Why I love Star Trek so much.

I went to see Avengers: Age of Ultron the other night and while it was an epic tale full of camaraderie, action, and some laughs, and while I immensely enjoyed it, I came away feeling like I had seen just another movie. I knew that at home I had a half-finished Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode waiting for me. I wanted to get home to finish it.
And I started thinking. Why don't I like Marvel films and why don't I like Doctor Who as much as I feel I should? Being a part of the Marvel fandom or the Doctor Who fandom or the Sherlock fandom or the Supernatural fandom is all the rage right now. And I do enjoy Marvel films and I do enjoy Doctor Who. So why am I gravitating more and more towards Star Trek?
And I think I've begun to figure it out. I've begun to figure out why I consider Star Trek so infinitely superior as opposed to the better made, currently popular movies and television shows.
It's because Star Trek is about hope for the future.
The Marvel movies (which are superhero tales, for those unfamiliar with Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, etc. etc. etc.) and Doctor Who rely on the plot that humans and earth will continue to mess things up, or things will continue to mess humans and earth up. Humans and earth need help getting out of these sticky situations and that's where the superheroes or the time-traveling Doctor come in.
In Star Trek, there is hope for a mostly peaceful future. The Klingons, Cardassians, Romulans, and the Dominion may spark some contention, but that's realistic. There has always been war and there always will be war. But war always ends, too. In Marvel films and Doctor Who, however, there is a new threat to earth every week and the only people capable of saving earth are the superheroes or the time-traveling aliens.

Star Trek is Gene Roddenberry's vision that humans can choose to become better people and, in that way, save the earth themselves, instead of relying on superhumans.

Star Trek is about searching for betterment, searching for knowledge, searching for equality. Star Trek shows us that a better future exists, if people would just choose it. Instead of waiting around for a group of sueprhumans or an alien to come save earth, Star Trek shows that any and all humans can make an impact, not just the sidekicks and companions, specially chosen by the superhumans and alien.

Nearly every Star Trek episode contains some moral or social lesson to learn. In The Original Series there are many, many episodes that cleverly disguise these lessons in the guise of science fiction. It is easy to figure out the metaphor and apply the lesson to terrestrial life.
"It gave me a set of values...to be an ethical person was to behave as these men did, as Kirk, Spock, and McCoy did; they wrestled with issues and they had enormous empathy for other people, for people who thought differently than they did." -Ronald D. Moore, writer for Star Trek.
Star Trek has a strong moral compass, many of the characters have integrity and know what's right; they struggle with right and wrong and they face the consequences of wrong actions. In many modern movies, such as Avenegers: Age of Ultron, the characters don't face the consequences of their actions. One of my pet peeves in movies is when the characters destroy a city in a car chase (see National Treasure 2) or in a giant battle (see the two Avengers films) and then NEVER stay around to clean up the mess! Who is paying for all of the damage the characters caused? When consequences are addressed, it is usually in one or two sentences and the main characters usually do not face any ramifications or any regret or guilt. In Star Trek, consequences are addressed. Characters face regret and guilt and they grow from it and become better people.

Perhaps this makes Star Trek less exciting than some shows. Perhaps to some it is boring, it is too "intelligent." (Fun fact: the first Star Trek pilot "The Cage" was deemed "too intelligent" by the people reviewing it and Gene Roddenberry had to go back and do another pilot. The only character who got transferred from the first to the second pilot was a certain alien by the name of Spock.) Special effects (especially for The Original Series and the first few seasons of The Next Generation) are certainly cheesy and definitely not as high tech as stuff today (although, personally, I prefer older special effects to newer special effects because more of it was real—it wasn't all computer generated). But Star Trek discusses important topics. And Star Trek has fantastic plots. And Star Trek has wonderfully real characters who change and grow; you really get to know them (for example, I can name twenty Deep Space Nine character who could be classified as "main." Even before I started rewatching Deep Space Nine, I could remember each and every one of these characters because they were so memorable and well-done). And Star Trek has great humor. And Star Trek does have epic space battles (again, I mention Deep Space Nine, when they enter the Dominion War).

This is why I love Star Trek. The plots, the characters, the humor, the action, the relationships, the philosophy, the ethics. All these elements are perfectly balanced. That is what makes Star Trek such an incredible, incredible show. That is why fans have gathered for forty years at conventions to discuss Trek, buy and sell Trek, dress Trek, and see Trek actors. That is why Star Trek has lasted nearly fifty years (next year is anniversary year!).
That is why Star Trek is my favorite television show.

Fantastic

Sometimes you have weeks like this:

Sometimes you have weeks like this:

Sometimes you have weeks like this:

Here's hoping your week has been like this:

Day 3: Day Tripper, yeah...

