Why Star Trek is So Meaningful to Me · 10:26pm Apr 13th, 2023
Hello, my lovely readers. This blog post concerns Phoenix only tangentially, but it does get discussed as part of the overall subject. This post also gets into a lot of personal emotions of mine, and discusses a bit of family history.
BE WARNED
Unmarked spoilers from Star Trek: Picard Season Three Episode 9 "Vox" follow the page break.
I don't usually discuss my age much, but as my page description reads, I'm in my thirties. Specifically, I was born in 1987, the same year that Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered. And while I do not personally recall the very first time I watched "Encounter at Farpoint" while sitting on my mom's lap, I know I did from what she told me.
I was raised on Star Trek, in many, many ways far more so than I was by my parents. They were neglectful, and often rude, rarely if ever listening to anything I ever had to say, and often making fun of me because I was easy to work up. So for me, Star Trek, especially TNG, was more like my family than my actual family ever was, and even is still to this day. Captain Picard was more of a father and had more positive influence on my personal growth, and so on.
I bring this up because it's crucial that you understand just how important that show, and especially the ship, was to me. The Enterprise-D has been and always will be my favorite starship from the franchise. I love a lot of other starships, don't get me wrong. I also enjoy other shows--I freely acknowledge that Deep Space Nine has by far the best writing out of any of them. But no matter what else, I always come back to TNG, and the Enterprise-D. She was my ship. Like a best friend, a closest sibling, a (platonic) lover, or whatever other label you want to put on it that makes it that important to me. Call it silly, goofy, or what have you, but it's the truth, and I own up to it.
I was seven years old in 1994 when Star Trek: Generations first premiered, and we saw the Enterprise-D be destroyed. At first I couldn't quite comprehend it. Why would they blow up my ship? It took a long time before I finally accepted it. That ship was a part of my family, and here they were, taking it away just so they could have a different one for three movies that were at best decent (First Contact) and at worst one of the worst of the entire movie franchise. (Nemesis.) Oh the Enterprise-E is a great ship, don't get me wrong, but... well... she was never my ship. She was just there.
So I accepted and moved on, like you would from any loss, even if it hurt. And every now and again I would rewatch Generations, or be reminded of it in some fashion, and the pain would briefly flare up all over again.
This is the principal out of universe reason for why Sunset saved the Enterprise-D saucer from crashing on Veridian III, so that it could become part of her own ship. Sunset Shimmer has, very occasionally, acted as a stand-in for my own emotions or thoughts while I write the story, and in that respect it meant I could give her a part of my ship to be, ultimately, her ship. It was a way of saving a part of my long-lost family, and though it felt nice, I knew it wasn't real, it was just fanfiction.
And then "Vox" happened.
Now, say what you will about other events of the episode, or this season. I strongly disliked Picard Season 1 and I outright hated Season 2 for how awful the writing was. Season 3, at first, felt like it was going down a similar path, with so much nostalgia packed in that it felt like it was trying to scream about how "it's really Star Trek this time y'all please believe us." Then it turned out Terry Matalas actually knows how to write characters, so it's become a far better season, if still with plenty of mixed feelings on my part. This is especially true of some of the reveals in "Vox."
But this isn't a review of the episode. No, we're focused on what happens near the very end. When those doors on Hanger 12 opened...
I broke down crying. I will make no bones about it: I was crying, going "oh my god," and even now as I write these words I'm trembling and feeling the tears coming to my eyes once again.
Because there she was.
My ship. My family.
Imagine if you had lost someone near and dear to you from an early age. Your mother or father, or a sibling, or your best friend. Someone who meant more to you than almost anyone else in the world.
And then suddenly, twenty-nine years later, they knock on your door and say, "Hello. It's me."
That's how I felt when I saw the Enterprise-D functional and intact.
I know that, like a lot of the other things that annoyed me early on, this is nostalgia bait, and arguably in some ways far more egregious nostalgia bait than any other, but I don't care. And yes I'm well aware that we "knew" this was going to happen well before Season 3 ever premiered, but I always assumed it would be in some holodeck form. I never once expected to see the actual ship fly out of the fleet museum, especially not after having visited it earlier in the season and seen them ooh and aah over the Defiant and Voyager (which admittedly I loved seeing because despite my mixed feelings on the writing of Voyager the ship is one of my favorite designs). Nowhere was there any indication the Enterprise-D was waiting just inside.
