Throughout my childhood, my family’s Shabbat routine involved a takeout or leftovers dinner consumed together after group candle-lighting and blessing-singing. After dinner, we’d move to the family room (which my family calls “the great room,” because it’s the life of our house) for an episode (or sometimes two) of Star Trek. We started with Enterprise, and then sequentially purchased, watched, and re-watched nearly every episode of all five series of Star Trek. I grew up on the classic sitcoms of my parents’ generation—Hogan’s Heroes, All in the Family, and MASH. More than any of these shows, however, Star Trek formed the bridge between our generations. The first episode of The Original Series aired in the sixties, when my parents were very young, and the last episode of Enterprise came on in 2005, as my own first decade of life drew to a close. I fell in love with the world of Star Trek for its utopian vision of the future, for its inspirational technology (part of the reason I’m now studying Electrical Engineering), and because I still associate it with family time on Friday nights.
I appreciate classic sci-fi, romantic comedies, some mystery/thrillers (an occasional Hitchcock movie) and most likely anything with strong characters, witty dialogue, and an inspirational message (my favorite is Stand and Deliver). In both film and television, my tastes are largely those of my parents (think Spencer Tracy and Gregory Peck, along with the aforementioned sitcoms and sci-fi). In college, however, I’ve expanded into some animated shows like Avatar (both The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra) as well as Star Trek: the Animated Series (so glad there’s more Star Trek I haven’t seen yet!).