Space: the final frontier. Beam me up, Scotty. That is illogical, captain. Live long and prosper.
Familiar phrases that have now become clichés over the last fifty or so years. What is more, 'To boldly go' has been used to explain the concept of the split infinitive. Of course, these quotes are from the television series Star Trek: the nerdy American science fiction show that spawned a whole raft of next generation films. Lately the film makers have gone back to the beginning with the original characters of Captain James T. Kirk, Mr Spock, Lieutenant Uhura, Sulu, Bones and Scotty. Their names just tripped off my tongue. Which is strange as I never really liked the series nor liked the slightly odd Trekkie fans.
A couple of weeks ago I was persuaded to go to the cinema to see the latest incarnation of Star Trek, Into Darkness. The quality of the film, like all modern films now, was excellent. 3D technology and effects as well as intricate machinery made a visually stunning experience even to the non-believers like me. It put to shame the scrappy sets of the 1970s television series, the whooshing sliding doors of the future, the dreadfully short trousers and the very patronising depiction of a female lieutenant, who was nothing more that a receptionist in a short dress. So now there is the twenty-first century version of Star Trek available in accessible format for the modern teenager, complete with thinking baddie instead of the slobbering blobs of evil that I witnessed in my youth. The 'little woman' receptionist in space (the earpiece made me laugh in the original series) is no more. She is seriously technical, opinionated and argumentative. She is even having an affair with the guy with the pointy ears, the one who has no emotions. Only, now he does. He just controls them.
On the day that the British government, in its wisdom, has decided to return to a pre-1980s examination format for our school children, I am reminded that everything is cyclical. Change and going forward is all about progress. Boldly going into the unknown is a great motto. Discovery and exploration lead to greater knowledge and learning and I'm all for that. But part of that discovery is knowing when things are good and keeping hold of them. Like the original Mr Spock or Captain Kirk and the 'superheroes' of the comic book world who are being rebooted. All they needed was a bit of polish to update them.
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