A Classic TV Homage to Captain Cook...

I've recently been thinking about purpose and space exploration. Growing up watching Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek I never doubted Captain Kirk's portentous introduction to each episode “Space:- the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilisations. To boldly go where no man has gone before! ” I mean, who doesn't know this by heart?

Little did I know Captain James T. Kirk’s quest was a copycat space age homage to 18th century British navigator, explorer and cartographer Captain James Cook, whose five year mission, on the voyages of the naval ship Endeavour, was to discover new lands and go not only “farther than any other man has been before me, but as far as I think it possible for man to go.”

While today I've been laughing at State.com's description of Captain Kirk as "expansive, randy, faintly ridiculous and yet supremely capable leader" I still relish the explorers mindset of both captains.

It's just a shame Kirk's crew never worked out a red shirt spelled dispensable. ..