Yesterday I found that another of the people who had shaped my lifelong interest in Science Fiction was gone. Lenard Nimoy who was Spook in the Star Trek the Original Series, a number of the films and who made appearances in a number of other Star Trek series and films died. I found myself with dust in my eyes. My first Science Fiction book was 'The Winds of Garth', first of a long running series called 'The Dumarest Saga'. It ran on to 33 books which I still have somewhere in a box. My first TV science Fiction was Star Trek and that led me onto Dr Who and many more wonderful Sci Fi films and series of the sixties, seventies and beyond. But the weekly adventure, the wobbly sets, the humor, the camaraderie, four people boldly going where no one had gone before, that was the first Sci Fi I can remember watching. The Heroic captain, the dedicated and crusty doctor, the mechanical genius engineer and the half human who all to well portrayed what it was like to be both alien and human at the same time. Around them they had a fine supporting team, Uhura, Checkov, Sulu, an endless stream of red tops ready to die messily. But it was the four who were the core of the show, it was their relationship that made it work. One of the problems with getting old is all the people you admired when you were young end up dying on you. Perhaps it was being influenced at a young age, being more susceptible to heroes as a boy. But I see very few modern people, actors or otherwise who can stand up to the heroes of my childhood. Which makes it all the more sad when they go, there is no one to replace them. If I had not watched these four would I have developed my love of Science Fiction and Science Fact in all its forms? Without my weekly dose of Trek would I have developed my interest in technology? I don't know, but I think my life would have been a much narrower thing without the wonders and worlds of Sci Fi around me. I could be an accountant now, boring, no imagination, grey suit and grey life. But I'm not and I credit that to a new planet every week and to four men who fought aliens in rubber suits, cheap sets and hackneyed plots to bring their friendship and wonder into my life. How many other people would also be living dull grey lives were it not for these men. In a way they gave me space and time and adventure far beyond the boys own tales. And for that if nothing else I mourn their passing. Live Long and Prosper. |
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