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Did Star Trek Change Your Life?
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Meirelle
05/14/09

In reply to Did Star Trek Change Your Life?
Star Trek never changed my life. It was just always with me. I remember growing up watching TOS with my day and my older brother. And then it was on to TNG and Voyager, DS9 and Enterprise. So I grew up with Star Trek. It's been there the entire time. It didn't have to change my life.
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Horsey
05/14/09

In reply to Did Star Trek Change Your Life?
tnd t gr wth vryn hr, bt GWD ths thrd s jst s- gy! Cn w jst knd f lv ff nd mv n nw? Prtty pls?
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Annalee Newitz
05/14/09

@Horsey: Thanks for your brilliant contribution to the thread.
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Alexis
05/13/09

In reply to Did Star Trek Change Your Life?
My immediate family loves Trek. My mom, dad, grandmother, aunt and great aunt all watched TNG. It's always been a constant in my life, and I've watched every single episode (excluding TOS). When I was little I marked my bedtime by when ST ended. And coming from a black family, Cisco was a BFD in my house. For a while my mom worked for Paramount and I got to visit the Ds9 and Voyager sets and that was pretty much one of the best memories ever. I even met Avery Brooks and got an awesome picture with him in uniform.

Unfortunately I took it to school and no one knew who he was. In fact, they thought he was my dad (they actually do look alike).

But to be honest, Buffy was the show that changed my life.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
05/13/09

@Evlsushi: Can you introduce me to your dad? Or is that too weird to ask? ;)
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Alexis
05/13/09

@Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.: Watching Ds9 was a confusing time in my life.
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jedikalos
05/13/09

In reply to Did Star Trek Change Your Life?
I loved your essay. It was TOS for me, in 1966 when I was ten years old. My parents had divorced and the world seemed strange and scary (Vietnam on TV, and the atomic war drills in school--they actually had us bring in blankets and glass jars for water, I kid you not, and taught us how to duck down when the sirens wailed, and the civil rights struggles and all of it)--and Star Trek gave my small self a real hope and comfort that people could be different: rational and caring and yes, as you talk about, in a community. The relationship between Kirk and Spock and McCoy fascinated me and in some way made me feel better about my life. And Spock inspired me to embrace rationality and logic with a true passion--not to mention the ideals of equality and tolerance which were just imprinted on my young mind (never to fade). Again: thanks for a good essay. You brought back a lot of memories.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
05/13/09

@jedikalos: THIS. People who weren't kids then don't get it, but I do. Trek gave us hope that we'd make it through all this scary stuff into a cool future where people didn't do weird things. I could simultaneously see the TV with Trek and out the window, the main target for the godlesscommiebastard missiles; we didn't even bother with duck and cover.

But we'd make it through and people of all colors (literally!) would get along and respect each other.
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jedikalos
05/13/09

@Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.: Yes indeed. One of my earliest clear memories is of the Cuban missle crisis. All the adults chatting away, and Cronkite on the news all grave, and I really didn't understand much beyond that the world might "end" and I started crying and none of the adults could get me to stop (and now I see I was the only one with sense in the room!). All those strange years. And then Trek: it was something very powerful. Take the famous episode with the guys who were black/white and white/black: it was so powerful to my young mind in the midst of those years in the deep south (lived in New Orleans). People mock that episode today but it rocked my young workd, just deeply made me care about equality. Not to mention the famous crew of various races and even a Russian. It has all been said before, but if you were young then in that terrifying place it was such a beacon. Roddenberry really did some good.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
05/13/09

@jedikalos: It blew my tiny little kid brain too, right after Huntley/Brinkley would show race marches -- wow!
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B
05/13/09

In reply to Did Star Trek Change Your Life?
Star Trek? Nah, not really. Dr. Who, maybe. Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, now we're getting close.

Actually, I think the Simpsons did change my life. It's certainly had a lot of influence on my worldview.
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
05/13/09

In reply to Did Star Trek Change Your Life?
The only thing Star Trek has done is to remind me how much time I waste watching TV...
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gertymac
05/13/09

In reply to Did Star Trek Change Your Life?
I'm going to go with the "Trek molded my life" form of this.

I cannot remember NOT being a Trek fan. My Dad is a huge Trek fan, and I can clearly remember watching the premiere of TNG with him at my grandmother's house. He asked me how I like it, and I could tell he was loving it but I was sad it wasn't like the TOS. I didn't want to disappoint him so I said I like it. I was four years old.

My little brain was so shaped by TOS, more so the TNG I think, that I thought the world would be that way. There was no poverty, no disease, inequality was always and absolutely wrong, and war was only entered into for the noblest of circumstance and always with the hope of peace. I remember learning what IDIC meant and being amazed by the concept.

