Ever feel like you need a vacation to recover from your vacation?

In honor of National Relaxation Day this month, we’re exploring the history—and, more importantly, the future history—of the word rest.

Terrestrial etymologists trace rest back to the Old English ræst or reste, meaning rest, repose, or an intermission from labor. Its earlier Germanic roots are uncertain, although they may have referred to the distance traveled between resting places.

So, the real meaning of rest is historically uncertain.

Fortunately, several centuries of documented Starfleet experience have since clarified the definition.

Around the year 2151, the crew of the NX-01 spent two 'desperately needed' days on Risa, an entire pleasure planet with controlled weather, tropical resorts, and a culture specifically equipped to provide visitors with rest, recreation, and relaxation. (Enterprise, S1:E25, “Two Days and Two Nights”).

Tucker and Reed were robbed, knocked unconscious, and left in their underwear; Mayweather broke his leg and developed a life-threatening reaction to medication; and Archer’s attractive vacation companion turned out to be an intelligence operative who drugged him for information.

Dr. Phlox, who had wisely stayed aboard the Enterprise to hibernate, had to wake up early to deal with Mayweather. (So sleeping through the vacation didn’t work...)

In 2267, Spock tried to define rest so humans could understand it better. While the Enterprise crew prepared for shore leave, he explained:

(Star Trek: TOS, S1:E15, “Shore Leave”)

Perfectly logical.

Almost immediately afterward, the allegedly peaceful shore-leave planet in the Omicron Delta system (not Risa) produced a giant white rabbit, Alice, Don Juan, a samurai, Kirk’s old Academy nemesis, a strafing fighter plane, and a medieval knight who killed Dr. McCoy with a lance.

Clearly, rest (and relaxation) would require further study.

By the 24th century, the Federation had gone back to its centuries-old relationship with R&R on Risa, and Captain Picard was sent there in ST:TNG, S3:E19, “Captain’s Holiday,” because his crew decided he desperately needed a vacation.

Within one vacation, he acquired:

• a Ferengi adversary,
• an archaeologist/thief/love interest,
• two security agents from the 27th century,
• and the Tox Uthat, a weapon capable of stopping all nuclear fusion inside a star.

This is apparently what happens when Jean-Luc Picard tries to read a book by the pool.

Later on, by 2373, Risa’s failure rate had become statistically embarrassing. Starfleet could have learned from its earlier R&R experimentation, but why stop there?

Worf and Dax went there on vacation with Bashir, Leeta, and Quark (ST, S5, “Let He Who Is Without Sin…”).

Worf joined an extremist political movement and disabled the planet’s weather-control system because he was worried Jadzia was having too much fun.

At this point, we can stop blaming the vacationers.

Risa is a planet specifically engineered to produce rest, and Starfleet officers have managed to encounter thieves, spies, terrorists, temporal agents, stellar weapons, medical emergencies, relationship crises, and catastrophic weather while attempting to enjoy it.

This establishes the Universal Law of Rest:

And the law is, in fact, universal:

• Firefly, “Safe” (S1): Simon and River use some downtime on Jiangyin to see the sights. Simon gets kidnapped to serve as the local doctor, River gets kidnapped along with him and is subsequently declared a witch, and both nearly get burned at the stake. Rest status: interrupted by attempted execution.
• Doctor Who, “Midnight” (S4): The Doctor vacations at a luxury resort and takes a sightseeing excursion to see a sapphire waterfall. An unknown entity attacks the shuttle, possesses a passenger, turns the tourists against each other, and nearly gets the Doctor thrown out onto a lethally irradiated planet. Should’ve stayed by the pool...
• Stargate SG-1, “Uninvited” (S10): Landry takes Mitchell to Jack O’Neill’s isolated cabin for some R&R. Alien-mutated predator. Mauled hunter. Storm. Isolation. O’Neill isn’t even there. His vacation home has apparently absorbed enough residual protagonist energy to generate a plot independently.

Three galaxies. Zero vacations.

Rest is not a word that means what we think it means...

Rest: n. A brief, deceptively quiet interval during which your next problem is being prepared.

So the next time the projects for the day are finished, the kids are occupied, the dogs are quiet, your phone hasn’t buzzed in ten whole minutes, and you finally lower yourself onto the couch thinking, At last. I can rest…

Don’t get comfortable...a catastrophe will be with you shortly.

There you go.