Distant mirrors
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- November
- 12
The Powers That Be behind “Star Trek” boldly go where few TV execs have gone before tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. when they present a digitally remastered version of the two-part episode “The Menagerie,” from season one, in select tri-state movie theaters, including New Roc City Stadium 18 Plus Imax in New Rochelle. The event  which includes greetings from Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, son of “Star Trek” creator Gene, and a behind-the-scenes featurette  is designed to promote the DVD release of the first season of “Star Trek: The Original Series” the following week.
The announcement got me thinking about the series, especially since it’s in syndication, often airing at 11 p.m. Sundays on Channel 9 locally before past episodes of “Stargate Atlantis.” (New episodes of that Sci Fi Channel show are presented at 10 p.m. Fridays.)
It’s only fitting that the two series often play like a double bill. Both are about a group of inter-galactic explorers. And both are about the journeys those explorers take as metaphors for the preoccupations of contemporary America. If you look at “Star Trek,” you’ll see the concern with apocalypse in the cold war era and man vs. machine in the nascent computer age. The characters on “Stargate Atlantis” have long since made their peace  or rather, their truce  with technology. But they’re constantly buffeted by war as military conflicts continue on Earth. The military leader of the team  Lt. Col. John Sheppard, played by Joe Flanigan as the quintessential wisecracking American hero  even earned his battle stripes in Afghanistan.
Proving, perhaps, that every journey is really a journey home.
Photo courtesy of NBC Universal.
This entry was posted
on Monday, November 12th, 2007 at 3:18 pm by Georgette Gouveia.
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