Tag: Star Trek

My Nerd Holidays

Fandom

A friend of mine has fallen in love with The Last of Us, primarily through the HBO TV show. She has played a little bit of the game but I don’t think she’s finished it. All of this is preamble to her texting me a promo last week for Outbreak Day 2024 from Naughty Dog, the developer of the game series. She had thought it meant that Season 2 was coming sooner than previously announced.

I had to explain that Outbreak Day, traditionally 26 September, was the day in-game that the cordyceps infection reached the US. And because it’s a specific date, fans have made it a day to celebrate the game, story, and characters. The TV show is still not coming until next year; but fans will absolutely be celebrating Outbreak Day. She undersstood, though she was a bit disappointed.

I realized that there are lots of holidays on the Fan Calendar; dates that specific fandoms choose to talk about the stories and worlds they love. Here’s an incomplete listing of the fandoms I participate in, its meaning in-universe and in the real world, and whether or not it’s one I celebrate.

First Contact Day

In-universe: 5 April 2063

In the Star Trek universe, Zephrem Cochrane invented anti-matter/matter powered warp drive, taking flight in Earth’s first starship, the Phoenix, from Bozeman, Montana, United States of America, on 5 April 2063, an historic event. His flight attracted the attention of a Vulcan science ship, leading to Earth’s first recorded contact with extraterrestial life. Star Trek fans the world over celebrate every April on this day.

Star Wars Day

The Fourth of May

I’ve written before about how much I hate that a universe I love so very much gets it’s special universally-recognized day of the year from a foolish pun. Yes, yes, May the Fourth be with you. Ugh. By all rights, Star Wars Day should be May 25, since the original movie was released into theaters on 25 May 1977. But I don’t get to make the rules. May 4th is Star Wars Day.

The Last of Us Day (formerly Outbreak Day)

In universe: 26 September 2003 / 2013

This day celebrates the game and television series The Last of Us. The cordyceps infection reached a critical mass in the United States, having spread from South America (game) or Indonesia (TV show). In the real world, Naughty Dog renamed the day The Last of Us Day after the actual global pandemic of COVID-19 made outbreaks hit a bit too close to home.

The Great War

10 October 2077

The Fallout game series gives us the date of humanity’s Great War. In a single day in October, nuclear war destroyed the United States, turning the entire continent into a radiated wasteland full of mutants, ghouls, and leather-clad survivors. The bombs fell and it was all over very quickly.

Mass Effect Day

7 November

In the Mass Effect universe, Earth’s special forces can achieve an N designation, of which there are seven levels. The best of the best are known as an N7. Fans of the sci-fi series have taken that designation and declared November 7 “N7 Day“, and the developers and fans use the day to share fan art, stories, and raise donations for various charities and causes.

Star Trek Discovery S5E04 “Face The Strange”

Daily Story Project, reviews, TV

This week’s Star Trek Discovery Season 5 Episode 04, “Face The Strange” was SO MUCH FUN. The show has finally found its footing. The writers know the characters well, they put them together in interesting ways, and they play to their strengths, which is emotional connections amid bonkers Star Trek science. Minor plot spoilers ahead for this episode.

This week, the ship gets sabotaged by the crime couple that are the big bads for the season in the form of time bugs, literaly spiders that somehow tap into EPS conduits and force the ship to jump backward and forward in time. For Reasons(tm) Captain Burnham (played by the delightful Sonequa Martin-Green) and grumpy new First Officer Rayner (played to perfection by Callum Keith Rennie) are immune to the time loops so they keep getting reset and have to figure out a solution. They do get some help from Chief Engineer Stamets (Anthony Rapp) because, of course, he’s got mushroom in his DNA. If you aren’t following this show you will probably think I am making this up but I assure you, I am not.

By having the leads jumping through time, but being tied to the ship, the writers get to have them interact with the history of the ship, and all the crazy shenanigans that have happened over five seasons of off-the-wall Star Trek nonsense (I say nonsense with love; I love this show, flaws and all) and even get to finally tie up a loose end that was introduced in a Short Trek a few years ago (“Calypso” if you’re curious) to my satisfaction, at least. Even Captain Burnham gets to see just how far she’s come from her origin as Star Fleet’s first and only mutineer, to sitting in the center seat.

Just really well done, y’all. I am sad that this is the final season because it feels like the show runners, cast, and crew are firing on all warp cores. Just this episode has so much payoff, it was a joy to watch.

The thing about Star Trek, for me at least, is it was my first fandom. I was too young to see it when it originally aired, or at least too young to remember that (I was born in late 1964, the first episode aired in September 1966) but I was old enough to watch it when it ran every afternoon on KPTV-12, Monday through Friday. I watched it and I loved it; it showed a bright (literally colorful) and hopeful utopian future, a future of adventure and science.

It remains the one major science-fiction franchise that says we can be better, that life can be more than war and hate and strife. Everyone gets second chances in Star Trek. Everyone tries to know themselves, and improve the universe they live in. Everyone tries to find solutions to problems by talking it through and appealing to our better selves. Even steadfast enemies become allies, in time. I love it so much, and am happy that for all my life, I’ve had stories that point the way to the good world I know is possible.