Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Ich Bin Ein Trekker

"Trekker!" That's Trekkie to some.

Star Trek, with the original crew, remains one of the very few--perhaps only--TV show that I've seen every episode of, and is certainly the only show I've seen every episode of multiple times. Star Trek: TNG is second. I have exactly two autographed photos of stars on my bookshelves. Both are for Star Trek actors. Over the years I've picked up individual tie-in novels from several TV shows, including Highlander, The Rat Patrol, Alien Nation, and Man from Atlantis. I have one volume of each, and have only read the first two. But I have and have read close to 50 tie-in books for Star Trek Classic alone, including for the animated series, and I just ordered a few more. I have never read a biography or autobiography of an actor. Not one. Except for Star Trek. I've read both Shatner's and Nimoy's biographies about their Star Trek experiences.

In fact, I've just started a Star Trek Mini reading spree. I finished Spock Must Die! by James Blish this weekend and really enjoyed it, and am now happily immersed in Star Trek Lives!, a nonfiction book about the Star Trek phenomenon, which was published in 1975. I have a couple more Trek books ready to go next. You might think it was the upcoming release of the new Star Trek movie that turned on my Star Trek button, and I'm sure that had some influence, but I've experienced such sprees before. Numerous times. I love Star Trek.

Star Trek Lives! has made me ask the question again as to why? Why is Star Trek the only TV show that I am actually a fan, in the sense of fanatic, of? The book talks about the "optimism" that infused the show, about the dynamics between the characters, about the philosophy. I'm sure all those played some role in hooking me. But I frankly am not sure exactly why this show among the many connected so strongly with me. I'm going to give it some thought and get back to you.

In the meantime, Live Long, and Prosper, and tell me why you, too, are a Trekker. And tell me: If you're not a Trekker, why not? Or are you a similar fan of some other show? I don't see how that could be, but I'll try to forgive you anyway!
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50 comments:

writtenwyrdd said...

Live Long and Prosper yourself, Charles! I have to admit I've always wanted to find some of the Star Trek slash books because I figured it would be a hilarious revisit to the series. Not interested in the tie in books otherwise.

After TNG I haven't cared for any of the Star Trek-verse shows either. Just...bleh.

Heff said...

I dig the ORIGINAL series, and that's about it. Still watch an episode every now and again, mostly for the nostalgia of it. Haven't caught "The Trouble With Tribbles" episode (a childhood favorite) in YEARS, though.

Lana Gramlich said...

I'm not really sure why I love it either, but I do. Of course it was science fiction, but they incorporated humor, drama, suspense & the like. The 3 main characters were almost representative of different parts of the human brain; the logical side, the emotional side & the side that has to decide what to do based on the input of those two (& also wants to screw anything that moves. *LOL*)
It wasn't "just" science fiction.
I was relieved when NG didn't disappoint me, too (although the characters from the original have their NG "counterparts" in a sense; the logical Spock is reflected in Data, the womanizing Kirk showed up--to some extent--in Riker, etc.) I even got into DS9 for a while. Although advertised as a space station far from the known universe, a wormhole conveniently opened up right next to it in the 1st episode. That pissed me off. I think it had potential at the beginning, but it just turned into politics. I've never really watched Voyager (Parris was too annoying,) or Enterprise (I'd already drawn the line.)
I'm greatly looking forward to the new movie, though. We have to see that in IMAX, if we can!

Randy Johnson said...

I'm old enough that I was there when The Man Trap aired first run. I saw a still of Kirk transporting in the TV section of the paper and thought it looked interesting. I probably didn't see all the episodes first run(You know, pre-VHS), but I was there for the first.
I collected all Star Trek for years until they went crazy with their publishing program(just too much to keep up with and too many other things I wanted to read).
The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine were good, but the story quality dropped off too much in Voyager and Enterprise to keep my interest, though in Enterprise's last year, they seemed back on track(at least the few I saw).

Gabby said...

