I’ve recently discovered a cache of personal journal entries I made between 2004 and 2010; my original plan was to join one of the online blog platforms that were popular at that time, and then present to the universe my pithy commentary on whatever caught my attention. That plan mutated into working on a weekly column for the website I ran at Career Services, so running a personal blog at that same time would have seriously messed with the Google search results. Sadly, I don’t seem to have retained a copy of any of the essays I wrote for Career — but, lucky you, I do still have the journal entries I’d planned on posting nearly twenty years ago.
Talk about a time capsule!
I don’t plan on doing this often, but it is kind of fun to revisit what I was thinking back then. These entries will be presented with only light editing, and where necessary, context at the end to round out more fully what I was writing about at the time. I hope you enjoy this tiny little retrospective.
November, 2005
On the nights my wife takes her course on Autocad, I’ve been enjoying a little movie marathon. Part one was Star Trek: Nemesis, the most recent entry of the Star Trek movie franchise. I’m not sure what prompted me to bring that one in today; we recently watched the second to last installment (Star Trek: Insurrection) a short while ago, so I’m guessing that I just have a current kick of Next Generation on the brain. That, and I am in serious Star Trek withdrawal.
Nemesis wound up being the final movie with the cast from TNG. I was in denial when it came out in 2002; I more or less grew up with that show, so it was really hard to say goodbye to them at the end of the movie. I realize that in the Star Trek universe, anything is possible, but the longer we go without anything from that cast, the more certain I am that Nemesis will be the final chapter for TNG.
Perhaps that is why my viewing of it today was more emotional than I expected. So many things have changed this year for me that the changes the characters undergo during the movie seem to have taken on a whole new dimension, a whole new depth. And, oddly, Data’s death seemed more tragic than ever. Seeing Spock die in The Wrath of Khan was wrenching, but I had more time to watch Data as a character grow and change. I guess it became apparent to me today that though I love the characters from the Original Series, I have much more ownership in TNG. It was the show of my generation, reflecting my values and morals; its characters represented a place and time that I truly hoped humanity would come to occupy.
I still believe that we, as a society, will reach that higher goal; while future iterations of Star Trek became darker and less high-minded, the fairly frequent movie visits with the TNG crew kept that connection alive for me. Watching Data make the ultimate sacrifice again today made reality crash down around me all at once. TNG was over. For real. For good. Perhaps forever.
It got me thinking about the novel I’m currently writing, and that Star Trek novel that is always lurking back there in my head. I’d always assumed it would be an adventure with Kirk and company, but after seeing the movie again today, maybe not. TNG is a part of me, much more so than the original.
This opens up a whole new set of possibilities…
It turned out not to be the final installment of TNG; as of this writing, Star Trek: Picard now holds that distinction. And yes, that Star Trek novel is still percolating in the back of my head. Maybe, someday, I’ll get a chance to write it. But for now, I’ve got a ton more stories to get out with Sean, Vasily and Kate.
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