star

www.thebiblog.net, star, may 20, 2011

“bridge of the starship enterprise”, star trek, 1966-69

i was raised on star trek. spending every summer isolated deep in the canadian countryside, it was often the only show available on our rabbit ears. as a grouchy ten year old i generally resented the formulaic plots. captain kirk lands on seemingly abandoned planet. captain kirk angers natives. captain kirk escapes to the starship enterprise. even more disappointing than the stale plot, however, was the terrible aesthetics. while future earth certainly spared no money on the mechanics of the uss enterprise, they definitely tightened the purse strings when it came to hiring the designers. with awkward proportions, cramped quarters, dismal lighting, cheap materials and ugly furniture, the enterprise looked more like a labyrinthine suburban rec room than a sophisticated trans-galactic spaceship. the mundane interior might have been redeemed by the most intriguing aspect of space travel, zero gravity, except that artificial gravity had already been mastered in star trek's future timeline. star trek's banal future visions would haunt me for the next twenty years of my life, the series constantly refreshing casts and space ships, but maintaining its living room feel.

while i ultimately abhorred star trek as entertainment for not straying far enough away from what i already knew, if i were ever to actually be jettisoned into space, i can think of no better model living space than the home that i currently reside in here on earth. a plush couch along one wall of my space pod, an antique television in the corner playing reruns of golden girls, a uniform of sweatpants and a t-shirt, a bowl full of kraft dinner, and instead of the sun out my window, a vortex of speeding stars.