Wishing you all the luck in the world!

Hello Friends,
I finally finished my annual tribute to the stars we lost in 2022. It took a bit longer than I expected, as I started this in December, and here it is March! But I wanted to be sure it was as complete as possible, and I believe it is.
After a while working on this, I felt I almost got to know all of these wonderful people personally. Some I had never heard of, and some died tragically (murder, car accidents, Covid, suicide) and way too young. Sadly there were also an unusually high number of passings in the Star Trek Family, some iconic and all beloved. But I hope the joy they brought the world will live on. Bless them on their journeys from life to life.
Unfortunately, there have been several notable passings already this year that I am aware of, but I am already beginning the 2023 farewells as I write this, and you will see them next January. (I’m only two months late with this!)
Let me know what you think, and feel free to include any of your favorite memories of these remarkable people. You can see all their names and accomplishments in the keys below.
Love and Blessings, Therese
Hi All!
For the past two months I’ve been working on my traditional, annual Memorial Collage for celebrities and newsmakers. I usually post this in January, but sadly, there were so many passing’s of notables that it’s taken a lot longer than usual. (The Musician page alone has way too many!)
Anyway, I worked all day yesterday on the final portion of the collage and I THOUGHT I saved it. Well, this morning it’s nowhere to be found and I have to start all over again on that part! (Waaaah!!)
Here’s hoping I’ll have the whole thing up within a week. You’ll see it here as soon as it’s finished, with name keys and all.
For now, here’s only a small portion.
Take care today and make every day count! Love you all – Therese
Hi Everyone!
I hope you are all enjoying this Holiday Season, and that you’ll have a very Happy Christmas and New Year!!
Looks like Harry Mudd has his own version!
I would also like to take a moment to thank all of you, my readers and especially those who subscribe! That means a lot to me! I’m always delighted to see any new subscribers and I’m glad you enjoy it. I created this blog 11 years ago!! And although I hardly ‘trend’ and have never become ‘viral’ I always like hearing from you in comments and hope to hear may more in the future.
I’d be delighted for any donations (see button above or here) to help run this site! I have yet to receive any donations but hope springs eternal!
Recently I wanted to write a post leading up to today, Star Trek Day (September 8th) but the other week, my husband, I, and both of our young adult sons all got Covid within four days of each other. Thankfully, we are all well and recovered now. Please get your vaccines and boosters, it will make the ailment SO MUCH easier to deal with and I have no doubt it saved us from much worse.
So today (September 8th) I was all set to write a post to celebrate Star Trek Day when I heard the sad news that Queen Elizabeth has passed at 96. She had a long, amazing and truly dedicated life to the people of Great Britain, and will be greatly missed. My deepest condolences to Her family and the nation that loved her.
I will be posting articles on both of these events soon, and I thank you for your patience. In the meantime, you can check the post for Star Trek Day that I posted 2 years ago here, and you can see the collage I made for Queen Elizabeth’s 70th Anniversary Jubilee earlier this year here.
See you here soon, for now, sending hugs, Therese xo
The other night I had a moment to watch a little TV, and thought I’d find a movie. Paramount+ had a list of movies leaving at the end of August, and among them was Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I hadn’t seen it in so long I figured it was a good time.
After years of easily dismissing it I was surprised and delighted to realize that I not only did I like this movie, but LOVED it! Quite a difference from my initial viewing 43(!) years ago.
In December of 1979, I was among the hundreds locally who came out to see it on its first night. Comparing what I saw that premiere night, and what I just watched the other night were of two different people in two realities. How the first Star Trek movie would be reacted to was somehow very personal to me. When I came out of the theater that night, I was happily saying to people in line “It’s great!”. But inside I was not too pleased, an opinion that regrettably stayed with me all these years, to the point of never wanting to see it again.
