The fourth season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds premiered today. I haven’t watched it yet, but it’s at the top of my to-do list.
Before I settle into the captain’s chair for another adventure, though, I want to tell you why I love Star Trek, why I think it’s important for all of us to have a few things that we truly love, and why I’d like you to tell me about yours.
I’ve been trying to figure out exactly how I became a Star Trek fan in the first place. Like a lot of childhood memories, the details are fuzzy.
I remember family members occasionally watching reruns of the original Star Trek. I mostly remember the sound effects. In fact, when I was very young, the transporter sound absolutely terrified me. I don’t remember sitting down and really watching the show, though.
I also vaguely remember listening to one of those children’s books that came with a phonograph record—or maybe it was a cassette tape. If you grew up in the 1980s, you probably remember them. Popular TV shows and movies were condensed into short picture books with narrated recordings. I listened to a lot of those.
One of them was based on the original Star Trek episode, The Naked Time. Looking back, that seems like an incredibly strange choice for a children’s adaptation. If you’ve seen the episode, you know exactly what I mean.
Meeting Captain Picard
I started fourth grade in 1987, just as Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered.
My family had one television and exactly eight over-the-air channels. We didn’t have cable. I remember gathering around the TV with my family to watch the pilot episode, Encounter at Farpoint.
I was hooked.
Unfortunately, new episodes aired at 6:00 on Saturday evenings, which happened to be right in the middle of dinner. I missed a few episodes during their first run, but holiday and summer reruns helped me catch up. Every once in a while my family even adjusted dinner time so I could watch the entire episode uninterrupted.
I also remember our school handing out free Star Trek: The Next Generation textbook covers. For a little while they were everywhere. Most of my classmates eventually lost interest.
I never did.
I knew there had been another Star Trek series before this one, although I don’t remember exactly when I started watching it. That happened somewhere around my tenth birthday.
The Birthday That Changed Everything
Throughout the fall of 1987 I kept hearing commercials announcing that Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was available on home video.
Buying movies wasn’t common for my family. VHS tapes were expensive. We mostly recorded movies off television and watched those over and over again.
For my birthday, my parents helped me organize a sleepover. A few of my fourth-grade friends came over, and we rented Star Trek IV.
We loved it.
What amazes me now is that a group of ten-year-old boys actually spent time debating where the movie fit into Star Trek’s timeline. At the end of the film Admiral Kirk becomes Captain Kirk again, so somehow we convinced ourselves the movie must have taken place before the original television series.
We were spectacularly wrong.
None of us had seen the original series or the first three movies, so we really had no idea what we were talking about.
After everyone went home the next morning, I watched the entire movie again before we had to return it to the video store.
Looking back, I think that was the moment I truly became a Star Trek fan.
I think that birthday sleepover also sparked my interest in the original Star Trek, which happened to air on weeknights at 6:00 PM. Once again, that meant it aired right during dinner.
I rarely got to watch an entire episode. If dinner happened to be on the table early enough, and if I could inhale my food fast enough, I might catch the last 15 or 20 minutes. Unfortunately, eating quickly wasn’t enough. I still had to wait to be excused from the table.
I can’t tell you what an eternity that felt like.
The rest of my family seemed to eat at a pace that could only be described as geologic. I was convinced they were deliberately chewing each bite twenty-seven times just to keep me away from the Enterprise.
Life was hard for a ten-year-old who had just discovered Star Trek and suddenly couldn’t get enough of it.
Then Channel 29 made the situation even worse by announcing that they’d air an episode of the original Star Trek, immediately followed by an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, every weeknight from 5:00 until 7:00.
Dinner somehow managed to land in the middle of one of those episodes approximately 150 percent of the time.
The only thing I can compare it to came years later when I’d be making out with my girlfriend in the basement while simultaneously listening for footsteps on the stairs so we could spring apart before someone caught us.
Remember those days?
Of course you do.
That’s why I’m telling you this story. I know most of you aren’t Star Trek fans, so I had to find a comparable experience most of you could relate too, and I’m short on time.
Anyway… back to our story.
Feeding the Addiction
As time went on, we accumulated more televisions around the house. By the end of fifth grade I’d managed to trade some stereo equipment for a TV of my own.
Suddenly I didn’t have to negotiate with my sister over what we’d watch. As reruns became more common and started airing at different times—9:00 PM instead of 6:00 PM, for example—I slowly filled in the gaps.
Around the same time, I finally saw the first three Star Trek movies and understood how everything fit together.
By then it was obvious to my family that I was hopelessly addicted.
Fortunately, they were more than happy to become my dealers.
My mom brought home Star Trek books on tape from the library. My family bought me Star Trek movies on VHS with audio description—a service for blind people that adds narration describing what’s happening on screen during pauses in the dialogue. They bought me copies of the original series episode The Trouble with Tribbles and the Next Generation episode Where No One Has Gone Before.
Even the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped—yes, that was its name back then—joined in. They began sending me Star Trek novels on cassette. Unlike the library copies, they weren’t abridged.
I could spend days listening.
It was glorious.
I collected a few action figures. I built models of the Enterprise along with Klingon and Romulan ships. Hallmark started releasing Star Trek Christmas ornaments, and my grandma faithfully gave me one every year.