I have a sister who absolutely loves Star Trek, but my brothers and I are definitely fans of the newer ones. I watched TNG all the time, and catch the reruns once in awhile. I've seen every episode multiple times. I have to say my favorite is Voyager -- I think the character development on that one, including relationships with the other characters, seemed like the most developed ones, for me, seeing as they were stuck together for so long. I don't know why. I liked DS9 up until a point where Worf and Dax got together. It got weird for me after that. Hah. But probably my favorite SciFi series has to be Stargate SG-1. I have ALL 10 seasons on DVD, plus thew two movies (and the original movie that spun the whole series off). As many series, the first season's a little rough, but once it hits its stride, the comedic timing is great! I think what I love about it is how they incorporate many cultures and mythologies from our world to show that they really were aliens that influenced them (or sometimes the other way around). Good stuff! (Which is why I'm writing the fanfic....) ^_-

Mary Witzl said...

I saw the original series; I'm that old. And I'll always have a special place in my heart for Mr Spock. Captain Kirk, on the other hand, drove me crazy. Even as a child, I didn't trust him. I far preferred Mr Spock, who was so delightfully distant and hard to reach.

jodi said...

Charles, I am begging your forgiveness! Star Trek was on up north on Sunday afternoons. Perfect timing for my nap. Steven King and Ann Rice and YOU are the only sci-fi I respect. However, I am trying to broaden my horizons!

Paul R. McNamee said...

I'm a Trekker, but not a Trekkie. (no uniforms or makeup at the conventions, thank you.)

Did not keep up with Voyager or Enterprise but really enjoyed the rest. (In other words, Orginal, Next Gen and DS9.)

I do have major reservations about the new movie despite the pre-release accolades it is already receiving. I really feel that those characters belong to the original actors.

laughingwolf said...

loved st [original], not so much tng, v or e, but did dig ds9

both picard and #1 suck, big time

ivan said...

The attraction to Startrek is in its unstated theseis that all the answers, for humans (and maybe non-humans) are found in all the world's great books.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, for example, could well dwelve into raisons
d'etre for Borgs, or for that matter, the Push Me-Pull- You Data brothers.
Even the Klingon Lt.Worf contemplates the meaning of the Gilgemesh epic laid out in clay tiles in Babylon.
Startrek was what it ate, ancient and contemporary.

...But didn't we also get off on "Lost In Space", Will Robinson?
That quirky robot!

David Cranmer said...

My favorite episodes are Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Menagerie, The City on the Edge of Forever, and Mirror, Mirror. I have watched the show multiple times and am looking forward to seeing the new film and also the classic 79 with those new special effects everyone is talking about.

pattinase (abbott) said...

When I was away for a year. TNG was one of the few US shows on. We watched it nearly every day for a year. Funny how a show about a ship in space made me feel at home.

Chris Eldin said...

WHY! Because it's an awesome show!!!! No need to ask why.
YAY to WW---Live Long and Prosper!!
I wish I could find reruns for my kids to watch.
I know the special effects are cheesy by today's standards, but I LOVED the imagination behind this. The encouragement of exploration... This touches on a deeper issue for me as well. Living overseas part time, I see the United States a bit differently than I used to. A few parts I'd like to improve. But mostly, a couple of really great things we hopefully will hold onto, and one of these things is our sense of exploration, play, and imagination. I think the American culture encourages inventiveness and creativity, and the Star Trek series embodied that.

Long answer...

LOVE this series!!

Charles Gramlich said...

writtenwyrdd, slash books? I’m not familiar with that term. I didn’t get involved in anything after TNG either. It wasn’t that they were bad but they just no longer filled the need for me, I guess.

Heff, I even have the book ‘about’ The Trouble With Tribbles episode. Man I’m sick.

Lana Gramlich, Yes, it had a bit of all things that I enjoy. And you’re exactly right about the 3 characters and the three aspects of the mind. Pretty close to ID, Ego, Superego as Freud described them. TNG was also really good but then I got away from it.

Randy Johnson, I didn’t see anything but the first season in first run because it was on at 9:00 the next year and my parents wouldn’t let me stay up. But I soon saw them all in syndication. That’s the same reason I stopped buying the books. It just got too much, and I began to find some I didn’t care for much.

