William Shatner’s 80th birthday fell earlier this week, and in honor of the often-hammy Star Trek star – whose series introduced at least one impressionable kid to the idea of worlds beyond our own (and created a lifelong science fiction fan) – we give you the instantly recognizable Star Trek theme – played on a saw…
(Found via Tor.com, who also posted a compilation of Shatner videos (not to be missed if you’re on any kind of drugs), and also a writer’s essay about a book that I also read to death when I was young; The World of Star Trek)
Thanks for kindling up the memories. As a kid growing up in the late 70s, I was a total Star Trek nut. My mom bought me the “Big Three” Ballantine books: The World of ST, The Making of ST, and David Gerrold’s book on writing The Trouble with Tribbles. Like you and Alex Bledsoe, I read them until they fell apart. Even more than the show itself, they hard-coded my DNA when it was still pliable and made it impossible for me to NOT want to be a writer. How lucky can a fellow be to have that kind of influence at a young age? Thank you, Star Trek.
I don’t know what it was about those books – maybe a kid’s glimpse into how things are made – but yeah, I read the covers off World and Making too.
Tom, I was also greatly influenced by Star Trek. I watched it in reruns after school during 8th and 9th grades when I lived near Anderson in northern California.
I began reading sci fi all the time — Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov — and continued well into college. Sci fi probably probably led me to study science as an undergrad.
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“Have Space Suit Will Travel” was my favorite Heinlein novel, and like you, I read a lot of the “Golden Age” sci-fi. Later, I came across Zelazny and developed an appreciation for great writing, but in any case, reading a lot of sci-fi does infuse you with an appreciation for science.
I was just listening to a podcast interview with SF author Connie Willis (“Bellwether” is one of my favorite novels of any genre), and she said that reading “Have Space Suit Will Travel” as a kid made her determined to become a SF writer. I think I need to go re-read it…
It’s one of His “young adult” novels (as we’d call ‘em today), and in truth, I wonder how it’s aged. It was adventurous but had a bit of a big picture bent to it which made it special for me.