spaces of memory

My Facebook feed is full of cute memes and profile photo filters celebrating 50 years of Star Trek. I have very happy associations with the show as it reminds me of my cult-nerdy first couple of years of college. The show was already nearly 20 years old when I was in college. I was always attracted to the show in high school, but I hadn't watched it all that religiously before college. I fell in love with the show my freshman year, and when I think back to those times, I conjure up the feeling of lightness and fun and community that Star Trek thoughts have come to mean for me.

In my dorm, it was a rare student who had a television in their dorm room. (Heck, very few of us even paid to have a phone in our room for the year... there was one pay phone in the lobby we took turns using to call home once a week.) Watching television was not a big thing except for late night when a small subset of dorm residents. We were maybe 20-30 people out of 200. I'd like to think now that we were the equivalent of what "hipster" is now. Monday through Thursday evenings, in the dorm lounge, in slippers and sweats, toting blankets and pillows (or in my case, wearing my famous green plaid wool blanket poncho with the diagonal zipper at the center) and we would watch Star Trek followed by The Twilight Zone before programming went off for the night. (Cue the multicolored bar graph icon followed by black and white t.v. snow on the screen.) I can't even remember if this was 11:30 p.m. to 1 a.m.? I think it was.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun enjoying and poking fun at the show at the same time. My friend Susan and I were more "ironic trekkies" than some of the assembled. We saw the sexism in the show and just laughed. I loved Kirk's bad acting. I loved Mr. Spock, my favorite character. I loved the drama and the ethical and moral dilemmas.

These days it is hard to imagine that college students could have this kind of experience. Cell phones are ubiquitous. People can watch Netflix on their phones or laptops. There isn't the kind of community gathering we had, even though there are still dorm lounge events. Our dorm lounge was our living room except on weekends when it became the party place. I would like to think today's college students have something equivalent. For their sake, I truly hope they do!

Anyone who remembers Star Trek really, REALLY, needs to watch Other Space on Yahoo streaming. I have watched the series 2x now (there are only eight episodes). Brilliant and so funny. It is today's cult-nerdy offering for those who might have fond Star Trek memories. If you watched the original MST 3000, you will see a familiar character in this series.