Brian Phillips has a great essay at Grantland commenting on the 25th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Money quote:
It’s obviously the case that the great subject of almost all American television — family — is also at large on the bridge of the Enterprise. Like The West Wing, the show offers a fantasy of smart friends working together and supporting each other that’s designed to make you want to join them. When you’re a skinny 13-year-old who’s scared a third of the time and bored another third, the idea of roaming the constellations with Captain Picard, whom adventure follows like a shadow and who always knows what to do, will obviously have a certain appeal.
Those sentences nicely capture my own reaction to the show. While I was already a Trekkie, I didn’t feel much affinity for the environs of the original show. But the NCC-1701/D seemed like the kind of place where a smart kid in a wheelchair could do okay for himself. The entire ship seemed to consist of gentle curves and slopes, implying that nothing was off-limits to a set of wheels. Medical care was always readily available and perhaps Commander Data could be my PCA when he was off-duty. Perhaps even Captain Picard would take notice of my potential and support my application to Starfleet.
Or so I imagined. And still do, sometimes.
