Howefitz Blog

Greetings to you. If you follow me on twitter or facebook, you know that I’ve been rather obsessed this week. I came down with a fever that only had one cure: more photon torpedoes. And phasers. Two cures: photon torpedoes and phasers … and transporters. OK, one cure: Star Trek!

The Once and Future Face of Trek!

At the time of starting this writing, I have been out of the sneak peek showing of Star Trek for about, oh, forty minutes or so. The film officially opens Friday. If I may offer a piece of advice. Go. Now! Or should I say, boldly go! If you are not a Trek fan, you will love this film. If you are a lifetime Trek fan who bleeds green, you will not be disappointed. Before I go on to spoil the whole thing, let me reverse heading and try to make this captain’s log pertain to the subject at hand:

Check out the other guys who participate in Fatherhood Friday at dad-blogs.com!

I will now take a cue from Apok, who’s post on Dad Blogs, ‘TV Hates All Dads‘ has inspired me to highlight MY favorite TV father, who happens to also be my favorite Star Trek captain: Commander (and later Captain) Benjamin Sisko of the Bajoran space station Deep Space Nine.

Commander Sisko took command of a space station that had been previously a Cardassian outpost in Bajoran space. The Bajorans had just overthrown their Cardassian overlords and the new provisional government invited the Federation in to help keep the peace with their still fuming Cardassian neighbors. The Bajorans appointed Kira Nerys as the first officer on DS9 under Sisko’s command. Nerys had been a freedom fighter during Cardassian rule, and didn’t take too kindly to the Federation’s presence in the government of the planet she had fought so hard to free. Naturally, Sisko and Nerys didn’t get along too well at first. Add to that the fact that the Cardassians ransacked the station on their way out, rendering nearly all systems useless, and you begin to see the challenges the young Commander Sisko faced at his new post.

Gul Dukat: one of the main Cardassians that gave Sisko a hard time...

On top of all of that, Sisko had another challenge. Sisko dealt with something no other Star Trek captain we had seen thus far on television had: a son, Jake.

Between handling Quark’s shenanigans and dealing with Cardassians. When the Founders started making their presence felt and the Dominion War was in full swing, Benjamin Sisko always made time for his son.

In that dreary space station where they virtually had to build a society from the ground up, Sisko made sure that Jake had everything, including attention, that he could possibly need.

When Jake was stubborn, Sisko was firm. When Jake got in to trouble, Sisko would bail him out, if that was the appropriate action. Sisko could be Jake’s friend, but he could also be a mentor and disciplinarian. Sisko and Jake had a relationship that I make every effort each day to achieve with my own kids.

Don’t worry, I know what I sound like. Yes I am a nerd, and yes I am saying that one of my role models is a fictional character who lives in space and hangs out with a chick that has a slug in her belly. I understand your scoffs.

But.

If art imitates life, than I feel that we create art in order to tell us something about ourselves that we can’t find any other way to express. Some may disagree that a science fiction television series could possibly be considered art. With them I couldn’t disagree more. In science fiction, we can step outside ourselves and see things a little more clearly. That guy with the big ears and sharp teeth that spends his life in the pursuit of riches? On Star Trek, we’d call him a Ferengi, but I bet you know someone that fits that description. The green-blooded pointy eared guy that never smiles? We would call him a Vulcan, but I bet you’ve met someone who seems so completely out of touch, so callous, that you wonder if he has any feelings at all. The big guy with the wrinkly forehead that solves all his problems with his fists, and then brags about it? We call that a Klingon, but I bet you know someone (or are someone) just like that!

Maybe, you see these attributes or weaknesses in yourself, and seeing them played out on screen in such a dramatic, magnified manor, has made you stop and think and rebuild the type of person you truly want to be.

Ben and Jake share a father-son moment.

So, if I tell you that I model some of my parenting style after a television space station captain, you better believe I know exactly what I’m saying, and I am confident that I know what I’m doing.

I think.

Thus concludes my geeked out Fatherhood Friday post, I promise I will be as close to normal as I get next week!

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