Musical Monday/Confessions of an Outed Trekkie Wife

For those of you who ever have known anyone with an encyclopedic knowledge of a certain science fiction show from the 60s that came out last week as a movie, you may just be able to relate to this:

On Saturday night I asked my husband the question I’d been afraid to ask for over 20 years. It’s a question where it has been perfectly fine with me to draw my own conclusions. There were plenty of hints. Back in the starry eyed infancy of our relationship, my husband would say things that were more fitting of a “trekkie,” than how I saw my cool new boyfriend. He never came out and said the word, “trekkie,” but he was, from what I allowed to compute, a pretty big fan.

Love is blind, but don’t get the wrong idea – it’s not like he was going off to conventions, or told my parents to “live long and prosper,” or went around give that finger splitting salute to his brethren. But I became a little concerned when I realized he had a savant’s memory of intricate plot details, and many of the lines of all 79 episodes. I repressed this information.

As the years went by, I chose to think it was endearing how he would interject a Star Trek, analysis into conversations that had to do with life’s larger issues, such as love, death and war. After all he was less than 10 years old when this show became his boyhood obsession.

So finally, I asked the question I had been avoiding all these years: “How old were you when you became a rabid Star Trek fan anyway?”

I had a hint a couple of weeks ago, when in passing he said he hadn’t even watched Star Trek when the 1960s series originally aired. I had even watched Star Trek then! And I am many, many years younger than him! Like many trekkies, he became a fan through reruns. In case you don’t know, following it’s original cancellation in 1969, the first Star Trek series was available in reruns for over 20 years. So I braced myself.

He was a sophmore in high school. A little older than I had hopefully assumed all these years, but at least he didn’t say college. And he did turn out to be a scientist. Scientists are all about the Star Trek. Their enthusiasm is the whole reason the show played in syndication for several Vulcan lifetimes. And thankfully, because I’m not sure how it would have affected our early marriage, my husband didn’t get caught up in that whole second generation television series with the bald captain.

He never talked about the first three Star Trek movies. I thought it was maturity, but now, after seeing the new movie, I’m pretty sure he just didn’t like them.

Why? Because as we watched matters of friendship, love and death play out on the screen last night, he could barely contain himself. Every now and then he’d say, “Cool!” or “Awesome!”, loud enough for most in the theater to hear. There was enough of a cultural phenomenon vibe that even our two daughters didn’t shoot dirty looks or sink in their seats. I was the only one who did that!

Occasionally, he’d whisper things to me with great seriousness about Romulans looking too human, Spock’s mother, and Captain Kirk’s boots. As someone who was just then facing the fact of her long time predicament as a trekkie wife, I smiled and shook my head. All I wanted to know was why United Federation of Planets, in particular that smart Spock guy, didn’t see the logic of wearing seat belts.

We all loved it. I admit it.

So on this Musical Monday, I give you a unique version of the original Star Trek theme played by my husband a very serious trekkie on an instrument called a theremin. The theramin, which makes a distinctive eerie sound, was invented by a Russian inventor in the early 20th century. Although it had been used for many years in movie soundtracks, it became more well-known when it was used by the Beach Boys in the song, Good Vibrations. Robert Moog, an inventor, credits the theremin with leading to his most famous invention, the modern day synthesizer.

If you have made it this far, join me please, in channeling your inner trekkie.

For more Musical Monday visit Jori and Diane! They have a giveaway going on for an Amazon or iTunes gift card where participants receive an entry for each time they play during the month of May. Oh, and live long and prosper!

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