I didn’t have much money of my own, so I treasured whatever my family gave me. I’d watch the movies, listen to the books, build the models, play with the action figures, then do it all over again while waiting for the next birthday or Christmas.
Incidentally, both my birthday and Christmas are in December.
That left a lot of agonizing months in between.
The Longest Summer Ever
Speaking of agonizing months…
The season three finale of Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Best of Both Worlds, Part I, may have been the cruelest cliffhanger ever inflicted on television audiences.
Captain Picard had been assimilated by the Borg. Commander Riker finally ordered the Enterprise to fire its experimental weapon.
“Mister Worf… fire.”
Fade to black.
That was in May.
I had to wait until September to find out what happened.
Children today binge entire seasons in a weekend. They will never understand the emotional damage inflicted by network television.
I could compare that wait to other memorable teenage experiences involving girlfriends, but I think you’ve already gotten the idea.
Then Star Trek: Deep Space Nine premiered, so I was suddenly following three different Star Trek series.
Talk about a nerdgasm.
When The Next Generation ended, Star Trek: Voyager took its place. For years there was always another new Star Trek episode waiting later in the week.
It felt like the golden age of Star Trek, and I had a front-row seat.
Eventually only Voyager remained, followed by Enterprise. I’ll admit that Enterprise took a while to grow on me.
Then, just as it found its footing, UPN canceled it.
I’m still not over it.
More Than Entertainment
By this point you may be thinking, “Chris, that’s a nice story, but it’s still just a television show.”
And in one sense, you’re right.
It is just a television show.
But I don’t think the things we love are ever just the things we love.
As I got older, life became harder.
Starting in high school, my mental health began to deteriorate. I didn’t fully understand what was happening to me at the time. Life just felt increasingly crappy, and most days I didn’t like it very much.
I enjoyed lots of other books, movies, and television shows, but Star Trek occupied a different place in my life.
No matter how difficult the week had been, I knew there would probably be another episode waiting for me.
I knew another adventure was coming.
I knew I’d get to spend another hour with characters who believed humanity could be better than it was today, who stood up for people, and who could find ways to work things out, usually with words rather than violence.
That mattered.
It gave me something to look forward to when I wasn’t looking forward to much else.
It didn’t solve my problems.
It didn’t cure my depression.
It didn’t magically make life easy.
But it made life just a little more bearable.
It was like Tylenol for my soul.
I don’t mean that lightly.
I mean it literally.
When I Needed It Most
If you’ve been reading this newsletter for a while, you know that I experienced the worst mental health crisis of my life earlier this year.
After I went to the emergency room at the beginning of March, I accepted a referral to a partial hospitalization program.
I wanted help.
I needed help.
Unfortunately, there was a three-week wait before the program could begin.
Those were three very long weeks.
During that time, Pluto TV’s Star Trek channels were on in my apartment almost constantly.
I slept through much of the first week, so I didn’t actually watch very much of it.
But even when I was asleep, hearing the familiar voices and music in the background was comforting.
As the weeks went on and I slowly began staying awake longer, I found myself watching more and more Star Trek.
I still do.
In fact, this morning I woke up at four o’clock for no apparent reason.
While I waited for my son to arrive at seven, I made coffee and watched three straight hours of Star Trek.
I know some people probably think that’s strange.
I imagine a few people might even think it’s lazy.
I don’t really see it that way.
I see someone using something healthy, familiar, and comforting to help keep moving forward.
There are certainly worse coping mechanisms.
Far worse.
Find Your Star Trek
The truth is, this post isn’t really about Star Trek.
It’s about the things that keep us going when life becomes difficult.
For me, that’s Star Trek.
For you, it might be something completely different.
Maybe it’s another television series.
Maybe it’s a favorite book that you’ve read twenty times.
Maybe it’s music.
Maybe it’s quilting, woodworking, birdwatching, gardening, baking bread, restoring old cars, hiking, knitting, baseball, photography, astronomy, or wrapping yourself in the same fuzzy blanket you’ve had since college.
Whatever it is, don’t apologize for loving it.
If you don’t already have something like that, I hope you’ll go looking for it.
Find something that gets your motor running when nothing else will.
Find something that makes tomorrow worth looking forward to.
You never know when you’ll need it.
And if someone in your life has an interest they’re incredibly passionate about, try not to roll your eyes.
Don’t dismiss it as childish.
Don’t assume it’s an obsession they should simply “get over.”
You don’t always know what role that interest is playing in their life.
It might be more than a hobby.
It might be more than entertainment.
It might literally be helping them survive.
And, starting in 2017, we started getting new Star Trek again. The seasons are shorter, and there is even more waiting, but the waiting ends again today. So, before I go watch the newest episode of Strange New Worlds, I’d love to hear from you.
What are your comfort passions?
What have they helped you through?
Please share them in the comments below. If you’re reading this by email, you can simply reply to this message.
One of my readers let me know this morning that she had trouble posting a comment on the website. I’m not yet sure whether that was a one-time glitch or a bigger problem, so if you run into any issues, please let me know. I’ll troubleshoot it and get it fixed as quickly as I can.
Thank you for reading, and live long and prosper.
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