Happy Anniversary to Star Trek: The Next Generation, which was first broadcast 20 years ago this week. This TV series was so successful that it ran for more than twice as long as the original Star Trek. It was followed by three additional Star Trek spinoffs of varying quality and by four movies, three of which were extremely lame.
When I think specifically of that world premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I think of K-Mart, Chicago, Sears, Colleen Hartman, and my puke-green Pontiac Grand LaMans. You see, I had recently graduated college and was living with my parents at their new home in Newburgh, Indiana. I was working part-time at K-Mart (in the Sporting Goods department - if you know me, you know how ironic that is), but took a few days off to drive to Chicago for a series of job interviews with Sears, when its headquarters was still located in the Sears Tower. On the way home, I stopped by my college friend Colleen Hartman's house near Champaign, Illinois, and it was there I watched that first two-hour episode, "Encounter at Farpoint", with Colleen and her family. I liked the ship and most of the characters, and loved the Dr. McCoy cameo appearance, as he has always been my favorite guy from the original series.
Well, Sears didn't hire me, but (after giving up the idea of going back to college to earn a second degree) I did end up in Champaign the following April to start my career as a healthcare systems computer programmer at Burnham Hospital. That's where I made friends with fellow Star Trek fan Cindy. Over the next few years, we attended many Star Trek conventions together and met the entire original cast... all except for DeForest Kelley, the man who played my favorite character, Dr. McCoy. He was older than the other actors and only made limited appearances at the time... though the entire original cast did regroup one last time for 1991's Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, perhaps the third best of all Star Trek movies.
Much more about Star Trek in future posts, I'm sure, but one last thing: I didn't watch the final series, Star Trek: Enterprise, very much when it originally ran from 2001 to 2005, but I watch it now on HDNet and quite enjoy it. Now, the premiere of that show reminds me of 9/11, California (a trip planned for that week which I had to cancel due to world events), and Toronto (my substitute vacation spot, where I watched that first Enterprise episode in my hotel). I fell out of watching Enterprise because I thought it would turn out lame like Deep Space Nine and Voyager (the two series that ran between Next Generation and Enterprise), and also because I *hated* the theme song (which is the love theme from Patch Adams... I kid you not!)(this was right before I had TiVo which would have allowed me to skip it). Anyway, now I can watch it anew every day of the week in glorious high def, and it's a lot of fun.
When I think specifically of that world premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation, I think of K-Mart, Chicago, Sears, Colleen Hartman, and my puke-green Pontiac Grand LaMans. You see, I had recently graduated college and was living with my parents at their new home in Newburgh, Indiana. I was working part-time at K-Mart (in the Sporting Goods department - if you know me, you know how ironic that is), but took a few days off to drive to Chicago for a series of job interviews with Sears, when its headquarters was still located in the Sears Tower. On the way home, I stopped by my college friend Colleen Hartman's house near Champaign, Illinois, and it was there I watched that first two-hour episode, "Encounter at Farpoint", with Colleen and her family. I liked the ship and most of the characters, and loved the Dr. McCoy cameo appearance, as he has always been my favorite guy from the original series.
Well, Sears didn't hire me, but (after giving up the idea of going back to college to earn a second degree) I did end up in Champaign the following April to start my career as a healthcare systems computer programmer at Burnham Hospital. That's where I made friends with fellow Star Trek fan Cindy. Over the next few years, we attended many Star Trek conventions together and met the entire original cast... all except for DeForest Kelley, the man who played my favorite character, Dr. McCoy. He was older than the other actors and only made limited appearances at the time... though the entire original cast did regroup one last time for 1991's Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, perhaps the third best of all Star Trek movies.
Much more about Star Trek in future posts, I'm sure, but one last thing: I didn't watch the final series, Star Trek: Enterprise, very much when it originally ran from 2001 to 2005, but I watch it now on HDNet and quite enjoy it. Now, the premiere of that show reminds me of 9/11, California (a trip planned for that week which I had to cancel due to world events), and Toronto (my substitute vacation spot, where I watched that first Enterprise episode in my hotel). I fell out of watching Enterprise because I thought it would turn out lame like Deep Space Nine and Voyager (the two series that ran between Next Generation and Enterprise), and also because I *hated* the theme song (which is the love theme from Patch Adams... I kid you not!)(this was right before I had TiVo which would have allowed me to skip it). Anyway, now I can watch it anew every day of the week in glorious high def, and it's a lot of fun.
Live Long and Prosper.
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