far out man

I didn't watch Star Trek when it first came out in 1966.  I discovered the show a few years after it went into syndication.  I remember riding the bus home after school and discovered the reruns.   Mom and dad had a television in their room, so I'd watch the show while plopped on their bed.  By that time in Finlayson family history, mother was working with dad at his law office and the kids ruled the domain until they returned home.

Apparently, during the Enterprise's first three year flight, it ran against very popular shows of the day.  One of these shows was Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.  The show didn't reach it's true (younger) audience until ratings dropped and the show was canceled.  It wasn't until the Star Trek was aired late afternoon and early evenings that the show found it's young audience and the rest is Star Trek history.

Gene Roddenberry had written for many television Westerns and had sold the concept of Star Trek as a Wagon Train to the stars.  Like Rod Serling and Twilight Zone, Roddenberry wanted to use his Sci-Fi creation as social commentary.  Roddenberry saw the future as multicultural and peaceful.  Ironic how Roddenberry's vision of the future wasn't really that peaceful.  People were getting vaporized every episode.

I guess you could say I'm a fan of Star Trek, but never understood the Trekkie thing that followed.  I don't know the names of the episodes.  One of my all time favorites is called Bread and Circuses.  It's the one where they go to a Roman-like gladiator world, where there are people in hiding who worship the 'sun'.  Another episode is where they land on this weird planet where all their wishes come true and they all start getting offed one by one.  As it turns out, they are on some kind of vacation planet.   I'd like to see some of those old episodes again.

My late friend Jim Thompson once told me that he was on an episode of Star Trek.  He had won some kind of contest and got to fly out to California to be in a show where he was part of a herd of child actors.  He was just a young face in the crowd, but did get to meet all the stars of Star Trek. He told me the name of the episode  at the time but I don't recall.  There are several episodes that involved a bunch of children.  Was it Miri?