Photo: Getty Images
How should I celebrate Star Trek Day? I choose to remember how much I loved the original series when I was a kid. I sometimes pretended to be Captain Kirk. Oh how fun it was to sit in the "captain's chair" and direct Sulu to go to warp speed or order Scotty to beam me up. I sometimes pretended to be Mr. Spock. I mastered the split-finger Vulcan salute and I'm still trying to perfect that Vulcan nerve pinch. My sisters hated my early attempts. I loved the episodes "The Trouble With Tribbles" when The Enterprise was overrun with small, furry, rapidly multiplying creatures. That time Kirk was battling Gorn, a tall walking lizard was awesome, but in retrospect the Gorn costume was pretty cheesy. There were a couple times when the crew travelled back in time to earlier earth, fascinating! It wasn't until I was a grown-up that I realized that being a guy on the landing party, wearing a red shirt, meant he was surely going to be the first to die. "Aye Captain" and "I'm a doctor, not a _____" became common phrases around the house. (Although I'm fairly certain never at my father). The same goes for "Illogical".
I've seen all of the movies, and most of the series that would follow, but it's the original series that I still have an special attachment to. So I say to you "boldly go where no one (man) has gone before" and "Live long and prosper"!