who am I to insult a captain?

People say don’t meet your heroes, but what about someone else’s hero? A friend told me that Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes were going to be speaking at an event at a local community college here in Iowa. My partner who is a big Star Trek fan was excited at the opportunity, but she had to work. I know opportunities like this don’t happen often, so I went there by myself to listen to these to speak about about their life and career, and then to meet them and get their autograph.

I was never in into Star Trek. When the show started airing, I was about eight or nine years old and I was more interested in DuckTales and comedy shows like Night Court and Cheers. I had a lot of friends who were into Star Trek and I don’t think I really mocked them for their fandom of Star Trek but it wasn’t my thing. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of college, where my poetry teacher explained what was so wonderful about the shows. The more friends I made going up through school more Star Trek fans I was immersed with. Some were giant fans who had their own officer uniforms and I’ve been to various conventions and gatherings.

I like the Star Trek movies and I knew enough to get peoples names correctly to understand the basic premises of the show, but I was never a fan. Hearing good things about the show, though I would find myself making less jokes about it and becoming actually interested in the show. during the quarantine 2020 decided to rectify that by watching the show. I watched the first five seasons and I really enjoyed the show. I like the idea of a group of people who don’t worry about money or religion or or differences that would the most important thing is to learn to share with learn with others. Society and knowledge and understanding mattered more than anything else.

So I know what a big deal meeting these two people would be. So what do I say to a star fleet captain and a highly evolved android life form?
“ Brent, I never got into Star Trek, but I must say that your time on night Court was really impressionable to me as a child.”

I doubt I was the first person to bring up night Court. I know, in hindsight that it was kind of rude. I didn’t think about it at the time, I really thought I would have more than a minute to say how I felt about both of these men and what they’ve done. Hopefully they weren’t offended by it and it’s just my inner monologue telling me that I was a jackass.

you, Brent and Jonathan for spending a moment with me and letting me say something very stupid. I hope you enjoy the rest of your time and Iowa.