Gabby, I did like Stargate SG-1 but never as fanatically as Trek. I stopped watching it when they disbanded the original group.

Mary Witzl, one of the things revealed in Star Trek Lives! Is how intensely Mr. Spock was liked/loved by women. They have several interesting reasons. I certainly liked Spock a lot, but probably identified more with Kirk.

jodi, you are forgiven. Nice little cha ching with the “only” sci-fi you respect. ;)

Paul R. McNamee, as I remember Trekkie is the older term and only later did Trekker appear, from those who weren’t into the costuming or the sillier aspects of fandom. I’m gonna give the new movie a chance.

laughingwolf, I grew to like Picard and Number 1, but it took a while. I was resistant at first, but I was also very hungry for some good SF on TV.

ivan, I actually never watched much Lost in Space. Not sure what the difference was. But perhaps it was the greater number of interactions with aliens that seemed relatively realistic. Star Trek certainly did throw in references to all kinds of classic literature and mythology so maybe that helped as well.

David Cranmer, Mirror Mirror is probably my favorite. Loved the idea of the Earth Empire. Loved their flag, man.

pattinase (abbott), interesting definitely. It certainly became homey for me. I still get that comfortable feeling when I watch it.

Chris Eldin, Well, you are right, of course. Definitely it was very imaginative and there was a quirky inventiveness to it. And the characters were very real, despite the alien setting.

Shauna Roberts said...

I guess I'm a Trekker too. I've seen all the episodes of the original, TNG, DS9, and Voyager and watched a couple years of Enterprise. Back when I was a nanny in the early '80s, I read dozens of the Star Trek books (the friend I worked for must have had all of them) and later I bought some on my own.

My favorite book was the one where Spock goes back to the ice planet where he had once lived in a cave with a banished woman in the original series and finds out he has a son.

My favorite episode, no surprise, is Trouble with Tribbles. DS9 was my favorite of the Trek shows because of the Bajoran culture and religion. TNG was my least favorite because I detested Q.

RichardS said...

I can only really get on with the original series. I stuck with TNG for a while but it just didn't do it for me. With the other spin-offs I could only watch one or two episodes. They just didn't have it. The OS though: I can watch it anytime, any place. Love it. A group of the original photonovels have pride of place on my many bookshelves.

Shauna Roberts said...

P.S. Last month, my sf club watched a one-hour video of Nimoy and Shatner talking about their careers and "Star Trek" while sitting in chairs on Nimoy's lawn. It was fascinating. I don't know what the title of the video was, but based on their appearance, I'd say it was probably about five years old.

Charles Gramlich said...

Shauna, DS9 and Voyager both came out at tremendously busy times in my life and I never really gave them a chance. I'd like to see that video you mention. I saw Shatner interview Nimoy on his talk show and it was pretty interesting. They didn't do a lot with Trek, though

Richards, TNG did work for me, though I was resistant at first. Like I told Shauna, at least part of the reason why I didn't get into DS9 and later shows was that my life was just too busy for TV

SzélsőFa said...

I'm not a Trek fan at all. In fact, I've never beer a fan of any science fiction at all for some reason - now you have it. I'm sorry :(

Re I sometimes think I don't really understand anything until I can write about it. How about you? I find it really interesting that you ponder about this while talking about your pshycology class meeeting. I think writing must be some sort of an inside process of the things and events; and thus are very useful.

Sphinx Ink said...

I like the original Star Trek, which looms big on my Nostalgia Horizon. I watched many of the episodes of the original ST as they were shown on TV in the 60s. It's part of my life, and takes me back to the days of my youth.

I also watched a number of episodes of the second incarnation--Captain Picard was very cool and sexy. (I'm a sucker for a toney British accent.) I've never watched any of the subsequent incarnations, never been to a ST convention, and know little of the trivia beloved by Trekkies(ers).

I love Galaxy Quest, however--that wonderful parody of the original ST--which I've seen more times than any single one of the ST episodes. I love the great cast, the comical screenplay, and the ultimately good-hearted and optimistic ending.

