Recently I found myself poring over articles at Memory Alpha, the wiki for all things Star Trek. I don't remember how I got there--some convoluted series of links across the InterWeb--but somewhere between reading about Yamok Sauce, Self-Sealing Stembolts, and the very cute Ezri Dax, I realized something.

I miss Star Trek.

Until the ripe old age of 27 I could always count on some sort of representative of the franchise boldly going where none had gone before. During that time there were four television shows and ten feature films set in the Trek universe, as well as dozens of video games and novels. I had caught episodes of the original series a few times while channel surfing, but my first real interest was piqued by The Next Generation which debuted when I was 9 or 10. I was hooked almost immediately and followed the show till its finale seven years later, latching on afterward to Deep Space Nine and then Voyager for my fix. By the time Enterprise arrived in 2001 my attentions were being drawn away to the concerns of the "real world": finding employment, a place to live, pursuing a career, etc. The universe I loved had begun to fade away.

But I think now I can make some time to return to that place.

There are many aspects of Star Trek that appeal to me: the stories, the places, the aliens, the characters, the technology, the analogies, the optimism. Interestingly, what has really fueled my interest in re-exploring the shows is the fact that Star Trek has built up over time such a large internal history. One of the reasons I like Tolkien is that he not only told a wonderful story (and did so poetically), but he also crafted an entire world for it to take place in, with unique locations, histories, and mythologies. Star Trek, in its 40 years and some 560+ hours of television and film, has developed quite a complicated and full universe.

Reading about topics like Holodeck technology or the Obsidian Order makes me crave exploring that world again. What's more, learning that many of the episodes of Enterprise sought to explain or give background stories to elements shown in earlier series makes me want to give it another chance. Clearly I crave well-developed, consistent fictional histories.

All good things must end, but if Paramount decided to voyage again into Roddenberry's imagined future I would find it hard to resist the opportunity to experience it again.