A Star Trekkyeyed teen indulges her passion
As those who know me know, my love for “Star Trek” knows no bounds.
My dedication has been long and prosperous. Not so much prosperous in the sense of garnering actual or any wealth, but rich with experiences and ephemera. I have a robust “Star Trek” (original series) PEZ collection; I’ve been a Tribble for a sci-fi Halloween party (though many thought I was a space chicken); I’ve covered a traveling Trek art show; attended the Trek Fest in Riverside, Iowa, (the future birthplace of James T. Kirk); and swooned at the chance to interview William Shatner when he was in the Bay Area for his one-man show.
Not only that, but I’ve seen every episode of every Trek iteration known to humankind except for the last couple of seasons of “Deep Space 9” and, well, the bulk of “Enterprise,” but that’s understandable. And as we speak, I’m watching a Season 3 episode of “Voyager,” in which the holographic Doctor creates a holographic family. It’s holo-riffic.
But now, I’ve just received the most amazing Trek news of all time from Angeline Chen of Los Altos, who recently started a Star Trek Club.
No, that was not the amazing news. The truly out-of-thisworld aspect is: Angeline is a teenager. A teenager who loves “Star Trek.” A teenager of otherwise normal human origins who — now a junior at Palo Alto High School — has been loving the show since birth. Almost. Her parents started her on “Voyager” at a tender 10 months.
And really — unless she’s actually a kid from the mid1960s who jerryrigged a transporter with time-travel capabilities or stole a shuttle craft and pulled a time-warping slingshot around the sun — how many 21st-century teens do you know who are enthralled with 50 years’ worth of Trek? Way to boldly go, Angeline! “When I talked to my classmates about “Star Trek,” none of them had ever watched (the show), so they did not understand my conversations,” she told me in our recent email conversation, which I totally understood. “As a result, I decided to form the Star Trek Club in the local community in
order to find people who shared my interest.”
And so far, all of those people are decidedly not teenagers. The club, which she started last November, has 10 members: Angeline plus nine adults (including a Palo Alto High computerscience teacher). Think of it like the Enterprise D’s bridge crew with Wesley Crusher at the helm.
They meet on occasion at the Los Altos Library — hoping to branch out to other parts of the Bay Area — and they also communicate online. Not just to compare tricorders or go over schematics for a realistic Gorn costume. Sure, there’s probably some of that. They’re not totally nuts.
But their discussions are more cerebral, more like something those beings from Talos IV with their highbrow brains and pulsating frontal lobes would chat about over an illusion of coffee. Things like Trek’s themes of social justice and optimism for the future.
Indeed, Angeline says she’s learned many life lessons from Trek. The show “taught me to break up larger problems in smaller steps and analyze issues from different viewpoints,” she says. “James T. Kirk taught me to become unafraid of the unknown, Spock taught me to use my calmness and my logic to overcome my problems, Jean-Luc Picard taught me to appreciate past memories, and Data taught me to use my personality and my emotions to make myself better.
“‘Star Trek’ is both entertainment and inspiration that encourage people to accept others’ differences and to believe in a better future.”
Wow. That’s deep. And all I learned was to keep quadrotriticale away from ravenous Tribbles.
Still, Angeline is so right about the concepts of hope for a better future and appreciating our differences, a theme certainly apropos of modern times. Too bad we’re in the future and we haven’t mastered that concept yet.
The Star Trek Club is free to join and, in keeping with the principles of “Star Trek,” open to everyone. They welcome more members, so beam up the website and register at www.startrekclubbayarea.weebly.com.
“‘Star Trek’ is both entertainment and inspiration that encourage people to accept others’ differences and to believe in a better future.” — Angeline Chen