Kudos to those of you who immerse yourselves in the ST universe. I admire people who, when doing something they love, throw themselves into it. That's passion!

G. B. Miller said...

I know you'll hate me for this, but I wasn't a big fan of the original. It just didn't do anything for me.

When I do watch it, I watch it to see what actors were guest starring on a particular episode.

I was more enamored with TNG, and I did enjoy watching DS9. The only problem I had with DS9 was that I missed way too many seasons so by the time I picked up on the last one, I had no clue as to what I was watching.

For cosistency's sake though, I have yet to watch and of the Star Trek movies.

Cath said...

I love Star Trek. The original, and the others. My favourite is T N G.

I couldn't tell you why. I have thought about this too and I simply cannot pinpoint why I like it so much. I like Stargate SG-1 much the same, but not as fanatically. I just love good clean family sci fi I guess, where the good guys win. :)

On another topic - I am discovering that the blog list or google reader does not update with my posts now I am private. So I am afraid you will have to pop over from time to time to see what's there. Sorry about that but it is the price to pay for peace of mind... Do please come over when you have time. I have posted, it just doesn't show.

laughingwolf said...

i tried to like em, really :P lol

i did like worf and data... loved whatshername, with the spots?

Steve Malley said...

Two words:

Freaky Blue Women!

Cloudia said...

Aloha, Charles:
One evening, many years ago, I was expecting my boyfriend to come pick me up from my parents house. Having imbibed some psychedelic substance or other (hey! it was the sixties - ar at least the early 70's and therefore beyond the statute of moral indignation) Well, waiting for Carl, and to "get off" it seemed smartest to hide in my room. (My parents could be disturbing enough WITHOUT hallucinations!).
STAR TREK was on and seemed like a safe viewing option, with all that optimism and such.....
Anyway, it was the episode where Spock loses his sanity (I forget why). To see this icon, the uber logical Spock, losing his cognitive footing just as mine was similarly dissolving was profoundly scary! Spock and I camr out OK though. . .

Oh yes, I was exploring, boldly going where no one had gone before....in peace for all mankind......(regular readers of my blog may now nod their heads knowingly) Toodles all!

Travis Cody said...

I love the original Star Trek. I believe I have about 70 tie in Trek novels. And I go on Trek reading sprees as well.

I didn't really care for any of the other Trek series though. It wasn't the same. My connection was to the original characters.

But I can't explain it any better than you can.

X. Dell said...

One of the things about Star Trek is that it not only had a compelling cosmology, but an optimistic one at that, making it quite different from the many distopian views of the future associated with science fiction. Never mind that one could easily see Starfleet as a (benevolent?) military dictatorship. Then, of course, there was all of the cool stuff, the consistency of story elements (more or less), and the well written narratives from such diverse folks as Harlan Ellison, D.C. Fontana (and even Shari Lewis).

And, for the record, ich bin auch ein trekker.

X. Dell said...

BTW, the slasher (or slash) novel pehnomenon began with Star Trek back in the 1970s. Simply put, it's fan-written fiction using the familiar characters. Most of these weren't published, but were circulated at conventions. They typically feature stories that are sexually torrid.

The only one I've read (can't remember the title--I gave it away long ago along with most of my novels) presented a scenario in which Spock goes crazy, and beams himself down to a distant planent. Kirk goes after him, discovers his second-in-command in the throes of pon far, and, well, (ahem!) has to take care of him without the benefit of the ritual battle.

The slasher novels have actually influenced the licensed series. In the only Trek novel written by Roddenberry (the novelization of the first movie), he makes mention of this story in the introduction. Also, the Star Wreck parodies by Leah Rowlinski contained a scene later added word-for-word in then Next Generation episode "Relics."

They are quite fascinating--that is, if you're old enough to read them.

JR's Thumbprints said...

My wife's a Trekker, whereas, I am not. She is a product of a wealthy school district with a great science program, whereas, I'm the product of a school district with a crappy science program. I'm willing to bet there's a tie-in there.

