Space . . . the final frontier

I'm old enough to have seen the first Star Trek when it originally aired. As an avid science fiction fan to begin with, a TV show set in space was a small, mid-1960s miracle. Books were fine, but -- look at the cool phaser! -- Mr. Spock has pointy ears! And Scotty, Scotty, please transport me the hell off this planet.

A lot of the early episodes seem corny now, but there must have been something to these characters, because Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy - and the rest -- went on forever. We watched them--and the following five TV series, and the following ten movies-- forever. They became part of our lives. As I write this, there is another Star Trek movie in the works, due to come out in 2009.

Is it entertainment we're after? Let me suggest otherwise. I believe that the ground state of the Star Trek phenomenon, and the obsessive-fanboy phenomenon, and all the recent interest in high-profile, spectacular special effects, cartoon-based movies is this: we want it to be true.

The actors understand this. Years ago, Leonard Nimoy wrote a book titled I am not Spock and, although I never read it, his thesis seems clear enough. But we need him to be Spock, because we want Spock to exist.

We want it to be true. So special effects--so easy to dismiss--are important, not as eye candy, but because they add to real.

One of the most charming moments in the movie Galaxy Quest - which is a good natured send-up of Star Trek - is at the end, when the young fanboy Brandon discovers that the spaceship 'Protector' (i.e., the Enterprise) is real.

"I knew it!" he says.

So these are the lives of science fiction fans. We are waiting for our "I knew it!" moment. We are waiting for it all to be true.