THE 2005 DeFOREST KELLEY
MEDICAL FIELD RECOGNITION AWARD

Have Stethoscope, Will Travel!  
by Angela H. Barrow, MD and Dr. Rob Barrow

My love affair with Star Trek began with the original series almost forty years ago. My family would gather around our black and white t.v. in the living room of that little frame house in Little Rock, Arkansas to join the crew of the Enterprise on it’s mission to the Final Frontier. I was too young to understand much of the plots, but I could tell that something special was on. During those years, my family was also gathering in front of that flickering tube to watch the NASA space flights - John Glenn’s trek around our planet, Neil Armstrong’s first step on the Moon, all narrated by the beloved voice of Walter Conkrite. I vividly remember my big brother taking me out into the yard and showing me the Moon above.“There are men walking up there right now, Sweetie,” he said. Was it Jim, Spock, and Bones, I wondered?

When I was eleven, a time when the preteen mind turns to serious daydreaming, the original series began showing in reruns after school. Oh, how that sparked my imagination! I attended a small private Christian school at that time. As I sat in science class hearing about the topics that were deemed “appropriate” for our consumption - never evolution or anything about reproduction, of course - I would hide my Star Trek paperbacks inside my textbook and dream. At that time, I did not focus on a career in medicine. I would often dream of being the science officer or a xenobiologist. Anything but auxiliary personnel! My dad took me to see Gene Roddenberry speak at a local college. I couldn’t believe I was hearing and seeing the man who made it all happen! During his talk, he excused himself and took a call. He bounded back to the stage to announce that Paramount had approved the making of the first Star Trek movie!

A few years later, United Trekkers of Arkansas was formed, and I joined. How wonderful to find others, all ages and from all walks of life, who loved Star Trek! I had many adventures with that small group of devoted fans. We drove to see Jimmy Doohan in Oklahoma City. What a warm and humorous man. We eventually hosted our own convention - ArkCon 1. Our guest speakers included George Takei. I was eighteen now and a responsible member of the club. Getting to escort Mr. Takei around was quite an inspiration for me. He recounted his internment at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas for being a Japanese American during World War II and told us of his efforts as a politician in California to help mankind here on this planet. But, the most profound thing that came out of my association with United Trekkers involved another speaker at our convention, a young lawyer named Rob Barrow! He had been sent to the 3rd Princeton Conference on Space Industrialization as a representative from the American Bar Association Science and Technology Section. As he spoke about space as a place where people would live and work, I was electrified! He shared books and materials by such authors as physicist Gerard K. O’Neill and aerospace engineer T.A Heppenheimer - men who believed in, and were actively working toward, this dream of space colonization! Our first date was to see the “Wrath of Khan”, and we were married ten months later.

Now the dream would really begin. Rob’s dad was a real “country doctor” just like McCoy, and he served as an inspiration to us both. Disillusionment had come out of Rob’s five years as a lawyer, and I was a Sophomore in college studying both science and journalism. How could I meld my interest in biology and chemistry with my love for being around people? We both entered premedical studies and spent the next years attending college and then medical school together. By then we had a new Enterprise crew with whom to voyage. We always managed to find time to set the books aside when “Next Generation” came on. The beautiful Dr. Beverly Crusher helped spur me on during those times when my male-dominated career choice seemed especially difficult. Rob joined the Navy in order to help us financially survive being in medical school and, upon graduation, we both ended up in Virginia, where he became a real crew member - the chief medical officer on a subtender during the Gulf War! I completed my residency in Family Practice, Rob served his years as a Navy medical officer, and we came home to Arkansas. Not without a new addition to our lives - a baby daughter named Robyn, who would become an inspiration and a Star Trek fan in her own right.

We are living our dream now. My husband and I have our own family practice in Little Rock, where we treat all of the many medical ailments that our specialty covers. Our patients are a blessing to us, and we care deeply about them. Many are the times we joke about how we’d love to have one of Dr. McCoy’s magic salt shakers or one of Dr. Crusher’s scanners! Why, Bones could identify a virus and have an antidote for it within an hour! How that would have helped us this last flu season...

Our daughter is now twelve and finds inspiration of her own. We have watched all of the past Star Trek series on DVD with her. Coming home from difficult days at work and school, the three of us gather around our large color t.v. to leave this Earth for awhile. Robyn recently told us that she believes she would like to be a doctor. “Why?” I asked. “Because you and Daddy seem to love your work,” she replied. She loves the strong character of captain Janeway and finds Dr. Bashir to be her ideal of a doctor in space. She loves to quote a line of his - “I’m a doctor, And I LOVE medicine!” - using her best British accent. The original series was the one we introduced her to last. Interestingly enough, the character to whom she immediately gravitated was Dr. McCoy. “He has the most beautiful eyes that match his uniform perfectly!” she said. Whether she decides to be a physician or a belly dancer, I know that she will do it with heart and a sense of adventure. Star Trek has a way of making anything less seem totally unacceptable.

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