A confession from the chief archivist: I memorized the following snippet of dialogue from the comedy science fiction show “Quark” when I was … well, younger. It has remained memorized lo these many years. In celebration of the release of this little-known 1970s television show (I had thought I was the only one who remembered it) on DVD in October, here it is, from memory. Adam Quark (Richard Benjamin), captain of a garbage scow in space, has just asked a question of his half-man, half-plant second in command, the Spock-like Ficus:

Ficus: “A most fascinating phenomenon, but one which leaves the mind facing a myriad of possibilities, alternatives and conclusions, which are at best strictly hypothetical, with no sound basis in fact.”

Quark: “In other words, you don’t know.”

Ficus: “That’s what I said, sir.”

Now, with the release of this DVD, I’ll be able to see how accurate my memorization was, after 30-plus years. I don’t know why this quote has stayed with me all this time. Either it operates as a kind of excellent Buddhist koan, or it’s just darn funny.

Commander Koenig, raising his glass in a toast: “To everything that might have been.”

Professor Bergman, not satisfied with his wording: “To everything that was.”

– Sharing a bottle of brandy, as they are about to sail into a black hole. “The Black Sun,” Space: 1999 episode.

“To speak of Fahrenheit [451], you have to speak of all my other books. Everything has been an accident. Everything has been unplanned. Everything has been a passion, a madness, a great love. Each of my books is a special love….

“But thank God I behaved unconsciously and didn’t try to intellectualize my career — left or right, black or white, up or down, male or female — none of that junk. Just me, the typewriter and the future.”

– Ray Bradbury, from an interview on the Fahrenheit 451 movie DVD