Beaming From Ear To Ear

In August 2008, Claire and I travelled the West Coast of the US on what we called The Epic Holiday. Along the way we stopped into a small desert town called Las Vegas in Nevada. Mostly this was to get married, but we also bookedd our stay at the Las Vegas Hilton which, at the time, was host to the long running Star Trek Experience.

We were lucky enough to have our holiday when we did too. In September of 2008, one short month after our visit, the Star Trek Experience shut down for good. Remember, this was before the JJ Abrahms 2009 reboot. There was no new series on TV and the last attempt at something was the generally disliked Enterprise. The whole exhibit was torn down and because it had been built in partnership with the Hilton and Paramount, neither could come to an agreement on how the sets would be handled, as they had both paid for the contruction costs. In the end, as far as I'm aware, everything was destroyed, a fact that breaks my heart every time I remember it.

The Experience had a bar modeled after Quark's Bar on board Deep Space 9[1], a gift shop filled with merchandise and memorabilia, a museum packed with screen used props and costumes and, the highlight, two rides to enjoy. The newer of the two was based on Voyager and involved the Borg and some 4D stuff, but the one that had been there since the start was based on The Next Generation, and involved the Klingons. It was much older and didn't have the 4D technology, so of course it would be the lesser of the two.

Nope.

Nope, nope, nope, nope!!

The Borg attack was a fun ride, and the first time Claire and I experienced "4D", much to both of our terror. It was cool, and hopefully I'll get to describe it some day, but the undeniable magic, the one that took both our breaths away was, without question, the Klingon attack.

I'm going to break what I have to say about the Klingon attack into seperate posts for clarity. One will be a straight description of the ride, which I can still vividly recall nine years later, and linked to that will be posts describing how each amazing element was done, which we learned thanks to going on the behind-the-scenes tour after. If I was posting this back in 2008, or even 2009 I might consider not revealing the magic, but it's been nine years, and how they achieved what they achieved should be documented and applauded.

I experienced something I never dreamed would be possible in my life up to that point, and have never experienced again in almost a decade since.

I'll finish this by saying that The Next Generation is the era Claire and I both loved and grew up with. It heavily influenced the person I am today, and the experience in the posts that follow will be treasured memories for as long as I live and prosper.

[1] Claire and I got married in Vegas, and wihle we didn't get married on the bridge of the Enterprise, we did have our wedding day meal in Quark's Bar. It was delicious.

Related Posts:
Welcome Aboard
Two To Beam Up
Bridge To Shuttle Bay One

The Best Of Both Worlds

I recently restarted my Netflix subscription, giving me access to a huge library of content on my Xbox 360, and now, also, my iPad. The last time I had access to the instant streaming service, I watched the entire six seasons of News Radio within three weeks. Admittedly, I was off work at the time and had little else to do. It would appear that, since then, Netflix has become a treasure trove of my childhood, playing host to classics such as Knight Rider, Sliders, The A-Team, and Quantum Leap. I immediately ran into the same problem that so many others have had on starting a Netflix subscription. With so much to watch, where should one begin?

After some consideration, I decided to begin at the start.

Star Trek was my first experience with science-fiction. I watched the movies with my dad, over and over as they were aired on terrestrial television. I soaked them in, losing myself on board the Enterprise. So when Star Trek: The Next Generation began, I relished it. I watched every episode, made easier as they were aired in a prime time slot on the Irish station. I have many happy memories, and one particularly vivid nightmarish one.

So when I started watching TNG on Netflix on Saturday, I feared that my happy nostalgia would be ruined by the cold reality of film.

But it wasn't. I was back on the bridge of the USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Picard and his excellant crew. The effects were low-tech by todays standards, but just as I remembered them, and the ship was fibreglass and fibre optics, a physical prop rich in detail and design. Tasha Yar was still alive, and all was right with the world.

Almost.

Star Trek, like any series, was not without it's dud episodes, and with seven seasons containing 178 episodes, there were quiet a few duds in The Next Generations catalogue, epecially in the first two seasons, while it was still trying to find it's feet. So how do you keep the wonder of childhood alive in the face of 25 years of life?

Thankfully, this isn't the primitive 20th Century any more! We are of the Internet age!

I turned to TV.com. Thanks to its ratings system, I could pick and choose the episodes I wanted to see. For the ones that fell below my assigned cut-off point, I could read the plot synopsis and decide if I remembered it, or felt like it deserved a chance. In this way, I watched Season 1 as I remembered, if not entirely as it was. It was dramatic and exciting, funny and action packed, and entirely entertaining. Every episode was fantastic, and, exactly as my memory assured me, there were no let-downs. Once more, I saw Tasha die, and got to watch in amazement as the brain-worm-host-queen-thing gets phasered by Picard and Riker until his head explodes and his body is set alight. It was exactly how I remember the scene from the first time I saw it, one of the lasting images I always retained of The Next Generation.

We're in to Season 2 now. Riker has his beard, Wesley is at the helm, Geordie is in Engineering, an Irishman is at the transporter console, and according to TV.com, there's a lot more to skip this season. Thankfully, I still have a lot to look forward to, as the ones that hold up get higher average scores than Season 1's best. At least we get to Season 3 faster, when the show really hit it's stride.

So I only rewatch the best. Many episodes are those that, as I watch them now, I realize I still remember the plots to, the ones that stayed with me, and possibly influenced me in becoming the man I am today. Star Trek: The Next Generation showed me a future where anything was possible, and "no being is so important that he can usurp the rights of another" [Captain Picard, S02E06].

It may be a cheat, but it's the best kind of cheat.