I'll never wash these lungs again!

So my friends were all, 'Hey, wanna come see a Star Trek opera tonight?' And I was like 'A Star Trek opera? Sure, there's no way that could be ridiculous'...and so I went and we got our picture taken with Q, but we'll get to that.

For those unfamiliar with Star Trek, Q was sort of a magical space
wizard who occasionally showed up with a mariachi band. No, really.

At least the opera wasn't in Klingon,
which is also a thing that exists.

That's right, goddamn Q directed a staged workshop of Menagerie: The Trial of Spock at UC Santa Cruz. As a production in progress we only saw the first act, and there were no sets of costumes, just an orchestra and people opera-ing which, is actually somewhat outside my wheelhouse, but the nerd angle was enough to pull me in. It was, well is was kind of...you know, it was an opera where people sing about engaging the warp drive and scanning for life forms, so it was weird. Not bad weird mind you, but weird.

One beep for 'yes,' two beeps for 'no'
and three beeps for 'just let me die.'

The story was based on the original series two-part episode 'The Menagerie,' but on the off chance that you live a full and active life, un-obsessed with the plot details of Star Trek episodes, I'll refresh your memory. It's the one where Captain Pike, the Enterprise's former captain, is horribly injured and must spend the rest of his life motionless, in some kind of life-support box and can only communicate with beeps. Spock, just trying to do his friend a solid, shanghais the ship and sets a course for a forbidden planet full of telepathic aliens who will use their powers to create an illusion for Pike where he can live out his days making out with some woman he met once, like eleven years prior. Because Star Trek. 

"We prefer the term, 'fancy'
thank you very much."

-Monocle and Top Hat Guy

Anyway, like I said, the show isn't finished and what I saw was (incredibly) put together in just a few days as a way to get the word out and hopefully attract producers, but it could really be a thing. The production team stuck around afterwards and took questions, one of which was, hey, why a Star Trek Opera? And their answer was why not? The music director, Ben Leeds Carson pointed out that for most of its existence opera was popular entertainment for everybody and that it's only recently that we think of it as a pursuit for the monocle and top hat crowd. So why not embrace pop culture and make some new opera fans?

Cool, right? Ok, so back to Q. I'm sorry to say that we were totally those people. I'm not proud of it, but after the Q and A session (sorry, that's what they actually called it), we went and stood in line to get our pictures taken with John de Lancie, who, I don't know, probably just wanted to go home but was totally a good sport about it.

Above: My pal Kiley, me and Mr. John de Lancie all breathing the same air.
Nitrogen mostly, with just enough oxygen that we didn't die. Oh, and some
argon, but nobody really cares about that, the point is Q. I mean, Q!