Trekkie and proud of it!

"Space, the final frontier..."

Who doesn't wonder what outer space is like?
From Space 1999, that TV series about Moonbase Alpha in the 1970s to Star Wars and of course, Star Trek, aliens and starships have always been interesting for writers to fantasise about.


Well. it's Star Trek's 46th birthday and a good time to write about my Trek fandom.
In the pics above are various publications and episode guides of the three post-Kirk TV series, which gave Trek new life after a lapse of 21 years, when the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation was aired in 1987.



I'm a Trekkie, Trekker, whatever....it doesn't matter to me.
All I know is that ever since my dear hubby, F introduced me to Star Trek: The Next Generation some time back in 1991 or 1992, I've been quite fascinated by this franchise which the late Gene Roddenberry created back in 1966 with Star Trek: The Original Series.
Indeed, much of the technology featured in Trek sci-fi lore has made its way into reality over the years.

Truth be told, I have not watched any of the TOS episodes in their entirety and I only got to know Kirk, Spock et al after I got hooked on the revived series, Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG)...and the third season at that.
It was showing on cable TV but of course, that was not immediate enough for us to get our Trek fix.
As usual, when there's a will, there's a way....and thanks to info from other fans, we soon discovered a treasure trove of TNG video tapes for rental from a little shop in Tanglin Shopping Centre!
This haven was run by a lovely gentleman known as Mr Odell, and his equally lovely wife and although small, was packed to the gills with video tapes of loads of TV series...not just Trek.
We could only rent three tapes at one go, though, and each tape contained three episodes.
So that made a total of nine episodes to feast on for the week before we headed back to Mr Odell's, usually on a Saturday afternoon to rent another set of tapes.
 I guess we were much like fans of any other drama series in our addiction, like the Hongkong, Taiwanese and now Korean ones which of course are available on DVDs and what-have-you.

We finished the entire TNG series from those rented tapes and proceeded on to Deep Space Nine, which I enjoyed but not as much as TNG.
By that time, Star Trek: Voyager was also airing on cable TV, with one episode every night so we stopped going to Mr Odell's shop after a while.
Haha...I would diligently record every episode on video tapes so that I could replay my fave scenes and boy, did I amass a HUGE collection of tapes over the seven seasons!
But of course, when the DVDs were released, those tapes just had to go.
But they had served their purpose well by then. ;)

Although TNG was my induction into Star Trek, I have to say that of all the three series, Voyager was my absolute favourite as it was the one which I caught right from the pilot episode, which kept me hooked all through seven seasons, as I followed the crew on their adventures in the Delta Quadrant whilst trying to find their way back to the Alpha Quadrant.

Voyager also had the best theme song...to me. Composed by Jerry Goldsmith, the whole theme music was soaring, majestic and graceful, yet conveyed a sense of a lost starship looking for home. Accompanied by beautiful images of space and of course, Voyager herself, it never fails to move me...at times, almost to tears!

I also loved that the captain of Voyager was a woman! (see pic above)
And a very strong and compelling character too!
A female captain of a series was also where no Trek had gone before.
Kathryn Janeway was authoritative yet warm and maternal; had a voice which was becoming of a starship captain; and was feisty, spunky and kicked ass like no other woman character I had come across in the earlier series.

Besides the Captain, Voyager also had the best written and strongest female characters amongst the three series.

B'Elanna Torres was the human-Klingon Chief Engineer (another first!) with ongoing inner battles but eventually found love and self-acceptance with Tom Paris (more on him further down).

 Kes was the Ocampan female who may have looked petite and demure but had a strong moral core.

And of course, Seven of Nine just blew everyone away when she joined the cast fulltime in Season Four, with her cold hard science yet sexy-as-hell appearance and having to learn more about humanity as she interacted with the Voyager crew.

Another interesting character was the holographic doctor, known simply as...the Doctor, whose snarky and sarcastic personna often served to irritate, entertain and yet had distinctive relationships with each member of the crew.

But my biggest 'crush' was on Tom Paris, the cocky pilot of Voyager, whom I absolutely detested in the first episode but gradually warmed up to him as his character became much less self-centred and I certifiably fell in love with him when he fell in love with B'Elanna...awwww!!!
He also became a defacto medical assistant for the Doctor eventually and was also the BFF of Harry Kim (see below), a relationship which was established early on in the pilot episode (and which made him a little less obnoxious...lol!)

And here, of course, is Harry Kim, the requisite Asian face in this multicultural crew. Fresh out of Starfleet Academy, Tom 'rescued' him from a cunning Ferringhi in the pilot episode and their friendship was cemented there and then. :)


And this would not be complete without a pic of the Delta Flyer here....the shuttlecraft which Tom, B'Elanna,Tuvok and Seven put together, incorporating Borg technology:

http://memory-gamma.wikia.com/wiki/Delta_Flyer_class

Isn't it such a lovely little ship??


After Voyager, there was another series viz Enterprise but that did not keep me as occupied somehow, although I will always love Trek and things got better when JJ Abrams rebooted the franchise with the 11th movie, simply entitled Star Trek, making it a prequel to the original series.
It was a stroke of genius and a well-made movie, with a wonderful cast which breathed life into Trek (again) and I'm now awaiting the next movie due in the summer of 2013!

Trek has somehow managed to stay the course all these forty-six years, in spite of ups and downs...no mean feat.
What attracted me was the quality of the writing, the strong characters, amazing actors and the social commentary aspects which sound less preachy when aliens and non-human species are involved.
Detractors alway make fun of the fact that everyone can understand English but there's a good explanation for that...Universal Translator, anyone??

What also makes me very happy is that my sons also like and enjoy this franchise as much as me and my hubby!
Trek lives on!!!