Telling people you are a “Star Trek Veteran” a “Trekknowledgist” a “Real Fan since the beginning” or anything along the lines of bragging, stroking your ego, placing oneself on a high horse when it comes to Star Trek tells the rest of us one thing.
Too. Stay. Away.
I love Star Trek. Let’s not get this wrong or deny it.
But it no way is it so important that I use it to boost myself and shame other fans.
In no way should it be use to undermine people.
In no way should it’s importance become SO HIGH that their is an elite fan group which snarks at others.
In no way is it a reason to bully people.
It is a Science Fiction show. It is full of fans from all over the world.
It can not be allowed to become SO consuming that it warps your judgement of others. It’s toxic.
It is an entertainment show which yes, has changed things and done wonderful things. But it is entertainment. It is not an elite club. It is not a place to shame others or mock for however they enjoy it.
Some people don’t dedicate their life to it. AND THAT’S MORE THAN OKAY.
There is no exam to becoming a fan. There are no terms and conditions. Being a fan who has “20+ years behind” them does not excuse them or give them a reason to be shitty human over a Sci-Fi show.
It is something for people to enjoy, and have fun.
As soon as it becomes so important it makes someone toxic, the whole community suffers and we suffer greatly from it.
Don’t let anyone use it as an excuse to hurt you.
Love it. Enjoy it. Have fun.
There is no exam?? What for I worked so much till now? I actually learned Klingon! (jk, I’m still studying it).
But seriously though, I think that Star Trek has the peculiarity to bring a strong political message besides the fun, and that is why I think so many people take it so seriously, it fought xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, racism and bigots in not such a subtle way, I think that is why people got so obsessed with it, it’s more a philosophy than a tv show most of the time.
JJ kinda ruined it, that is for not everyone is happy about the “new Star Trek”, it lost its soul, so yeah, I don’t consider trekkies people who watched only JJ’s movies or worse, didn’t like the series. That is not Star Trek, is a very bad copy of it, they have no idea what the message was.
I’m definitely one of the worst trek-know-all you’ll ever meet, but as long as you don’t say JJ’s was better than the series and Uhura/Spock makes fucking sense (I will fight you to the end of the Universe, Uhotty and Spirk were beautiful and deserved more) you are fine to me, and actually I get very excited when people have not seen some of the series yet, watching their reaction to them is great.
I am not talking about the political message. These people don’t care about that.
If they did, these people wouldn’t shit on Discovery for having a black woman as a lead as an example.
Talking of examples, here are some comments from my Youtube Channel which is about Star Trek -
“ this show has to much political correctness all over it “
“we can stop this pc crap! america showed a majority is against it by voting for trump! “
"Openly gay character ” nuff said goodbye
“
From this video alone. Plus I had to delete comments because some were THAT racist.
And I know someone who also runs a Star Trek youtube channel, and gets just the same shit.
Sexism, racism, xenophobia etc are RAMPANT in the community and it can not be ignored or used as a reason for people to act in such ways. You can ask a fair number of female fans how many times they get called “not a real fan” purely because they are female. These people do not care about Star Trek’s message yet act like the founding fathers and owners of Star Trek which is what I am talking about.
These people can’t hide behind Star Trek’s better message when the women of Star Trek itself are so terribly treated by these fans (just go look on their twitters on any day! Let alone the treatment on the show). But those people don’t care because “Lol Seven is so hot”.
The philosophy of the show is flat out ignored by the elite gatekeepers so it can not be used as an excuse for their shitty behaviour.
The reason they act shitty, is because they are shitty, and they use Star Trek as a platform and ego enlarger to act like that.
THIS is what I am talking about as well as people flat out shaming others for liking JJ or any series which isn’t TOS or TNG (although those people still argue till they’re blue)
If you don’t like JJ, or whatever else, fine. You don’t have too. No one is going to make you because who actually cares, we can all like what we want and carry on. Not a reason to act better because you don’t like it or too invalidate someone else.
And JJ ruined nothing. This has been going LONG before the reboots ever happened. These people think Voyager or DS9 or Enterprise ruined it. I have seen the actress Linda Park get abuse on Twitter saying she ruined Star Trek because she was in Enterprise.
There is no excuse. It should not be excused.
If people did follow what Star Trek was teaching us, we would all accept each other peacefully and carry on. But they don’t. It is not about the philosophy of Star Trek.
It is about elite gatekeepers thinking they are better than other fans for enjoying it their way.
There is NO right way to enjoy it apart from simply, enjoying it, in whatever form. From birth, or in the last year, you are a VALID fan of Star Trek and no one is allowed to tell you otherwise.
Oh, I get it then, believe me, I met some “trekkies” who were racist and shit, how they watched over 546 hours of something and not do not get the message is a mystery. I agree with you on that, those people didn’t get the series, they are not Trekkies either as far as I’m concerned. I met a “Trekkie” fascist, what the hell did they watch.
About JJ, I dislike it and I don’t consider it Star Trek because not only it didn’t really help the Star Trek philosophy, but it even went against it, fucking Kirk became Captain before ending the Academy, that is against the whole teaching of hard working and meritocracy that Gene wanted, in TOS Kirk was the best student, he ended the Academy full marks, worked as an official and then captain like everyone else. In the movies he apparently as just the Captain’s favourite, that is what I hated so much. Besides it was kind of coward as a reboot, they could do a good thing they didn’t, nothing problematic, not a hidden metaphor about modern days, a plain fun tasteful science fiction little movie, nothing like we got in TOS or TNG or DS9.
The people you talked about are the fake fans and stupid, you have my total support on that, and I bet they don’t know shit or they didn’t understand it, I could probably quote Star Trek against each one of them XD
You just said “ so yeah, I don’t consider trekkies people who watched only JJ’s movies or worse, didn’t like the series.” on a post saying there are no terms and conditions to being a Star Trek fan.
I think we ALL get the JJ had problems, but my gosh ALL of Star Trek had problems. All of it. All series had problems. If it isn’t Riker being transphobic then it’s how Seven of Nine is treated. You can’t condemn one and ignore the rest. And Gene was not a shining human being. We all also know that. This wasn’t even about the JJ films like make a new text post if you want to talk about it.
I don’t care if you like or dislike whatever Star Trek. It is all problematic, it all has problems, and liking or disliking any of it doesn’t make you less of a fan and doesn’t invalidate you as a fan and it is not a reason for someone to invalidate you.
The point of this was
How you enjoy Star Trek isn’t an excuse to act like you know better, are better and a truer fan than anyone else. Aka, don’t act shitty.