Long live and prosper, this sixteenth day of May

​O, glory day for all Trekkies! Today marks the thirteenth 23rd year since the original air date of "The Neutral Zone," the one and only episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that has had humans everywhere imagining themselves on the Enterprise.

It was on this momentous day that the Enterprise courageously ventured to the very tip of the Romulan neutral zone, where other Federation personnel had disappeared throughout the light years, to try and find some answers. More admirable, however, is that it is also the day that Data, an Android robot, and Worf, a Klingon, first discover three humans frozen in cryogenic capsules on an old space ship. Awesome or weird? Try both, simultaneously.

Along with Dr. Beverly Crusher, the Enterprise team reanimates the three humans. Things get a little awkward when one of the humans, a woman who died from an embolism almost 400 years earlier, sees Worf's giant Klingon head and faints, but such is the plight of a should-be national hero.

Because what better way to thank both Lieutenant Worf and Lt. Commander Data for their efforts in bettering humanity than with some sort of national award? After all, the United States owes it to them. Purple hearts? We think so.

The earthly television show The O.C. owes a lot to this episode of The Next Generation, too, for being so frickin' trendy. When another one of the humans, this time a man, wakes up from his frozen slumber, Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) greets him warmly: "Welcome to the 24th Century." If only that catchphrase had caught on in space, like its counterpart in The O.C. did on Earth. Remember "Welcome to the O.C., bitch"? Yeah, Ryan Atwood does. So would Captain Picard if he ever heard it.

Call it a reverse trip down memory lane, in which we can see what the future is going to be like, how douchey some of our fellow humans can be (one of the guys rescued from the big freeze orders a martini at first opportunity) or how awesome aliens and robots are to save us, let alone put up with our shit.

So grab your Klingon and Android friends and make a toast in their name -- just not with martinis. Live long and prosper, Klingons, Androids and humans together on this sixteenth day of May, bitch!

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