Love is in the air at Fanbase Press! In this magical month of romance and enchantment, the Fanbase Press Staff and Contributors decided to stop and smell the roses. Throughout the week of Valentine’s Day, a few members of the Fanbase Press crew will be sharing their personal love letters to the areas of geekdom they adore the most.
To my dearest darling Star Trek: Voyager,
“We’re alone in an uncharted part of the galaxy.”
That we were not so long ago. My standing queue of shows exhausted, I was eager to tide over yet another evening of insomnia. I was looking for something to pass the time, and episodic TV seemed the way to go.
Earlier that week, a friend of mine had spoken of your sexual tension, your Delta Quadrant, your techno-babble. On a drive to go camping in the desert, she played countless clips from your episode, “Blood Fever.” I wasn’t the least bit intrigued. In fact, I felt nothing. How wrong I was.
Now alone, with remote in hand, I decided to get to know you better. Scrolling through my Hulu, I found “Blood Fever” and watched through. I was looking for context, some common ground my friend and I could share. The half Klingon foreplay didn’t get me. Neither did the holographic sexy time. Nay, I was bewitched by an entity unlike any other I had seen before: a Female Star Trek Captain.
She was sass. She was poise. Even with the sound off, when she walked in a room, you knew and you paid attention. Captain Kathryn Janeway was a sensorial explosion for the sheer fact that, up until that moment, I had always thought the Star Trek captain’s chair a boy’s club. I was right. Now, I was wrong. I was blindsided. I needed more.
From there, I have been slingshot into a fandom that rivals the Delta Quadrant, vast and with at least a 75-year stay forecasted. But I love the journey. Through subsequent episodes, I have seen the excellence of your actors, and the science and stigma that I once associated with the original franchise has been stripped away, revealing and intellectual show that never once took its audience for granted.
In a most sincere way, you have changed my mind as to what it is to be a Trekker. Beyond the science and space, you delve into the human heart. In the darkest of times, it is the essence of humanity that unifies and allows us to persevere together, despite different backgrounds, cultures, and creeds. That is your life force. That is your warp core.
And so I watch, for the master class that is Kate Mulgrew, to the poignant episodes that deal with topics we still are at odds with today. Roddenberry’s future is one that seems a pipe dream. And yet, through each episode, like the Voyager crew, I believe we’re on our way there.
“Mr. Paris, set a course, for home.”
You and me both, love. You and me both.
Forever in my ready room,
Jacqueline
