Star Trek Redux

Hubby and I went to see Star Trek before taking his mom out for Mother’s Day dinner.

I am not the Trek fan Hubby is. I enjoy some things Trek, but find most of it a bit on the ridiculous side. Although this is heresy to some, I could never get into Shatner’s Kirk. He just seemed a bit lacking intellectually and too disco and chains for a serious studly man. Hubby, on the other hand, has watched all the series, good, bad and awful. He has been known to complain about how he didn’t like a particular series while watching the reruns for the umpteenth time, taking away valuable Law and Order: Criminal Intent watching time.

So, as we settled in our seats in front of the giant IMAX screen, I was ready for a 2 hour overdose of nerdy sci-fi. Since the Sci-Fi channel’s offerings for the day was the Children of the Corn saga, which even I, lover of B-movies that I am, could not knit to, I was glad for the opportunity to see some righteous sci-fi.

I expected several things from the film. I expected the theatre to be filled with people who spend more time in their parents’ basement in front of their computer screen than with other humans – check. I expected to see a lot of people that looked like the comic book guy on the Simpsons – check. I expected to see a lot of fan t-shirts – check. I expected decent effects, not the little model on fishing line, -- check.

What I did not expect was a movie of such awesome sci-finess that I delighted in its awsomeness, and it was awesome (Watch Kung-Fu Panda and it will make sense.) What I did not expect was that I would cry in the opening sequence of the movie. What I did not expect was to see some knitted garments that made me want to ask the projector operator to still frame the movie so I could get a good look and perhaps copy the look on my own.

Perhaps most surprising was the fact that after seeing the movie, I have been thinking a great deal on myth.

Myths are more than stories, they are a way of transmitting values, goals, and ideals. Stories that embrace myth endure. Like Star Trek, people were truly surprised that J K Rowling’s Harry Potter saga gripped the imaginations of so many children. The reason: both have embraced myth and touched something primal.

In Star Trek it is the belief, hope, dream that all sentient beings can live together in peace, that science and knowledge defeat fear, and that our humanness – in all its illogical messiness - is our greatest strength.

In times such as these, we need our best myths. Why? Because in a time when the pundits in their divorced from reality habitat tell us that the economy is improving and our experience is that the neighbors on either side of us have been laid off, myths keep us from despair. Because in a time when we as a nation are divided about things such as the legality of torture, same sex marriage, and how to keep ourselves safe, myths give us common ground to walk on together. Perhaps, most importantly, myths remind us of what is important about who we are as a people.