listeners
are just dying to talk to you.
Hey, John in Portland, Oregon,
on line one.
Hey, Portland!
John: Yes, hi, you guys.
Hi, Denise.
Crosby: Hi, John.
One thing I'd like to say--
without "Skin of Evil,"
there could have been
no "Yesterday's Enterprise."
Right, exactly. There's some irony
in that, isn't there?
- Yes.
- I mean, I always felt I had to die
and get off the show
to get the best episode.
I love this-- being able to talk
to you like this
because when the show
originally aired,
my father passed away.
I'm sorry.
And the weird thing about it was,
the friends that were there--
a lot of them are Trek fans
and were around me at the time,
and we sat down
and watched that episode.
The strangest thing
about it was,
by the time it got to the end
and the holographic message
and the whole thing,
it actually helped me
a great deal,
and here I get
to thank you personally,
which I did appreciate it,
and I still do.
John, I'm really touched.
I think so many times
that people don't realize
just how important
a show can be.
It can destroy you, or it can--
as in a case like this--
give you
a tremendous amount of comfort.
Oh, yes, between the ending
and the holographic imaging
and the cloud
and everything,
it was just exactly
what I needed at the time.
John, I don't know how to say
thank you for that tonight--
for sharing that with us.
I thank you for Talk Trek.
You're welcome. Thank you
for being with us, my friend.
There's nothing like
a bunch of Trek people
getting together someplace
and just sitting and talking.
They'll go for 24 hours
or more, and--
And that's why it's called Talk Trek
rather than Trek Talk--
because it's not just a matter
of talking about Trek,
but rather it's a whole
universe within itself.
Just like people talk
French and talk German,
we talk Trek.
Crosby: So what does your bathtub
look like at the end of the day?
It looks very green.
Ha ha! Trust me on that.
Who is your favorite captain?
Have to be Captain Kirk.
Captain Picard.
I'm kind of a Kirk fan.
I like Kirk because
he was the first captain.
The original,
the prototype
for everything else
that came along afterwards.
Absolutely Kirk.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
- Picard.
- Picard.
- Picard.
Now, there's
a very handsome man.
There's a very handsome
man-- Captain Picard.
Who's your favorite captain?
Data.
Well, Data's not a captain.
No, I don't like
any captains.
Who's going to beat
Captain Kirk?
Come on! Come on!
He's a stud!
I can only say Janeway.
Janeway's a stud, too,
but-- Ha ha!
- Janeway.
- Janeway.
I'd probably say split
between Janeway and Kirk.
Kirk.
I like Avery Brooks, too,
but that's because he's cute.
Crosby: Who's your
favorite captain?
Ha ha ha! I am.
I couldn't pick
one captain over another.
The emissary!
The emissary
is different.
You must remember
the emissary.
He is most important,
but to place the others
above the emissary
would not be right.
When I got the job,
everybody said,
"Oh, the Trekkers,
the Trekkies."
Well, in fact,
they're very smart.
One has to be smart
to connect science
with the imagination.
That's what's
really interesting to me--
that a show could have fans
that span and bridge
every sort of
classification.
Stephen Hawking
and Mel Brooks
and, you know,
Dr. Marvin Minsky--
who's head of the robotics
department at M.I.T.--
or the Mercury astronauts.
Accountants,
these are lawyers.
These are people who just
really, really enjoy the program.
There's this preconceived notion
that they are
a peculiar bunch of people,
you know?
I don't think I've ever
met anyone--
Star Trek fan or not--
who wasn't peculiar.
I mean, we're all peculiar,
aren't we?
The word "fan" actually is
an abbreviated form of "fanatic,"
and there are some people
who fit that category,
who are the people
who really do need to get a life,
but most fans are pretty normal people
who have a