It was forty years ago today when MTV first went live on the television waves and began entertaining the masses with music videos and commentary from their video disc jockeys or VJs as they became known as. Historically speaking, MTV launched with the video by The Buggles and their song “Video Killed The Radio Star” which I’ve embedded for your viewing pleasure down below. Though I’m a tried and true Metalhead, I’ve always had a soft spot for some of the New Wave classics and this song is one of my favorites to this very day. Enjoy.
“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” – That’s how the show began so many years ago and believe it or not we are at the 50th Anniversary of the ground-breaking television series “Star Trek”.
The earliest memory that I have about watching “Star Trek” was from when I was a small child who had to be no more than six or seven years old at the time. My mother and I lived with my Grandmother at the time and the show was already cancelled from network television for a few years at the time and I was watching the program in syndication on Channel 11. Though it was originally in color, I was not seeing it with such a luxury and was instead watching it on a very small black and white TV that was in my Nan’s kitchen. It was actually the only television that we had at the time. I was hooked from those first viewings and loved the whole original cast with the most appreciation being for Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. I could do the Vulcan “live long and prosper” gesture from that young age and I am sure that it added to my overall weirdness of being a child. The show truly did take my young and still developing mind to far away places and of course I believed a lot of this was in some sense real because there had to be more than only us out there. When it came to some of the alien races I was glad that we were way down here and they way way way out there being addressed by the crew of the Enterprise. Soon enough I would learn that this was just a TV show but it was still damned cool in my eyes. Look how far viewing the program has come. From original airings to syndication on numerous stations to around the world in numerous languages. So far ahead of its time and yet only a show that ran for three seasons. As you can see, I am penning this narrative as a part of my Captain’s Log, Stardate 94289.23 (which is the actual Stardate based on the fun calculator that I found HERE).
Captain Pierce on the Bridge, USS Enterprise
Actually the photo above was taken by the great staff of Trekonderoga at the recent “Star Trek: Mission New York” convention that I attended. So back to the show. I have too many episodes to line out as favorites but the “Trouble With Tribbles”, the “Devil In The Dark” (Horta) and “Arena” (Gorn) episodes remain the highest in my memory banks even if I cannot quickly recall the titles of the other ones I liked most. No matter what my preference was, I would still be able to binge watch a block of the show at any given moment. To a viewer such as myself, the names of the legendary crew and the cast who played them remain media icons. Thank you first and foremost to Gene Roddenberry for giving us this program and for William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForrest Kelly, George Takei, James Doohan, Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols for bringing Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Scotty, Checkov and Uhuru to life. Though many of you have left us at the point of this anniversary, its through these shows that you adventure on forever. That brings me to the end of this missive my dear fellow Trekkies. Please let me know some of your thoughts about the show or even the franchise itself down in the comments section below where it counts the most. “Live Long and Prosper”.
