Weekend Assignment #266: The release of the blockbuster Star Trek prequel movie reboots a franchise for a cult tv show that had a huge impact on generations of sf tv viewers. Is there a tv series from your youth that you remember especially fondly?
Extra Credit: Have you bought the aforementioned tv series on DVD? If not, would you if it were readily available at a reasonable price?
Oh, no! I'm a redshirt!
It was probably in 1975 that a report (or rumor) reached my local Star Trek club, STAR Syracuse, that a Star Trek movie was being planned. Problem was, according to our information, that Paramount's plans for it were basically a sacrilege to our way of thinking. They wanted to recast the roles of Kirk, Spock, etc., with younger, prettier, more famous actors. We were furious! We wrote to Paramount in protest, insisting that only Shatner and Nimoy could be Kirk and Spock! Only DeForest Kelley could be Bones McCoy!
Heh. How times change!
My interactions with the Enterprise have been mostly benign.
I probably only saw a few Star Trek episodes on NBC when they first aired in 1966-1969. This wasn't due to a lack of interest. It's just that it was on after my bedtime. I specifically remember sitting quietly in the living room, hoping my dad wouldn't notice and send me to bed as the amnesiac Kirk fell in love with Miramanee. He probably knew exactly wat was going on, but took pity on me because I was clearly desperate to see the rest of the episode, and since it was Friday night I didn't have to get up for school in the morning.
But I don't think I got to see any more Star Trek until Channel 9 started airing the syndicated reruns around 1972 or 1973. I became so thoroughly hooked on that show that I ordered film clips out of the Lincoln Enterprises catalogs, started a Mary Sue story in which Joel R. and I save the Enterprise, bought all the James Blish story adaptations and other, better Star Trek books, and practically got the shakes if I wasn't in front of the tv at 5 PM on a weekday. By 1974 I was in STAR Syracuse, and editing its fanzine, which I'd founded before joining the club. It was called 2-5YM, which stood for "Second Five-Year Mission." We were always trying to come up with ways to convince Paramount and NBC to put the show back on the air.
Even so, I'm not sure I actually ever believed that Star Trek would return to tv. I certainly didn't anticipate multiple spinoffs with other starships (and one space station) and their crews, all the good, bad and ugly films, metric tons of merchandising, and a husband who once spent - well, I probably shouldn't reveal the amount, but it was impressive - on classic Star Trek merchandise in a single day at a Star Trek convention.
I've long since moved on in my video affections, to Doctor Who and Quantum Leap and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but Star Trek still has the power to occasionally fill me with nostalgic joy or even, as today, anticipatory excitement. Yes, we have the series and the animated series on DVD, and a few of them on the old laserdisc format. And I'm really looking forward to seeing the new movie this afternoon, in a digital projection presentation instead of on film, and starring a younger, prettier cast as Kirk and Spock and Bones.
How about you? Were you a Trekkie, or was Masters of the Universe or The Muppet Show your childhood fave? Whether SF, cartoon, cop show or comedy, there is for most of us some show that meant a lot to us as kids. Pick one and tell us about it! Write it up in your blog, and please remember to include a link back to this entry. Then leave a link to your entry in the comments below. I'll be back in a week with the results. Here, meanwhile, is last week's results:
For Weekend Assignment #265: Darn Computer!, I asked you for some computer horror stories, and to consider the Mac vs. Windows issue.
Astaryth said in comments...
That software that comes with your camera (especially point and shoot ones) is hardly ever either good or a necessity. In the 'old days' when you had to plug the camera in... maybe, but now days everything goes on a card which can be removed, stuck in a reader and moved like any other file onto a folder on your computer. ;p It's probably that stuff causing your problem. Good luck getting it all going. Worst case... you -could- just reformat the whole computer...
Julie said...Karen is right: I'm always battling something. But that's life on the bleeding edge of computing. Someone gets cut, and it's generally me. Why, just this week the enclosure that houses my backup hard drive died. That got replaced today, and I'm doing a backup in preparation for installing the release candidate of Windows 7.
Florinda said...My worst computer disaster happened at work a few years ago - a fried hard drive. I didn't lose a lot of work, since all of my files are on our network server, but I did lose a lot of time. We didn't have in-house tech support at that time (don't get me started - fortunately, it's no longer true), and it was at least two days before the problem was resolved. I did get an unexpected vacation day, though - I got my boss to agree that there was no point to my coming in to the office if I couldn't DO anything. (That wouldn't happen now, but I would try to get a work-from-home day. At times, those are almost as good as a day off.).
Mike said...I haven't had any major problems with computers, but I have had my share of issues. The most recent was with our last computer. I won't mention the brand name, but it rhymes with "Bell." We had the computer for just over a year, so the warranty was over, and all of a sudden, I couldn't turn it off. Yes, I said off. It was the weirdest thing. I played around with it for a while, then, of course, I couldn't turn it on. Not good.
I'm still dangerously low on "guest professor" suggestions for these Weekend Assignments, so I ask again: please, please, please, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE email me some new ones. I warn you, I will continue adding another please to the previous sentence each week until someone suggests something. Save us from the invasion of the pleases! (And no, Mike, psychic contributions don't count.)Karen
4 comments:
my son saw the new movie and said he was very pleased with it! This from a big original trek fan (plus all that followed).
by the time Trek came on tv I was already married with kids! In my day the only thing kids got to watch were mainly westerns like the Lone Ranger and Gene Autry ..
Mine is up - and it's not about Star Trek :-).
Running very late this week, but here ya go: http://www.barrettmanor.com/julie/archive.aspx?ID=2574
I just now noticed you on the bridge in that shot. Hee.
Anyway, mine is up now.
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