TIME TRAVELLER-BEHOLD THE FUTURE?
BACKGROUND
As I wrote in a previous hub I can’t speak for other folks but as for myself I am a time traveler. I can go back to the past anytime I desire by listening to old music, but I can also time travel into the future. I first discovered this ability when I was a young lad going to movies. When this occurs I am in awe of the possibilities that the future holds for humans. I have a magic formula for my future time travel and you can also accomplish this feat of magic yourself. You will love it, because you can think of doing unimaginable things yourself!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SCIENCE FICTION BECOMES SCIENCE FACT
Throw off your troubles of today and let your imagination take you into the future. This is aided by science fiction movies. After all we have found over time that today’s science fiction is tomorrows scientific achievement.
I can remember being a five-year-old lad going to the Strand Theater on a Saturday afternoon watching many heroes explore the universe. Will an asteroid impact the Earth bringing death and destruction? Are we being visited by Martian beings and are they hostile? These movies were very exciting but they did lack believability due to the lack of special effects.
BOLDLY GO WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE
Then in 1966 the science fiction genre was improved beyond its previous level with the introduction of Star Trek. I was a Trekkie from the first episode I watched. I was an electrical engineering student at West Virginia University when this series debuted, and I had a great interest in space travel fueled by the accomplishments of NASA and the space race with the USSR. Star Trek satisfied a thirst that had seemed unquenchable. I loved the exploits of Kirk, Spock, Scotty, and Bones and the rest of the crew. The very thought that this type of travel could be a part of human destiny was very hopeful to me.
I never could get as attached to other space travel odysseys. I liked Star Wars OK but I was a confirmed Trekkie.
COMBINATION OF SCI-FI AND SOCIETY
I have vivid memories of a young JFK challenging all of the American citizens to prepare to go to the moon before the end of the decade of the 1960’s. This was a very daunting challenge, but after all we were America if it could be done we would do it!!!!!! We always loved a challenge.
Then I remember that cold evening on October 22, 1962 when president Kennedy went on TV to tell the American people that the Russians had offensive missals in Cuba. These missals were a threat to our entire way of life and our lives themselves. I remember as a junior at Moundsville High School going to Junior Achievement that next evening after “the speech”!!!! I stopped my dad’s car on the roadside of WV Route 2 and just looked over the town, the buildings even the streetlights and I wondered “Would this all be gone in a thermonuclear blast?” I thank God above cooler heads prevailed.
Then I remember the next year November 22, 1963 seeing President Kennedy slaughtered in the streets of Dallas. That was a very low point in my mind. I worried about his young wife and two beautiful children left without a husband and father, and the nation left without our leader!!!!!!!!!!
It was this combination of early love of sci-fi and societal turmoil that set the stage for my love of Star Trek!!!! It gave me hope for a future of peace and prosperity for all of humanity and beyond!!!!!
UP TO DATE
As time passed by I watched old Star Trek re-runs and new Star Trek movies as they were released. It took a little while but I finally became a fan of Star Trek The Next Generation. Then last year when I saw rush for the new Star Trek movie I was irate. How could they possibly expect anyone to accept new actors portraying Kirk, Spock, Scotty and Bones? Then my daughter Tracee said she had seen the new movie and explained to me it was a prequel and took place before the series began. She gave me a DVD of this movie last Christmas as a present. I finally watched it this past Saturday, May 15, 2010 and I think it ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!