Last night, I decided to finally watch the stuff that I taped during the week (Gilmore Girls, Law & Order: CI and Star Trek: Enterprise), mainly because the new GG and LO:CI will be on tomorrow and I want to have seen the previous eps before that.
So, around midnight when Dad had gone to bed and stopped hogging the tv, I installed myself on the couch, rewound the tape and enjoyed myself.
When I got to the Enterprise ep (4.20 “Terra Prime”) I cursed myself for missing last weeks episode as it’s a twoparter. Shortly after it began, the dog started whining and felt an urgent need to go outside. So, I let her out (after which she ran around the yard barking at various fences and plants) and stepped outside as well. It was a beautiful night with a nearly full moon and clear skies. I positioned myself in such a way that the moon was hidden behind the house so I could gaze at the stars a bit. I saw Mars, Orion, the Pleiades and Cassiopeia.
Seeing Mars out there like that, as a bright, shining yellow dot made me feel funny as at the same time, the Enterprise episode was partially set on Mars. As I watched that dot glister in the sky, I realised again why I am the Trekkie that I am. Not because of the series and movies being so good (which they are, even ST:5 :D) or because of the prettiness of the actors/actresses (and there are quite a few goodlooking ones) but because of Hope and Faith.
Hope for humanity that one day we will succeed in putting our differences behind us and start living together instead of next to each other, in infinite diversity in infinite combinations. Faith that one day we will reach the stars. We might not find a universe out there like the Star Trek one, but we will find it, no matter what.
I’d like to end this by briefly paying tribute to Michael Piller who died November 1st. I just found out about this yesterday and it really made me sad and probably caused my philosophical mood while watching Trek. Michael Piller was a producer/creator and writer for Star Trek in a lot of its incarnations. He (co-)produced TNG, DS9 and VGR, he wrote the movie Insurrection and in general was an enormous asset to Star Trek. He will be sorely missed and I hope he’s out there, having fun with Gene and Jimmy and DeForest and all other Star Trek people that have gone.