An Ode to 'Star Trek'

​Written by John Edward Betancourt

Fifty years ago, anyone who happened to be watching CBS during prime time were treated a show named Star Trek where a man in a rubber suit sucked the life out of people as an intrepid Captain named Kirk did his best to save the day aboard a ship named Enterprise. That pilot episode, entitled 'The Man Trap' would not only be a ratings darling, but cap off fifty years of incredible adventures that quite frankly have changed the world.

This is a franchise that has inspired the imagination, bringing forth a technological revolution of products that mirror the 23rd Century. You want a communicator? Pick up that cell phone and dial. You want a personal digital assistant that can answer questions like the Enterprise computer? Just ask Siri, Cortana or Alexa. The iPad matches the PADD used in The Next Generation and the list of technological ideas that exist today that were inspired by this show simply go on and on.

But for me, Star Trek's legacy goes far beyond any technological advances that it has happened to help create, it's the hope that it provides and the lessons that it teaches that I find far more worthwhile. After all, this is a series that continues to look at our world in a hopeful light. That despite our differences and the fact that we harm one another or worry about agendas over the betterment of the species, there may actually come a day when we put aside those differences and make wonders happen. That alone makes watching a single episode or your favorite film from the franchise an uplifting experience on a bad day, but I did make mention of the fact that it teaches us lessons, and that really is my favorite part about the franchise as a whole.

Because this is a show that became a massive part of my childhood, and the lessons that it brought forth; tolerance, kindness, collaboration were wonderful reinforcements of the lessons my mother and father were already teaching me. But at times this is a series that went beyond pointing out that mom and dad were right all the time, once in a great while it would flat out teach you a life lesson that would come up years later and one such lesson that continues to stick with me after all these years comes from an episode of The Next Generation entitled 'Peak Performance' where Captain Picard says in prolific fashion; 'It is possible, to commit no mistakes, and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life.' Truly it is those kinds of moments that elevate Star Trek to a whole different level of storytelling because moments and words that can stay with you like that, and my thanks to Writer David Kemper for putting that in the episode, are only found in the finest of franchises.

In the end, the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek that we are celebrating today means more than just saying hey, I love a show about space travel, we are celebrating a storyline that has unified so many people. It helped bring forth the birth of conventions where we can geek out with fellow nerds and truly, it inspires us to be better people and one has to wonder...that by imagining a better world all those years ago that Gene Roddenberry perhaps laid down the foundation for that world to eventually come to fruition. For if a show like this can inspire technological marvels like the ones we enjoy today, than perhaps the ideals that the show represents as well are slowly being taught generation by generation to one fan after another until someday...someone decides that it is time for us to live in a world where we are all one. Happy Birthday Star Trek. Thank you for fifty amazing and inspiring years...here's to fifty more.  

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