{"id":32,"date":"2009-05-07T06:18:39","date_gmt":"2009-05-07T06:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/onecity\/2009\/05\/star-trek-im-so-frackin-excited.html"},"modified":"2009-05-07T06:18:39","modified_gmt":"2009-05-07T06:18:39","slug":"star-trek-im-so-frackin-excited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/05\/star-trek-im-so-frackin-excited.html","title":{"rendered":"Star Trek: I’m So Frackin’ Excited!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yup Yup. James T. Kirk<\/a> and Spock have found the fountain of youth. 11th time’s the charm.<\/p>\n

\"trekposters.jpg\"<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n


\nReviews<\/a> are coming in, and it looks like Lost creator J.J. Abrams hit this one out of the park. I’ve never been into Lost, but my guess is that Abrams gave the Star Trek franchise exactly what it needs: A bit more action, a lot more sex appeal (Even I have a sensitive man-crush on Chris Pine, the new Kirk), and a lot less of the “Ph.D.-in-Astrophysics-Required” technobabble that dominates a lot of Star Trek plots. I won’t be able to see it until Sunday morning (wanna come?), but stay tuned for my review in the comments section of this post.<\/p>\n

Yes, by the way, I am a Buddhist Geek. More-so than the actual Buddhist Geeks<\/a> (your kung fu is weak, Buddhist Geeks. You are no match for my geekery. Let’s see how you handle my shaolin five elements style!). I have always been a fan of the SciFi genre, which might seem like a
\nweird thing for someone who’s trying to learn how to dwell more and
\nmore in the present moment. It all started my Freshman year of high
\nschool–when I was too short, too shy and too unschooled at The Art of
\n9th Grade Popularity (see the collected works of Lao Tzu) to crack the
\nwalnut of high school cliques–that me and my Dad (check out his upcoming guest lecture at the Interdependence Project<\/a>) would spend Saturday
\nnights with takeout chinese marveling at the strange astrophysical melodrama of Star Trek: The Next Generation<\/a>. We invited others to join us, but no one was into it. <\/p>\n

\"captain-jeanlucpicard-uss-enterprise.png\"<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I know Jean Luc, I know.<\/p>\n

Since then favorites have included Bladerunner (of course), Star Wars (though not maniacally), and Serenity\/Firefly<\/a>, both the shortlived tv show and the excellent movie, neither of which got the attention they ever deserved. Battlestar Galactica was great, but the series lost steam at the end like the Little Engine That Couldn’t.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I think the SciFi genre allows us to explore relationships in a
\nvisionary setup, and therefore is a perfect template to parallel and
\nexamine political, cultural, spiritual, and personal ideals in an
\notherworldly landscape. The best scifi creates an internally coherent
\nnarrative universe, but one which reflects back upon our own. The worst
\nscifi does this, and tells you that it’s doing this every two minutes. The very best
\nscifi does it so much that it becomes a caricature of itself, like Star
\nTrek: TNG.<\/p>\n

I don’t see why a Buddhist can’t get down with that kind of fantasy. Sometimes the present moment is best understood by creating an alternate universe. Go figure.
\nSo I will declare it right now: it is my intention, at some point, to
\nwrite a work of Buddhist inspired Science Fiction, either for the
\nscreen, the stage, or just the page. Plot ideas welcome in the comments section below.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yup Yup. James T. Kirk and Spock have found the fountain of youth. 11th time’s the charm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-media"],"yoast_head":"\nStar Trek: I'm So Frackin' Excited! - One City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/onecity\/2009\/05\/star-trek-im-so-frackin-excited.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Star Trek: I'm So Frackin' Excited! - One City\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yup Yup. James T. 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His writing has been featured in numerous print and online publications. He is the founding director of the Interdependence Project and the host of the I.D. Project\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s popular weekly podcast (available on iTunes). He is currently on the part-time faculty of Eugene Lang College at New School University in NYC, where he teaches Buddhism. 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