As for the "Cold Cold Box" by Howard Fast, I'm a firm believer in giving a man another chance, even if all of society could be jeopardized -- it's the type of world I want to live in. On the other hand, you could argue that the main character created his own problem and deserves to stay in suspended animation. I'm glad you enjoyed the story.

steve on the slow train said...

Wow--this one really generated the comments. I wasn't really into Star Trek until I met Kathleen, who was a confirmed fan. She had even participated in the big letter-writing campaign to keep the show going.

Star Trek: Enterprise was, after The Original Series, the best sequel, or prequel,in this case--at least for the first two seasons. "Carbon Creek" is brilliant.

My favorite Star Trek book is "Strangers from the Sky," which ties Spock with Benjamin Spock, and uses the peace symbol as an icon.

Star Trek was very much about the time it was made, and showed a world where there was no racism and less sexism. And when Star Trek used a black actor for the leading guest star ("The Ultimate Computer"), it had, as Kathleen said, the decency to make him the villian (though a sympathetic one).

Charles Gramlich said...

SzélsőFa, well, I suppose, maybe, I can forgive you. You did at least mistype been as beer so that earns you some credit. ;)

Sphinx Ink, I actually liked Galaxy Quest too, because it was so clearly a Star Trek parody. There have truly been some good ones. In some ways, the cast of TNG consisted of better actors. Picard is quite good, for example, but it didn’t quite have the kick for me that the original had.

G, egads man! Some day you and I will have to grab a beer and I’ll let you in on all the Star Trek arcana.

Cath, I noticed that today that you’re post didn’t come through on my Google reader. It’s just a matter of me remembering. I have another blog I visit that doesn’t show up on Reader either.

laughingwolf, Yeah, Worf and Data were cool characters.

Steve Malley, Dude, dude, dude. The freakiest women were GREEN! But there were some decent blue ones too.

Cloudia, LOL. I may have watched Star Trek a bit intoxicated a time or two, but never on hallucinogenics


Travis, Yes! I knew you were cool.

X. Dell, there was some great writing. Fontana really knew her audience and consistently turned out good scripts. She even refused to work on some that she didn’t think measured up.
Ahh, that’s what “slash” is. I know about the fan fiction stuff with Trek, and have read some of the stories. I just never heard it called slash before. I understand quite a few were basically gay porn featuring Kirk and Spock.

JR's Thumbprints, Your wife rocks. But I’m sure you know that. As for cold box, I might have thawed him out in isolation, attempted to evaluate his mental state before freeing him, and perhaps have rewritten the laws so that he no longer owned everything. It was an interesting conundrum however.

Erik Donald France said...

Well, here's what I've got. Dug the show "in the original" and saw, with friends, a bunch of the crew, including Wm Shatner, in Chapel Hill, in the 70s -- hilarious. I liked the wholly formed world that was also part of this world, I suppose, though in school wrote variations that included starships crewed by Chinese and Indians and Africans and Brazilians, with fun Starship names to boot. Plus, who wouldn't love a phaser set to stun from time to time? Or to be beamed somewhere cool, or to use a communicator?

Arm photon torpedoes and all remaining power to the shields . . .

Leigh Russell said...

I do like startrek, but am not a trekkie. Not sure why - life's too short? Have you seen the episode of Frazier where he inadverantly gives a speech in klingon? Looking at the original series now, it was ground breaking at the time, like Dr Who.

the walking man said...

Personally I think the connection is in that Star Trek showed that it was men and women who made these journeys to far off places, normal professional people who seemed on their face to be average Joes. Something every one can relate too.

BernardL said...

Yep, I've seen the episodes multiple times and read many books connected with the original series. I live by the Klingon proverb 'Revenge is a dish best served cold'. :)

Charles Gramlich said...

Erik Donald France, "I canna change the laws of physics, Captain. I've got to have 30 minutes." I would like to have met some of the original crew.

Leigh Russell, yes, I'm a big fan of Frazier too. That was a great episode. I suppose I can forgive you for not being a Trekkie, you being British and all.

Mark, I liked that element too. Normal people, for the most part, were living fulfilling lives. that was cool.

BernardL, to Quote Khan, "and it is very cold...in space."

