It wasn't until years later that I realized how much Star Trek echoed a true story. Captain James Cook; Captain James Kirk. The Endeavour; the Enterprise. Cook, the Yorkshire farm boy, writing in his journal that he'd sailed "farther than any other man has been before." Kirk, the Iowa farm boy, keeping his own log about boldly going "where no man has gone before!" Cook rowed jolly boats ashore, accompanied by his naturalist, his surgeon, and musket-toting, red-jacketed marines. Kirk "beamed down" to planets with the science officer Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and phaser-wielding, red-jerseyed "expendables." Both captains also set out--at least in theory--to discover and describe new lands, rather than to conquer or convert.
--Tony Horwitz, Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before.
In other news, I feel like I shouldn't be enjoying Keane's "Somewhere Only We Know" or Jet's "Be My Girl." And yet, I enjoy both songs immensely. Go fig.
