Quote:
Originally Posted by Penforhire
D, funny you mention Trekker because that always sounded lame to me. I'm a Trekkie, always was, and always will be.
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I'm not. I'm old enough to remember The Original Series, and watched it happily because it was the best SF on TV at the time, but never became enamored enough to read the tie-in novels or comics, and have seen perhaps a third of the movies. I liked Next Generation, once it developed its own identity. They seemed to be writing for a more adult audience.
I liked some of DS9, especially when they got into the Cardassian War. (I understand Rick Berman had to fight hard to convince the suits at Paramount to go in that direction. ST always had a split personality. Star Fleet was a military organization, the Enterprise was a capital ship, and if a war broke out, Star Fleet would have to fight it, but that wasn't a direction Roddenberry wished to go, so we never saw purpose built warships or big nasty fleet marines.) Doing so let them further explore their universe, and explore the moral choices and consequences of actions that were explicit in the premise.
I avoided Voyager like the plague, and felt similarly about Enterprise. There were interesting possibilities in going back in the chronology and exploring the founding of the Federation, but for the most part, Enterprise didn't go there.
I understand ST is being rebooted. It's certainly not a franchise Paramount will want to let lie fallow for and long period. But the history of TOS demonstrates they never really understood the audience or what they were producing. They simply knew it had turned into an unexpected hit, and were reluctant to change
anything for fear of losing audience. (From what I've heard from people who were involved, the best stuff often happened precisely when the suits weren't looking.)
I know folks who consider themselves Trekkers, and others who think they are Trekkies. The motivation for the former seems rooted in the same reasons that many fans disliked calling the genre SciFi and preferred to call it SF. They felt the term SciFi, as used by the broader audience, connoted everything people who didn't like the genre looked down upon. "Trekkies" were perceived as people who wore funny clothes and fake Spock ears, and substituted a love for Star Trek and activities related to it for anything like a real life. Trekkers loved Star Trek, but were more balanced in their appreciation.
For myself, I'm neither. There are possibilities is a revived Star Trek, but I have no confidence Paramount will recognize them, and no desire to see yet more of the same.
If it pleases you to call yourself a Trekkie, enjoy. I have no strong feeling one way or the other.
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Denniso