Geeking Out: A Report from the Final Frontier

Somehow or other, I found myself this past weekend in San Diego's Balboa Park, inside the Air and Space Museum, paying $24 ($15 with military discount) to see a sprawling exhibit dedicated to the Star Trek television and film series. My connection to the world of Trekdom consists of a few reruns of the original series, a handful of Next Generation episodes stumbled across while flipping channels back in my Wisconsin days, and an somewhat inexplicable opening-week viewing of 1994's feature film Star Trek Generations, throughout which I was quite confused. Back in the day, I considered myself a Star Wars man, and felt crossing the line between fanboy and geekdom unthinkable. Now, with my interest in Star Wars faded to roughly equal to my past interest in Emerson, Lake and Palmer (read: nearly nonexistent), I find a slight fascination with the massive self-contained world created by Gene Roddenberry in 1966 that spawned ten (soon to be eleven) films and six series (if you include the oft-ignored mid-1970s animated series, which I certainly will).

But that's not why I found myself gazing at Captain Picard's starched uniform, peering at what claimed to be an original Tribble, and trying to remember if I'd ever heard of Data's evil brother Lore. No, I happen to be married to a rather dedicated Star Trek fan, who befriended an equally enthusiastic Trek booster, and as it was the films and episodes of Star Trek that had helped keep both of them sane during last year's 7 month deployment (in Jane's case, specifically the chest of Khan /Ricardo Montalban), I felt an obligation to trek (ha!) along.

So what can I say, other than I think I now know what my wife feels like when I geek out inside arcane record stores or gush over restored editions of Hans Jurgen Syberberg films? We got to sit inside an impressive replica of the original USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) control room, walk down an eerily accurate hallway from the Next Generation series, and stifled a laugh or two at a somewhat pathetic Breen leaning up against a corner (although certain Trekkies insist the Breens are no laughing matter, as they are credited within the series for destroying San Francisco). I must admit to a slight disappointment at not coming across any reference to the sinister yet comically-named tyrant of Beta III, Landru (who I had always hoped was spelled "Landrew," but oh well).

My Trekkie companions had a good time riding a shuttlecraft flight simulator for an additional $5. I opted out.