“I was not old enough to catch Star Trek on its first run but I fell in love with it when it bumped The Wild Wild West on Syndication on the local Denver station around 1973ish when I was about 6. This was the same time that I fell in love with my beloved Denver Broncos, the only AFC team to defeat the Evil Empire that is the Cheating Pats 3 times in the playoffs and only franchise with a winning record against them, good does conquer evil but I digress.
I was a die hard TOS fan as a child, teen, and young adult, it took me a few years to fall in love with TNG but I am glad I did. I watched DS9, Voyager, and even the alternate universe of Enterprise during their 1st run but I never had the same love of the last 3 shows that I did for TOS or even TNG. Listening to these podcasts, especially the top 50 Episodes opened my eyes to the fact that there were a lot of other great episodes that I need to go back and rewatch.
I also loved the episode Have Phaser Will Travel, I knew as a kid the other shows Gene worked on prior to Trek like Combat and HGWT but I never really took a deep dive into them. I found HGWT on the cable channel H&I and look forward to watching them.
When I got married my free time was centered around my wife, my job, my Microsoft and Cisco IT certs, and then of course when we started our family the kids. For some 7-8 years I didn’t read a book that wasn’t some sort of computer cert study guide until Gene Kranz’s book “Failure Is Not an Option” came out which sparked my love for ST over and I got the blue rays to watch with my kids. After listening to these podcasts I realize that my kids need to see the value in TNG, DS9 and Voyager.
I love hearing the guests talk about their experiences on the shows and the episode where Daren read parts of The TMP book were magical, not in a Harry Potter way. I never got that craze but in a most human way as I imagine Spock would have pointed out.
Daren, Mark, Rob, and their many guests delve into the ST universe so well that it reminds me of the speech JFK gave at Rice U. Not just the part everyone remembers about choosing to do the other things not because they are easy but because they are hard and will serve to organize the best of our energies and skills, though it does encapsulate what they are doing in these series of podcasts. For me it is the beginning of JFKs speech that speaks the most of how I feel about their endeavor at least for me as a lay Trekkie. The speech begins by talking about setting sail on a new sea. A sea 250 years ago I would have loved to sail on the Surprise and ahead 250 years from today on the decks of the Enterprise.
Before I copy the start of the speech I would like to thank them for stoking a dwindling fire and I look forward to many more episodes! Live long and most importantly PROSPER as you guys should in a tough and cheap Hollywood system that does not reward commitment to excellence as it does the hot thing of the moment.
I leave you with the words spoken by JFK back in 1961: “We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people.”
Thank you all for allowing me to set sail with you on this vast sea of Star Trek and for the new knowledge I have and will gain.”
KranzDictum via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
02/01/19