I have a strong feeling it'll get destroyed in the final episode, and even if that happens... I can accept that. This isn't like some cases where losing someone important all over again hurts even more. It would be more like returning to status quo.
So whether or not we're seeing her once more just to have to say goodbye to her again in the following episode... she came back. I got to see her again, for real, or as real as any fiction gets anyway. And I won't be ashamed of how I reacted, or how important it was to me that I saw her.
She's back.
And that matters.
for me i started watching star trek back in the 60es (yes i have a few years on you) and to this day i love all of trek.
but i am vary open to most any and all syfi.
as to your story awesome it is just awesome.
sadly i can not put words to paper or i would have a story my self based on the SGU stargate.
Certain shows just 'get us' in a way that is hard to explain. I think a lot of people here can relate in some way or another to this, I mean, given the place
so, as far as I am concerned you're in good company, and stories like this one just show us the power of the message within the things we love to watch, read and play can have on us.
I'm glad you got to see the Enterprise-D again and it moved you so much.
I didn't start watching Star Trek as early as most people did, but I have been watching it over the last few years and it has been fun. I actually finished watching Next Generation about a year ago and have plans to watch all of the other series' too, but I never really had a strong emotional attachment to Captain Picard or the Enterprise-D as you did. I will say that I am glad I watched it and the Original series though. Especially since Lower Decks makes a lot of references to them and the other series'.
I thought the first two seasons of Picard were "okay" as opposed to most other people that seem to have absolutely nothing nice to say about them at all, but I think this final season has been absolutely spectacular. Before the final episode ends, Picard and the rest of the old Next Generation crew need to sit down and have one more poker game with each other. Like they said, "Five-card stud, nothing wild… and the sky's the limit".
Not nearly as old, but I practically grew up with a liking for Trek early on. We had the six TOS movies, Generations and a handful of TOS episodes on VHS, and I suppose I showed a big enough interest for my parents to get me the friggin' Star Trek Encyclopedia at the tender age of three (I think). I all but fell in love with Enterprise the moment I saw her for the first time watching Star Trek: The Motion Picture as a young child. Star Trek's always been something of a home for me.
And I am so, so glad to see it finally getting back onto its feet these past few years. I'll freely admit to enjoying the first and third Kelvin Timeline movies, but I quickly ditched Discovery, and Picard and Lower Decks never really grabbed my interest. That said, I enjoyed Discovery S2's Captain Pike and its new modern-but-retro Enterprise design, and when they announced Strange New Worlds, with its return to episodic format and greater focus on adventures of the week and a starting pitch of "what if we just wrote Star Trek?", I held on to all the hope I could that it'd be the return to form I'd been hoping for.
And I got my wish. It's rare that I can say something in a work of fiction really moved me deeply, but good lord, even just Captain Pike's speech in the first episode...sitting here watching the world go mad in panic and fear and our worst aspects on increasingly worst display, wondering where I'm going to fit in and how I can stand up and fight for the better world I know we can attain, and then comes Christopher Pike, and he's not just talking to the aliens in the episode, he's talking to us...pure Star Trek ideal. I loved it. I think I needed to hear it. Every once in a while I'll replay it and I'll come away feeling better every time.
As a kid I was always more of a Kirk-era person. TNG grew on me as I got older and dug deeper into Trek. I haven't been following Picard too closely, but this past season has been perking up my ears more and more. And even if it's just icing on the cake in the grand scheme of things, when just now they revealed that they put her back together again...
...yeah, I felt that too.
I feel like I'm getting overly sappy now, but yeah. Star Trek is coming back into its own again, and you can teach new dogs good tricks. And I'm so very glad for it. If there's any time to show the world a future where we can put aside our worst and cultivate our best, and reach to the final frontier and beyond, it's right now.
Live Long and Prosper. 🖖
I'm a little older than you. My mom was a huge fan of The Original Series, and I was indoctrinated by TNG. I grew up watching Kirk's movies, then Picard's crew on the big screen. By the time the drive section of the Enterprise-D exploded and the saucer section hurtled toward its final resting place, I'd been numbed to the shock of losing a trusty vessel. I'd stared, slack-jawed, as Kirk sacrificed the original Big E to give her captain and crew a fighting chance to live.