SQT said...

I've watched all the original series and TNG, some of DS9 but none of Voyager. Read several books and seen all the movies. So I'm pretty much a fan, more rabid than a lot of people but not nearly as much as those who go to the cons. Can't wait for the new movie!

Aine said...

Jason and I have such fond memories of watching NG every week during our early years together.

I've always been a huge fan (though I can't call myself a trekkie). I was just a kid when the original series ran. As a typical girl, I loved the fuzzy tribbles... :)

But as an adult, its the exploration of psychology and anthropology in the episodes that hooks me. I love that Star Trek just boils down humanity to the basics. The aspects that we all relate to, no matter what culture or time we were born into.

And, I totally relate to the passion you feel for it. I do the same with Harry Potter. If only HP had been written 20 years ago... surely I'd have attended every convention. (Helping to organize one ain't too shabby, though....)

I admire your passion!!

Aine said...

PS-- Slash has become the term for fan fics that are specifically gay porn in the Harry Potter fandom. All other stories are just called "fanfics". And, the HP fandom bows down to trekkies-- we modeled our forms of expression after the great trekkies! But the internet has allowed the HP fans to boldly go where no fandom has gone before....
:)

Charles Gramlich said...

SQT, yeah, I've actually never dressed up in any Trek related gear but I do enjoy the cons and enjoy seeing folks have a good time with all the shows.

Aine, Harry Potter slash fic? Man oh man. I was actually going to present an article at a Harry Potter conference in New Orleans back in 05 but Katrina cancelled it and I never got around to doing that piece. One element in both HP and Trek was the great worlds that existed for each, which just begged to be explored further.

writtenwyrdd said...

Aine's got the definition a bit skewed. Slash is any fanfic that's same sex. There is a vast body of Spok/Kirk stuff out there, which is what I was talking about. I had some friends in SF who insisted they were in print even. I never read any, but I was told they were hysterical.

SzélsőFa said...

Lol Charles - you never know what credit a typo may ever give you :))))

*handing out some more virtual beer*

*checking keyboard to make sure the letters n and r are adjacent*

-pause-

*frowns*

-pause-

*think it must be my subconscious offer for my not being a sci-fi fan...*

*handing out some more beer*

Angie said...

Trek Classic was my first fandom. :) I too have seen every episode multiple times. I used to buy all the Star Trek books, and had the first fifty or so novelizations, plus the Foster animated adaptations (and I have to say that Foster's stories were much better than the actual cartoons [cough]), plus Star Trek Lives, Gerrold's book on the making of "Trouble With Tribbles," (which along with Harlan Ellison's comments on the subject, pretty much convinced me I never wanted to write for Hollywood), World of Star Trek, and the Star Trek Concordance. I got a couple of the Blish adaptations, but I think he was working from, like, first draft scripts or something, because the stories were far enough from the actual episodes that they were actively annoying so I stopped buying them.

My first "That writer is an idiot!" reaction came from one of the early Trek novels. I'll be nice and not name names, but the writer had Spock in mortal peril down on the planet, Kirk got orders to head out to another star system immediately to take care of some emergency there, and Kirk said, essentially, "Wow, if I obey orders then I'll have to abandon Spock and he'll be killed. But I have orders, and hey, it is an important mission. Wow. Oh, well. Plot a course, Mr. Sulu. Lt. Uhura, notify Starfleet that we'll be needing a new Science Officer," and off they went. :P Massive WTFage there, and pretty clearly a writer who was completely unfamiliar with the characters.

The chapter in Star Trek Lives is what got me interested in fanfic, although it was several years before I actually got to my first SF convention (when I was seventeen) and was able to buy some. I definitely started writing some of my own, though, although at the time it wasn't exactly a shining beacon of literature. [wry smile] Thirteen-year-olds are entitled to write sucky stuff, though; it's kind of their job.

I hardly saw any of Next Gen (Trek Lite); I didn't have a TV at the time, but I went over to my mom's to watch the first few episodes and it didn't impress me. I was particularly disgusted with the blonde chick pretending to be a security officer -- ick! Talk about lowering the glass ceiling. :/ I watched a few more eps after they got rid of her, but was never a major fan.

