I really like STAR TREK— and of course since there have been several versions of it they now refer to the series I’m talking about as THE ORIGINAL SERIES. It aired on NBC from 1966-1969 when it was cancelled, but fandom kept it alive and soon it was reborn in a series of big budget films.
But I really only like the TV Series. Truth be told, I think I like the colorful costumes and cheesy sets. They’ve done a REMASTERED version which added better effects and they are a big miss. The bad effects were part of the charm of the show.
I also really liked the chemistry between Captain Kirk, his first officer Mr Spock and Dr McCoy. They had personalities and there was some fun in there. When STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION came out my best friend was hooked, I didn’t want to bother— I’m usually disdainful of remakes— but one night he had to stay up because he had a medical procedure that required no sleep for 24 hours so I went to his house and I tried watching it with him. I was alseep in under an episode— I found it boring and grey.
Growing up I had a friend who was so heavily into the show that he made really great props in his basement, he made the tricorder, phasers and even had all three colors of shirts from the show. We used to drive him crazy by calling the show Star TRACK but we knew what we were doing.
When STAR WARS came along (again, the original one now called stupidly A NEW HOPE) he completely swapped allegiance and began making replica costumes of C3PO and R2D2— he loved that movie beyond all measure. I admit I fell into it too— but I loved DARTH VADER, I loved the Storm Troopers, I couldn’t stand Luke Skywalker who was to me a whiney little baby (now he’s a big whiney baby). I laughed when someone called Mark Hammill (Luke) washed up. I think you have to have had a career to be washed up. I found Leia totally unlikeable and Han Solo so obnoxiously smug. I liked Ben Kenobi but he didn’t make it through the film and. I liked Chewbacca who I secretly hoped would smother Han to death one night on the Millenium Falcon. The sequels were B-Movies and by the time EMPIRE STRIKES BACK came out I was already feeling too old to watch puppets in swamps. By RETURN OF THE JEDI I was done with it.
But Star Trek— nope, still held up.
There were 79 episodes in total of the original and I’ve probably seen at least 35— maybe more. Veronica has a solo trup to see family coming up and my thought was to watch every episode while she’s gone. I doubt I can acheive this lofty goal but I’m going to give it the good old college try.
Wish me luck.