Being the 50th Anniversary of the Premier of STAR TREK...
Today is the 50th Anniversary of the premier of Star Trek on NBC-TV, the start of what will be an eventual planet-wide holiday, Thursday, September 8th, 1966.
On the 15th Anniversary, also a Thursday, I called Gene Roddenberry on the telephone to congratulate him. He said he was surprised that I cared enough to call him, as nobody else he had spoken with that day remembered what day it was except me. He was pleased that it meant so much to me, he said, and gratified at my call.
At the LASFS meeting that night, I mentioned it on the contents page of APA-L -- everyone I spoke with about it that night was surprised it had been that long, and glad that I had noted it.
I was very fannishly active, and it was important to me.
On the 35th Anniversary I found a handsome ST e-card with a good picture of Leonard Nimoy as Spock, and sent it too all my friends for whom I had e-mail addresses who I thought would care. Again, lots of grateful replies from friends that I had reminded them.
I've noted plenty of other anniversaries in other years, too, many of them here on LiveJournal.
So today is the 50th Anniversary, and I find I feel sad. I'm not going to any meetings or conventions, not fannishly involved beyond electronic correspondence because of family health issues, although I remain grateful to everyone ever involved with the shows because I met nilajean, my beloved wife, at a Star Trek club meeting in 1987 only a couple of months before the premier of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Regardless, this is a day to shine around the planet in marvel at how different our world is for the better because of the little television program that could, and did, wind up moving mountains.
Many of you here, and a whole bunch off of LiveJournal, I know because of Star Trek. My whole world would be much more lonely and directionless without it. I would never have known about most of the other sub-cultures which fascinate me so, were it not for Star Trek and the first steps it gave me into a larger world.
"A future of optimism, hope, excitement, and challenge. A future which proudly proclaims man's ability to survive in peace and reach for the stars as his reward." -- Steven E. Whitfield / Stephen Poe, at the end of his book, The Making of STAR TREK
Those worlds still stir me, still tingle my spine, still hold a promise for a future we all await with enthusiasm and joy.
On the 15th Anniversary, also a Thursday, I called Gene Roddenberry on the telephone to congratulate him. He said he was surprised that I cared enough to call him, as nobody else he had spoken with that day remembered what day it was except me. He was pleased that it meant so much to me, he said, and gratified at my call.
At the LASFS meeting that night, I mentioned it on the contents page of APA-L -- everyone I spoke with about it that night was surprised it had been that long, and glad that I had noted it.
I was very fannishly active, and it was important to me.
On the 35th Anniversary I found a handsome ST e-card with a good picture of Leonard Nimoy as Spock, and sent it too all my friends for whom I had e-mail addresses who I thought would care. Again, lots of grateful replies from friends that I had reminded them.
I've noted plenty of other anniversaries in other years, too, many of them here on LiveJournal.
So today is the 50th Anniversary, and I find I feel sad. I'm not going to any meetings or conventions, not fannishly involved beyond electronic correspondence because of family health issues, although I remain grateful to everyone ever involved with the shows because I met nilajean, my beloved wife, at a Star Trek club meeting in 1987 only a couple of months before the premier of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Regardless, this is a day to shine around the planet in marvel at how different our world is for the better because of the little television program that could, and did, wind up moving mountains.
Many of you here, and a whole bunch off of LiveJournal, I know because of Star Trek. My whole world would be much more lonely and directionless without it. I would never have known about most of the other sub-cultures which fascinate me so, were it not for Star Trek and the first steps it gave me into a larger world.
"A future of optimism, hope, excitement, and challenge. A future which proudly proclaims man's ability to survive in peace and reach for the stars as his reward." -- Steven E. Whitfield / Stephen Poe, at the end of his book, The Making of STAR TREK
Those worlds still stir me, still tingle my spine, still hold a promise for a future we all await with enthusiasm and joy.