To Boldly Go . . .

Maybe I’m giving away my age here, not that it’s a secret, but I remember these words growing up, ‘To boldly go where no man has gone before.’ Anyone else remember those? The words made famous by Star Trek, a sci-fi television show I didn’t watch, but knew all about because some of the kids I hung out with talked about it.

I’m not sure why I never really watched it growing up. For one thing, there were long periods of time where we didn’t have a television. But I think it had more to do with in my head there were Star Trek people and there were Star Wars people, and I was definitely a Star Wars person. Is that a thing? This delineation between the Wars and the Trek? Or did I just imagine it all those years?

As I’ve gotten older, and mostly more tired at the end of the day, those things don’t matter to me anymore. We’ve started watching the series, Star Trek Voyager, on those few nights after dinner, homework, showers, and bedtime stories, when the kids actually do fall asleep and we look at the clock to see that it’s 9:30 and we realize, ‘Wow, we could totally do something like watch a tv show together!’

To be fair, I have seen a few episodes of the various Star Trek series. While doing research, I ran across this worst fight scene ever episode from the original series, and I’ve seen some of the Jean-Luc Picard episodes, though I couldn’t tell you which ones. I have even watched one of the movies and what I remember about it is Spock kept trying curse and it came out all weird.

But this was the first time I watched Voyager. Turns out I like Captain Janeway, the doctor, Kes, Tuvok, and most of the other crew, though I do feel sorry for Ensign Kim. I think the only person who has had more stuff happen to him in one lifetime is Jack Bauer in 24. Maybe the guy in the Arrow, also.

The downside of watching this series is, as a person who studies and writes stories, I’m constantly analyzing the episodes.

‘Look! Here’s the choice. Two impossible things. Which one does she choose?’

‘Nope, not over yet because they need to wrap up the b-story line.’ 

‘That’s his fear. Watch, that’ll come into play at the end to solve the problem.’

I’m thankful my husband doesn’t care. In fact, he’s gotten so good at identifying story elements, he plays along and we have a running tally of points for each correct guess. So I get the best of both worlds. I get to hang out and relax with my husband while watching a legendary television series, and I get to continue studying my craft. All in all, a great deal.