I watched a lot of DS9 (Diet Trek) and my husband were watching the DVDs for a while, although we sort of wandered away after the war started. I though the commander was a great character, and Worf and Dax's romance was a lot of fun.

I watched the first couple of seasons of Voyager (Caffeine-Free Trek) and sort of liked it, but wandered away and didn't really miss it.

The only other series I watched all the eps of, and would like to see again, was Enterprise (Cherry Trek) but apparently my husband and I were the only people in the country who actually liked it. [wry smile] Bummer it got cancelled when it did. I liked the characters, the storylines, and the way the showed how things developed, from the gimmicks we're used to (the "Reed Alert" cracked me up) to having the relationship between Vulcans and Humans originally be kind of frosty and improve over time. And I loved that not every alien they ran into just magically spoke English, and that they had to actually put some effort into translating and communicating; I understand why they moved away from that, but it was still disappointing from a realism POV.

Trek Classic will always be special to me, though. The trailers for the new movie have looked mostly good, so I'm looking forward to that with crossed fingers. (Although what's up with making Sulu some sort of kung-fu master? o_O Wow, not only retconning, but doing it in such a way as to play into a racist stereotype. [facepalm])

Angie

Charles Gramlich said...

writtenwyrdd, so it's strictly same sex. OK, that might explain why I've heard of fanfic but never slash.

SzélsőFa, yeah, you're OK with me, my friend. ;)

Angie, I think I would have liked Enterprise. I've caught a couple of episodes I enjoyed. I just am not in a position in my life to get caught up in any TV series much these days, and even more so when Enterrprise first started. Yeah, the Classic is still the show for me. I didn't catch the retro Sulu bit. Sorry to hear that. I liked him as a Swashbuckler in Amok Time.

Michelle's Spell said...

Hey Charles,

My childhood best friend was a fanatical Star Trek fan. She tried to convert me, but I usually went for Sanford and Son as my show of choice which goes a long way in describing/predicting my life in Detroit. I did cover a Star Trek convention once for the local newspaper which was pretty cool. I respect your admiration, but I must warn you to NEVER read Leonord Nimoy's poetry. NEVER. It's worse than any celebrity poetry out there, even Jimmy Carter's book.

Charles Gramlich said...

Michelle, I have managed to escape Nimoy's poetry thus far, and I appreciate your warning. I did once make the mistake of listening to some of Shatner's "singing," or "Spoken word" with song stuff. OMG, my intestines have never quite recovered.

cs harris said...

Yeah, I've always been a fan of the original series, too. Great writing, thought-provoking plots, emotional resonance, good acting. Why is all that so rare?

Spy Scribbler said...

I loved all the Star Trek series, every single one, except the last one. (Enterprise) It was always on while I was working, so I don't know whether it was the fault of the show or the fault of my work schedule.

I love the series because of the optimism, definitely. I love the ideals it strove for, the hopes it had for humanity. I also loved how it explored philosophy through the different races. It often forced you to think about living in a different way, and most of the time, it made you think about it with respect to that culture.

A lot of people were comfortable with inter-species romances on ST before they could handle inter-racial romances in real life, LOL.

There was just so much to that show!

Danette Haworth said...

I'm late to this post but I had to register myself as a Star Trek fan, from Kirk to Data and whichever one had that holographic doctor (I liked him.)

I didn't enjoy Scott B.'s Star Trek, nor did I like the Voyager, which many people heralded because it featured a female captain (but obviously the producers didn't think that would work, since she was the only captain to have a co-captain).

Charles Gramlich said...

cs harris, Good question. I suspect a bit of "unity" of vision was important. Most TV/movie stuff is full on committee work.

spyscribbler, I never caught many of the Enterprise episodes. I'm not really a fan of Bacula. The episodes I saw, though, were alright. But yes, the original series, and the second one too, had so many different and intersting elements.

Danette Haworth, I liked VOyager when I watched it but I just never had much time to do so. The character I didn't much care for was Chatoy or whatever his name was.