So I’m at Shore Leave now, which is a great way of tackling the question I asked at the end of my last post: Why Trek? It’s not like I haven’t given this some thought. I even wrote about Trek, thinking like a shrink, in what now seems another life. Certainly, I think I got the essence of Trek back then—but I’m not so sure I can as easily summarize the universe’s appeal now.
One thing is for sure: I wasn’t drawn to the universe for the reasons The Onion says (though I did split a gut laughing). Simply put, Kirk was hot and I wanted to be his girlfriend. I guess I should be relieved that’s worn off now 😉
But Trek has moved on—brilliantly, if you ask me. The Onion’s wrong about one thing: Trek fans don’t object to change. Pick up any of David Mack’s Destiny novels (beginning with Gods of Night), or those that have come after and you’ll see just how far the universe can be shaken up. Whether that’s for better or worse, I can’t say. (For the record: Change is good. Makes you nervous, maybe, but it’s still good.) But I do know that you won’t find a nicer, more committed bunch of people willing to tolerate taking chances.
And maybe that’s the real reason for Trek’s endurance. The universe demands you take a chance. Certainly, my editors have been willing to afford me that luxury. (Even if one plaintively asked, “Yeah, but does she have to die?” Uh . . . yeah. Someone does.) I cut my writing teeth on Trek; my editors took a chance on a nobody and let her fulfill a dream in a universe that’s all about dreaming big.
So, okay, I never got to be Kirk’s girlfriend. His loss. 😉 You ask me, though, I got a chance to become something—someone—better.
