“Chev, I’m a certified heart surgeon. Well, I was. Lost my license after I fucked up my ex-wife’s vaginal rejuvenation procedure in our basement. That’s irrelevant right now. The point is – if you get hold of your heart, I’m reasonably sure I can put it back in for you.”
-Doc Miles (Dwight Yoakam), Crank: High Voltage (2009)
“The loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room.”
-Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), American Gangster (2007)
“You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon.”
-Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner), Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
“I know you’re out there. I can feel you now. I know that you’re afraid… you’re afraid of us. You’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin. I’m going to hang up this phone, and then I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.”
-Neo (Keanu Reeves), The Matrix (1999)
Fifty-five years ago today, Star Trek – these days referred to as Star Trek: The Original Series – premiered on the NBC television network. I first started watching it in syndication, soon after it was cancelled. It usually aired around five o’clock in the afternoon, just before the local news. I did my best to never miss an episode, even if it was one I’d seen before. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen each episode. Fifty? A hundred? Maybe more. And I’m still (re)watching them. Star Trek airs on the MeTV network every Saturday night at ten, right after Svengoolie.
The first episode to air – although not the first on filmed – was “The Man Trap.” Not one of my favorite episodes, but still pretty good. Here’s a scene from that ep. Spoiler alert for those of you who have managed to avoid seeing that one for the last five and a half decades.
Happy Anniversary, Star Trek. It’s been quite the (fifty-)five year mission.
“I think they sent me to the wrong place… See, I did join the army, but I joined a different army. I joined the one with the condos and the private rooms.”
-Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn), Private Benjamin (1980)
“I don’t know what’s scarier, losing nuclear weapons, or that it happens so often there’s actually a term for it.”
-Giles Prentice (Frank Whaley), Broken Arrow (1996)
It dawned on me a little while ago that today is the 35th anniversary of my enlistment in the US Army. Holy shit, 35 years! A child born the day I raised my hand and took the oath would be old enough to run for president. It’s enough to make a guy feel old.
To mark the occasion, I guess I should post a video clip from the movie Stripes. Because why the hell not, right?
