Where No Man Has Gone Before...

I wonder if the crew of the Enterprise would consider themselves "astronauts"?

The way I look at it, if you have your own apartment, fully capable food replicators, and, well, gravity...your job isn't that much different from any crew in the regular Navy. Sure, you're in space; so the "astronaut" designation would technically apply--but I doubt you'd use the term to describe yourself.

Two hundred years ago, a white guy crossing the mountains was considered a brave and hearty pioneer. Today, the same guy is merely a part of the traffic problem. Even if he stayed off the highways and carried nothing but some supplies and a Bowie knife, he's just a "hiker". No big deal.

So at some point, even though there will be plenty of people in spaceships, nobody will be called astronauts. I surely do hope I live to see that day.

Anyway, I probably could've included the gal at the top of this post in yesterday's quiz. But her qualification was for her voice only, so I didn't. Majel Barrett (aka Mrs. Gene Roddenberry) was not only "Number One" in the pilot (as shown above), but was also Nurse Christine Chapel in TOS, and Lwaxana Troi in TNG. In addition, she provided computer voices for almost every incarnation of Star Trek there has been.

The folks in the graphic, though, are the 6 actors who played the same (onscreen) character in three different Star Trek TV series.





The first fellow, sadly, just passed away on July 31st. His name was Michael Ansara, and he probably appeared on just about ever show there was in the 60s and 70s. In the puzzle, he's shown in his role as Cochise in the late 1950s. In his various Star Trek appearances, though, he played the formidable Klingon Kang.

The second guy is Armin Shimerman, shown in the puzzle as a guest on Seinfeld. In the Trek universe, he was the slimy Ferengi Quark.

Everybody recognized Jonathan Frakes, aka Commander Riker. Next to him, Marina Sirtis (aka Counselor Deanna Troi) wasn't quite so easy to identify.

The next guy is the charismatic John de Lancie, who played the charming omnipotent jerkwad known simply as "Q". And in the final panel, we have Richard Poe, who played the perennially grumpy Cardassian, Gul Evek.

Other than Kang and Q, these characters were not among my favorites. The folks I'd have liked to see reappear would include Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln, Trelane as a grownup, Bela Oxmyx*, a completely rehabilitated Lord Garth, and of course, Julie Newmar. It might also have been fun to see what baby Hortas looked like.

And not that this has anything to do with anything, but I've always wondered -- after the original series ended and Leonard Nimoy joined the cast of "Mission Impossible", was he thinking "Thank goodness, I finally made it into a show that will be remembered!"? That would have been an entirely logical assumption at the time.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that little bit of trivia. I'll get into some deeper philosophical topics in the upcoming days. As always, thanks for dropping by. Have a great day!

* More trivia: In the script, and on a poster featured in the episode "A Piece of the Action", the mob boss's name was actually spelled "Okmyx". But since it was consistently pronounced as Oxmyx by the actors, that name has become the accepted character designation. Wow. I guess we all learn something new every day, don't we?