Star Trek Marathon

ROGER’S PUBLIC LIBRARY

STAR TREK MARATHON

On Saturday February 1 at 1:30 the Rogers Public Library will kick off a Star Trek Marathon by showing “Space Seed” from the Original Star Trek’s first season. In this episode the Star Trek villain Khan Noonien Singh played by Ricardo Montalban attempts to take over the Starship Enterprise before being foiled by Captain Kirk played by William Shatner. Montalban reprized his role as Kahn in the second and the best of best of all the Star Trek movies, Wrath of Khan, which will be shown at 2:30 on Saturday immediately following “Space Seed”. On Sunday at 1:30, Star Trek into Darkness the most recent motion picture in the Star Trek universe will be shown where once again Khan is the villain.

Star Trek is easily the most successful entertainment franchise in American history. There have been six different Star Trek television series with a staggering 719 Episodes. There were eighty episodes of the Original Series, twenty two episodes of Star Trek the Animated Series, 176 episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation, 173 episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine, 170 episodes of Star Trek Voyager, and 98 episodes Star Trek Enterprise. The Star Trek Canon includes twelve different Star Trek movies and hundreds of Star Trek books. Star Trek Conventions have become synonymous with rabid fanatical Geekdom so it is only appropriate that the Rogers Public Library honors Star Trek Fans everywhere by having a Star Trek Marathon leading up the fourth Geek the Library event on February 8. Only James Bond and Star Wars come close to matching the sheer magnitude of Star Trek mania.

Star Trek is an integrated universe. Cast members of the Original Series made guest appearances on subsequent series. Sarek, Mr. Spock’s father in the Original Series was the title character in the Next Generation’s Third Season Episode “Sarek”, while Mr. Spock himself was in a two part episode of the Star Trek the Next Generation called “Unification”. Leonard Nimoy was also a bridge character between Star Trek the Original Series and the new Star Trek reboot with Chris Pine as James T. Kirk and Zachary Quinto as the new Mr. Spock. Mr. Worf made the transition from Star Trek the next Generation to Deep Space Nine, while both Star Trek the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine spun off plot lines and characters for the Star Trek Voyager series. The alternate “Bad Universe” created in the Original Series with the episode “Mirror Mirror” became a plot devise in Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Star Trek Enterprise and Tribbles have been showing up everywhere in Star Trek movies and trek television series ever since the "Trouble with Tribbles". So on Saturday February 1 and Sunday February 2 the Rogers Public Library will begin the Marathon with the television episode and two movies that follows the villain Khan through the Star Trek Universe.

On Monday February 3 beginning at 6:30 the Library will have Borg Night beginning with Star Trek the Next Generation’s “Q Who?” which is the episode that introduces best Star Trek villains ever, ‘the Borg’. This is followed by ‘Best of Both Worlds’ Part I and II where Captain Picard is assimilated into the Borg Collective and rescued. Many people consider the ‘Best of Both Worlds” to be one of the very best Star Trek episodes.

Tuesday February 4 is the night for fan favorites. Deep Space Nine’s “In the Pale Moonlight”, the Original series “City on the Edge of Forever”, and the Next Generation’s “Yesterday’s Enterprise” are three Star Trek episodes that are continuously cited as the very best of Star Trek. Since all ‘best of’ lists are subjective and since everyone’s list of the best is different on Wednesday February 5 the Library will show three staff favorites, The Next Generation’s “Inner Light”, the Original Series “Balance of Terror”, and the Next Generation’s “Darmok”. I think it is suggestive that each of the staff favorites are first encounters episodes.  I guess most librarians dream is “to go where no one has gone before.”

Finally on Thursday February 6 the Library will show “The Trouble with Tribbles” followed by the Star Trek parody Galaxy Quest. Never let it be said that Librarians do not have a sense of humor. All showing's will be in the Friends of the Library Community Room and are free to the public.