This marks the passing of another Star Trek universe player, the “First Lady” of Star Trek, actor Majel Barrett Roddenberry. She passed away early today after suffering from leukemia for some time. She worked in the Trek universe up til the end; in her last role, she provided the voice of the computer for the upcoming Star Trek film by J.J. Abrams.
Read more about Majel and her life’s work here, and join me in a toast to her passing.
Here’s to ye, lass!
Okay, I’m a Trekkie. I admit it proudly.
I’ve been one so long that I remember passionate discussions in college about whether Trekkies were better than Trekkers, or whether Trek-ites were the truly serious of the Trek fans… nerds… geeks experts. We sopped up Star Trek along with our physics and astronomy classes, and I know more than one scientist who got interested in pursuing a career in science as a result of watching Star Trek.
Honestly, yes we did argue about degrees of Trek fandom and who was most serious and who were merely pretenders to the Trekiverse Throne. And, we had those “get a life” moments when knowing the proper derivation of a Klingon name was more important than, say, differential equations. And, I must confess, I was a member of an impromptu group of skiers who banded together as the Klingon Ski Team when I was in grad school. Our motto was “Ski with honor, there is NO honor in falling!” We took our Trek seriously…
Well, I’m glad to see that there are still Trekkies/Trekkers/Trekites out there and that the Trek phenomenon trundles along. We have the TV reruns, the movies, the books, the cartoons, the comix to keep us happy.
But now, in case you’ve been stranded with your Intrepid-class starship inside an inversion nebula and haven’t been on subspace radio due to verteron particle emission interference, here’s some news: there’s a new Trek movie coming out. And, since it’s not coming out til next May, the producers have released a trailer, which you can see at the StarTrekmovie.com (the official movie site) and StarTrek.com.
Okay, that’s all fine and good, but wow, there are reactions all over the place to the trailer! Just the trailer, mind you. It has ignited heated discussions on various blogs (and many of them NOT normally Trek-related) and science discussion boards that remind me so much of those early days of Trekhood, when we’d quibble about such things as how hard to pronounce the “g” in “Klingon.” I mean, this trailer has spurred arguments over technical issues, casting, costumes, technology use, canon vs. non-canon fact, and it goes on and on. It’s all great publicity for the movie, but what really impresses me is the intensity of the discussions (and you can find them all over — just Google “Star Trek movie”).
What does this tell me? There are a lot of Trek folk out there, sure. But, despite early calls for the demise of the Trekiverse by critics and naysayers who pit one Trek series against another, it tells me that folks out there do very much care about Star Trek and the messages it has always told through its stories. I can’t wait to see what they’ve done with Trek this time… nor can bazillions of my Trekking compatriots!