Friday, August 19, 2011

Everybody Knows That The Bird is The Word


Ninety years ago today, a most important birth took place in a land called Texas.

Eugene Wesley Roddenberry is a name Trekkies, Trekkers, and whatever the heck else they call themselves (fans of Star Trek, I mean) will never forget.

A WW2 pilot, an LAPD cop, husband, father, agnostic, humanist, but mostly for us: writer/creator of the original Star Trek series and thereby all others (well, maybe at least partly a team effort).

Gene Roddenberry is the first name in Trek, and his fans with a weird sense of irony or pomposity seized on a line of Trek dialog for a nickname. Gene became ever after 'The Great Bird of the Galaxy'.

As in: 'May the great bird of the galaxy bless your planet.'- Sulu, The Man Trap.

Reportedly kind and thoughtful, a dreamer and a shaper. Also reportedly a money-grubbing, credit-hogging, dirty old man. I have not the slightest doubt that both have their truthyness. His soul, to coin a phrase, was most human. In no way do I advocate ACTUAL worship of Gene, but there's much to admire in his words, and (in the secular sense of the term) his faith. His faith in HUMANITY. I sincerely believe he was out to make a buck, but on the way he wanted to inspire others to integrate, interrelate, and mature as a people, us kooky creatures.

One of the first men whose ashes were shot into space, they're supposed to send more of his ashes in a capsule with those of his beloved second wife Majel in the near future. They were strong believers in the future of humankind, in the space program, and in our ability to grow beyond ourselves together.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Laying The Keel



No, not Walker Keel.
(The man has zero charisma, a bee in his bonnet and a bug in his neck.)

I'm talking about a SHIP'S keel. But a SPACE SHIP! Up in orbit! 255 years IN THE FUTURE!

This is less a post than a placeholder: waiting to see if it drops and burns up in the atmosphere or stays where I put it.

I'm here to provide my chatter and occasionally thoughts on a little show you may have heard of...
It's called "Star Trek". My personal reviews and views and rants begin for reals on September 8, 2011 in celebration of Trek's 45th Anniversary. Thereafter begins my FIVE YEAR MISSION to boldly post every weekday and if Spock smiles upon me, weekend supplements.

Expected outcome? Scathing or more often gushing reviews of every 'official' Star Trek adventure ever committed to celluloid, video, or paper & ink. Or e-paper & e-ink. Or direct to brain download. Or fiction mist. And who determines what's official? Me. Glad that's settled.

Prepare to consume it with me, won't you?