“Space… the final frontier…”
50 years ago, the voyages and the adventures
of the crew of the Star-ship ‘Enterprise’
began a universe, a saga, and a story,
envisioned from the out-set as a
“wagon-train to the stars”…
now, half a century after the first episode
of the television series ‘Star Trek’
first premiered on American screens,
fans young and old –
some whom were born before,
some whom were born after, September, 1966,
from all around the world,
of all walks of life, colour,
and ethnicity, are joining together
in celebration of the original ‘Star Trek’ series,
and its many film and television spin-off series,
to champion every story, every episode, every ethos,
that each and every one of which propagated –
and it is those optimistic and hopeful
visions of a future which has inspired
and compelled countless men, women, and children,
to reach beyond and journey into the unknown…
one day, perhaps in the life-time
of those who are young today,
humans will set-foot upon another planet far from Earth,
and the entire world will unite as they watch it happen –
and everybody will have the visionary creator of ‘Star Trek’,
Gene Roddenberry, to thank for creating
a world of infinite possibilities
where there exists life of infinite diversity
in an infinite number of combinations.

I have been a fan of ‘Star Trek’ since I was a child…
I have watched every episode of every television series,
and every minute of every ‘Star Trek’ motion-picture,
over and over again…
I have imagined in my dreams what it would be like
to be the Captain of my very own star-ship,
with my own crew, embarking on an adventure
of my own imagining into the vastness of space,
to the outer-reaches of the galaxy…
the thought of traveling faster than the speed of light
has always been enough to make my imagination
race away at warp-speed into the depths of wonder
that lie among the strange new worlds,
and the new civilizations, of the galactic-wilds…
I have so much to thank the writers, the actors,
the artists, of every ‘Star Trek’ adventure for –
even to this day, their influence continues
to inspire me and drive the course of my imagination –
because they have instilled in me a great love
of stories of the fantastic,
especially those of the science-fiction orientation.

‘Star Trek’ has taught me so much!
‘Star Trek’ has given me the gift of wanting to understand
the seemingly-incomprehensible, and why it is important
to treasure every moment that we are alive –
because each-and-every-one will never come again –
and what we leave behind is not as important
as how we have all lived…
and, more than anything, ‘Star Trek’ has given me
the gift of wonder and a love of embracing
the infinite possibilities of existence…
and I swear that if I were contacted
by a star-ship of any kind from another planet
that could transport me to their ship
in the blink of an eye,
“to boldly go where no-one has gone before”,
I would say, at the top of my lungs:
“beam me up!”.