I too grew up on TNG-era Trek, and in my heart of hearts, 1701-D has always been my favorite ship as well. It's kinda like Scotty said in the TNG episode Relics, when referring to the Constitution-class Enterprise in comparison to the many ships he had served on over his illustrious career:
"It's the only one I think of. The only one I miss...You don't ever love a woman quite like that again."
There's truth to that, and not just for starships, I think. We hold onto love like that for so many things. That first car; that one spot on the beach that gives the perfect sunset view that nothing else ever matched; a favorite jacket; a cartoon character that spoke to you like none other.
They're the only ones we think of. The only ones we truly never stop missing. And we never love something similar quite the same ever again.
Pretty much my sentiment. It's not wrong to occasionally do something that's this much of a payoff to the fans, as long as the rest of the show holds up. As much as S3's been a bit of an apology for S1/S2, this feels like a bit of an apology for the way the D was sent off in Generations...and that's not a bad thing.
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If it is indeed an apology, I like it a lot. And tbh, that will always bethe original sin of the Generations movie. If they HAD to write off the Ent-D, they should have had it truly go down fighting. Not hit with a giant nerf bat and one-shotted by a tin can Bird of Prey.
I feel similar
I grew up with star trek
watching it now in its degenerated state is so sad
like the last episode was fine i guess but only because in comparison all others from the new treks were so so terrible
and still the last one was so poortly written i have no words for it. seeing borg again made me smile tho so at least that
The most powerful stories can move us. The equivalent show for me is Pripara, the only piece of media to make me cry more than once.
You know, when I saw the D revealed in Vox the first thing I thought of was Phoenix. That's how much this story of yours is impacting me. Funny how things connect us sometimes
The funny bit was about how obviously, they can't used the Enterprise-E.....and then they all stare at Worf like the Living Construct is his fault or something.
While I’m not as huge into Trek as I am Star Wars, (even after Disney defiled it) my favorite era is by far TNG. Mostly because it feels like its own separate universe from TOS with how more advanced the effects, costumes and even the music is. Picard is a very flawed yet very human character that I can see a lot of myself in. And Data and Worf combined might as well be my emotional surrogates for this series because I sometimes can’t grasp social cues and have anger issues.
This season of Picard is a giant love letter to all fans of TNG series and if things are going the way I think they’re heading, we’re all going to cry ugly tears at the end of the last episode.
Being attached emotionally to a series like Star Wars or Star Trek is nothing to be ashamed about. Because that’s the kind of amazing fantasy and adventure that childhood for most people is built upon. Whether it’s taking us to strange new words or a galaxy far, far away, it’s all about unlocking our wonder and our imagination. Something we desperately need as a society.
Here’s to the final episode delivering big for you, my friend.
I've got a strong attachment to Star Trek, too, but for me it's sort of split between TNG and TOS, because TOS is what my Mom introduced me to when I was little, so I'll always be a bit partial to Kirk over Picard, and the Constitution class over the Galaxy. But even so, I really liked TNG, and it really made me mad when they destroyed the Enterprise D in Generations. It felt so empty, like they were just doing it so they could have a big special effects scene, and an excuse to bring out a new ship.
So I was really pleased that you had Sunset save the saucer section in the story and then reuse it for the Phoenix. That makes me very happy. The ships are characters in these shows just as much as any other, and I'm glad this one gets to live on in a way. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the story, especially now that they've finally reached Equestria.
It always struck me as funny that according to the lore, the Sovereign class was designed as a warship, while the Galaxy wasn't, and yet the Galaxy had a superior hull shape for combat. The giant saucer had better firing arcs for the phasers, and could be angled to protect the sensitive systems like the warp core and the nacelles. The Galaxy was also easier to field repair, which you'd think would be an essential quality in a battleship.
Having watched Star Trek from when it was on NBC (I have a few years on Harts Fire, and he knows it), I have to admit I have not seen much of the more recent series, as I am not much into streaming video. Does not mean I don't follow them, just read synopses.
About what you said in your blog, Dewdrops, I have only two words to say, and I will say them.
I grok.