2013. When I was a teenager this looked like a magic number. It was the eighties and a golden age for science fiction. We were born at the exact right time. The 21st century was just around the corner and we would get a glimpse of all the marvel that was going to unfold in front of us. I remember my brother and I making some sandwiches just before six o’clock so we wouldn’t miss a thing of our favorite show: Star Trek! When the opening sequence came on, we left planet Earth for 45 exciting minutes. Our heroes were solving an interstellar mystery every week: a PADD in one hand, a Tricorder in the other. Violence was wrong and only used as a last resort. Phasers to stun! We loved the stories and fantasied about the new technology exposed to us. And when dad gave us our first x86, the world was at our fingertips…
And it looked very promising all through the nineties. HAL spoke to us (with a much friendlier voice) and the internet became our realm. Every geek in the technology business had some sort of Star Trek memorabilia in their office. The stories of the writers/visionaries were coming alive! Part of our gadgets today came from the imagination of someone holding a pen in their hand. The PADDs became iPads and our smartphones became the new Tricorders. After TNG we continued our journey with DS9, Voyager and Enterprise. (If you come across the DVD boxes of any of those series, don’t hesitate. Buy them and you’re in for a real treat!)
And then it stopped… almost at the same time the final episodes of this great show rolled out on our TVs…
The first decade of the 21st century was nothing like what we were dreaming of. Yes, we got some of the gadgets our heroes used to save the galaxy, but at a price. Literally. How did the Ferengi ever come up with the Rules of Acquisition? I think they found the book on earth. Every ‘new’ thing is just like the old one. I don’t care for thinner or more lightweight. (I know your wet dream is to let us buy just air someday!)
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not a synic. I just do miss my shows. I do not need another ultra-violent, incomprehensible and randomly twisted serie that is cancelled way too early. I want a good story with a wealth of imagination that makes me wonder when I’m lying in bed. Images that let me play around with new ideas and make me want to ponder on great inventions. Reaching for the stars at warp 9.7!
So this is a cry out to all science fiction writers. Please, please let us dream again. Humanity needs a new Star Trek. Desperately…
Alwaysbusy
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