To Boldly Go Where Many Have Gone Before

Everybody with an internet connection and a certain amount of free time (and possibly loneliness) since the 80s has had a Star Trek watch and review blog.

Indeed, in this new millenium of smart phones and 24/7 media saturation, many have moved forward to awful likebait YouTube reviews and podcasts - some good, most (like the blogosphere of Star Trek reviews that preceded them) unmitigated garbage. 

So what makes this one any different?

Nothing!

It provides an outlet for me, Ashland Roadwarrior (also known as NX01-EbonHawk) to talk about Star Trek.

My Star Trek Discovery

I began watching Star Trek in a very stilted and obtuse way. The year must have been 2003 or so, and I was a socially awkward (like in therapy for it) teenager with a life worthy of an after school special who desperately needed friends, family, and other healthy support systems. 

I didn't get them, but that's okay because I discovered Star Trek! One lazy afternoon I caught the UPN afternoon movie: Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. All I knew about Trek prior to this momentous event was what I had absorbed via pop culture osmosis, and I don't really remember my reaction to it except that here was some good sci-fi in the year of the worst Star Wars movie since The Phantom Menace. 

Not long after I began watching TNG and DS9 reruns on Spike TV on summer afternoons - I was lucky enough to catch Encounter at Farpoint for my first TNG episode, and even though I was apprehensive, I was soon hooked. That fall I tuned into the third season of the oft-maligned Enterprise. 

When Enterprise ended, so did a lot of things in my life, and I was forced to move on without Star Trek. When things stabilized a few years ago, I signed up for Netflix and once more dived into the Star Trek universe with TNG and ENT, then DS9. I've never been able to stomach Voyager, but I've made it through TOS once and the films uncountable times - despite differing opinions on quality, taken as a whole the TOS cast films are a charming and stylish phase of fun and action between the archaic originals and the somewhat experimental and ultimately codifying next generation of shows. 

Now I'm re-watching EVERYTHING, from The Cage to These Are the Voyages..., from Trekkies to Discovery and everything in between. 

You see, I have a confession: my viewing of the franchise has become something of a background noise half-attentive affair. I fire up DS9 or TNG and I get on a video game or reddit or something, but that's no way to give something you love its fair due. 

Earlier this week, I started with The Cage. I had never bothered with it before, and though I was ultimately unimpressed, I was inspired to sit down and watch everything Star Trek, to become the Trekkie I was born to be in the uncertain summer before 9th grade. 

So now I am going to write my thoughts, opinions, and reactions to each and every piece of Star Trek televised/filmed media I can consume over the next few years. I am currently on TOS 01x05: The Enemy Within (NOTE: I count The Cage as 01x00, rather than 01x01 as Netflix numbers it) - that is, it's next to watch. I will post my reactions and thoughts on the preceding episodes after this introductory post. 

I doubt many will read this, but in case you are reading this (and if you're actually following it you mad man) I welcome you. Please feel free to comment, call out my bullshit, and offer your own interpretations and insights on each and every episode. 

I shouldn't have to tell commentators to keep racism and bigotry to themselves, I try to run a clean ship here and it is inherently antithetical to the spirit of Star Trek. Don't debate "Gene's Vision" either; Gene was an idea guy, not exactly a story guy, and I respect him for starting the Star Trek universe with his vision but I'm not broken up about his guidelines being disregarded for the stories to move forward. 

Mild cursing allowed. 

An in-progress google spreadsheet of my episode ratings can be found here.