Growing up, Star Trek was one of my favorite shows on Saturday afternoon (along with Battlestar Galactica - the original series).  I even met James Doohan (Scotty) once at the Washington Convention Center.  So I was really excited, in 1986, to learn that Star Trek would be revived as The Next Generation.  Of course, I made sure I was home every Saturday to watch each new episode and the series finished when I had moved on to college.  Due to things like “life” there were some episodes I didn’t see until I moved to San Francisco or that I had only seen a few times.

Last night I went to a special screening of two first season episodes of STNG (as it’s known).  They had been converted to High Definition and looked amazing and it was hard to believe it’s been 25 years since I first saw them…

In 1987 I had a bicycle, hadn’t shaved, had living grandparents, and the members of the original series were all still alive and making movies!  Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was the film that came out the year before STNG began.

25 years after the original Star Trek series began it was 1991.  Now, 21 years later Star Trek’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, and several of the cast members are dead and we are 25 years after The Next Generation.

21 more years from now many of the current cast, who were interviewed for this event, won’t be alive and I’ll be joining the AARP.

When you apply time that way you really do see how a third of a person’s lifetime (25 years) passes like that!

The experience of seeing these two episodes, Where No One Has Gone Before and Datalore was bittersweet for me.  Though many things of my life are better now, 25 years later, we all long for some of the people we had in our lives (and for its simplicity!) when we were 13.

I guess that’s why the appeal of certain things – like this show – are so enjoyable.  To feel again how you did when you first saw it and to remember your life and what you did… you can’t put a price on that.

25 years has passed so quickly?