Oh man, I ticked off a trekkie

With respect to my entry below, Lisa wrote:

>>I don't know why people always knock Bill Shatner...take a look at Patrick Stewart sometime if you want to see "overacting." Sorry, I love Star Trek...have loved it since I was 13 years old (I was a fan of the ORIGINAL show when it actually aired primetime---9 pm Central on Friday nights...) Get a little defensive about it now and then.<<

And I've got enough to say in reply to that to fill up a whole entry.

1. Thanks for dropping by, Lisa. No need to apologize. I respect your opinion. Of course, we will now commence with the complete and utter disagreement part of our program. But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the input.

2. Just to be clear, I got Star Trek cred. I watched the original as a kid, and even went to the World's First Star Trek convention. I loved the show, read the Fotonovels, had a Star Fleet manual and Enterprise blueprints, and kicked ass at Star Trek trivia. Rather than count sheep, if I couldn't sleep, I'd try to rattle off a Star Trek episode for every letter of the alphabet. ("The Apple," "Bread and Circuses," "Catspaw," ... scary, isn't it?)

3. But I grew out of it. I didn't even realize I'd grown out of it until I happened to catch an episode on the Sci-Fi channel recently. The cardboard sets, the dorky costumes, the cheesy music behind every fight sequence, the hi-tech stuff that looked really low-tech, the treatment of women (which I'd thought progressive at the time, but which now seems, er, not quite PC) -- all this I could forgive. But I just couldn't see clear to see my way past good old William Shatner falling in love with every female who wears too much eye shadow.

4. OK, yeah, "You Klingon bastard, you killed my son," was from the movies, not the TV show, and clearly not his best work. But, come on -- repeating a line, spacing the words farther apart does not give it any more emotion.

5. Picking on Patrick Stewart?? Them's fightin' words, missy. Stewart is a classically trained actor with a list of Shakespearean credits a mile long. I had the privilege of seeing him on stage with his one-man show of "A Christmas Carol" and it brought me to tears. The man can bring a dozen characters to life by changing his voice and mannerisms. Shatner was TJ Hooker.