From Mona’s desk:

Space, the final frontier

I’m trying to reconcile photos of 90-year-old William Shatner getting ready to go into space with the 30-something Captain Kirk I know so well from the original Star Trek television series of the 1960s. Shatner has had many roles over the year, yet none are an enduring as Captain James Tiberius Kirk of the starship Enterprise.

I caught Star Trek in syndication in the early 70s. I remember my older brothers watching t.v., laying on the living room floor. On the black and white screen there was a man running around, pursued by another man in a cumbersome lizard-like costume. And every time the show returned from commercial break, the man being chased would tell the viewers what was going on. I remember thinking something along the lines of “How stupid is that! Do they think we’re so stupid we don’t remember what happened only a minute ago?”

I don’t know when my first impression gave way to me being a fan but Star Trek captured my imagination and still has hold. Yes, I’m a faithful viewer of the original series. It amuses my husband when I can cite the dialogue before the characters on the screen say it. He also sometimes wonders why I watch episodes I’ve practically memorized. “It’s like visiting old friends,” I tell him.

That first episode I saw is named “The Arena” and it showcases a battle between Kirk and the Gorn. More importantly, though, after winning, Kirk displays to the Metrons (who set up the battle) the mercy and hope of the human race.

Way back, I’ve learned that the actors involved with the original television series viewed it, at least in the beginning, as “just a job.” It may have been fun and different but it wasn’t anything special. Now more than fifty years later, it’s more than special. It’s legacy continues - a legacy that includes hope, equality, exploration and more.

By the time you read this, Captain Kirk … er, Shatner… will hopefully have gone into space and returned safely. On Monday it was reported that his Oct. 12 trip was rescheduled to Oct. 13 due to high winds. The trip is said to be scheduled for 10 minutes and reach an altitude of 66 miles, with the passengers being weightless for about three minutes.

Would you go if offered the chance, for free? My answer is yes, in a Vulcan heartbeat. (According to memoray-beta.fandom.com, the average Vulcan heartbeat is 256 beats per minutes, slightly less that a quarter of a second!) Where do I sign up!

I can only imagine that it could be a lifechanging experience, to see the earth in its entirety, with no borders, realizing we all live on the same little vulnerable blue-green marble in space.

There are a lot of lessons, philosophies if you will, of Star Trek. Chief among them is the hope of the human race, the belief that we will continue far, far into the future and not destroy each other along the way. Nowhere in the history according to Star Trek, was there a pandemic in 2020, but rather humans survived World War III, eugenic wars and genocide. I think I prefer the pandemic.

There are no doubt a lot of jokes about Shatner going into space - from “Where no oldie has gone before” to “Just keep him there!” For me, though, I wish him well and am just a bit more than jealous. To mix space phrases, I see it as one more small step in man’s giant journey of exploring strange new worlds and hurling into an exciting future filled with hope.

Gosh, wouldn’t that be something to see!