What are the biggest letdowns or failures of Trek Fandom?

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Permalink Reply by Neville Whyman on February 3, 2009 at 11:46pm

In an earlier post in this discussion I said that infighting in my opinion is the bigest let down, but I think where we let oueselves down in that people that are not Star Trek fans see us as geeks and cranks running around in costume, they do not see what goes on in the background, they don't see the charity and community work that Star Trek fans are involved in, maybe we need to make this work more noticable to the public in general ( however I don't know how this could be done), some may be able to see past what they see now.

How I see it and this only opinion, Star Trek fandom has always been about charity, community and friendship.

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Permalink Reply by James on March 22, 2009 at 12:00am

I think they only see us as geeks and cranks because Star Trek actually has some knowledge in its works, some of it based on real theories. Most people are happy watching people either screwing eachother, or bashing eachother's brains out in a wrestling match. They do not care for things that make them think. So they see someone they know likes Star Trek, and they instantly think, "Nerd!" without going and talking to the person.

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Permalink Reply by kukalakana on February 4, 2009 at 8:15am

I sort of agree, but there was always going to be a measure of resistance (possibly, trepidation) to such an idea like this. I would not dismiss everyone who criticises the new movie in advance, although for my part I am still reserving judgement until I get a chance to see it.

~ I stopped growing at the age of 14. Does that mean I'm dead? yikes.~8-0

History is full of movies that have been "written off" before being viewed, and then which have proven themselves worthy and so the fans have changed their minds. As for the rest of the world, if they laugh harder, let them. The challenge for the movie-makers is to prove themselves worthy and convert the nay-sayers. (Some of whom are already semi-converted, I hear.)

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Permalink Reply by James on March 22, 2009 at 12:04am

I think its just the fact that Paramount felt the need to remake what was already good and popular. They took Roddenberry's idea and said, "Screw it, we're gonna make a buck off of this thing." And have pretty much strayed from the original concept of "A wagon train to the stars", and where everyone is equal and not every alien we meet means to kill us.

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Permalink Reply by Cassica on September 27, 2009 at 7:27pm

I sort of agree with you, but think about it--

TOS for example. Great storytelling, but they had a limited budget. Sets were reused, etc. Towards the end, well let's face it, it just wasn't that great anymore, even Nimoy said so himself. The costumes, sets, etc. I love Star Trek to death and I'd hate to see it end, but at the same time-- I'm sort of glad it ended when it did on the third season, because imagine them running it into the ground.

The sets and effects don't make the show, but you DO need sets, and effects.

When I first heard about the new movie I was excited, but wasn't expecting much. When I saw it, I was blown away. But this is just a prologue, basically. There's another coming up. I'm hoping to God they keep up the quality acting and such.

I kind of ramble and make no sense, but if I were given a choice of watching Trek get run down into the ground and crapped on or it being stopped completely.. I'd want it stopped.

That's just my two cents, anyway. Maybe someone can make what I said a bit more eloquent. I have a feeling I've just ticked someone out there off lol.

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Permalink Reply by justTrip'n on February 4, 2009 at 11:19am

HA! Good one. (The shoes.) ;) There are plenty of other varieties of craziness that are mainstream, including the people that paint their naked bodies and stand in the snow at football games. Whatever works for you!

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Permalink Reply by justTrip'n on February 4, 2009 at 11:44am

I think the biggest "letdown" in my sub-fandom (Trip 'n T'Pol shippers) is when fans turn on the writers in a vicious way and "bite the hand that feeds them." Trip 'n T'Polers, with good reason, hate the final episode of Enterprise (and Star Trek!) which was written by Rick Berman and Brennan Bragga. Apparently Bragga has straight out apologized for that episode while explaining he had good intentions and hadn't meant to hurt the fans. I'll take him at his word. I appreciate the fact that over a career a writer will have your good episodes and your really horrible episodes. I think we have to keep in mind that the writers are fellow fans, big time, and should be recognized and treated as such: we should be nice.

That was my biggest letdown, but that battle may have been won. What I really appreciate about fandom is the IDIC aspect. My Star Trek friends are diverse in every respect: geographically (half U.S., half rest of the world); in terms of gender and sexual orientation; religiously and a-religiously; politically; ethnicly. I have learned a lot from interacting with them. At Triaxian Silk, we especially have alot of cross-cultural sharing as nonnative English speakers contribute a lot of the stories, some of which are beta'd by native English speakers. Some of the writers writing in their second or third language are my favorite authors. I heard from a friend in another fandom (general sci fi) that this was unusual. In their fandom, if you can't write perfect English, you don't get to play, basically.

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Permalink Reply by James on March 22, 2009 at 12:06am

LOL I've been wondering what the people at the movie theaters would say if I tried to paint the Starfleet Delta on my chest for the opening night of the new movie.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Root on February 4, 2009 at 12:39pm

Honestly, I don't know that I can really identify any major failures on our part. Let's take a quick at what we Star Trek fans have managed to accomplish over the past 40 years or so, shall we? We took a low-budget, two-season sci-fi television show and executed a massive letter-writing campaign that extended it to three seasons. Our love of that humble, short-lived TV show drove, among other things, the production of ten major motion pictures, five spin-off TV series, a cottage industry of Star Trek merchandise, and a small Las Vegas theme park. Our devotion to Star Trek has woven it into popular culture to the point that the first reusable space ship in human history was named "Enterprise", we introduced at least a dozen words and phrases into the everyday mainstream lexicon, and we all walk around talking into devices that look almost exactly like Starfleet-issue communicators or devices that look like Uhura's communications earpiece.
So yeah, I don't know what we could realistically do better than we already have.
We Trekkies/Trekkers are the smartest, most creative and innovative, most devoted, most influential fans of anything in the world. We should take great pride in that and we should look forward to the upcoming "reboot" movie to breathe new life into our 45-year-old franchise, re-energizing us oldies and bringing a new generation of fans into the fold. And no, I don't work for JJ Abrams.

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Permalink Reply by justTrip'n on February 4, 2009 at 5:54pm

Wonderful post, Daniel. I also can't complain about the cost, since I've been to two very cheap conventions: Vulkon in Cleveland and A Creation one in Cherry Hill, NY. In both cases, most of the cost was for hotels, but I split that among online friends who I met up with. We saved money on food by starving! LOL. The stars were wonderful, considerate, and generous with their time, most notably Connor Trinneer, Robert Duncan McNeil, and Robert Picardo. That guy who played Dukat was great too!

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Permalink Reply by James on March 22, 2009 at 12:10am

I got to meet Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) and Armin Shermin (spelling, but its the guy who played Quark) and they were both very nice, and actually seemed happy to meet their fans off stage.

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Permalink Reply by Neville Whyman on February 5, 2009 at 1:10am

You're right Daniel, especially when it comes to the media, it doesn't matter how much they rubbish Star Trek and it's fans, whenever anything new technical or medical areas is released 99 times out of 100 the first thing the reporter says is " the next story comes right out of the pages of Star Trek" and then they go on to tell us about this new inervation.

If they think that the show is crap and the fans are nuts, then why do they use the show as a compliment for a new idea?

In my opion if Star Trek fans are nuts then we are the better part of nuts and I'm glad to be part of it !

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