Welcome to Star Trekking, my attempt to share points of interest and random intersections in the final frontier.
I subscribe to a lot of newsletters. None of them are specifically about Star Trek. Most of them have nothing at all to do with science fiction or space or even television. But two of them recently had extensive discussion of Trek.
The first came in an issue of Grief Bacon by Helena Fitzgerald, as part of a post about shows the author has been binge-watching. One of those shows was DS9.
In the post, Helena describes binge-watching DS9 as “supremely comforting, like sinking into an old, soft couch.” She goes on to say…
what Star Trek, in all its forms, is actually about is couches. The starships (or, in this case, space station) are gigantic flying couches: soft, round, bounded universes that shut out the world beyond them and invite sound sleep. They narrow down what matters to only whoever else is on the couch. The starship, or space station, like the couch, is a closed system, afforded the ability to draw its own boundaries, so that even danger feels safe. Every landing is a soft landing.
Even that description is, to me, comforting. The best Trek serves as a couch of its own, a comforting place to curl up and live in.
Helena makes some other great observations.
Deep Space Nine is indisputably the best Star Trek, and the one that is least a couch, although it is still very much a couch. There are a lot of ways in which this show both predicts and paves the way for much of the prestige television that followed in the decades after it ended. In an unusual move for its time, it threw long narrative arcs across multiple episodes, giving the action a sense of consequences that The Next Generation, for all its battles and trauma and philosophy and Respected British Actors and Borg feelings, never really had.
The second newsletter featuring extensive Trek metaphors was The Bluestocking, by Helen Lewis. The issue was all about memes and the novelist Sally Rooney and living life online and as soon as I saw the issue’s title, I thought we might end up in Trek territory: Sally Rooney, Her Soundcloud Checked.
In describing the economical way novelist Sally Rooney describes a certain character, Helen Lewis writes that it is a sort of test.
like Picard on Darmok, can you decode these random snatches of meaning? In Star Trek, “Shaka, when the walls fell” turns out to mean “failure”—referring to an original incident everyone on the planet would be expected to know. “Check out the soundcloud” is, similarly, part of a dialect—the language of the Too Online.
There is something very ouroboros about Darmok becoming a metaphor for meme culture.
Anyway, again, please do read the whole brilliant post. And subscribe to both of those newsletters. You won’t regret it.
MEANWHILE…
New book alert.
Echoes.
I’m planning to celebrate Spocktober along with Lee. Join us!
I want this guitar.
And speaking of music.
TREKKISH QUESTIONS
with ConnieH_uk
(that’s Connie’s current Twitter avi)
First, please tell us a little about yourself.
My name is Connie and I’m a trans woman from Norfolk, UK. I’m 48 years old and have been a Star Trek fan all my life. I’m also a fan of other sci-fi including Battlestar Galactica, Dr Who, Stargate, and to be honest pretty much anything. I’m also a huge film fan and love the cinema as well as travelling. I’m also pretty witty and sarcastic at times haha well so I like to think.
What are your first Star Trek memories?
I used to watch TOS with my Dad though there were some episodes I wasn’t allowed to watch. Apparently the witches in Catspaw were too scary for me! I also remember seeing The Search for Spock as my first big screen Trek experience and it absolutely mesmerised me. It remains one of my favourite Trek films to this day as a result.
How do you primarily express your fandom?
I like to just create art and have done so for Apple Watch faces, iPhone lock screens and currently Winnie the Pooh mashups. I really enjoy giving to the Trek fandom.
What is your greatest Star Trek-related indulgence?
Probably the £400 Playmobil USS Enterprise I’ve just ordered. Oh dear! I would also say just Trek swag in general. I love the Eaglemoss ships and have just started buying physical books again (instead of Kindle copies). I do need more uniforms though.
Which Trek episode (or movie) do you watch most frequently?
First Contact is like comfort food and just lifts my mood if I’m down. Also I love Voyager’s Year of Hell just because it’s a great “what if?” episode with fantastic character moments. And from DS9 I just love In The Pale Moonlight for the fantastic acting by Avery Brooks and Andy Robinson, and finally Way of the Warrior because it’s perfect DS9.
What Trek character do you think is underrated?
I think Rom is sometimes overshadowed by Quark and Nog but is a fantastic character. He has some brilliant laugh out loud lines, always puts Nog first, and of course who can forget Mooooooooogggggggiiiiiiiiieeeeee. And despite Nog saying that his father will amount to nothing Rom becomes Grand Nagus. Just a marvellous character.
How has Trek impacted your life?
Trek has always been a constant in my life and has been there through the ups and downs. Whatever else is going on with relationships or work or just life, there’s always Trek to provide comfort and support through its great stories and characters. And it always give me hope that one day things will improve and I’m not sure I would have come out as transgendered without that hope. And the support since by the wonderful Trek community has been inspirational.
What do you most value in Star Trek?
I value its vision of hope for the future. Hope that one day everyone will be treated as equally as individuals, and valued for who they are rather than how society thinks of them. I believe if I’d been born into an era of Star Trek then it wouldn’t have taken me 48 years to feel that I might be accepted. Plus who doesn’t want to travel the stars on the Enterprise, Voyager, or Discovery.
Thanks, Connie!
Follow Connie on Twitter: @ConnieH_uk
Something else Lee has been up to.
Space OSHA violation for sure.
That’s a lot of love.
Until next time, LOVE long…and prosper.
Grok you later!