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Film director Howard Hawks liked such bands. He leaned toward tales of men working together under pressure. His movies are diverse in genre and setting, ranging from the Andes Mountains (Only Angels Have Wings) to the snowbound wastes (The Thing) to the American west (Red River, Rio Bravo), but they all have a common theme:  buddies under fire. I'll bet Hawks enjoyed watching Trek on TV. 

The three stuck together through everything

One fine example of the Kirk/Spock/McCoy common struggle was in the 1968 episode, "The Immunity Syndrome" (watch it here). When a giant amoeba threatens to absorb the galaxy, McCoy and Spock vie for the chance of piloting a shuttlecraft into it. The three men assemble for the captain's decision. Wearily, Kirk tells Mr. Spock he's sorry. "Bones" misunderstands, thinking he's got the job. Kirk corrects him: "I'm sorry, Mr. Spock. You're best qualified." The smile dies on the doctor's face. Yet, McCoy already has his hands full pumping stimulants into Kirk's bloodstream. "How long do you think you can keep taking this stuff," he growls. "It'll tear ya apart!" We smile. We know Kirk can handle it, just like we know that, eventually, the threesome will be reunited.

Another scene springs to mind: Spock has run amok on Vulcan and killed his captain. Watch him cry out in glee at the resurrection of Kirk. Caught with his pants down, Spock tries to save his dignity: "Merely my quite logical relief that Starfleet had not lost a highly proficient captain." "In a pig's eye!" replies McCoy. Kirk merely smiles.

One could go on and on reminiscing about these friends. Our friends.

"For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother …"

That's how the king put it in Shakespeare's Henry V, a play a whole lot older than ST, yet constantly revived. There's a reason for its revival—and for Trek's. Whatever forms our struggles take, we look for and depend on brothers in the struggle. As a pastor, I know that sharing leadership with a band of brothers can get problematic, not to say frustrating at times. But I also know what it is to be alone at the top. It's not easy, nor is it good.

We were made for community: "It is not good for man to be alone" (Gen. 2:18). That goes not just for marriage or sexual completion, but also for friendship and camaraderie. Scripture doesn't stop there: True friends stick closer than brothers (Prov. 18:24), wound each other with the truth (Prov. 27:6), and sharpen each other like blades (Prov. 27:17). Jesus wept at the tomb of a friend. Paul loved his "fellow soldiers" in the faith. The bond of friendship is like a threefold cord that isn't easily broken (Eccl. 4:12).

Which brings us back to our trio. Their friendship was the impetus for a decade of re-runs, a plethora of conventions, and the great success of the early ST movies. In the end, it was about friends—friends that became our friends. As time went on, they got older, grayer, and fatter, but that only seemed to make them more endearing. We cheered them all the more lustily on a journey through time as well as space—a journey we took with them. 

What will bring me—and I think many others—back into the theater for this reboot is that it's a chance to hang with our buds again. It's not so much that fans want to see a young Kirk or Spock or McCoy as they are seeing old friends again. Time and mortality won't have the final say.

I'm often asked, "Will we know one another in heaven?" The heart yearns for the continuity of community. In the new Star Trek movie, pop culture icons will once again resonate. They will speak to a deep need for renewal and rejuvenation. "Just like old times!"—that's the joyful cry of friendship renewed.

But we don't want to go there alone. We want to go together.

Ultimately, this is the reason Star Trek keeps coming back, because we want to come back—and boldly go. Together.

Gary D. Robinson is a preacher, author, writer, and pop culture watcher. He ministers with North Side Christian Church, Xenia, Ohio.

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