Back to interesting things today. I’ve been watching a lot of Star Trek TNG lately, while working on my modding skills. Mostly just for background noise, somewhat because there’s few programs I can stand reruns, a little because it’s written better than a lot of the reality tv and the obligatory cop-forensic-medical show these days.

Star Trek is a household name in my family. My parents and grandparents watched it, and even my cats seem to enjoy it. Star Trek TNG started airing when I was only 3, and I remember being Traumatized for Life when Admiral Quinn and his aide barfed out mind-controlling parasites. Still, watching reruns makes me feel… nostalgic, even comforted. The times I spent watching when it first aired with my dad or grandpa come back to me, and it’s like they’re still here in the living world.

It’s a world full of possibilities, where there was nothing that couldn’t happen, where people had open minds and hearts and the extent of knowledge was only limited by imagination. Of course, the experience is different now that I am an adult. The nostalgia is tinted by experience. I can see the subtle hints of the past, the reminders that humans may not be as advanced as they may wish to be, or appear to be. Especially grating when they refer to humans of this and the previous century as “savage barbarians.”  Deanna Troi in particular exemplifies this, but it still can be blink-and-you-miss it. I used to like Deanna, but ever since I started watching it again she’s starting to grate on me. One of the more damning of primitive humans, and yet she isn’t always the sweet, helpful counselor she’s protrayed as. Her interactions with Barclay (well, the entire crew’s interactions with Barclay) implied that despite all their lipping, they weren’t as fast to practice what they preached in accepting the differences of people. She also expresses frustration quite often, as in the scene where the captain calls her to view the “first stable wormhole” and isn’t honest with her feelings. There’s just a lot of little things like that, that make me think she’s somewhat a hypocrite. I don’t know why she bothers me so much, though. Many of the characters also have these types of faults. Perhaps because she now symbolizes what I feel they could have done better with the series to me.

I prefer viewing the world of today with a greater sense of optimism, that yes, there are bad people in the world, and they have affected our future greatly, but no more than what was seen on the show. There are so many people I know, or have heard of, that have an honest, true sense of honor, who do strive to make the world a better place, who start movements. Humans have shown ingenuity in all generations, going back to things that seem simple to us, but when you think about it, are so unique or clever you wonder how they thought it up if it wasn’t by accident. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t see some sort of interesting or amazing thing and go “How lucky we are, to be human. How lucky, and how cursed.”