I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a Trekkie.
I’ve been a fan of the series since I was a kid. I would watch reruns of the original series every Sunday evening. I remember watching Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in the theatres in 1982. I was pumped to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation when it debuted in 1987. The first season was terrible, but I didn’t care because, Star Trek.
I loved the world creator Gene Roddenberry created, a future where humanity made it to the other side, dealing with some of its greatest demons, and now was out among the stars, meeting new lifeforms and new civilizations.
Star Trek has always been aspirational, with eye to the future, but more importantly, an eye towards the present, reminding us what the future could be. In the 1960s, this meant showing an integrated crew. Having someone like Nichelle Nichols, who played Uhura, the communications officer, meant something to a little black kid like me in Michigan circa 1979. From the movies to the many series that came after the original one, Star Trek has always talked about contemporary issues in a way that made you think, even if you didn’t always agree with the conclusions.
Trekkies have never just uncritically accepted everything that has been made. We are sci-fi fans, after all. As I said, the first season of The Next Generation was godawful. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was not great. While I watched it, I wasn’t as big a fan of Voyager. My favorite of all the series was Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which was a step away from the more optimistic take of the Trek universe. Not every Trek series is for everybody, which I guess is in keeping with the very Vulcan phrase, Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations or as most Trekkies would say, IDIC. This belief summed up Star Trek, which I believe upholds classical liberal values like individual rights, tolerance, pluralism, rule of law and dignity.
The concept of IDIC was something I thought most fans of the series believed.
That was until recently.
The Clockwork Pastor 
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