The New Star Trek Trailer and Memories from Long Ago

I saw the trailer for the new Star Trek movie during the Browns pre-game show tonight. It looks good. It looks really good. Long time readers of the blog know I have sort of a thing for science fiction. What makes that interest relevant to a blog about the rust belt is how this area nurtured that interest in sci-fi.

There are probably more than a few folks my age who remember when channel 43, WUAB, out of Cleveland was considered an exotic luxury known only to those with cable TV or a rotor for their antenna. One of the things I loved about channel 43 was that they ran the original Star Trek every weekend, Saturday and Sunday, in the evening.

Those early episodes lacked the polish of today's computer generated effects but the writing was usually solid. James T Kirk and his crew explored stories in a sci-fi setting that caught my imagination and gave my mind a wider scope. Racism, morality and the cost and benefits of exploring new places were all themes that played out weekend evenings. After all, when you live in Northeast Ohio, you need something to do when the weather is tolerable for only short periods six months out of the year.

Sure, not every episode was City on the Edge of Forever but neither were they all Spock's Brain. Star Trek's legacy is science fiction that makes you think; like the film Children of Men or the 2004 TV series Battlestar Galactica. These are weighty projects that deal with the future of mankind, what it means to be human and what we are willing to sacrifice to ensure we have a future. So here's the trailer. I know I'm looking forward to May 2009.