For the past week and a half, I’ve taken you through five decades of science fiction TV romances in honor of the Valentine’s Day season. Now that the day is here, I’m going to give you a musical recap.
1960s: Star Trek Love
Our tour began with the love stories of Captain Kirk (There were many!) and Mr. Spock (He trumped quantity with quality, but still dumped sweet Leila.) in the original Star Trek series. Our musical Valentine’s Day tour will begin there as well. Some of you might not be aware of this, but the theme of the original Star Trek series actually had lyrics. We never heard them on the show, but you can find them on the internet. They were written by Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and are sung from the point of view of a girl Captain Kirk left back on earth. I tried to find a video with both great visuals and great lyrics, but ended with one that was okay in both areas. It’s still fascinating (as Spock would say) from a Trek trivia standpoint: a space woman’s ode to James Kirk. (Lyrics start about 1:10 into it.)
(The link is acting twitchy. Here it is if it doesn’t load properly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT0w-_Eh1dQ )
1970s: Steve and Jaime
We moved into the seventies and celebrated the heart-rending relationship of Six Million Dollar Man, Steve Austin, and Bionic Woman, Jaime Sommers. This video compilation uses Dan Hill’s “Sometimes When We Touch” (another fine product of the mid-1970s) as a soundtrack.
For fans of the bionic couple, there is also a video with Lee Majors’ own lyrics. I remember liking it as a kid, but found it a little bit painful to listen to as an adult. (Sorry, Lee.) Maybe I’m being too critical though. I’ll post the link here in case you want to check it out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYiC_41nJH4
1980s: Katherine and Vincent
The story of the Beauty and the Beast has gone through many incarnations including Disney’s animated and live action versions. One of my favorites was George R.R. Martin’s 1980s TV series which we revisited last week. Christian recording artist Michael W. Smith wrote some really nice love songs in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, and this compilation of Beauty and the Beast moments uses one of them as a soundtrack.
1990s: Mulder and Scully
The 1990s gave us many options including Lois & Clark and the love stories from Scott Bakula’s Quantum Leap through time, but I finally settled on Fox Mulder and Dana Scully from the X-Files as my science fiction couple for the 1990s. Here they are again.
2000s: Lana and Clark
The millennium has been a century of teenage angst so far as science fiction universes have gone and nobody did it better than Smallville. Once again, Michael W. Smith provides the soundtrack.
And that’s it for now.
There are so many more we could have mentioned. Lost had Jack and Kate…and Sawyer. Not sure I want to try to untangle that one.
Both incarnations of Battlestar Galactica had some love relationships. If Lost’s Jack/Kate/Sawyer triangle was complicated, I wouldn’t begin to try to untangle the relationships on newer Galactica series. Keeping track of who was and wasn’t a Cylon was hard enough. The devotion between Captain Adama and his dying wife, Laura Roslin, is worth a nod though.
Firefly was a truly wonderful science fiction series with iconic characters and a cult following even if it only lasted for part of one season. There was also a fantastic spinoff movie, Serenity, that (apparently) only a few people saw. When it came to love relationships, it had some good ones: Mal and Inara had a classic “The Lady and the Tramp” relationship, Zoe and Wash ended too soon, and Simon and Kayleigh had finally managed to get together. Those three relationships would be a post unto themselves, but here’s a Valentine’s Day special for country music fans:
Have a great Valentine’s Day!