TO GO BOLDLY...

A missionary would not feel out of place on the starship, Enterprise. The crew of the enterprise led by captain James T. Kirk, were sent to observe and learn about the different life forms in other planets. Too a certain extent missionaries also observe and sttudy the cultures of the people they serve.

 Developing a feeling for the different personalities in the team commanded by Kirk was a key feature in the science fiction TV series Star Trek in the 60's. Kirk, together with "Spock" (L. Nimoy), his vulcan science officer,  "Bones" (De Forrest Kelly), the ship's doctor, "Scotty", the ships engineer, were some of the main characters of  the show.

Star Trek ran for only 3 seasons  before it was cancelled. My appreciation for Star Trek grew over a period of time as I slowly worked through all the episodes from the 3 seasons in Bolivia. Many of the episodes were absolute gems. Some were tolerable and the rest were above average.

Although the TV series came to an end, the mythology of the show lived on through re-runs, conventions and numerous requests for a movie and the return of the show. Studio moguls and producers must have seen the commercial value of a remake of the series. Star Trek was then brought to life in the 80s and 90's through a host of movies. A new TV series Star Trek: The New Generation also got off the ground. Before long, other spin-offs, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enteprise more than kept the Star Trek franchise  alive.

Many of the episodes from these spin-offs were superior to the episodes from the original Star Trek and the The New Generation.  Recently, a new run of movies chronicling the adventures of the young captain Kirk has made its way to the big screen!

Episodes from the original series opened with the hypnotic words (you tube clip in this post) of Kirk:

 Space..the last frontier...these are the voyages of the star ship Enterprise, its 5 year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before. 

And missionaries boldly go where no man has gone before!