Star Trek, Star Wars, Optimism and Roswell Time

On a recent episode of A Bit of Optimism, Simon Sinek and his guest Elle Cordova discussed their competing views of which science fiction universe was “better”. Simon came down on the side of Star Wars, seeing himself very much as a Han Solo type. Elle on the other hand was more of a Star Trek person. I am too, as it happens and it’s not just because of the hair. 

Captain Pike and his magnificent hair. Some call it Pike’s Peak.

I grew up on a heavy diet of all the various flavours of Star Trek. My friends and I were so excited about Voyager when it started that we huddled around a VHS tape recorded in the US that a friend had somehow got hold of and watched that on a British PAL TV and video player. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen an NTSC signal played back on PAL but it’s absolute garbage. 

Star Trek was inspiring, I always found the fact that it imagines a distant future for humanity where are still here as a species and making progress toward common goals to be reassuring. Not to mention that the crews worked together, overcame difficulties together and understood that there was always a bigger picture. I’m a very pragmatic person so the decisions of various Captains and Commanders over the years rhymed with my world view I suppose. 

Now, as a parent and man approaching/ enjoying his midlife, the series Strange New Worlds is really getting under my skin and I love it. This crew and Captain in particular might be my favourite of all time. Deep Space Nine is probably second and I’ll chuck Lower Decks into third place because it shouldn’t work but absolutely does. Funny sketch Star Trek? I mean, only when it’s done this well.

We need media like this, that provides an optimistic view of the world, that celebrates learning, curiosity, knowledge sharing and diversity. To promote the idea that we’re better together, working through differences, and my hope is that while my two sons are hooked on Star Wars right now that I can, over time, help them to enjoy and maybe even love Star Trek. 

There was one other take away from the podcast with Simon and Elle. They discussed the importance of being bored from time-to-time to create space for creativity. They jokingly name this “Roswell Time”, inspired by when Elle wrote a song about the Roswell incident in New Mexico because she was stuck there for 10 days due to a serious van malfunction.

Simon said he leaves his Fridays free so he can work on whatever needs to be worked on but also so he has space to work on things that emerge and I can definitely relate as that’s where the idea for the podcast came from, a dream over the Christmas holidays, a two week enforced break that allowed an idea to emerge. It’s also what I’ve been feeling like I’ve been missing. We’ve had so much travel followed by visitors that has all been wonderful but has meant that it’s when I’m on a delayed flight that I have the space to have an idea that turns what I was listening to and thinking about while offline into a wee blog post.

Brains are funny and we should all remember to create some Roswell Time for ourselves. Just maybe not 10 days 😅