mean— you are welcome to interpret this as George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic. Anyway, I’ve decided to start at the very beginning (meaning the beginning of production), with the original.
How is this going to work?
This idea was very much inspired by two things:
The only email I currently welcome into my inbox on a daily basis is Sam Irby’s “Who’s On Judge Mathis Today?”— her newsletter, which you can and should sign up for, is exactly what I need in this present moment. She’s always hilarious (you should read her books, too), but her newsletter really is a balm upon my soul. I don’t really even consider myself a fan of Judge Mathis per se, but her emails bring a moment of unfettered hilarity into my life, and inspired me to try a similar TV summary format to (hopefully) brighten your inbox as well. You can anticipate that these emails will arrive whenever I feel like it— Sam Irby has that daily writing down, but the only thing I am really committed to on a daily basis is coffee, so let’s not shoot for the sun right away. You don’t have to do anything extra to receive them, but you CAN delete them if you want. Your inbox, your rules.
I discovered yesterday that my friend and former bandmate Hersh (who you can hear play drums here, and guitar/vocals here) had ALSO never watch any Star Trek until last week. I cannot begin to tell you how much Star-Trek-related guilt this has lifted for me, especially because Hersh also has an engineering background (the details of which I am fuzzy on, but when we were playing in Ditch Club together Hersh’s job was working in a bunker that looked like a set piece from Lost and making sure a bunch of wind turbines didn’t break), and thus I suspect he’s also encountered Trek peer pressure. Anyway, Hersh is a few episodes into the first Star Trek series, so that’s where I’m starting, too.
Will I learn insightful things about science and/or space ethics from this project?
Great question! I have no idea. Like I said, my pandemic level of intellectual function is currently at “I only really want to hear Sam Irby tell me what happened on Judge Mathis”, so I’d set phasers to “maybe”. See? I’m getting the lingo already.
When do we start?!
Now! Well, you’ll get the first post tomorrow— but by reading this post you’re doing what my godmother would call “fixin’ to get ready to do it”, which sort of counts as starting now.
Know any other Trek fans who want to relive the original, and/or fellow science fans who are similarly guilty of a Star Trek dereliction of duty? Share this post and encourage them to join the fun!