I've just been reading about a great British comedy actor called Simon Pegg. I've been a fan of his stuff since I was introduced to Spaced by my friend Matt. Simon Pegg plays Chief Engineer Scotty in a new Star Trek movie that comes out today. I can't wait to see it. As well as a Simon Pegg fan, I'm a fan of the early Star Trek series too. Reading about Star Trek reminded me of a cruel tale told to me by my Dad and and an episode in my life for which I can never forgive him.
Star Trek had a relatively short life as a TV series. It only ran for a couple of seasons but I was mad on it. It was a low budget sci-fi story about the crew of a USS starship and its ten year mission to seek out new life and new civilisations and to boldly go (probably the most famous dangling modifier used in a TV strapline), where no man has gone before.
The starship's crew was made up of a mixed race and mixed species group of specimens from planet Earth. However, it was Captain James Tiberius Kirk that I liked the most. He was charismatic and good looking (helped along by lots of soft focus, especially in some of the romantic episodes) and very hammy. He was brave and daring and got lots of respect from the other crew and attention from the females. I wanted to be Captain James T Kirk.
I watched the show whenever I could. It was fantastic escapism for a young lad.
Then along came a bombshell delivered in typical insensitive style by my Dad; Captain James T Kirk, an American Spaceman, the winner of many a Klingon battle, my hero, was actually an Alien. No! How could it be so? He had an American accent, he looked like us, he behaved like us (well in my dreams).
When my sobs had subsided, my Dad went on to tell me that after a certain amount of time in Outer Space (and Captain Kirk was going to be away on business for quite a long time), a human being ceased to be classed as such and was regarded an Alien. Hence, there was no coming back for Captain James T Kirk. He would never be one of us again, he would be different from now on and I would never meet him.
It was such a disappointment to my young mind that I've never forgotten it and never forgiven my evil Dad.
As for William Shatner who played Captain James T Kirk, he went on to play the role in several feature length versions of Star Trek and eventually turned into a bit of a weird looking, bloated fellow with facelifts and injections, not too dissimilar to the Blob. Hmmm, maybe my Dad had a point.
1 comment:
Thats a great tale.
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