Let's try and get 1,000,000 replies to this post

A bloke at work said that he was debating about whether to see the new Star Trek movie or not. I had to tell him that there is no question - it's a Star Trek movie, that's all the motivation you need.
 
I bet it was as well, I will be seeing it soon (week after next) no doubt.
 
At the risk of facing a verbal firing squad...

I'm one of those who've only seen Trekkies at a distance (With the rubber ears and skin-tight T-shirts), and only
quickly glanced at the show when coming home from a beer soaked evenings, and I gotta tell you:

Star Trek have EXTREMELY little appeal to me...

The whole franchise seems like something that is catering exclusively to people with an obsessive interest in Sci-Fi...
The obsessive fans are of course the cause of this impression...

(Not saying Star Wars fans are any better... I'd probably steered clear of those movies too, had I not seen them long before I ever saw an SW-obsessive fan...)

Thats just how I (a non-viewer) see the show, and the movies...

Probably will end up seeing it anyways...

I'm a boy, after all...

We are easily amused by bright colors and fancy explosions...
 
Here's the deal.  Star Trek as a franchise (not the new movie in particular) is about a utopian earth in a distopian future.  So yes, there are a lot of science fiction elements to it: technobabble, warp drives, shields, etc.  It is an overarching storyline, but it is a magnificent story telling device.

People like Star Trek a lot because there tends to be something for everyone.  Some episodes, especially of The Next Generation and DS9 (in my opinion) are masterpieces of modern fiction.  They reflect on issues like torture, slavery, murder, and many other ethical questions, and it doesn't always come down on one side or the other.

Like any good universe, like Tolkien's Middle-Earth, Lucas's galaxy far far away, or Rowling's Potterverse, Star Trek has immersive details and features, an expanse of information that, while fictional, follows the logical constructs we are used to in day-to-day life.  This allows for people to take it extremely seriously, and learn a lot about the imagination of others, and let people give them the background to the story.  This is where extreme fandom comes in: learning Klingon, knowing all the details of the Cardassian-Federation War, etc.

If you want to get into Star Trek, go see the new movie.  It's a good one, and it has something for almost anyone watching, and I think anyone could enjoy the film, even with no attachment to the original series.  If that is enjoyable, you can get your hands on some of the classic tv series episodes, and you might like them.  It's not cool, but that doesn't mean it's not good.

You can't judge what you've never seen.
 
The part about learning from the imagination of others, I like... especially when it conserns controversial subjects...

The lack of such is why I hate mindless TV... I mean seriously... How many hours of TV is just wasted on mindless bullocks..?

But I digress...

where extreme fandom comes in: learning Klingon, knowing all the details of the Cardassian-Federation War, etc...
That's just creepy, IMHO... and a good reason to stay away from the series...

But I'll give the movie an honest shot, and give you my perspective afterwards... (Whether you want it or not, LOL...)

Hot Dog time now...

:yey:
 
Tho, probably not all that different than the fans who know the names of all the Jedi, the rank and list of Sith-lords and all that.  There is extreme fandom in everything; Potterverse was brought up by LC (in that excellent post), and you'll find people that are dressed in robes and wands running around bookstores and movie theaters (and prob at Comicon).

Trekies get a lot of attention, and maybe deservedly so, but they aren't any crazier than any other super fan boy.
 
LOL...

Tell me about it...
A dude I know (I hesitate to call him a friend, but we do share many acquaintances) is a totally SW-fanatic...

He's too much of a fucking git to be ABLE to remember all those Jedi names... Most days he's at his peak remembering his own name...
But if he wasn't a complete Shit-4-brains, he WOULD memorize all those names...

He does, however, go around spouting all these jedi-bullshit philosophies... (Never manages to live up to any of them though, LOL...)

This guy is fully convinced that one of these days, a UFO is going to come pick him up, and he'll get swept up in this space adventure
involving him finding his Leia... (He's a alien nutjob as well / in combination with SW... believes in all the piss you can find online...)

I keep telling him, "if they come, they'll just ass-probe you", but nada...

I kinda wish they'd just come for the guy already... LOL
Let him find a girl, let him get a tube up his ass, I don't care; I just want his bullshit to come to a screeching halt, one way or the other... :lol:
 
Wasted CLV said:
Trekies get a lot of attention, and maybe deservedly so, but they aren't any crazier than any other super fan boy.

I happen to be a major fan of all the series listed there, as well as Stargate.  But I don't know much Klingon (other than the usual pah-taq! and the like), nor do I know much Elvish.  But why would learning this stuff be creepy?  Maybe it's creepy to know every lyric to every Iron Maiden song ever.  Or know all 60 pop culture references in the SIT cover.  It's just fandom - and there's a wealth of fan information out there, on most any entertainment subject.

Watch the movie, maybe some of the series, and judge it on its own merits, not through some ridiculous (and quite insulting) filter lenses you've invented for yourself, AJ.  There's level of enjoyment to be taken from everything.  If you watch a movie or two, or some of the episodes and say..."Well, the movie was good, but the show's not for me, too slow/preachy/out there/etc", that's fine.  But right now you're assuming something is bad because a few people are geeky about it.

Well, I am an Iron Maiden geek, and a Dungeons and Dragons geek, and a Star Trek geek, and a Harry Potter geek, and a hockey geek, and a Mac geek, among many other things I am geeky for, but I don't think that it is appropriate to judge anything by the people who listen to it.  Isn't that what happened to Maiden in the 80s?  Judging the album by its cover and not its content?
 
