‘Sea Trek’ boldly goes to La Jolla Shores

To paraphrase the voiceovers immortalized by William Shatner and Patrick Stewart for an even newer generation, “Earth’s oceans, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Roddenberry Dive Team…”

Roddenberry Dive Team leaders Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry (left) and Greg Martin. Martin flashes the “OK” and “Live Long and Prosper” combo sign. (Photo courtesy of Rod Roddenberry)

For decades, scientists have concurred that more is known about outer space than the planet’s deepest seas. Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, son and namesake of the “Star Trek” phenomenon, wants to change that, yet in a respectful, educational and entertaining manner - much like the canon of the tale of his father’s legacy.

The dive team’s mission statement: “Roddenberry Dive Team (RDT) is committed to the promotion of education, exploration and stewardship of our oceans through safe diving activities. As a leader in the science fiction industry, RDT is passionate about incorporating the philanthropic ideals embedded in Star Trek into real-world experiences for divers and non-divers around the world. We are committed to carrying on the legacy of vision and optimism that was handed down by Gene.”

With that, the son of Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett Roddenberry, heir to all things “Star Trek,” has settled down by the sea in one of San Diego County’s coastal communities.

“It took me forever to figure it out, but the themes in ‘Star Trek,’ as far as ‘boldly going’ and ‘exploring strange new worlds,’ and scuba diving, those two worlds go hand in hand and they’re perfect matches,” said Roddenberry from his car as he was shuttling around San Diego in preparation for launching a new comic book and character at last week’s Comic-Con convention.

“‘Star Trek’ was more than just entertainment,” he said. “It touched lives. It moved people to see beyond their limitations.

“People who go to (’Star Trek’) conventions actually believe in a future and want to work to make it a reality. Not for the sci-fi aspect,” said Roddenberry who was only 17 when his father died in 1991, “but because of the fact that we’re all working together for the greater good in the future.

“We’ve not just put aside our differences, but we’ve learned to embrace our diversity,” he said. “We don’t fear change, we embrace people who have opposing ideas and are excited to learn about things we don’t know and be exposed to different ideas.”

Roddenberry said that for a while he attempted to put together the dive team as a hobby. Then he was approached by Greg Martin, a former disc jockey with a 30-year career in radio broadcasting, who shared the same vision. Martin convinced Roddenberry they could continue the vision through an underwater venture and the Roddenberry Dive Team became a reality on May 30.

Fast-forward to Comic-Con weekend and RDT hosted Comic-Con Dive at La Jolla Shores. The event was as much for out-of-town divers descending on the convention as it was for local dive enthusiasts.

More than a sporting activity for Trekkers and convention geeks, Martin and Roddenberry enlisted the aid of educators as guest divers from Scripps Institute of Oceanography. Participants included Damien Cie, kelp forest ecology and artisanal aquaculture; Christina Tanner, kelp forest ecology and biology; Miriam Goldstein, plastic marine debris in the North Pacific gyre, fouling communities and the transport of invasive species; Ally Pasulka, plankton ecology and marine microbial food web dynamics and Michelle Lande; marine policy.

Early arrivals gathered at La Jolla Shores by Kellogg Park around 5:30 a.m. before sunrise. An hour or so later, the divers began to suit-up up for their adventure to the La Jolla Underwater Canyon via the ecological preserve. Once geared-up and ready, the divers did a surface swim out 100 yards to where the ocean depth was more than 40 feet. Then they dove to the bottom of the canyon and continued west to a maximum depth of 100 feet below the surface.

About Earth’s oceans, Roddenberry stated, “The numbers fluctuate, but between 75 percent and 85 percent of our planet is covered in water. I’m willing to believe that 80 percent of the life is in the ocean too, no matter how micro- or macro-microbial. It is a huge, beautiful and unexplored place, and I’m sure a valuable resource.”

If any of the “Star Trek” crews ventured under the sea instead of outside the starships in their pressurized suits, no doubt the apparel would include the universally-recognized insignia. So the sight of scuba divers off the coast of La Jolla wearing “Star Trek”-style insignias on their wetsuits must have been, as Mr. Spock would say, fascinating.

“We took the ‘Star Trek’ insignia, the essential shape of it and the dive flag, which is simply a red rectangle with a white strip through it, and super-imposed the two,” Roddenberry said. “Divers instantly get it and Trekkers instantly get it from the shape. It seemed a simple, easy catch that will make both sides very happy and bring people in from both angles.”

When asked to share something that would surprise “Star Trek” fans about his parents, Roddenberry replied, “They were normal human beings. They were average. They never saw themselves on a pedestal. The idea that my father put forward about the future, where we have a fundamental ethic that we all live by, we all work for the greater good, he also knew humanity was fallible. That was what made us so spectacular is that we could make mistakes and learn from them.”

Roddenberry’s mother had the distinction of being the only actor to appear in all the Star Trek television series. Often referred to as the “First Lady of ‘Star Trek,’” Barrett-Roddenberry was a commander and the starship’s Number One in the pilot, Nurse Chapel from the original series and Lwaxana Troi in “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” She also provided the voice of the Enterprise computer for all of the movies, including the 2009 prequel “Star Trek XI.”

Barrett-Roddenberry’s Lwaxana Troi was an other-worldly Auntie Mame-type and fans wondered how far she strayed to portray the whimsical Betazoid.

“The funny story is that when they were going to do ‘Next Generation,’ my father had to get my mother into it somehow,” Roddenberry recalled, “so instead of trying to figure out a character that she could play, they just developed one after her own personality.

“It was an exaggerated version of her personality,” he said. “She was everything from a bit of a sailor… she could cuss and tell dirty jokes with the best of them… flamboyant… not bawdy, but direct with men.

“She did not hold anything back, she was an alpha-woman for sure,” Roddenberry said, “so that character is very much like her.”

Now that young Roddenberry has taken his trek under the sea, what might be the common denominator between his worlds.

“The connection that a lot of people ask about is ‘How does this work globally?’ and ‘How does the Roddenberry vision of a united future work into the dive team?’ he said. “Well, when we get together for events, we are like-minded individuals who love the planet, love the ocean and love ‘Star Trek.’”

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