Things I've Learned from 'Star Trek'

Written by Shae Rufe

​In the world of Shae, there have been many things I've watched, loved, and disliked. But never has there been any other franchise quite like that of Star Trek. This series has taught me a great many thing, and today, I'm going to share with you some of the things I've learned ranging from The Original Series and the classic movies, to the latest movies. Let's begin, shall we?

I feel like I should give a bit of a disclaimer in here; I didn't grow up on Star Trek or Star Trek: The Next Generation. I knew of them. My dad and I did watch a bit of TNG, and we later all watched half of Enterprise. But, I didn't really get into this series until later. Yes, before the new movies came out. I did see a few of the old Star Trek movies when I was a kid though. I had a few friends who had Trekkies as parents, so I got to watch Wrath of Khan when it was on TV or on VHS at their houses. I liked them, I just didn't appreciate them until I was older. 

The first thing I learned is that if you are an important woman, princess, alien/human, and or mildly attractive, Captain James T. Kirk will sleep with you. Flat out, end of story on that one. Like, seriously, is there anyone in the series he did not bang? He had more flings than Captain Jack Harkness, and that's saying something. Despite the Captain's obvious flirtations, I also learned that he was a pretty good fighter. Okay, maybe the Double Fist Punch doesn't really work that great in real life, but it was pretty decent for the show. That and Kirk somehow served with everyone’s father. Which was really confusing given his age wasn't terribly old. They were seemingly older characters by today's standards. That being said, everything worked out pretty well for him, and Kirk was a decent Captain. So much so, that his crew utterly loved and adored him. Enough for security officers to keep going out on away missions.

Speaking of which, this is a pretty well-known thing that gets made fun of all the time, but if you were a security officer, or had a Red Shirt, and you went on an away mission, down to a new planet, or moon, or anything like that, you were going to die. That's just Star Trek 101 right there. There's no surviving unless you're Scotty. For some reason, he's the only Red Shirt to survive any away mission. Well, being a main character does seem to help that out. Star Trek also taught me that the Scottish engineer could fix any mechanical problem with the ship. Literally, any problem. And the time limits were sometimes questionable. I don't know about you guys, but I can't even fix my computer when it breaks in less than an hour. Scotty could get an entire spaceship in working order in less than three minutes sometimes. How? Probably the wonders of 'TV magic'. Still, that was pretty amazing. 

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​Speaking of amazing, Star Trek broke a lot of social barriers and stereotypes during its day. It's hard to sit there and watch it now, thinking that there were still fresh issues like segregation, but Star Trek was the first series to help rip some of those barriers apart. In fact, Kirk and Uhura shared the first interracial kiss on television. I can say that honestly gives me chills to know that. Speaking of breaking stereotypes while we're at it, Mr. Sulu, while Asian, was not a martial artist, but a great fencer. As far as talents go, that's pretty spectacular and also broke that stereotype that all Asians knew how to fist fight. 
 
While breaking rules, and leaving no apologies, Star Trek was also famous for several of the modern references we have all grow to know and love. Like, my personal favorite ‘Damnit man, I'm a Doctor, not a __________’. Anyone who knows me knows that I love Bones. First and foremost, I do utterly love Karl Urban as Doctor Leonard McCoy. But he was not the reason I fell in love with the surly doctor. That would be DeForest Kelley. The man was an amazing actor, but he was a fantastic Bones. Urban does the best job portraying the character Kelley brought to life. Star Trek taught me that you didn't have to have a good bedside manner to be a good doctor. That and not to make the doctor angry. Seriously, Bones was always mad about something. To be fair it was almost always (always) Kirk related, so I can't blame the poor guy. Watching he and Spock fight was one of the most entertaining things in the history of ever. Also, logical people are frustrating. Well, Vulcans are anyway. Spock was always there to give facts and reasons why Kirk should or shouldn't do something, and Bones was always the moral standing and the emotional side. I guess that makes Kirk the balance between the two. 

Star Trek also taught me that if you take some string, and some fabric, and dress a dog up, you have an alien. Now, I'm pretty tempted to put costumes on the cats and claim they're from another planet, but I'm sure that's weird and nobody would believe me. It could be fun though, at least. Also, if you were a part of the main bridge crew, you were always sent down to the newest planet. Now, can someone explain to me why the ship’s head doctor, pilot, navigator, and first officer need to go down with the captain and a few security members? I'm pretty sure they don't in real life. And most of the time, the encounters ended badly. Especially once we discovered Khan. That's another thing, if you find someone who is cryogenically frozen, you should just leave them be. Because they could kill you. Why would you wake that person up? You don't know if they're a mass murderer. They probably are! This show also gave me an unhealthy trust of Klingons. It also inspired a generation of us nerds to learn to speak Klingon. For the record, I do not. 

Lastly. This show taught me that it's okay to cry when something bad happens. And something bad always happens. With how hokey The Original Series was, it truly touched my heart in so many different ways. The new movies did a great justice in retelling the old series and bringing it into a new light. Granted, I know many who don't like the new films. That being said, I loved them. We all have our own tastes and everything. The fact that Spock was more in touch with his human side was nice. We got to see Kirk go from a reckless kid to a reckless adult. Bones was still crabby, cranky, and shabby, but he was still the voice of reason. Uhura got to have her interracial/species relationship she'd been denied in the original series. We got to see Sulu and Chekov come into their own. And of course, Scotty was recognized for his brilliance on a whole new level. Plus, he's now played by Simon Pegg and that's just awesome. Whether you're new to the franchise, or old, there's something for everyone to love here. 

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