Star Trek: TOS psychedelic gif — the universe is inside your computer

A friend of mine sent me this awesome gif the other day. Oh yes, just look at it. Yes, just look at it … keep looking … you’re getting sleepy … very sleepy … now follow the Tribble

Along with My Favorite Martian and Lost in Space, Star Trek was my mindfood. I was also a particularly big fan of Star Trek: The Animated Series, which my lovely wife got me for Christmas a few years ago — heaven: Link

Star Trek TOS psychedelic gifStar Trek: The Original Series (TOS) was a savior for me growing up — it was sophisticated SF with a positive view of the future; and the reassuring principle that we are not alone in the universe. Also, it made me feel like there were other geeks out there having awkward childhoods — so I was not alone in that universe either 🙂

It was so exciting to follow the new adventures of the Star Trek team every week, and it was easy to imagine and insert myself into that world as well — it was my default “go to sleep dream world”. I was invariably a Red Shirt, working closely with the crew to fight off the latest alien threat. It never occurred to me in those days that each week the crew faced a new bizarre alien threat, and every week the crew invariably disregarded it at the beginning, like the week before had never happened.

Some of SF’s greatest writers worked on ST: TOS, including:

  • Harlan Ellison (“The City on the Edge of Forever”)
  • Theodore Sturgeon (“Shore Leave” and “Amok Time”)
  • Fredric Brown (“Arena”)
  • Richard Matheson (“The Enemy Within”)
  • The full list is on Wikipedia: Link