Trekkies (Trekkers?)

For the past few weeks I've been craving knowledge. Part of is is because I'm back in school and being forced to read and write about topics at someone else's behest; part of it is because a full time job has left the time in between work and sleep a wasteland of poorly spent time. Having recognized that my life has become significantly more bland and sedentary I've been trying to try to do something meaningful whenever possible.

Tonight I watched the documentary "Trekkies". Hopefully those of you reading have not immediately jumped to a conclusion about the quality of the film based on the title. I must admit first off that Star Trek was an important part of my childhood. Almost every night my dad would sit down to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation and we would all join him. We would lose ourselves in the adventures of Picard and Riker and Data and all the rest. I still remember when how strange it was when we knew the next episode would be the last. After so many years it instilled in me a real sense of loss when the final credits rolled and we were left asking "what now?" Deep Space Nine lost be before the peak of the show and Voyager did not even come close to repeating what I loved about TNG so I drifted away from Star Trek and sci-fi in general. Perhaps it was the family bond that TNG represented in our household that no other incarnation of the Star Trek franchise was able to latch onto or perhaps it was just a young boy looking for something more solid to believe in than spaceships and aliens. Whatever the reason Star Trek moved on and I did not.

Coming into the world of Trekkies for me was like returning to a childhood haunt and finding that it has been turned into a church or a circus. Star Trek fanatics have always gotten a hard time from popular opinion. Even Rocky Horror fans seem like they have less baggage then a person walking down the street in a Klingon outfit. At least the person dressed as Dr. Frank N. Futer has a sense of humor about their outfit. The same cannot be said of all Trek fans. It is this bias that Trekkies probes with astounding results. Even from the introduction we know Trekkies are not fans like any would could imagine. The director, Roger Nygard, delves deeply into the impact, both positive and negative, that Star Trek has had on people around the world. Some of the first fans we see are those that we would "expect" including a trio dressed as an ambassador party of blue aliens and a man dressed in a Trek uniform with bright red lipstick (we learn later that he is dressed as the unseen wife of a minor character from a single episode). We are then introduced to the interviewer, Denise Corsby, whom fans may recognize as Tasha Yar from the early TNG episodes. It is at this point when it becomes obvious that there is more to the fans then our first impressions would allow.

The balanced presentation of even the most ridiculous characters in the film is a testament to the quality of the documentarian. A often returned to character in the movie is a dentist and his family of Star Trek fans. He has designed his dental office around a Star Trek theme. His family, a wife and two kids, are always portrayed with their uniforms on whether it is at home, at the grocery store or at work. Regardless, his staff seems to be accepting of their Federation work uniforms and his clients seem to be OK with his Star Trek office. We are shown a kid who is a second generation fan after his father who at first comes off as a goof and a nerd but who, at the age of 14, has already produced impressively detailed 3D models of scenes from a Star Trek movie he and his friends are producing. We hear stories from the cast of the various Trek shows that range from laughable to disturbing to tear jerking. One of these stories is from James Doohan, AKA Scotty. He tells us of a girl who sent us a letter. A suicide letter. Fearing for the girl, he invited her to a convention he was speaking at and to subsequent conventions where he talked to her. Years later she contacted him again to tell him that she had just received a masters degree in electronic engineering.

It is these details that Trekkies shines. Few of the characters have been consumed by their obsession and even those that seem the most removed from reality have jobs and kids and lives outside Star Trek. It is hard to look down on a woman with hundreds of photos of Brent Spiner when I can recall the names and works of hundreds of different musicians and actors. I used to follow every single, every side project every charity that Pearl Jam was connected with. I still have vinyls of their albums that have never touched a record player. Star Trek holds a much stronger claim to combatting social issues the Pearl Jam ever did and through their stories they introduced generations of children to important social issues from racism to poverty to dealing with the loss of loved ones. Maybe most of us did not go past tuning in every week but the lessons being taught were universal and the importance of children being involved in a show that teaches such universal lessons should not be understated.

"For the hour you are on I forget the body that I am in." This is what a woman, so paralyzed she needed an interpreter to decipher the frail mumblings from her lips, told John de Lancie (Q). Star Trek fans, like the fans of anything else range from the obsessive stalkers to those who take their love for the show on a personal level. Anyone who was a fan of Star Trek during their childhood should check out Trekkies if not for nostalgia, because it is an exceptionally well done documentary. There is a lot to laugh at, marvel at and be embarrassed for but all of it is thought provoking.