Star Trek

Hello all, it has been a while since my last post. Apologies about that. It's not from a lack of ideas, or time really, I just need to be in the right mood to write, sadly that mood hasn't been happening lately. As I have said before I just can't seem to concentrate at home. I am currently in a bubble tea shop, the occasional blender firing up isn't ideal but I think I can cope.

Alright as for the topic of this post, I have been thinking about this one for a while. My original plan is a series of articles but I may just do one big post, I tend to edit as I write, so at least at this point I don't know what the end result will be.

Star Trek, I hope I don't have to explain what it is, and I won't. You are reading this on the internet, if you haven't heard of Star Trek well time for a side trip to Wikipedia, if you don't know what that is, how did you make it here? I am a fan of Star Trek, There are two categories of Star Trek fans. The trekker, simply a fan of the show, that would be me. Then there is the Trekkie, they are a bit more passionate about the show, some would even say obsessed. I say as long as you can still function so what if you really like a TV show? It's not me but hey they seem happy. Is it any different from any other hobby that takes up someone's time?

As a Trekker though that doesn't mean I can't think about and talk about the show. So here I am talking about the show. I have known about the show for as far back as I can remember but I didn't start watching until I was in my teens, a school friend was a fan of Star Trek The Next Generation a.k.a TNG, so I decided to check it out. I can't remember my initial reaction but I obviously liked it enough to keep watching. I It would have been one of the later episodes but I think over the years I managed to catch all the episodes, out of order to a degree but I think I saw them all, next was Star Trek Deep Space Nine a.k.a DS9 I was not a big fan originally but I have since changed my mind, after that Star Trek Voyager or simply Voyager came along, this was the first series I watched in its entirety, well as much as you could in the pre-streaming times. It is not my favourite series but I obviously like it enough that I aumans m currently re-watching it. Star Trek Enterprise then came along, I was pretty excited for this one but I simply lost interest fairly early on, I should give it another chance. Next up was Star Trek Discovery, I have seen an episode but that is about it, I wasn't really pulled in but I didn't hate it. I am not currently signed up for any streaming services that offer access but when I go back to a service that does I will make a point of checking it out. I did catch all of the Star Trek: Short Treks episodes, great concept but only 4 episodes it barely counts. Lastly we go back to the beginning the original series a.k.a TOS. I simply have never watched a full episode, I am aware of several episodes and clips from pop culture but I just never got around to it. Oh I forgot about the movies, I have seen all the TNG movies, and two of the reboot movies. TOS movies though I simply haven't seen.

Now with my Star Trek history out of the way let's talk Star Trek, not the show itself but its universe. The good, the bad, the interesting. The Trek universe takes place in the future and centers around humans but rarely takes place on earth. I would actually love to see an earth based series, but hey space travel is pretty exciting. That brings me to my first topic, exploration. Humanity's love of exploration is a common theme in Trek. I can't deny that, it's true humans love to explore. One thing that has always bothered me is the cost of that exploration. In the Trek universe humans are peaceful. They have moved beyond war, greed, cruelty. Technology has eliminated poverty, money isn't even a thing anymore,  no poverty means no hunger, people can still get sick or injured but medical technology is far beyond what we have today, so for all intents and purposes disease as we know it no longer exists. Education, self improvement, science, celebrating life is what it's all about now, it's a humanist utopia.

Now I mentioned a lack of money but that doesn't mean there isn't a cost to space exploration. Space battles are pretty entertaining on television but they do cost lives. Now the humans in Trek are part of the United Federation of Planets, The Federation has some pretty clear rules and directives for how they are to interact with other species. Use of force is only to be used as a last resort. The problem is that they seem to encounter the need to use force on a pretty regular basis. Now of course it is to be expected that conflicts will arise and diplomacy will fail. I can't fault them for developing weapons to defend themselves. What I don't get is their selfish behavior. If your hobby, requires regularly killing other sentient beings on a regular basis maybe it's time to chose another hobby. Now I say hobby here because that is what it is. Without any financial compensation even your job is a hobby. There are parts of the world today that are dangerous. I would not go to theses places as it would be dangerous for me or require me to defend myself against attack. I chose simply not to go to these places. The humans in the Trek universe seem to feel differently. I will acknowledge that they are not the aggressors in these fights but sometimes you are the aggressor by simply being there.

How humans, and the Federation can continue with their exploration simply doesn't make any sense. The Vulcans would say it is illogical. That would actually be an interesting topic for the earth based Star Trek series I mentioned earlier. Maybe not all humans are so keen on this exploration that Starfleet and the Federation seem to love. We could have the regular humans and other Federation citizens on earth  trying to change how Starfleet does its thing. Might work better as a movie but either way I would like to see that story.

Well I started this blog post not really sure what I was going to say. I think I said what I want to say for now, so it will be a series. How long a series I do not know yet but there are several other Trek topics I want to tackle. I will try to get another post for next week. I think simply writing that may be just the encouragement I will need to write again next week. I encourage you to comment but please keep it constructive.