Now, I'm in my mid-twenties, a professional sociologist that focuses on class and gender inequality from a Marxist perspective. So, I can see some influence there. :)
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Annalee Newitz
05/13/09

@gertymac: Haha! We should form a club called "Star Trek made me a Marxist." I bet it's more common than you might guess.
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B1663R
05/13/09

In reply to Did Star Trek Change Your Life?
yes, it inspired me to dream and believe in myself. it taught me that no matter what i can imagine, if i work hard enough it will soon be a reality.
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ManchuCandidate
05/13/09

In reply to Did Star Trek Change Your Life?
Star Trek got me laid, grew my hair back, I lost 25 lbs and added 54 points to my IQ.
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
05/13/09

@ManchuCandidate: Sorry to break it to you but that's really just a Tribble nesting on your head..
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Annalee Newitz
05/13/09

@Jrsy Devil's Food Cake®: Now it's six tribbles and you've grown back your chest hair too.
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NerD: Blattella
05/13/09

@Annalee Newitz: Seven and he's got a merkin!
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
05/13/09

@Annalee Newitz: As long as they don't migrate to my back I'm ok...
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frankenstoen
05/13/09

In reply to Did Star Trek Change Your Life?
The new Star Trek movie has certainly changed my life: It has sent me into a spiraling depression, that's how terrible it was.

The original Star Trek was about discovering THE NEW. It was about going where no man has gone before, meeting new lifeforms and new civilizations. It freaked the willies out of me as a child. It was incredibly scary and strange, but always new and interesting. It totally made me into who I am.

This new movie was just about dressing up the plot to Star Wars in the clothes of Star Trek. Same old characters, same old planets, except now it's a fantasy about a man with a destiny to save the universe instead of being a story about people out there exploring the final frontier.
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
05/13/09

@frankenstoen: " except now it's a fantasy about a man with a destiny to save the universe instead of being a story about people out there exploring the final frontier."

Just like Sybock was trying to do in Star Trek 5??
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KhaiJB
05/13/09

In reply to Did Star Trek Change Your Life?
I'd have to say... nope. it was the Doctor that formed a lot of the way I look at things.. like use your brain instead of hitting/shooting, always have an escape route, tinker like mad with electronics...
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Annalee Newitz
05/13/09

@KhaiJB: Yeah, sadly there was no Doctor in the 1990s. I don't think I'd ever even heard of Doctor Who at the time I found Trek, which is less about being a dumb American and more about not having had a television when I grew up.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
05/13/09

@Annalee Newitz: The reruns certainly were going on in the 1990's, at least in certain cities. Depends where you lived.
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KhaiJB
05/14/09

@Annalee Newitz: 90's???

my first memory is a giant spider jumping onto Sarah Janes back, back in 1974!

my mum found the only way to calm me down for certain as a baby was sit me infront of the TV when Doctor Who was on....
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Garrison Dean: R.O.A.C.H.
05/13/09

In reply to Did Star Trek Change Your Life?
You bet! Where would I be today without Luke's precarious travels to fight evil, or Yoda's wise advice on life and the Force.
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Annalee Newitz
05/13/09

@Garrison Dean: R.O.A.C.H.: From the AT-ATs I learned how to avoid tiny ships equipped with cables.
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Garrison Dean: R.O.A.C.H.
05/13/09

@Annalee Newitz: I learned that despite their size, small furry creatures can fuck you up, thats why I have two chihuahuas for my protection.
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NerD: Blattella
05/13/09

@Garrison Dean: R.O.A.C.H.: I learned that you should never trust a woman who pretends she's injured.

She's just waiting for the right moment to pull the blaster out.
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Smeagol92055
05/13/09

In reply to Did Star Trek Change Your Life?
I can say that Ben Sisko changed my life; he was so different from either of the captains showcased before him.

Whereas Kirk treated his underlings like utter shit, and Picard... well, hell, the man could make you feel bad, like you let down your father or something, Sisko was an entirely different beast. He was a father himself, and he treated all of his crew with respect and understanding, even when the people on the station tested his limits, he rarely lost his cool completely with someone.

He was far more diplomatic than anyone I had ever seen, and it molded me into a pretty diplomatic person myself. These days I think pretty hard before speaking (in the real world, of course,) and I always try to find a way out of a situation that will be mutually beneficial for all parties involved.

Here's to you, Sisko.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
05/13/09

@Smeagol92055: R.O.A.C.H.: I loved Sisko. I wish more men acted like him.

(and looked and sounded like him. yowza!)
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
05/13/09

In reply to Did Star Trek Change Your Life?
I don't think I can answer this.

ST didn't change my life, it's always been a part of it. I started watching TOS at age 4, so perhaps Trek molded my life.

I do think our culture is much richer for having Trek in it. Thanks, Great Bird.
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NerD: Blattella
05/13/09

@Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.: That was my feeling. One of my earliest memories is watching TOS with my dad. Its always been there, and I don't think Abrams did a bad job with telling another story in this universe.
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Arjay
05/13/09

@Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.: Hear Hear! I was born in 1969, so I didn't get to see TOS on TV until later, but once I did, around age 4 or 5, it sort of became a part of who I was. And then when I was old enough to understand what it all meant, it became even more a part of me, sort of like "Hey, you can work towards making the world like that!"

I can honestly say that Star Trek is a big part of why I do a lot of community service type stuff...I want the world to become like that.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
05/13/09

@Arjay: You got into it when a lot of people did, so you're OG Trek too. :)

It shaped my view of the future and how good people should behave.
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omgwtflolbbqbye
05/13/09

In reply to Did Star Trek Change Your Life?
Bah. Abrams didn't change shit. He just made another version of the existing story that coexists with the old one that existed.
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Annalee Newitz
05/13/09

@omgwtflolbbqbye: But was that on Earth Prime or Earth-1?
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OW-Holmes:Bringer of Fear
05/13/09

@Annalee Newitz: Star Trek Zombies, or Star Trek Apes?
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