Review: Trekkies (1999)
There was a late episode from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” which had the new Enterprise crew rescue Scotty from the old series. Through the course of this episode, Scotty gets homesick, and, through the magic of the holodeck, he visits the bridge of the old Enterprise and reminisces over a bottle of Romulan ale (or somesuch).
I’m told that this old Enterprise bridge was borrowed from a Star Trek fan club: the fan club actually went and built the bridge in precise detail, and Paramount found it easier to rent it than build their own.
I’m surprised this story didn’t make it into the documentary, “Trekkies”. It would have fit in, alongside the stories of the 15-year-old fan whose club is making a movie — he’s doing the special effects on his PC — or the dentist who dresses up as a Star Fleet officer to see his patients (and has his receptionists and assistants dress in uniform, also). Or, for that matter, with the Whitewater juror who came to court every day in her Commander’s uniform. Such is the energy and zeal being unleashed on things Star Trek by its fans, and spilling out into the mainstream world.
I have to admit that I can identify an undisclosed number of Star Trek episodes given only a five-second sample, but not all of them, and probably not the majority from ST:DS9 or ST:V. I have never worn Vulcan ears and remain horrified by the “Q Virus” story from “Trekkies”. As a more casual fan, seeing all this wackiness from more ardent fans is a treat: there’s sufficient familiarity with the milieu to identify with much of the more extreme behavior, and to be surprised in a good way by the creative ways fan devotion is expressed. Yes, I know that Commander Sisko shaved his head and grew a goatee midway through the series, but would I have imagined that a fan would take the Sisko action figure, file off its plastic hair and paint a little goatee on it?
And Star Trek is a positive force, with notions of public service deeply embedded in its vision of the future (for an interesting discussion, take a look at this Salon article: http://www.salonmag.com/ent/movies/feature/1999/06/15/brin_main/index.html). This moral vision has not been lost on its fans. The woman who wore the Commander’s uniform to the Whitewater jury, for example, heads up a local fan club, and her reasoning for wearing the uniform is that the fan club is dedicated to community service, and what better represents civic duty than serving on a jury? The uniform is merely the visible symbol of this ideal of service. Indeed, the idea of community service crops up here and there among the fans highlighted in “Trekkies”, from the aforementioned Commander to the local Klingon crew. The dentist who dresses up in uniform is just trying to make his patients feel better — the hokey transporter set up over the dentist’s chair is meant to transport the patient away from the root canal procedure. Overall, Star Trek has been a positive influence, whether as a spark for individual creativity or as a larger framework for public consciousness. There can be worse things than being a Trekkie.
So, is there a real difference between the story of Babe Ruth visiting sick kids in the hospital and Kate Mulgrew, Capt. Janeway from ST:V, doing the same? Both are indulging the passions of their fans, giving them a chance to feel a bit better in their illnesses. Baseball and other sports are more revered and accepted than Star Trek by the mainstream — we don’t give weird and slightly disgusted looks to people who know who won the Cy Young in 1966, and we think the guys who paint their bodies in the team’s colors and stand half naked in subzero weather are just jolly clowns — but it’s just a particular pastime, hobby or passion. [A Userfriendly cartoon has nice swipe at this silly bias: http://www.userfriendly.org/cartoons/archives/99may/19990516.html]
“Trekkies” is a good documentary, but like most documentaries, it doesn’t get much screen time. In New York, it’s currently playing at the local 2nd-run movie house (known as the $3-movie theater in a city where the average ticket is $9) without having actually made it to the first-run houses. A pity: it’s worth it for both fans and non-fans to see Trek followers at their most ardent, and see that, while their behavior may appear kooky or extreme, it’s not really a bad thing, all things considered.