SGEM Xtra: Star Trek Made Me A Better Physician

Date: July 24th, 2021 Guest Skeptic: Dr. Brain Goldman is an Emergency Medicine physician who works at Mount Sinai hospital in Toronto. He is the host of CBC radio show White Coat Black Art and the podcast The Dose. He is also the author of the bestselling books The Night Shift, Secret language of Doctors, and the Power of Kindness. This is a SGEM Xtra. Brain and I went on an away mission by shuttle craft to Ticonderoga, NY for the weekend. This was to join Mr. William Shatner to celebrate his 90th birthday. We took the opportunity during part of the road trip to record an SGEM episode about how Star Trek made us better physicians. Some of you may love this episode while others may not. William Shatner 90th Birthday Party Celebration Away Mission 2021 There were a number of challenges that needed to be overcome to make this epic trip happen. First, it was difficult to get VIP tickets to this sold out event hosted by James Cowley. James created the Star Trek: Original Series Set Tour. This is an amazing recreation of the sets from the original series. James is also an executive film producer, actor and famous Elvis impersonator. He graced us with a performance as Elvis as part of the birthday celebration weekend (link to video). After obtaining a couple of VIP tickets to the event, the next concern was: what colour of shirt to wear? There is the gold command tunic worn by Captain James T. Kirk, the blue science/medical tunic worn by Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy, or the infamous red shirt. Please note that the red shirt characters were not statistically more likely die. Another challenge was traveling to the USA. The border restrictions were supposed to have been eased on July 21st to allow crossing by ground. However, it was announced on July 20th that the restrictions would remain in place until August 9th. People were allowed to cross by air if fully vaccinated and had negative COVID19 test within three days of departure. This allowed us to fly over the border, rent a car and drive to Ticonderoga. The final challenge was what to get Mr. Shatner for his 90th birthday. I called the Stratford Festival a few months before the event and asked for their assistance. They kindly searched their archives for the three seasons he was part of the company (1954-1956). There were no pictures that featured him on stage because he was not a famous actor at the time. They did find two photos of Mr. Shatner receiving the Festival’s Guthrie Award from Governor General Vincent Massey in 1956. There were also some newspaper clippings describing how Mr. Christopher Plummer was admitted to hospital for a kidney stone and his understudy, William Shatner, took over the lead role in Henry the V. The Stratford Festival Archivist did find one amazing photo of Mr. Shanter from 1954. It is a picture of him sitting in a chair surrounded by a few other individuals checking out the masks for the 1954 production of Oedipus Rex. It looked like he was getting ready to sit in the captain's chair aboard the USS Enterprise NCC 1701. It's this photo that I had printed, framed and presented to him as a birthday present. He was very gracious and appreciative of receiving this special birthday gift. For those of you not familiar with Star Trek it started with a TV series that had 79 episodes and was broadcasted over three seasons from 1966-1969. It is a science fiction franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. Star Trek The Original Series (TOS) launched many other TV series and movies. This SGEM Xtra will discuss some of the lessons learned from Star Trek and how it has applied to our practice of emergency medicine. Brian and I had a wonderful away mission. Some of the highlights included the private tour of the Enterprise by Mr. Shatner. I had the chutzpah to ask a question of during the bridge chat about what Mr. Shatner learned from his time at the Stratford festival that he applied to his career in TV and movies.