You see, through my then 18-year old’s eyes, this movie was going to be my redemption, my “I told you so!” to all the people who mocked me for my Trek devotion the whole past decade. But my concern about how non-Trekkies would take it was almost central to my enjoyment of the film. Seeing that attitude now, I admit with slight embarrassment that I was WAY too concerned with physical elements of the movie, than the actual plot. Kind of like not seeing the forest for the trees. My ‘trees’ here were things like:
My 61 year old brain can answer all that now …
I was too ‘stressed’ with these ‘pressing’ concerns to appreciate the beauty of a story I had been waiting for10 years to culminate into reality! Seeing it now, although I still think it needed better editing to move it along more quickly, I appreciate it so much more. My impressions follow.
First of all, this was a beautifully remastered director’s cut of the piece. As your eyes delve into a field of stars, it begins with the graceful and sad, yet soaring overture of Ilia’s Theme by Jerry Goldsmith. Ilia’s theme grew a whole new meaning for me since I had last watched this movie, It really stresses a deep longing, the almost unbearable yearning to find something more that must be out there.
I felt compassion for Ilia this time too instead of seeing her as an ‘other’ or just sexy window dressing. Ilia is tragic because she is swept into the vortex of V’ger before she barely serves on the Enterprise. The small blinks of her real self that flicker from the shell of her V’ger persona are almost heartbreaking. “Deck-Er!” she voices in familiarity as she touches his face. So close yet so far.
Spock too is torn. Feeling a call from V-Ger, he is drawn back to the Enterprise. He cannot focus solely on his devotion to total logic. As he has failed the Ko-li-nahr to rid himself of emotion, so he is now determined to figure out the mystery of V-Ger, even at the risk of his own life to save his fellow crew members. This is a theme that carries through to the sad conclusion of The Wrath of Kahn. After his harrowing space walk into V’Ger, Spock rediscovers and embraces his humanity. The small chuckle he gives recovering in sickbay brings us back to the Spock we knew was still there.
At it’s core, Star Trek: The Motion Picture is very much true to the formula of the original series; set in outer space, but finding ourselves through personal conflict. It is not heavy on action, but it has suspense, which is always favorable, to me at least.
Technically, it was a marvel at the time, and a joy to see the Enterprise stream into warp drive with it’s strobe-rainbow effect. The new Enterprise was beautiful sleek upgrade to the original. Remember this was still a model-driven special effect department, and CGI was still in its infancy. The Klingon ship was ruggedly detailed and far more 3-D than ever before. Spock’s voyage into V’Ger and the steep stair set surrounding V’ger were remarkable, although I was concerned that these ‘ancient’ actors at the time would trip and fall!
Costume-wise were hits and misses. The variety of duty uniforms still didn’t make much sense to me. The beige/gold, pale blue/gray palate was probably considered quite futuristic at the time, al though they still had more of a 70’s Space 1999 vibe at the time. But their blandness made the actors blend in more with the cooler tones of the New Enterprise. Thankfully, Khan brought back more color and a less leisure suit look back to the series* and Star Trek: TNG brought back the classic gold/blue/red department shades. Also, the laughable, sporty, short sleeved uniforms here were so terribly preppy before preppy became a thing in the early 80’s. What, were these the Sunday leisure uniforms? They still make me laugh, and for heaven’s sake, grown men should never wear Penguin Suits and Onesies! (TMI! TMI!)
Thank heaven we had two glorious and elegant costume moments — Spock’s first entry on the bridge in a luxurious black cape and stove-pipe trousers, and Ilia’s white mini-robe with salmon pink stand up collar.
All I can say now , is that if you haven’t seen it in a long time, you might just enjoy it as much as i did. It is still a LOT better than Shatner’s ego-fest of Star Trek V!
*The reason for the red and black uniforms of STII was budgetary — the ST:TMP uniforms had to be recycled and the only colors they could be dyed were deep red and black!
So my friend Bill, an avid Trekker since the 70’s with me, took this beautiful picture of Burdock Thistle in his yard. Now, I’ve seen lots of Milk Thistles in my area, but not this variety. Anyway, Bill took a great shot and graciously let me use it here:
And me, being me, couldn’t resist turning into something silly! After all, it did have a somewhat alien appearance! So here’s my abomination — I think McCoy would say: “That’s not a thistle, Jim!” 😉
I’m such a doofus.