Any Star Trek

Star Wars is to Star Trek what milk is to coffee. We can surely do without the lactose-laden milk, but the coffee is too good to forego. We can watch both Stars as long as we realize that Star Wars is rooted in fantasy, and a rudimentary one at that (The Lord of the Rings is light years better), whereas Star Trek breathes scientific insight and discovery through space and time and also through our minds and hearts. I never cried in a Star Wars movie, but Star Trek gets me every time.

Just the mention of Mr. Spock is sufficient to assert that Star Trek is the best science fiction ever conceived for the screen, both homey and public showings. This is not coming from my muse as far as I know. Star Trek never dealt much if at all with the cold Moon. Blue Earth was always the ultimate wet dream, not some cockamamie supernatural force à la Star Bores, notwithstanding some lovable characters like Yoda, R2-D2, and several others (Spielberg’s ET was cuter than all of them combined).

The list of remarkable characters is long for Star Trek in all its magnificent manifestations. Jean-Luc Picard is only second to dear Mr. Spock. A Shakespearean actor doing Shakespeare in space. What a beautiful turn of events! All the scenes with Patrick Stewart spell Shakespeare. It is poetry among the stars. He even keeps Shakespeare’s plays in his quarters and ready-room. A woman intended for some ruler falls in love with Picard while reading Shakespeare. There is nothing Shakespearean in Star Wars. I sometimes wonder why did I waste my time watching all that Wars drivel. I guess that the special effects were already great in 1977 and people could not forget them.

Data is next. AI in all its glory. The AI we hope for, not the one portrayed by the media or in yours truly’s poems. Intelligent and compassionate AI. Data is the AI of Mr. Spock. At one point in my life, I even liked Data more than Mr. Spock, but later I realized that Mr. Spock was an anomaly even greater than Data. No one could hate Mr. Spock. Never! It would have gone against every human grain. Disliking Data was always inherent to his still flawed and learning character. But Data was very important, again only second to Mr. Spock. Leonard Nimoy was the Cohen of this fascinating character. Alleluia to both!

Kathryn Janeway was another revelation. Finally a woman who could outdo any man, no matter the quadrant. I loved her from the get-go until the last episode. If it was not for Picard, she would have been only second to Mr. Spock. Dear, Janeway! How do I count the ways in which I loved you? I loved you, Kate Mulgrew. You were the unassuming vixen of that faraway quadrant.

Many other great characters abound in Star Trek. Q! What a spellbinding invention was Q. He is actually in a class by itself, like Mr. Spock, like Picard, like Data, like beautiful Janeway. Q is the answer to every question. Q was a revelation even greater than the Borg. AI Supreme! Love between flesh and machine. Even my muse may see the love there. Love flowing from blood to steel or whatever metals composed their machine frames.

Here is to you, Gene Roddenberry, and all your Star Treks. Im would rather find myself in a Klingon town, drinking some Bloodwine than in any Star Wars stupid battle or so-called conversation. What a waste of film and time Star Wars was and always will be! Star Trek Discovery is carrying the torch splendidly, and Picard, the series, would steal any heart, even that of a Klingon.