This blog continues from https://www.nohemingway.com/post/the-trouble-with-tribbles which looked at the Trouble with Tribbles which was an episode of the Original Series of Star Trek which was written by David Gerrold and first aired in 1967.
The Enterprise fills with cuddly Tribbles which have a habit of breeding very quickly and are born pregnant if I remember properly, and they start to take over and invest the ship.
Lacking space today, we are all stuck in our homes and apartments or palaces in the case of Prince Charles and we are all getting used to a new life but it not as we have known it.
Thanks to Skype and other communication devices, we are even teaching classes "On-screen" like Captain Kirk and Captain Picard.
Life has a habit of imitating art and cell phones were dreamed up, I believe, by a Motorola engineer working on carphones while watching the original Star Trek series on television.
I believe tablets featured frequently in Star Trek The Next Generation and when Apple tried to sue other companies for copying their Ipad design, Samsung showed examples of Ipad-looking devices in Star Trek in the late 1980s.
In a European Space Agency museum, I even saw a Star Trek uniform (Pictured below) that had actually been worn in space but the original crew reached new heights long before we started boldly wearing their uniforms into space or copying their technology.
Nichelle Nichols who played Uhura is by far my favourite crew member for her contributions to space exploration as I believe she became a NASA ambassador and recruited numerous people to the agency including a number of African American astronauts and I think even a NASA director.
She just answered phones in the series and wanted to leave the show. I believe she even tendered her notice but was convinced to stay when she met her biggest fan, Martin Luther King Jr.
The story of her encounter with Martin Luther is well known but she also inspired The Next Generation and a young Whoopi Goldberg started screaming when she first saw Nichelle Nichols on television.
If I remember correctly, Whoopi got so excited to see a black woman on tv that she started calling her family to come quickly as there was a black woman on tv who wasn't a cleaner or a slave.
Things have changed a lot since then and we have even seen a coloured president in the White House but I'm not sure how much longer the orange one will last judging by the way he has mishandled Covid-19. Donald Trump's predecessor Barrack Obama got his big break into politics, thanks to a sexy Cyborg from Star Trek and the intimate details of her relations.
Trump might be the "TV President" but when Barrack Obama ran for Illinois in 2004 against his Republican rival Jack Ryan, the conservative had to drop out of the race when details of him trying to pressure his ex-wife, actress Jeri Ryan to perform publicly at swingers parties emerged*.
Jerri Ryan is best known for playing the Cyborg, Seven-of-Nine in Star Trek Voyager.
Apart from divorces and every day acting struggles, things haven't always been easy for the crew and George Takei was imprisoned in an Internment Camp during World War II and Scotty was shot multiple times on D Day.
The story goes that James "Scotty" Doohan was hit in Normandy on D Day and while most people believe wearing a red shirt on Star Trek's Original Series is dangerous. The legendary actor pulled the classic bullet-dodging trick and lived to fight another DDay. Despite being shot, his cigarette case in his left breast pocket apparently took a bullet that could have otherwise killed him.
They say smoking kills but they saved his life and when he died, his ashes, I believe, were scattered in space. I really need to fact check some of this information as I know I will upset fans if I get it wrong.
Star Trek and its fans have probably been very pivotal in our development as a species and the first space shuttle ever built was called Enterprise after fans of the sci-fi show boldly voted en-masse to call NASA's first shuttle after the fictional spacecraft.
In 2012, when I first started teaching, I was amazed by Smartboards and joked that it was like being on the Enterprise with the big digital screen. Technology has really changed since the 60s.
GREAT SCOTT: There are many ways in which Star Trek has influenced our current lives and some bizarre ways in which the science-fiction show has spilled over into reality such as the USS Zumwalt. The super stealthy advanced Zumwalt destroyer was first captained by a man called Captain James A Kirk and now replaced by Capt. Scott A. Tait.
TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER: You can't make this stuff up but it looks like Space Force just copied and pasted their logo but what about these ten gadgets that were first seen in Star Trek?
As I continue to "Engage" in Skype classes and the world tries to figure out how to control Coronavirus from entering their borders. I am reminded of a story about an episode that could not be aired in England or Ireland where Captain Picard and Data talk about the unification of Ireland in 2024. The 1990 episode talks about the use of terrorist tactics in Northern Ireland which fortunately seems so alien, pun intended, to us today.
The Berlin Wall was still standing tall when Patrick Steward stepped onboard The Next Generation's Enterprise in 1987.
Who knows what the future holds but Boris Johnson will hopefully learn that Corona is Corona and that Brexit promised the NHS €350 million a week if they left the European Federation.
Who could have predicted the difficulties that England would face in fleeing Federation space?
The folly of leaving the European Union and European Convention on Human Rights was presented in a very funny sketch called "What has the ECHR ever done for us?"
Based on the Monty Python sketch, "What have the Romans ever done for us?" with none other than Sir Patrick Steward himself playing the British Prime Minister at the helm. That was before David Cameron decided he couldn't captain the "Titanic Success" that Boris Johnson promised.
Sir Patrick, the talented Sci-fi/ Shakespearean actor is best known for his role as Captain Jean Luc Picard but I think Star Trek's Chief O'Brien knows a thing or two about trying to unify Northern Ireland as actor Colm Meaney played Martin McGuinness in the touching and surprisingly funny film, The Journey where two bitter rivals unite for peace and worked well in government as a team.
There is hope for an end to conflict when you watch The Journey's portrayal of Rev. Ian Pasley & Martin McGuinness's path to peace.
Colm Meaney is best known as Star Trek's Chief O'Brien but in Ireland, he is also known for his foul-mouthed Roddy Doyle roles such as the father in The Snapper.
Splicing his DNA in some kind of transporter accident, you might get Roddy Doyle's more vulgar version of Star Trek's Chief O' Bien where Colm Meany can be very mean and you will see what I mean if you follow Roddy Doyle's Facebook page.
I have selected some appropriate Coronavirus, drinking and Irish culture-based memes here:
AISTRIÚCHÁN: I never thought I'd see an Irish flag on a spacesuit but there you go.
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