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Writer's pictureJeh Bruce

To Boldly Go (I mean, what else could the title be?)

Updated: Sep 16, 2019



I couldn't let this anniversary go by without acknowledging the influence Star Trek has had on my life. I admit it: I'm a Trekker. No where near as much as I was when the original series was airing back in the mid-late 1960s but I still enjoy watching the original series, and I liked Enterprise and Voyager enough I will rewatch episodes, although I readily admit I find the habit of dressing women (Nine and T'Pol) in skintight clothing to be a wee bit tiresome. I never warmed to TNG and DS9 and am just now starting to find Discovery worth taking the time to watch. I felt TNG was often very badly written, the plots predictable and the acting, even from Patrick Stewart, could come across as wooden (the acting did improve over its run, the plots not so much). Of course one could say the same and more about the original series, but judged against what else was airing on TV at the time, TOS was a breath of fresh air (for the most part). DS9 always came across to me as being far too consciously "dark" and preachy. I did, however, love the Trouble with Tribbles cross over. It was clever, well-written and funny. Discovery, while better written and more complex than any of its predecessors, too often wanders off into the gory, which tends to come off as "filler" rather than a judiciously applied vehicle to move the plot forward. The actors all "emote" a perpetual, consciously pained expression upon which the camera lingers far to long, and the long stretches of Klingons speaking Klingonese is just plain tedious in the extreme. But I digress...


I attended a few cons, mostly mixed affairs (Star Trek, Doctor Who, Star Wars) in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and met DeForest Kelley--my favorite ST character was McCoy--at one and he was such a gentleman. I also had the amazing good fortune of witnessing parts of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (the only Star Trek film of any incarnation/reboot I enjoyed) being filmed at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and later, to be invited to a private viewing of the finished film at a local theater, a thank you from the movie's production crew to the staff of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.


It was at one con, back in the mid-80s, that I was introduced to fanzines, novels, novellas and short stories written and illustrated by fans. Some of the writing was good, some very good or at least uniquely creative, and sadly much was just plain terrible, but good or bad it was all well-intended and a tribute to how Star Trek had had such an impact on peoples lives. I was never a huge consumer of fanzines but their existence did pique my interest in trying my hand at writing and the fan-writing community, at least early on, seemed very welcoming---sort of a kiddie pool for the novice (unfortunately things changed in later years with a lot of nasty infighting, claims of plagiarism, the use of art and stories in other fanzines without permission of the author/artist who created it and such). I figured maybe I too could write. So I did. And yes, I admit it, I in fact penned several Star Trek fanzines that were very well received. No, I did not write them under my real name. And no, I'm not going to reveal the name I wrote under, nor the titles of the 'zines. That is a period of my life I left behind long ago.


I look upon Star Trek very differently now, seen through the lens of its many incarnations over the past fifty + years, in particular the image Star Trek and its fans have of it, specifically its oft-vaunted legacy of inclusivity. In truth that "inclusivity" only goes so far and when you get right down to it, even now Star Trek's concept of equality remains firmly grounded in a 1960s mentality. Yes women and people of color are in positions of power, but in the end, white men remain in charge and women are still wearing clothing that leaves nothing to the imagination and high heels. Worse, the aliens who inhabit the Star Trek universe still look remarkably and overwhelmingly Caucasian. It's high time for Star Trek to play catch up.


That said, I am indebted to Star Trek because it gave me the courage to try my hand at writing at a time I otherwise never would have considered attempting it (I have severe dyslexia and at the time I could not type, much less use a computer keyboard). It taught me world-building because the framework was already there upon which I could hang my plotlines. In a word, it was safe. And once secure in my own writing, my own abilities to create totally new worlds that had nothing to do with Star Trek, I did just that. Writing has provided me with countless hours of being with characters of my own creation, in worlds of my own creation; it's provided me a refuge when the rest of my life is crashing and burning around me. Like many others who were inspired to write because of Star Trek, I have taken that inspiration and gone boldly on my own adventure among the stars.

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