Where No One’s Gone Before
Lee Hart
In the height of the 13th century,
We marched from Venice to the China sea.
Our brave explorers crossed the land,
Through heathens strange, adventures grand.
Returning with exotic spices,
Gunpowder, and other vices.
— Marco Polo
At the end of the 15th century,
I plan to journey o’er the sea.
To India and far Cathay,
That none hath visited this way.
To bring you riches, oh my queen,
Of lands and races never seen.
— Christopher Columbus
Late in the 18th century,
Our famous team made history.
Marching west through savage races,
Indians with painted faces,
Exploring new uncharted lands,
Where now a mighty nation stands.
— Lewis and Clark
At the end of the 19th century,
Two explorers, maybe three,
I’ll have them race around the world,
By great balloon, with flags unfurled.
Adventures told of far off places,
Peopled by exotic races.
— Jules Verne
At the end of the 24th century,
There’s a star ship, do you see?
And on this star ship, all these races
Go to interesting places
Each week on the TV set,
Places not discovered yet.
— Gene Roddenberry
Hurray for the heroes; applaud and roar,
Who went where ‘nobody’ went before.
‘Nobody’ of course, was already there,
But heroes and history just don’t care.
Nobody’s trampled into the dust,
For they don’t count, ’cause they’re not us!
(Author’s notes) I read a quote by Gene Roddenberry on how he pitched Star Trek to the TV networks. The last verse is what he said, almost verbatim. I thought it sounded a bit like a poem.
I also thought Star Trek’s “Where no man has gone before…” was overly pompous. Most of their plots were in fact re-makes of things that others *had* done before; just transplanted into a future universe. Besides, people were already *there*, well before these great explorers arrived!
So I wrote this.
