I’m old enough to have grown up when reruns of the original Star Trek were one of the few sources of science-fiction on TV. (Lost In Space doesn’t count. It just doesn’t.) SF wasn’t mainstream back then. Trekkies were geeks and nerds long before there was such a thing as geek chic. Did that make us cutting edge? Well, uh, no. At the time it just made us different.
Or maybe it was because we were already different that we loved the show. Instead of playing cowboys and Indians, I imagined Away Team adventures. I never put myself exactly into the shoes of any of the original characters, though. I was a Russian/Vulcan hybrid. Emotional and analytical. “It is logical that humans are emotional, Spock. It is their nature,” I’d tell him. Like he didn’t already know.
I knew at nine what I was. I wasn’t impulsive and egotistical. I wasn’t decorative and supportive. Grumpy, stubborn, sneaky, or technical. (Hmm. The seven dwarfs as an away team . . .)
And yet, I’m all those things. The crew of the Enterprise (in the original show) represented the individual traits of a whole personality. The show wouldn’t have worked as well without any one of them. They even addressed that in the awful episode where Kirk’s personality was split in half. Still, some traits dominate.
But at nine, none of that was on my sensor array. At nine, I was just a Vulcan, with enough Russian in me to justify my illogical emotional outbursts.
Which character were you?
Frankie's Soapbox 
I watched the original series in high school! Favorite characters were always Spock (of course), closely followed by Zulu and Uhura.
Yes, I loved Sulu’s and Uhura’s class and competence. Loved seeing Sulu shirtless with a rapier when he thought he was D’Artanian, and Uhura with attitude in “Mirror, Mirror.”
Those were classic. And I strangely always most liked James Tiberius himself. He kept his sense of humor and he always survived and won just often enough that I believed it.
I still have some of the stationary I ordered when the show was originaly on….
OMG I still watch it. I grew up with and hubby is a huge fan so we often DVR it so we can watch it and we’re introducing our 4 children to it – they think it’s sort of goofy. I would like to be Spockette – always wanted to be able to read minds and do that vulcan death-grip.
I’m with Renee. I wanted to be Spock. Even though he was the straight man he was really a dominant character. And that Vulcan death grip–well there have been times I’d have liked to use it on my husband. haha
Teresa r.
By the way, I’m a die hard Trekie. Watched it in first grade when my dad was stationed in Millington, Tenn. We’d come together as a family and never missed it. And I have all the movies. I love them all.
I started watching Star Trek with my sons, 10 & 5 last summer and they loved the Classic series. I guess I’m Mr. Spock with my love of science and passion to explore.
Great post!
Smiles
Steph
I was in high school when the original series was broadcast, and of course, I adored Spock. When I was older, it was the Captain who made my socks go up and down. Now I think that Bones is rather cute. When I get to the point that I’m lusting after Scotty, I’m outta here!
Definitely would want to be Spock, though I’m not nearly as smart as he is.
ach, hate WordPress now with whatever new sign-in nonsense they’ve done, I think I just lost my comment. Anyway, I would want to be Spock, although I am not as smart as he is (would love to be though.)
I always had a crush on Spock, then on Chekov… I guess I would have wanted to BE Uhura, if I had a choice. She always seemed multi-talented in a way that so many of TNG characters later were, interested in work, but also in art and music, etc.
Even though I identified somewhat with Chekov’s emotional nature, I never really liked him much. I’m sure a shrink would make something of that! 🙂
I was a huge Spock and Kirk fan, though on most days wanted to be a hybrid like Spock. I was happy they picked Quinto to play him in the last movie installment. I think I was about 7 or 8 when I first saw the classic show and I also received the dvd set for the holidays two years ago. And it has been great fun to see favorite episodes like Gary 7 again. Anyway, the idea for one of my books, and what my circle and I affectionately dubbed “elves in space” probably came out of my childhood psyche as I tried to figure out why the Vulcan had pointy ears. As a teenager, when I imagined myself on the show, I was either a hybrid science officer reporting to Spock, of course. More frequently, I was a much-improved version of T’Pring, who this time around had the good sense to choose Spock over Stan! (These TSTL heroines really tick me off). My favorite invention though was a female Vulcan assassin who was helping “evil Spock” take over the universe in the episode where Kirk meets all the counterparts (Love Uhura & Bad Sulu in that episode!). I later had similar reactions to many movies in the 70s and 80s that insisted the good guy get the girl even when the good guy would never, in real life, have had a chance in hell . . . Lost Boys comes to mind here: once you suspended your disbelief about vampires and all, tell me what teenage girl watching that movie believed for a second that Star would have picked Michael, the goody-guy-next-door, over Kiefer Sutherland-channeling-James Dean-channeling a vampire? Srsly. TSTL, again, but still a favorite movie anyway). With apologies to Schumacher, I was always rewriting these things in my head. 🙂
I watched these as a kid too! Way before TNG! And my brother and I played Away Missions in the yard (though we also played cowboys and indians too) My dad never forgave us for losing his light meter for his camera which had the same shape as a tricorder, which is what we used it for… I don’t remember though that we picked particular people to roleplay, though I do remember one time looking with envy at an ad for Vulcan ears in the back of some comic book. I badly wanted to order them…
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