For some reason... for some reason... I don't know what the reason was... but for some reason, there was a pack of men outside on the street playing soccer (or football as they call it in England) until 2AM.
Because my grandma and I were sharing a room next to the streets, and because the windows and walls weren't that thick... well, I didn't get such a good night of sleep.
We had a busy day planned and therefore, I had to get up early to take a shower. No sooner was the shower taken, than I was besieged with a migraine. Thankfully, it wasn't the most severe of migraines - only threw up twice, woohoo! - and we were on the road by noon.

Our first stop was The Sherlock Holmes Museum, 221b Baker Street.

The Museum is first come, first serve, so you have to wait in line until the nice guardsman at the door lets you in. (Meanwhile, you can take pictures with him!)

Also, conveniently located next to the line was The Beatles Shop!

Inside, all things Beatles... CDs, books, postcards, socks (!!!), bookmarks, luggage, and, of course, t-shirts!

Lots and lots and LOTS of t-shirts! Across from the ones I'm looking at above, there were even more! I got one that has this picture on it:

Finally we reached the end of the line and were let into The Sherlock Holmes Museum!
On the ground floor is a tasteful little hat rack for guests (and a view into the gift shop). Then you ascend seventeen steps (yes, they got the number right from the books; I counted) and you are on the First Floor which includes the sitting room where so many of Holmes and Watson's adventures begin, and Sherlock Holmes' bedroom.

In the sitting room, opposite a couch for clients, and next to the fireplace, are the two familiar chairs where Holmes and Watson have often reclined. There are props available for your use as you pose as The Great Detective and his Conductor of Light.

(Notice the Persian slipper on the mantlepiece?)

(Striking a Sherlockian pose. Though for the life of me I couldn't remember if Sherlock Holmes [in the books] put his steepled hands under his chin or not! I know Benedict Cumberbatch made a comment on how his Sherlock didn't do it the right way... but I couldn't remember which way was right.)

(Who knew the Great Detective wore a blue rain jacket? [And a deerstalker, for that matter...])

On the next floor was Dr. Watson and Mrs. Hudson's rooms. Dr. Watson's room was full of memorabilia and furniture of the Victorian era, while Mrs. Hudson's room was full of display cases containing articles and clues from the books including but not limited to...

The next level was my favorite. Wax scenes from the books!

(Excuse my poor editing skills of the above picture. The room was too small and too full of people to take the full picture so I had to smush it together.)

Tintin had lots of fun with the waxwork as well...

(From 'The Man With The Twisted Lip')

("Oh, darling, what is that thing you're carrying?!" "I don't know, darling! I can't get it off me!")

(What's that in her veil? From 'Charles Augustus Milverton')

Tintin also got to meet The Hound of the Baskervilles...

At this point Tintin was having a flashback from our trip to the East Coast two years ago...

(Dinosaur at the Creation Museum in Kentucky)

One of the creepier wax figures was...

JAMES MORIARTY! 

The museum is a wonderful place to go! Especially if you are a fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Next up... lunch! We went across the street to a restaurant decorated with murals of Sherlock Holmes. I had a pancake. It was very good. But I missed my cousin, whom I usually eat pancakes with. 

Baker Street is a really fun place to go!

After lunch (which we ate around 2:00) my dad and I split ways with my mom and grandma. Grama wanted to go back to the Westminster Abbey gift shop to buy a few things, so Mom decided to go with her.

Daddy and I, on the other hand, went to Abbey Road!

And on Abbey Road... Abbey Road Studios!

You walk along a low, white wall, filled with tributes to The Beatles and then find yourself in front of...

 

And across from that...

Strangely enough, this was one of my favorite parts of London! For some reason, it just made me very, very happy. 

One thing I was not expecting was how many people there were crowded around, trying to take pictures! You had to wait your turn. And if you had four people, and no one to hold the camera, men were there in green jerseys that said HELP and they would take your picture for you!

My dad and I were supposed to go to Westminster Abbey to meet my mom and grandma after this... but we made a few stops along the way.

Our associate pastor at church, when he found out we were going to London and not going to see the British museum, was outraged. "You HAVE to go and see the Rosetta Stone!" he said.

So we popped in just for him.

I am DETERMINED to go back to London so that I can spend a good few days sifting through the British Museum. It's free and it's HUGE and it has SO much cool stuff! We only walked through a corner of the Egypt section, but I wished we could have stayed longer!

Man, can you believe that thousands of years ago, someone carved all those symbols on that rock? And they knew what it all meant too! And that it survived all these years! It really is truly amazing.

(Pigeons on the glass roof.)

