Older than Star Wars and easily one of the longest-running franchises around, the vision of what the future could be that is Star Trek is having a serious birthday this year: 60. Yes, Trek is getting a little older, but isn’t quite in retirement.
For many of us, it’s a series that helped shape our youth, and may still be doing that. Kids can find Trek-related shows in the form of Prodigy, a two-season concept that found a way to relate the concept to kids and teens (and should have found its way to a third season), while the most recent approach Starfleet Academy feels slightly suited to an older generation to inspire them in ways that hopefully don’t involve an early cancellation (and yet have).
If you’re this journalist’s age, you might have grown up with The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, or this writer’s favourite Voyager, and there’s always the classic original series with Kirk and Spock, or today’s excellent reinvention in Strange New Worlds.
There is a lot of Trek, with a little under one thousand episodes across the 13 TV shows, and that’s without taking into account all the movies. You could easily watch any of them, but there also other things you might want to consider doing.
Learn a language no one uses
How much time do you have? If you have enough time to doom scroll through whatever hate-watch you’re on this week, maybe you can learn a new language, or at the very least, learn some phrases in the proper geeky language that is Klingon.
It’s a little fierce and aggressive, and yet also as geeky as deciding to learn some Elvish, because that is also something you can do.
For the 60th anniversary, you might want to check out the Klingon Language Institute, an actual website that has existed for almost as long as most people have known the internet, or ask ChatGPT to translate some phrases so that you can look cool while holding a bat’leth, or even pretending to hold one. Whatever happens to be more honourable.
Sip tea while reading The Three Musketeers
This journalist isn’t much a fan of earl grey, but if you happen to like it (hot), you also might want to seek out one of the books Picard was reading in the first season of the titular show. In this case, it’s actually The Three Musketeers by Dumas, which is conveniently available on Project Gutenberg for you to read for free.
Strangely, there is no specific reading list for Patrick Stewart’s character of Jean-Luc Picard, but Stewart does have a collection of Shakespeare’s sonnets read by the actor, which you could always simply listen to while sipping that tea, earl grey, hot.
Indulge in the digital comics
If reading or listening to the classics isn’t how you like to chill out, consider finding your way to some of the comics, of which there are a few variations.
Reading comics on your phone or tablet isn’t difficult, and is a fantastic use of foldables like the Galaxy Fold 8, but you also need to find the Trek titles to get stuck in.
IDW has been publishing Trek comics for ages, and so there are a bunch there, including a new season set to launch a few weeks after the official 60th anniversary passes (but the same year).
While you can easily find the IDW comics over the years on a variety of services, you may want to find your way to one of the Star Trek comic bundles, which could net a whole bunch of Trek for not a lot of tin.
Take the Kobayashi Maru
Alternatively, you can prove your mettle to see whether you would actually make your way to the Captain’s Chair with a classic Star Trek feat: beating the unbeatable.
In Trek lore, the Kobayashi Maru is an unwinnable scenario to test what you would do. It’s one Kirk essentially cheated in, changing the conditions of the test and scenario.
It’s also a concept that has made its way to a few digital incarnations, including a classic style of text game.
While there are digital mobile equivalents in some of the games, playing the Kobayashi Maru in a text game might be one of the more old school and neat ways to play this idea. Sure, you don’t get to see the ship, but you do get to experience a classic style of gameplay.
And while you’re doing that, why not play The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy the way it was meant to be played: in the text game Douglas Adams wrote. It’s not strictly Trek, but Trekkers and Trekkies alike (plus a whole bunch more) would easily know all about it and its 42 references.
Play inside a Star Trek episode (with a game)
There are plenty of other Star Trek games you can play on a computer, phone, or console if you happen to have them, and the old classic ones are definitely the options to look at.
“Elite Force” in the Voyager universe is a stand out, as is “A Final Unity” even though it hasn’t been re-released and is impossible to find (it may have been one of the first games this writer bought). But if you’re going to celebrate Trek with something modern, definitely check out “Resurgence”.
The most recent title before “Across the Unknown” popped out this year, Resurgence plays out like an episode of Trek, but you get to decide on some of the outcomes. Built more like one of The Walking Dead titles (because it comes from some of the same people), it’s an adventure that works well and helps you feel like you’re in an episode of the show.
Some of the mini-games could be better, but given how few Trek games are actually all that fun, Resurgence manages to deliver a good experience all around, and we can’t for a follow-up.
Read up on Trek history
We’d be remiss to write a Trek guide of things to do if we didn’t say one of the more important things you should definitely do, and that’s to look at Trek’s history.
Between what led its creator Gene Roddenberry to create the show to everything happening during the civil rights period of US history, not to mention the connection to classic TV star Lucille Ball, Star Trek is filled with a lot of history and major events that you may not know about, and could just teach a thing or two.
Every work of fiction has history. Star Trek is no different, and some of that history could take you on journeys of its own. You can even do it on your own PADD— sorry, phone.
…or just watch it (and make it so)
The most obvious thing to do is to simply watch any one of the series or films, and to just absorb what’s out there.
Every fan has their personal favourite, though standout films include the 1986 classic “The Voyage Home” with the original crew, a decade later with the 1996 flick “First Contact” with the TNG crew, and the J.J. Abrams reboot 13 years after that simply called “Star Trek”.
If you need inspiration to watch some of the shows, consider:
- Deep Space Nine: Season 5, Episode 6 for “Trials and Tribble-ations”
- The Next Generation: Season 7, Episodes 23/24 for “All Good Things…”
- Voyager: Season 4, Episodes 8/9 for “Year of Hell”
- Voyager: Season 7, Episode 25 for “Endgame”
- Picard: Season 3, Episode 10 for “The Last Generation”, and
- Strange New Worlds: Season 2, Episode 7 for “Those Old Scientists”
Or any episode of Lower Decks because Trek as comedy works so well, or any episode of The Original Series because it’s the original, or simply any episode that has the letter “Q” standing out by its own because you just know that it’s going to be fun.
For bonus points, look for Episode 6, Season 10 on the original Frasier for “Star Mitzvah”, which shows how Trek can connect ordinary people in unusual ways.
Paramount’s streaming service is about the only place you’re likely to find the lot of them — Star Trek and Frasier — though you can always also turn to Blu-rays, DVDs, or if you’re so inclined, find a video tape and go for your life.
Simply put, there are loads of ways to celebrate Trek at 60, and almost none mean you need to dress up like your favourite character (unless you want to, which is also totally fine, too).
