I just have to take a moment to acknowledge that today, September 8, is the 40th anniversary of Star Trek.
We all know the tale. On this day, back in 1966, the first episode of Star Trek was shown on NBC. The episode was The Man Trap, better known as "the one with the salt vampire." And, to this day, it's celebrated by nerds and trekkies the world over as Star Trek's anniversary.
Let's see who's company I keep. Wikipedia has a whole list dedicated to notable trekkies. Some of the ones that stand out for me:
Seth MacFarlane - the creator of Family Guy has long been known to be a trekkie. MacFarlane even made several cameos on Enterprise as "Ensign Rivers," a member of Trip's engineering staff.
Matt Stone and Trey Parker - According to Wikipedia, Stone and Parker called Star Trek "a kick ass show that's also a huge part of our pop culture landscape." I always knew that, as there are thousands of references to Star Trek throughout South Park...from incredibly subtle to blatantly obvious.
Bryan Singer - As I once read on a Star Trek message board, "anyone who doesn't belive that Singer is a trekkie just has to watch the end of X2." And I agree. It's such a clear homage to the end of The Wrath of Kahn. Singer even has a "blink and you'll miss it" cameo in Star Trek Nemesis. In fact, on the Nemesis DVD, there's a great Easter egg...a 3 minute interview with Singer about his cameo. In the interview, Singer tells a tale of, when he was a film student, he went to a lecutre on the Paramount lot, but he snuck away from his tour group and broke into the set of The Next Generation. They weren't filming, so Singer just hung out on the bridge until a security gurad caught him and threw him out.
Tom Hanks - Yup, the 3-time Oscar winning actor is a trekkie. Hanks was even the first choice to play Zephram Cochrane in Star Trek: First Contact, but he had to decline because he was so busy with his directorial debut That Thing You Do!.
Ben Stiller - Knew it. Tons of references throughout the films that Stiller has directed.
And the one that surprised me the most....
Stephen Harper - Yup. According to Wikipedia, our PM is a rabid trekkie - but only for the original series.
Anyway, I'm going to celebrate right now by popping The Voyage Home into the ol' DVD player.
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