Monday, April 22, 2013

S is for Star Trek

I Love Sci-Fi/Fantasy Because...

...of Star Trek.

The Star Trek franchise offers nearly 750* hours of video entertainment:

Series # of Episodes # of Seasons
Original Series 79 3
The Next Generation 178 7
Deep Space Nine 176 7
Voyager 172 7
Enterprise 98 4
Animated Series 22 2
* Episodes run ~40-45 minutes without commercials, 
but I rounded to an hour for simpler arithmetic.

And once Star Trek: Into Darkness is released we'll have twelve Star Trek movies.

Plus we have the couple hundred or so novels set in our favorite Federation.

I love Star Trek because of the characters and settings and richness of its portrayed reality. I love it because of its exploration of science, space and the human equation. But I love it most, I think, because of the hopeful promise it paints, its vision of humanity at its best.

Star Trek, with its immense reservoir of material exploring the final frontier, is a huge reason why I love science fiction and fantasy.

36 comments:

  1. I've only seen two, maybe three episodes of Star Trek, the original series. I haven't seen any of the others.

    But I loved the very last Star Trek movie, and I'm super excited to see the new one this summer.

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    1. New actors playing old characters in an old universe gone off in a new direction. Only in SciFi. :)

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  2. I am so looking forward to Star Trek: Into Darkness. The reboot has given it new energy.

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  3. I adore Star Trek, and I have all the episodes of all the series on DVD, but I have "issues" with the new movies. I like them, they're well made and a good watch ... but I just can't get past the fact that they're essentially a do-over.

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    1. Yeah, I still have mixed feelings about that aspect of it as well.

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  4. Whoa! I knew the Star Trek franchise was big, but I had no idea it was this big...

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  5. Star Trek, with its immense reservoir of material exploring the final frontier....

    You're so right. Star Trek can never run out of things to be explored.

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    1. Not as long as there are humans in the universe.

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  6. I'm more of a Star Wars gal, but that doesn't mean I'll turn my nose up to a good episode of Star Trek. And I did go through a period where I watched several episodes mainly with Kirk and Picard. Plus, I am looking forward to the movie. I hope they do honor to the franchise.

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    1. I love them both. (I originally planned to have Trek & Wars share the post.)

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  7. Star Trek is, definitely, sci-fi at it's best. Not just for the action/adventure aspect of it, but for the study of humanity...where we're going, where we've been....the show really held that mirror up to us all.

    Great stuff! :)

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    1. It finds its depth and resonance in its exploration of humanity.

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  8. I have to admit, I'm really looking forward to the next Star Trek movie coming out in May. It's been a fun revamp of an old classic.

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    1. No complaints from me so far...except for maybe that little alternate history thinggie. ;-)

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  9. And it is only NOW that I realize exactly why you have a platinum card in the Star Trek Geek Association. Whoa! I say I like Star Trek but only watched the first series and a few movies, and I'm sure not more than five (at most).

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  10. Wow! Didn't even realize there was an animated series. I remember reading a starfleet academy book when I was in junior high. I believe it was about a young Worf. I don't remember what the plot was, but I enjoyed it. Star Trek is definitely a major reason to love scifi! Can't wait for Into Darkness. :D

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    1. There are a few animated episodes I haven't seen yet. I have them, but just haven't got around to seeing them all yet.

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  11. Star Trek will always be awesome. Shame Enterprise didn't get seven seasons. Thanks to NetFlix, I've watched every show in its entire run three times now.

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    1. Yes, I would have liked for Enterprise to have had a full run too.

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  12. Star Trek really started a whole new wave of SF. It's right to celebrate it here.

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  13. I absolutely agree! Star Trek is one of my favorite series. I think one of the reasons is that science fiction was not really in the mainstream when I was growing up and it was one of the few sci-fi shows on television then, so of course I watched every single episode! I was much older when the newer spin off series came out but I really liked the premise so I drifted over to those as well. I haven't read any of the books or seen the animated series, but I think now I will have to do both.

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    1. I've got about two dozen or so of the books. Read most of them. Most are actually quite good.

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  14. There came a time when I needed to acknowledge I'm not a Sci-Fi, Fantasy or Speculative fan, just a devoted Trekkie (except for Voyager or the last movie, because...no)

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    1. I have a strange love/hate thing with Voyager that I've never come to terms with yet. I love everything about it, but is still seemed to missing some unknown ingredient that would have made it my favorite. Perhaps one day I'll discover what that ingredient is.

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  15. I like William Shanter.. he makes me laugh. ;)

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    1. He makes many people laugh. And he did it intentionally in this last commercial with the Gorn.

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  16. Whoa! I had no clue there was quite that much Star Trek out there. I do particularly love the original series. It's so fun and campy.

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    1. There are only so many colors and shapes for cardboard sets, I guess. :)

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  17. To boldly go where no alphabet has gone before. Anyway, my human and I have been watching the original Star Trek series over here in England. It has been digitally enhanced and wow, it looks fantastic.

    Make it so, human.

    Penny the Jack Russell dog and modest internet superstar!

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    1. Ah, my favorite Jack Russell! So glad you dropped by. I bet the digitally enhanced version would look great on my tele. Go boldly, Penny! Where no Jack Russell has gone before!

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  18. I love Star Trek because of Sheldon and Leonard. And the others on Big Bang Theory.

    Beam me up, Scottie :)

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    1. The latest theory dealing with that is that the Borg traveled even further back in time and attempted to assimilate Sheldon as an infant. Most of the nano probes malfunctioned attempting to penetrate his hard head, but a few did reach the brain and resulted in his eidetic memory and lack of social sense. The Borg determined that ancient mankind was too primitive to be assimilated and returned to their own time.

      Thus, Sheldon Cooper of the Big Bang Theory saved mankind and doesn't even know it.

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