Happy Trek 50th! It's only now I can be excited

Hey, it’s Sept. 8!

My early fandom benchmarks & treasures

The Official Big 5-0 is here, at last.
 
Everyone and their alien dog is doing the Star Trek thing: mainstream news, bloggers, entire nations of state-owned media.
 
So, just as I promised when I started this blog, I'll take the personal route on this landmark day.

And say, after a year of joining fans worldwide to celebrate and reflect on Gene Roddenberry’s gift to us all, that I’ve got to come clean and admit it:
 
I take Star Trek for granted. And always have.
 
I mean, don’t get me wrong: I likely would not have wound up with a lot of my life choices—from a wife, to the expression of career training in numerous fields—had it not been for the little space saga that could.
 
By that I mean the original series, of course—no bloody A, B, C, D, V, E, J, or new D—and the by fact that I was but a kid when I got trekkified: one hour at a time, one day at a time, every day after school. Just like so, so many others.

I fell for those characters, I fell for that universe. I fell for the fact it was our universe—as both a history buff and a NASA kid, it made complete sense.
 
Because here’s a second admission: I can be deadly with the practical and the pragmatic. I had a “Well, yeah” put-down comeback that was years ahead of the “Well, duh” fad...and I used it full force, on wide-beam setting on Star Trek. 
 
Of course our technology would progress from the wheel to the horsepower to the airplane to the starship… from fire to oil to antimatter. And for a species that grew from the level of caves to city-states to nations to United Nations, well of course we’d eventually become a union of intelligently populated planets—once we found them. And once they found us— because they, like us, had to figure out the self-survival recipe or they'd never have made it to the stars in the first place. (Well, most of them, anyway. Cue the grumpy Vulcans.)
 
I read the early books like Star Trek Lives!, grappling with why Trek was so mold-breakingly popular. I saw the interviews… I read the fan letters, the magazine essays.  Optimistic future, humanity survives, we don’t kill each other or the planet or the new kids we find out there to play with …yadda yadda yadda... yeah, yeah yeah.
 
It was a concept that got so many young people excited and engaged...and still does.

Me, not so much. Remember, I was "well, yeah" when "well, yeah" wasn't cool. I mean, I knew how to gush—I just didn't see the need. Duh.
 
But the years since this teenager fell for that vision of future history have hardly been rosy.  World progress has not been inevitable; tolerance and diversity and justice have not arisen automatically, along an ever-rising path to global peace and prosperity.

The go-go ‘70s grew into the cushy ‘80s and the dot-com ‘90s...and then, just about the time Star Trek's optimism seemed old hat in many ways... along came a global melt-down, a rebound of intolerance and pushback, and a generation that never saw a hot world war — but was sure plenty scared of a hot world.
 
And then Leonard died.

As I said at the time, his passing hit me not just hard, but unexpectedly: with guilt. Guilt that, while favoring McCoy and Scotty, and mourning De and Jimmy, I had taken Leonard and Spock far, far too much for granted.

And as the Five-O party started, and all the old truisms and quotes were trotted out again to explain Trek's appeal and Trek's longevity... I realized I was guilty once again. Of taking the core of the whole damn franchise for granted.

Even more than in 1966 or even 1986, Star Trek is an incredible gift of inspiration and hope, an ageless lesson in diversity and respect, a needed lesson in rationality and curiosity...and a damn flexible storytelling vehicle with great characters, cast, commentary and yes, canon—which you might say the biggest sign of respect of all: from creator to audience.

Yes, the years go by, world progress is not on autopilot, and it's actually gotten easier to gush about Star Trek. I bet we'll be saying the same thing after the next 50.

Duh.



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Have a great #happy50th day today! 
Remember to share your pics of your party or meetup tonight at Larry Nemecek's Facebook or on Twitter with the hastag #mytrek50 ....
And if in L.A. (or on Facebook Live) drop by our "we are all fans" Trek50 meetup tonight at Lucy's in Hollywood anytime from 6-10 p.m., co-hosted by Roddenberry's Mission Log podcast, for a toast on Star Trek's debut half-past hours across the US time zones, shared on Facebook Live.

After a year: Nimoy fan/patron Bonnie Moss reflects

It's amazing how the one-year anniversary of Leonard Nimoy's passing stirred up again so many feelings for fans around the world and especially online. We remember how news of his passing melted down the Internet for a weekend, and was a wake-up call that his appeal had gone mainstream because Trek and its ideals had gone mainstream.

So it was an echo, a major echo, that we felt as Feb. 27 passed this year. So many felt compelled to share their feelings online, to marvel at how it had been a year already and still they felt the loss. By a quirk of timing, we even got his visage as the final frame of the 2016 Oscars "In Memorial" reel.

I helped my friend, The Con of Wrath survivor/donor and lifelong Leonard fan/patron Bonnie Moss, to share her memories of Leonard on several podcasts and interviews at the time (at right, with LN)—especially after the North Carolina gallery show of his work she helped curate, that went on just after his death. 

And then last weekend, as the timing led us to revisit those feelings for many of us, Bonnie shared an email with her friends about that one-year anniversary... and she gave me permission to share it with Trekland:

This Year Was Different:
(Bonnie Moss)

It's hard to comprehend it has been 12 months since losing one of the most beloved actors and individuals of our generation, Leonard Nimoy.  A year without his tweets making insightful and timely comments on today's world events. A year without hearing more commentary on his prior work, his profession in general or his current passions. A year without that still melodic voice, handsome visage and genuine affection for fans, expressed in new and future manifestations. We miss you. Daily.

I also give thanks that we were able to share part of those 83 years with you. Leonard Nimoy was a man of true diversity in his gifts and talents, who also admired and represented the broader diversity on this planet and beyond. He continued to challenge himself, he learned from his mistakes and he stayed true to his core values.

He loved his wife and family-even the challenges of blending two entities into one appear to have been met and he would be SO moved and proud by the ongoing respect and affection still in evidence among his loved ones. Thank-you, Susan Nimoy, for your efforts in this and for your impact on Leonard's health. You gave us more years with him than we might not have had otherwise.

Leonard would have loved celebrating Star Trek's 50th this year. He was looking forward to it. He certainly would have found a way to be part of it, by skype, social media or through another creative conduit, given his health limitations. Instead, we will honor and treasure his memory. The two upcoming documentaries currently in production through his two children, Julie and Adam, will be an important part of this acknowledgement.

On a personal note- thanks, Leonard, for 35 years of great performances and personal kindnesses. From our first meeting: "Why are you in the rain? Come on (backstage)--you'll get wet!"  To our last: "So good to see you again."

Thank-you for taking care of us. It was good to see you too…

                                     

                            Both photos courtesy Bonnie White: Below, at a 1979

                            performance of Vincent.