Our plan was to take the tube from the British Museum to Westminster Abbey. We were alright for the first half of the trip, but then we had to change trains. So, we walked (underground - how cool!) quite a good ten minutes or so only to find out that the line was being worked on... so we had to walk all the way back.

We asked a kind gentleman what the quickest way to get to Westminster would be and he said we could either take the bus over the Thames (for we were on the wrong side) or walk across one of the bridges.

We decided to walk so that we could get some pictures of Big Ben.

Tired though we were, we walked along the waterfront, passed the London Eye (whoa! LONG lines there!), and then over a bridge, RIGHT passed Big Ben!!

Once across the bridge we were only a hop, skip, and a jump away from Westminster Abbey. But we couldn't go over there without getting a picture with this guy...

As I said before... You gotta love Winston Churchill! (Once, a woman who was upset with him came up and said, "If you were my husband, I'd put poison in your coffee!" He replied, "If you were my wife, I'd drink it!")

Finally we found my mom and grandma. We had worried them because we were so late. Sorry Mom!

One of the things my grandma was adamant about seeing in London was the Tower of London, so we took the tube there.

 

And nearby, the Tower Bridge...

And quite close by all this, part of an old Roman wall that has been standing since the year 190 AD!!

Incredible, incredible, incredible to stand next this old, old artifact. Absolutely amazing. It's situated next to a posh hotel, with some houses behind it.

The end of the wall is near the tube station, and there is a nice Roman statue there as well.

 

We were getting hungry by this time (though some nice, fresh honey-roasted peanuts did tide us over) and it was getting dark... but there was one last stop that we had to make...

A real police box!!! In the 1960's, police boxes were common sights on the streets of London. It's basically a "mini-police station." It has a phone on the inside for the police, or just regular people, to call the police from in case of emergency.

The police box was made famous because of the British sci-fi show Doctor Who, where a mysterious time-traveling alien, well, travels through time and space in one of these police boxes! (Don't worry, it's bigger on the inside).

It was pouring rain by this time, though we had had nice weather earlier in the day. This was in a part of town that we really hadn't researched. We knew the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) was around somewhere... but where? We didn't know. We were trying to decide whether or not it was worth it to wander around looking for it, when we asked someone if they knew where it was. Low and behold it was about twenty feet away to the tube station (on the right)! So we popped over for a few pictures.

 

Finally we arrived back in the neighborhood of our hotel, nearly weak from hunger. Of course, the obvious place to eat dinner was the Dicken's Tavern!

 

That's where we ate the bangers and mash. 

Tintin! What would Captain Haddock say?

There ends our third and final day in London! Next, on to the Netherlands!

Slaap lekker! (Good night, have a nice sleep, etc.)

*whistles*

I dooon't... have anything to saaaay...

It's cold like Minnesota here... 20 degrees, what? Snow on Saturday! Huzzah!

Today at Costco we found Doctor Who. For $12.99. Okay, half a season for $12.99. BUT STILL. So we came home with seasons six and seven. Which makes me happy. Even happier because the last time we were at Costco, they were selling an individual season of Doctor Who for $60, and we got the same individual season for $26.
If you wait long enough, Costco will eventually have AMAZING prices on Doctor Who. Last spring we found seasons 1-4 for $20 each.

The Seahawks won the Superbowl. That's exciting. I didn't watch the game... but after it was over, I went outside and people were setting off fireworks one street over. Our neighbors were cheering loudly. People one street over were yelling "WOOOOOOOOOO SEAHAWKS! GOOOO! YEEAAAAAHHH!!! WOOOO!" at the top of their lungs.
While part of me says, "Man, it's just football," the other part of me is enjoying watching how crazy everyone is over this. Over 700,000 people packed into Seattle today for a special Seahawks parade and rally. It's hard to imagine what 700,000 people looks like... but you know what? Everyone was peaceful! Isn't that amazing? 700,000 people and there was no major damage done!

Did you know that this guy:

from The Hobbit is actually called Lindir?

Elladan and Elrohir are missed. (Elrohir is such a cool name too!)
Lindir is also this guy from the Lord of the Rings, who interrupted Arwen's vision-thing of her son with Aragorn. "You never told me there was a son!"

He's ALSO the guy who wrote this song for the latest Muppet movie:

Am I a man or a Muppet?
At least Lindir doesn't have freaky elf-eyes like the Royal Elves.

 

 

 Yup, can you say creepy? Thranduil's worse, though.

I've been reading lots of fantasy lately. I think it's because my new story is fantasyish.

I spy Lord of the Rings, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Alice in Wonderland. Also, Eclipse from the Twilight saga, but who cares about that?

Anyway, it's about time for me to go to bed and I've run out of things to ramble about so goodnight!