The Tees Have It: Take Two (including Star Trek!)

Happy December 2018! Can you believe it? Last month of a short, whirlwind year. And with it comes snow. Posole. Christmas cookies. Shopping. Wrapping. Parties. Holiday cards. Family get-togethers. Craziness. The holiday season and all that jazz.

BTW, did you happen to catch one of my latest tweets? 'Tis the season (for stress and hair pulling), and I'm offering some relief -- well, temporarily, at least!

I don't have a holiday story out this year, but what I can offer readers is 90 minutes of escapism. https://t.co/tQGT69g2Mp pic.twitter.com/dYUnijDhKl

— Laurie A. Green (@SFRLaurie) November 29, 2018

Continuing my Sci-Fi T-shirt collection blog from last week (which you can see by clicking here: The Tees Have It: Wearable Statements of Sci-Fi Fandom ), this week I'm featuring a few more including ~ta da~ a couple of Star Trek tees.

Yes, sadly, I have a limited number of tees and a sweatshirt that fall into the Star Trek Wear category, but they're monumental in my eyes. I'm very selective about the t-shirts I buy, so I've only found a few over the years that inspired me to start the purchase sequence. I'm still looking for my Captain Janeway t-shirt...and I may have recently found one. In fact, I've found several to add to my overall collection, so I'll do a t-shirt update blog at some point in the future.

So, yes, Star Trek. Make it so!

Of course my collection has to include a shirt that portrays the iconic opening phrases from TOS and TNG series. This one features the classic as Captain Picard would have articulated it: "...where no one has gone before."

You see, I'm really picky about that. I've actually passed on t-shirts that said "where no man has gone before" because, hey, we're a species that has (at least) two sexes and both are part of our current space program, why should anyone be exempted from the equation in the future?

(I know, I know. TOS was a product of the sixties, and I do give it a lot of credit for expanding the idea that the future of space didn't belong to only one gender and only one race. We know better now.)

So, readers, may I present my Iconic Star Trek Opening Narrative (Revised Version) T-shirt. Can't you just hear Picard enunciating that? :)

The next in my collection is one with a lot of emotion attached to it. (I will hug it and squeeze it and pet it and call it George.) First of all, the graphic of the Enterprise in space is absolutely gorgeous, but the quote is one of my series favorites:

"Let's make sure history never forgets the name Enterprise."

(If you want to see the clip where Picard says this from season three, episode 15 on YouTube, click here.)

I find this phrase inspiring. The Enterprise represents what science fiction can aspire to be--something that people remember, something that stays with them for a lifetime. Something that's embedded into our culture and our history, and even non-fans of the industry know the name.

The Enterprise has become an institution in our culture.

Name a great racehorse. Secretariat.

Name a great sci-fi starship. The Enterprise.

Even this huge Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, The Expanse (etc.) fan has to acknowledge that the Enterprise was her very first starship heartthrob, the vessel that's been with us the longest in her many incarnations...more than 50 years now. And look where her inspiration has taken us.

Science Fiction dares us to dream, and to reach, and to strive for things that may seem impossible at present but if we work at it hard enough, we know we can make it happen. We've seen it happen over the course of the last five decades. [ 12 Star Trek Gadgets that now Exist ]

Yes. Let no one forget the name.

My last t-shirt isn't actually a tee, it's one of my favorite hoodies. (Close enough!) Though it at first appears a bit generic sci-fi, the iconic Star Trek emblem on the upper left places it squarely in the Star Trek inspired group.

I wear this one a lot. :)

Though I don't think the series' female CO, Captain Janeway, ever uttered the words, she certainly could have. And I loved Janeway! What an inspiration she was as the first starring female starship captain of the franchise. The perfect blend of toughness and compassion, and always in pursuit of that perfect "Coffee. Black."

In my mind, she's the flagship of the thousands of female starship captains depicted in sci-fi and SFR. 

But I also love this hoodie because one of my characters utters a similar sentiment in Inherit the Stars. When Captain Drea Mennelsohn is confronted on the bridge of her prototype ship by an enemy military officer who declares, "If we ever meet again, I'll put you in your place!" She replies defiantly, "I am in my place."

For my last offering today, I'm going to segue into my Star Wars collection with the very first Star Wars t-shirt I ever owned.

This baby is ancient--probably well over 40 years--as the slightly worn material and the stretching of the neck may show.

Hey, it looks great for its age! And it has been much-loved over the past few decades.

This tee was produced not long after the original movies hit the screen by a company that created the Rebel Wear label. It doesn't feature some of the splashy, colorful graphics of later tees, but it was clearly part of the brand.

Almost everyone who saw it immediately knew what "Rebel Wear" was all about and what it referred to.

This t-shirt is also one of very few from my collection that features front and back graphics. Though the Rebel Wear brand may not be that familiar to you, I'm sure you've seen the image portrayed on the back many, many times over the years.

So that's it for today.

Next time, I'll blog about the balance of my Star Wars t-shirt collection, which account for the lion's share of my SF inspired tees.

Do you have any favorite SF t-shirts you haven't seen here? Tell me about them. (There just might be a bonus for one lucky commenter.)

Have a great week!