Matthew Osborne
I would like to think we are all irrationally big fans of something, whether it’s a sports team, or that one television show that we grow up with that you can’t stop watching, or a hobby that takes up a crazy amount of your time.
I can probably check boxes in all these areas, but as we have chronicled at length, I am not normal.
I am versed in many sci-fi/fantasy disciplines, including being still unbeaten in the Star Wars DVD Trivial Pursuit game after many attempts on my throne. I know my way around Marvel and DC, and I can fake my way through Harry Potter stuff until I am exposed by real ones as the Gilderoy Lockhart that I truly am.
But Star Trek was always The One when it came to science fiction lifetime relationships.
No one will even challenge me in the interactive trivia game for Star Trek as it gathers dust on our shelf. They are right to be cautious.
“Star Trek: The Next Generation” was the show of my youth, though I love the original as well. But those came on in the 1960s before my time, while TNG, as we call it for short, was shown live when I was growing up.
If you look at TV Guide (which seriously once mattered) and newspaper reviews of TNG at the time, you would think they were committing an act of treason by even suggesting a new show with all new characters. This was after the original cast had already done four movies with a couple more to come, and folks were not ready to move on just yet.
When they saw the crew in action, the reviews changed, and the show lasted seven seasons (four more than original Trek), spawned four movies of its own and has now returned in the form of “Star Trek: Picard,” which will complete its third and final season Thursday night.
The first two seasons saw Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard run into all kinds of nasty situations, but this season was more or less a love letter to the fans, while still creating a compelling story.
Is it nostalgia for the sake of nostalgia? Yes, it is, and I’ll thank you not to get on me about it.
Unrealistic as it is, the same core seven crew members that made up the TNG’s heart and soul teamed up once again last week on their original ship, the Enterprise-D. I won’t bore you with the details, but like with many things that we use for entertainment, Star Trek is often a metaphor for life.
Seeing the seven crew members together after three decades willing to take on the galaxy together sparked something in me. It reminded me that friends and family who love you are forever, and whatever the odds look like in front of you, they can be overcome if you stay together.
When I was in Florida last month for a mere 46 hours (30 awake), I managed to see my four closest friends in separate encounters, a miracle of modern scheduling, especially for my friends who are always super busy and important. It felt like such an amazing success and the trip warmed my heart for the 10-hour ride home.
It felt like time had no meaning when it came to friendship, and that is a comforting feeling, one that was hammered home by last week’s episode of Picard.
So in conclusion, if you gather your best friends and commandeer a renovated starship, you can accomplish anything.
Wait, that’s not the lesson. I think what I meant to say was, call a good friend today, even if it’s been a while. You don’t know if it’s just the thing they need to make their day.
Matthew Osborne is the editor of The Northeast Georgian. Reach him at 706-778-4215 or editor@TheNortheastGeorgian.com.