HOpe I didn't offend, LC, cause I'm a huge fan of those as well. 

Something that I was into, but I think you said you didn't follow, is the new BSG.  Dude, that shit was dark, deep, sexually charged, politically devious and completely entertaining!!!  I was pretty wrapped up in the last season of it, cause I really wanted to know 'where it all began, where will it all end'... i followed the scifi forums (which suck badly!!!).  Funny, I am still not sure what I think of the last few epi's-- I downloaded them on my xbox and watch them about once a week or so, still trying to figure that one out....

Honestly, other than BSG, the SG series' have been some of my favorites in the last 5 or so years.... one of my disappointments this last year was SGA closing down.    To me, it isn't the scifi setting as much as the character interactions-- Jack O'neil is a great character; the scifi setting is just gravy.  I think, looking at some of my fav authors, its always been about the characters and their interaction, far more than the science part of it.  Heinlein is one of my all time fav's and his characters will operate in standard fiction as easily in scifi... the scifi just adds a little more of what I like.
 
Easy, LC...

I'm not calling YOU creepy...

I just said what kind of impression I , as a non-viewer, have gotten from the extreme Trekkies...

I geek around somewhat myself...

I did D&D... I still read X-Men and other comics...
I've had discussions about what was so terribly wrong on so many levels with the new SW movies...
I well and truly love LOTR, both the movies and the book...

BUT:

Knowing a few words in Klingon or elvish, thats one thing... (I don't know elvish from Russian, BTW)

Knowing the entire fucking language fluently... creepy...

Being able to sit down, and understand all the pop-cultural references on SIT, thats one thing...

Knowing them by heart... creepy... And I'm pretty sure the boys in Maiden would agree...

There is a line, and I think you agree, between FAN and FANATIC...

Another example is a pal of mine.
Works as a bartender at the local watering hole. great guy.
He himself considers himself a FANATICAL Liverpool fan, and he's honest about it...
Liverpool is BIG in this small town I live in...
There are many FANS...
But only one FANATIC...
The rest of the fans, all who are great friends of his, also consider him a fanatic...
(I've consciously, deliberately and purposefully avoided all talks soccer-related, especially with him, so I can't tell you what it's all about, this knowledge of his, but he know all things Liverpool...)

There is a line, and more often than not, it's pretty easy to spot...

I know the lyrics of a lot of Maiden songs, but not ALL of them...
I'm know the difference between Yoda and Obi wan, but not Stormtrooper #413 and #431...
and so on and so forth...

My basic point is the simple difference between judging a book by its cover, judging it by it content, and
memorizing the maiden names of every single background character that only appear in one single paragraph...

(as I've been writing these last posts, there have been 5-6 Star Trek trailers on TV, and it does look good...)

Now, this post got very long, so as a thank for your patient read-trough, I've left a toy surprise behind the spoiler tag...

128863323355859176.jpg
 
MisterAJ said:
where extreme fandom comes in: learning Klingon, knowing all the details of the Cardassian-Federation War, etc...
That's just creepy, IMHO... and a good reason to stay away from the series...

I'm a long-time Star Trek fan. I literally grew up with the series and its various incarnations. As a kid, I built and rebuilt Enterprise bridges with Lego for nights on end. I loved the adventures and the imagery the series used. When I first saw the Klingon grammar back in 1993 or 1994, I bought it right away, thinking it was cool and funny. I never got past page one of that book though, because it really wasn't that funny at all.

As I grew up, I started to appreciate the series for very different things. It wasn't all about space battles and weird aliens at all anymore, instead I watched the programme(s) for their intelligent plots, great characters and overall in-depth quality. However, I didn't care for the cultural background of the Romulan empire or the Klingon vocabulary. It only interested me when it was part of an episode's plot. Obviously, if you want to portray the inner conflict of a Klingon living in a human world, you will need to define what his original culture is made up of. However, I never saw it as anything else than an entertaining, "spaced-out" commentary of conflicts and phenomena we are dealing with in the real world.
Although there are always some bad episodes, the overall quality of Star Trek, particularly Next Generation, is extremely high, and beyond nearly everything else that has ever been on television. You don't need to watch it for details on the Dominion Wars- you should instead watch it for the excellent dramaturgy and thoughtful ideas it possesses. Those nerds who nerds go out (or rather, don't) and memorise the technical manuals of the Enterprise have nothing to do with the programme for me.

Incidentally, I once read a Star Trek novel, and thought it was poorly written, very clichéd and really didn't manage to capture the spirit I was talking about at all.
 
LooseCannon said:
I don't understand how you can wait so long, Albietross.
Two things, the nearest cinema to me is a 20 minute drive away and I've got a busy week ahead. The week after, I'm off work completely.

Personally, I've been into Star Trek from the days of Kirk and Spock. As a kid, it was our treat to sit up and watch it on a Wednesday night and despite of how tame they look today, the Gorn, for example, would terrify us.
gorn1.jpg

But I could not confess to be as devoted as some. I loved the Star Trek series and all the films (I have them all on DVD - barring The Search for Spock) and really enjoyed Picard's Generations series. But I never got into Deep Space 9, etc. Perhaps I should.
 
You see your point, Perun...

But I just gotta post this... :lol:

I just can't help it... forgive me... eventually...

Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1eFdUSnaQM

and I probably should ad this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QyYaPWasos
 
Damn you AJ, I was about to post that first link! :D

Incidentally, I started out with the original series and had a hard time accepting The Next Generation as part of the concept. But now, as much as I love the original, I have to say that The Next Generation is better.
 
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