nightengalesknd

Star Trek is ending.

Some might say it ended a while ago. I might not argue. Of course, I'm the girl who traces the fall of the Roman Empire back to that day Caesar crossed the Rubicon.

I admit I've been a lackluster Trekie of late. I've been watching Enterprise, when it's on, more or less. I can't be home and have Star Trek available and not watch. “Watch” in this case as defined by being in the same room as an “On” television set. I can name the main characters. I couldn't pick most of them out of a line-up. I know the seemingly ever-cheerful doctor-du-series is Denobulin, but I couldn't tell you a single thing about his culture of origin, or even how to spell it. There's a Vulcan. She’s female. She’s logical, mostly. I haven't put the time in to follow the show more closely. I've been busy. That's no excuse. The show no longer draws me in to follow closely, to watch and rewatch each episode, to recite arcane facts about the characters, the cultures, the episodes. Maybe it has drawn in others? But I surely won't be missing Enterprise, in and of itself, when it airs its last episode over the next few weeks.

I'll be missing Star Trek, the phenomenon. Because while it's been dying for awhile, the loss of Enterprise will likely drive nails into the coffin. So long as it was on, I could stretch out the delusion that I still had something. And until rather recently, I did have Voyager and DS9 episodes on late-night rerun.

( Star Trek wasn't supposed to happen to me. )

But I have loved Star Trek. It has been such an integral, if often background, part of the last eleven years of my life. Without it, would I have ever found a home in the the_backsmoker? Without the backsmoker, would I ever have known ericaceous or plasticsturgeon and deino? Without Doublestar, would I ever have had a sustained conversation shrewreader or jedibl? The social ripples may be so profound as to be unfathomable – I may never have found gallian or, later, eredien, fiddledragon batshua and taneliashke and lywen. What of gaudior and rushthatspeaks? syonakeleste? weirdquark? rabidfangurl? What of swil? Of meanfreepath and crystalpyramid and wayman and eclectic_boy? Would I have a friend’s list? Would I have an LJ? Would I have ever gotten onto IM? Would I have ever gotten and held down a teaching job and be planning a career in medicine? Who and where would I be?

A butterfly flaps its wings, and a warp hole opens. Star Trek isn’t what it used to be, but it has meant so much to me. Star Trek, you shall be missed.