Right now, I'm sitting in my living room and in front of me is documented proof of bucket list item #5 completed. Oh Calgary Expo Comic Con, how I love thee. I'll blog about the Comic Con experience in another post shortly, but I wanted to share here about my history about being a long time Trekker as a lot of folks have commented: dude, seriously?
Almost 25 years ago, I sat in front of my family's little 8" screen TV and tuned in to see the pilot episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I was 10 years old at the time and already a budding geek with interests in science, space, video gaming, and comics. I knew of the original Star Trek series, but (shocker warning) Captain Kirk and Dr. Spock never really appealed to me. Through my eyes, they were outdated and any episode that I watched seemed boring, corny, or both. However I decided that I'd give this Next Generation a try. Besides, the guy from Reading Rainbow had a role in it and I never missed an episode of that show.
So I tuned in and watched this group of nine people try to save their asses, their ship, and humanity itself (as it was on trial in this episode) from this omnipotent evil guy called "Q". The Reading Rainbow dude was blind (but he drove the ship!), the Chief Security Officer was a chick, there was this "needs more time in the sun" robot... er, android whom I found annoying, single parent families were the norm, and the Captain was this old British, wait French?, bald dude. After the pilot episode, I turned off the TV, marched up to my mom who was in the kitchen, and declared with all regale formality that I was officially a Star Trek fan.
My mom's answer, "That's nice dear."
Over the next 7 years, I never missed an episode and still have all the original VCR recordings from seasons 2 to 7 (season 1 remained elusive as our household didn't own a VCR at the time). Because I replayed each episode over and over, I can still recite the dialogue word per word of almost every episode (much to my friends' weird looks). Beyond TNG (and soon DS9 and later Voyager) I started immersing myself in all things Trek - learning about each character's background, the Gene Roddenberry's story, the process of filming the episodes, learning to love the original series (Whoa! They made movies too?!), and worrying about the characters who seemed like family to me. I clearly remember screaming loudly at that tiny TV as tears streamed down my face in disbelief when they killed off Tasha Yar (that Chief of Security chick), "You CAN'T kill her! YOU JUST CAN'T!!!" Yesiree, I was an official Trekker.
Why did TNG resonate so passionately with me? I felt that of all the TV shows during my upbringing, TNG not only appealed to geek in me with sci-fi, but understood me and here's the top 3 reasons:
1. Being handicapped doesn't limit your position in society. The blind dude didn't remain the helm pilot during the entire series. No, LaForge was promoted to keep the ship from "being blown to kingdom come" as ship's Chief Engineer. If a blind guy can be accepted as a colleague and become senior staff member of Starfleet's flagship, hey a deaf chick could do anything too (like a Ph.D. in microbiology).
2. The Crusher family storyline hit home with me as I deeply identified with the dialogue between the solo parent and child. Sure, the circumstances were different, but the fact that that social status wasn't an issue gave me hope that I did have a chance in life. As a kid growing up, I was branded "at-risk child" in my school system just because I didn't have a dad. If it wasn't enough to be bullied for being the deaf kid in a regular school system, I was also "that deaf chick from a broken home who you shouldn't be friends with because she's a bad influence". In the 24th century, being raised solely raised by your mom was regarded normal and even commended. Plus you got Captain Picard as your father figure role model. How cool is that?
3. Women can be strong leaders. This aspect of TNG has been mentioned over and over. At the time that the series was airing on the networks, the women's movement was still a huge issue. Except for Kate Mulgrew's Mrs. Columbo (where Mulgrew went on to become Capt. Janeway of the Star Trek Voyager series) and Kate Jackson's role in Scarecrow and Mrs. King, I didn't have many strong female role models to watch on TV. But with TNG, I saw Yar, Dr. Crusher, and Troi every week tackling various issues. I especially admired Crusher - not only being a single mom, but also a scientist. Often when I'm in the lab and suddenly realize that I haven't had lunch or supper, I can hear Dr. Crusher saying, "Sometimes I get so busy with research, I forget to eat!" (Lower Decks, Season 7)
Two years later after TNG premiered, I convinced my mom to drive me 3 hours to another city to attend my first Star Trek/comic con. She dropped me off at the door to the hotel lobby and I found myself with 500 people that loved Star Trek not as much as I did, but way, way, WAY more. Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) was the main (and only) guest star at that con 23 years ago. She graciously answered throngs of questions, sang for us, and signed my very first autograph picture! Although I was surrounded by strangers, I felt at ease and comfortable with them. They understood me and I understood them. After that experience, I made a point to visit any convention nearby and bucket list item #5 was written: to meet and thank the entire TNG cast in person. Thanks Calgary Expo for "making it so".
