Capitol is not final frontier for lawmakers who love Star Trek
HARTFORD, Conn.—A devotion to the venerable television series "Star Trek" has brought legislators together -- and also led to some brushes with fame.
A small, informal group of trekkies -- aficionados of the science fiction show -- have gathered throughout the years to discuss their common interest.
Rep. Mary M. Mushinsky, D-Wallingford, is the unofficial captain of the group, which used to meet regularly for lunch.
The lawmakers and state staff have hosted two stars from the series, which has seen various incarnations since it first aired in 1966.
Mushinsky watched the show as a child, but she's most connected to "Star Trek: The Next Generation," a series with a new crew that ran from 1987 to 1994.
Marina Sirtis, who played the psychic counselor Deanna Troi, toured the Capitol in the mid-1990s and Kate Mulgrew, Capt. Kathryn Janeway on "Star Trek: Voyager," stopped by in 2002.
Mulgrew's visit coincided with her portrayal of Connecticut icon Katharine Hepburn in "Tea at Five," a one-woman show at Hartford Stage.
Mulgrew was making her first stage appearance since Voyager ended, but she also had a special interest in politics.
Her husband, Tim Hagan, was running for governor of Ohio that year, a race he lost.
"Mulgrew was enjoying talking politics with us," Mushinsky said. "And we were enjoying learning about life as an actor. I think (Mulgrew and Sirtis) had as much fun visiting our world as we had visiting theirs. It was an unusually fun experience."
The legislators also drew up citations for the actors who played Worf and Data when they were visiting Hartford.
Mushinsky identifies with Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, in "The Next Generation."
"He was always diplomatic and was always science-based, and I try to do the same," said Mushinsky, a lawmaker for 27 years and executive director of the Quinnipiac River Watershed Association. "He was afraid, but he tried not to show it. He tried to be confident they could work their way through anything."
The trekkie group's activity has slowed from its heyday in the late 1990s, when nearly 30 people sat through a presentation by Eric Bernstein on an imaginary "Star Trek" ship he had created. Bernstein, whose mother Cathy works in the Legislative Commissioner's Office, made digital models of the ship and conceived a story about it for a high school project.
"I presented for almost two hours," said Bernstein, now 24 and a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering at the University of Connecticut. "I'd said it was going to be two half-hour presentations, (but) I didn't realize how much material I had to go over. They stayed through the entire presentation. They were all really pleased with it and very interested."
Bernstein grew up watching The Next Generation, and his fascination with the Borg, a race who are part human and part robot, influenced his career choice.
"I'm working on computer-controlled leg prosthetics," he said. Mushinsky cited nanotechnology -- engineering on the molecular scale -- as another concept that the show popularized. The state recently invested money to grow the industry here. Other topics are still timely, especially in light of the recent controversy over so-called "three strikes" legislation for criminals.
Former state Rep. Bob Farr, a Republican who is now head of the state Board of Pardons and Parole, recalled an episode in which the crew visited a planet that had "a strict, one-strike law -- any violation and you were terminated."
The son of a crew member crossed a boundary while chasing a Frisbee, and was about to be put to death. Farr said the crew escaped the planet with the boy, but the lesson wasn't lost.
"They had been a lawless planet, so they had established these strict laws and gotten control of their society," he said. "There was a deterrent value to having a strictly enforced law, and they had established a law-abiding, peaceful society. But the downside is you have no second chances."
