Welcome to Star Trekking, my weekly attempt to share points of interest and random intersections in the final frontier.
The ongoing thesis of this newsletter is that, whether you’re actively looking for it or not, Star Trek is everywhere.
This week it happened in a sort of sidewise manner.
Reading through a thread of YouTube “Watch Often” Videos, filled with music videos and wood carving and How to Ruin Breakfast, I came across this well-loved gem. I know we’ve all seen it before, but come on.
Jonathan Frakes Asks You Things is a classic.
Earlier in the week I was reminded again about this old Shatner video, a commercial he did for a Canadian grocer. It features excellent mid-seventies “hair” on Shatner, an A+ sport coat and a handsy (flippersy?) penguin.
Shatner also promoted the science of margarine in the seventies.
I also came across a lost episode.
And all this made me remember this absolute classic, which I think we can all agree is a better crossover than Generations.
After all that, I naturally fell into a rabbit hole. So here is some raw footage of Shatner filming a promotional campaign kickoff.
A promo for Canada’s Space Channel.
And here are some longer videos, from 1995, of the TNG cast at Royal Albert Hall.
Jonathan Frakes.
Marina Sirtis.
Levar Burton.
Patrick Stewart.
Brent Spiner.
And finally, a trip back through time for me. In the seventies, Saturday afternoons meant In Search Of and I was always 100% there for it.
Follow up from last week’s issue.
Inexplicably, I have a craving for an apple.
Too real.
I’m not the only one who loved playing with this new tri-D chess set.
How I celebrated World Book Day.
A+++
I hate to say I like her better when she smiles, but…
…more and more I am realizing that in my heart, I am a laughing Vulcan. That is my secret pain.
So I may as well embrace Sybok art.
Finally, here’s some cuteness to close this issue.
DIRECTIVES
The story of The Moon’s A Window to Heaven.
On Alexander Rozhenko and the Transformative Power of Fantasy Diaspora Stories.
James Doohan played more Star Trek characters than you probably remember.
Here’s a movie for you to watch - Woman In Motion: Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek and the Remaking of NASA.
That’s all for this week. Thank you for reading.
Have you come across some random Trek this week? Let me know!
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Grok you later.
LLAP,