How Star Trek Bettered My Relationship With My Dad

Now, for context, I am fourteen and going to high school next year. Star Trek has become a huge part of my life. I have finished TOS (plus all six movies), TNG (I’ve only seen Generations so far), and the Kelvin Timeline movies, I’m on season four of DS9, and I’m on season one of Voyager. It all started when my dad made me watch The Original Series in fifth grade.

My dad and I are very different people. He loves old black and white movies, I find them kind of boring. He knows the ins and outs of a car, I can explain the use of a Minecraft item. He mainly listens to progressive rock while my playlist is 2000s emo and punk. He has mainly conservative views and mine are very left. So yeah, very different. He grew up with TOS and all the other shows and movies, so when we first got a Netflix subscription, Star Trek: The Original Series was one of the first things he made me watch.

Eleven year old me found it sort of boring I must admit, though I remember liking Return of the Archons and Amok Time. The rest of the episodes have blended together in my memory. Around halfway through the third season, we stopped watching. For a whole two years I mostly forget about Star Trek. Come December 2020, I remember the show and decide to look it up on Tumblr. I come to my dad with my newfound interest in the show and ask to finish up TOS so we can continue. He of course agrees. We quickly finish TOS and start TNG on Christmas, finishing it on May 21st. Now my dad and I have something in common, a love for Star Trek. Most of our conversations are about favorite characters, technology in the shows, and plots we (I) haven’t gotten to yet.

So yes, I have Star Trek to thank for giving me and my dad something to talk about.