Star Trek Fans Explained
I have been a fan of ‘Star Trek’ for almost my entire 40
years of being on this planet. I consider myself a Trekkie or Trekker, either
label works for me but for some they get offended if you use one or the other.
I’ve also had the pleasure (and sometimes displeasure) of meeting other ‘Star
Trek’ fans. With all this knowledge of Trek fandom I have broken the fandom
down to these categories, and these categories can be used for other fandoms.
·
The ‘Discriminating’ fan
If it’s good I’ll like it. If its
hot garbage I’ll leave it where I found it and not bother. (I fall into this
camp). If people ask my opinion I will be honest.
·
The ‘I love everything Star Trek no
matter what!’ fan
As long as the words ‘Star Trek’
are there or logo’s/actors associated with ‘Star Trek’ there these fans will
LOVE IT no matter what! They will also
defend it to their dying breath no matter how wrong they are to the rest of the
world. CBS/Paramount could literally put dog crap in bags, put a ‘Star Trek’
logo on it with a letter of authenticity stating that this is ‘Authentic dog
Poop from Captain Archer’s dog’ and these fans will buy it, love it and brag to
all their friends and family about how much they love this franchise.
·
‘This is shiny and new so it’s better ‘
fan
We all know that someone who
loves something just because it is brand new. It looks good, sounds good so it
must be good right?
“Benedict Cumberbatch’s ‘Khan’ in the 2013
film ‘Star Trek into Darkness’ is better than the original because he’s new! Forget
that Ricardo guy, he was so 1967….”
·
The traditionalist (“My Star Trek is better than yours” fan)
For this fan ‘Star Trek’ was and
still is what came before. People whom got their start on TOS believe it is the
best. People whom started with TNG believe it is the best and so on. Every
other Trek that followed (or came before depending if it was TNG or later where
they got their start) is inferior to their favourite Star Trek.
·
The ‘Fake’ fan
These fans annoy me the
most. The fake fan is someone who
pretends to like ‘Star Trek’ but doesn’t actually or hasn’t actually watched or
payed attention to it. One lady whom I met at a convention dressed in a Starfleet
uniform as it turns out doesn’t watch the show. She informed me she simply
enjoys hanging out with all “these people”. She’s there for the party and not
because she actually cares for the franchise and she is not alone. I met
another guy at the same convention at an after party and he laughed at me when I
asked what show was his favourite.
“I don’t fuckin watch that shit!”
was his response.
When I asked him “Then why are
you here? This is a Star Trek convention after all?”
“I’m just here for the party” was
his reply as he attempted to teach the poor young woman whom was with him how
to 2-step (country music dancing). He
also wasn’t much of a dancer either….
·
“Pew
Pew” Star Trek should be more like ‘Star Wars’ fan
Star Trek was supposed to be a positive
vision of the future. The characters of Star Trek were always intended to find
diplomatic and peaceful solutions to their issues and only use violence as a
last resort. Star Wars on the other hand violence is expected; hence why “WARS”
is in the title. During wars you will have fighting and violence and that is
the expected normal. But there are some Trekkers out there that want fighting,
phaser fights, hand to hand combat, etc. in their Star Trek. They don’t want to
see a peaceful diplomatic solution: they want a fight!
-
In the first episode of season 2 of ‘Star Trek:
Discovery’ we see Captain Pike, Michael Burnham and two other Enterprise
officers piloting fighter crafts through an asteroid field shooting their
phasers… it was then they jumped the shark to become more like ‘Star Wars’ than
‘Star Trek’…
In my opinion as a lifelong fan of Star Trek my advice to
you is like what you like and leave the rest. If you don’t like what JJ Abrams
is doing with the newest films or what Alex Kurtzman is doing with ‘Star Trek:
Discovery’ or ‘Star Trek: Picard’ just don’t watch them. I know I’ve stopped
watching ‘Discovery’ and I’m still watching ‘Picard’, there is no set rule
stating that you have to love and watch EVERYTHING ‘Star Trek’. Along with
dropping ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ half way through season 2 I also have only ever
watched half of the episodes of ‘Voyager’ and I’ve only seen 2 episodes from
the 3rd season of ‘Enterprise’. Back in those days I also was not
happy with the creative choices they were making at that time so I simply
stopped watching. In fact I know I wasn’t the only one as evident in the fact
‘Enterprise’ was cancelled after season 4 due to low ratings…
Aside from being a Trekkie I am also a comic book fan. There
are certain characters and titles I’m drawn to because they are my favourites.
But from time to time a new creative team will take over a title or character
that I like and change up the status quo to something I do not like or agree
with. Rather than sticking with that character or title I’ll move on to another
book. Why waste my time and money on something I’m not enjoying? The same applies
to ‘Star Trek’. I may not be enjoying or agreeing with what they are doing on
‘Discovery’, but that doesn’t mean I’m never going to go back and watch another
new ‘Star Trek’. Maybe this rumoured ‘Captain Pike’ series will be better! Or
maybe not...
But I do know a Michelle Yeoh ‘Section 31’ series will not
be good. We do not need ‘Star Trek’ to be dark; it is after all supposed to be
a “positive vision of the future” according to original series creator Gene
Roddenberry.
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