From Generation to Generation: Watching Star Trek with My Sons

Star Trek (ST) has been a favorite of mine for thirty plus years. I relished all the series, consumed the novels, and salivated over each new movie. I don't dress up or go to conventions. Still, many of the movies I viewed at premiers or opening nights, unable and unwilling to wait just one more day then necessary to see them.

My family humors my interest; my wife even watched one premier with me. The experience was appreciated though somewhat unsatisfying. While she loves me, she just didn't share the "love." She did however arrange a walk on role for me on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine for my 32nd birthday, a gift that will go down as one of my lifetime favorites. (See me in the last season, Strange Bedfellows episode. I was in a Star Fleet officers uniform, beard shaved, standing behind Miles and Julian in Quark's bar.).

I tried to interest my kids in the new Enterprise series and, while the youngest showed some interest, it never inflamed his imagination.

Thus I waited three weeks after the premier to see Star Trek's new movie. I wanted to have the focus to really relish the experience and do it with someone who shared the love. So I made plans to view the new ST movie with my buddy Ron, who gets it. But scheduling foul ups precluded our Monday afternoon adventure.

Instead of waiting another few weeks to go with Ron, I brought my boys. They might have been as excited to see me watch it as they were to see it themselves.

Would it be worth it? It was chancy. I wondered, would they appreciate the ST universe, the characters, the sci-fi experience, beyond the special effects? Could Star Trek, like Torah, be passed down midor lador, from generation to generation?

Thanks to JJ Abram's creative take on the ST universe and the characters, the answer may be a resounding yes! Though he played with the canon - rewriting character back stories, rejiggering the relationships, even nearly wiping out a Federation member race - he recreated the sense of hopefulness, of "can do" spirit, of the triumph of good over evil. He returned us to ST's early years as a wagon train to the stars.

My kids, newly schooled in the notion of a ST canon, were as fascinated by the visual and verbal ties to the ST as they were to the changes that the director wrought. They were entranced by the FX and by the story. They eagerly asked questions about the Federation, Starfleet...

Midor lador, from generation to generation. Being with them at ST, I was as excited as I am whenever I physically line up the generations of a family to pass down the sefer Torah (Torah scroll) thru the generations, from grandparents to parents to the Bar/Bat Mitzvah. The gesture is symbolic: just as the BM has plenty still to learn before s/he masters the holy scrolls, so too my boys still have much to learn before they can be considered truly Trekkers.

But this was a very hopeful start. A new bond growing between Dad and his boys. I cannot wait to see where it goes. Thanks JJ!
Shalom,

Paul Kipnes