Funny thing is, I’m a Trekkie AND a Trekker (and a TrekDoper). The ONLY reason I use the term Trekker more often is because I like how it sounds. I don’t have any social anxiety or self esteem issues with being known as a fan of Star Trek, or as a Whovian, or any other moniker someone may choose to describe my enjoyment of even non SciFi sci fi.
I was watching the show as a little kid when it first aired, I went to the first Star Trek Convention I ever heard of (at the time) when I was all of 13.
Words are merely words. I am a fan of a TV show. (And the movies, even the one that doesn’t exist.)
Label me as you will. And I will use whatever term I like (at that moment).
Actually, one captain (Kirk*) delves straight into this controversy in one of his many books. I don’t recall which one, so you’ll have to read all of them. Luckily, they’re entertaining for the most part.
*That would be William Shatner, just in case you didn’t know.
It will go into my queue after the remaining four seasons of TNG, Voyager, DS9, Enterprise, The TNG movies, TOS and the TOS movies if I can get past how dated it is*,
BSG, B5, SG1, …
Tell you what, lets not and say I did.
I tried watching TOS, really I did. I just can’t get over the fact that it feels like a bowling alley with bad lighting (in terms of the visual, and the auditory hum.) TNG on the other hand, is just now thinking about beginning to look dated. Picard has and IPad, and so do I, it’s conceivable for me still.
And then I found out that TOS was what, 3 seasons? From a number of episode standpoint, the … Awe for TOS seems overstated. If you need me, I’ll be over there in the flame proof room.
One time a bunch of friends and I were talking about Star Trek and I mentioned that I watched and liked the original series, had seen quite a bit of Next Generation and DS9, but wasn’t an over-the-top fan about it, but that I did consider myself an “original Trekkie”.
When asked what I meant, I told them that I watched all of the original series when it originally first aired and was already a fan for a month or so before any of my friends finally saw it or before it became well known to the general public.
So, I was a big fan during its first run, when it was a great show struggling for an audience, but the franchise never grabbed me the same way when it returned years later.
“Original Trekkie” fits my fan description just fine, I think.
Perhaps, but then you should also do the same thing to people like those in this thread that insist the proper term is “Trekkie.” Both are taking the name very seriously.
Needing a term at all is already an indication that you are more than a casual fan. It means you’ve organized yourself into some sort of community. It just so happens that there are two such communities in the Star Trek fandom, and both think the other takes the whole thing too seriously. If you observe from the outside, you’ll find equal levels of fandom in both groups. Both contain the cosplayers, the people who go to cons, the people who post on Trek messageboards, the people who just watch the show, etc.
Used to, I’d say that Trekkies at least took the naming thing less seriously (hence why the proper term was “Trekkers”–Trekkies didn’t care), but this thread shows that there is a backlash. I guess I should have known that would happen.
Based on some of the posts in this thread, self-described “Trekkies” really, really want self-described “Trekkers” to be insecure. That’s… interesting.
I think Ice-T had a song about that. Heck, I think it was the title of the album… Confused the hell out of the Scientologists, though.
Are you a fan of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California, United States, Northern and Western Hemispheres, Earth, Sol System, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Universe?
I’ve watched this thread with some amusement, incidentally. I don’t know if I’ve gotten an answer, but it’s been a fun trip.
It’s not an issue of “want” – Whenever I have seen a Trekker-insistent Trekkie explain the preference, it boils down to “a Trekkie is the kind of fan that it’s okay to ridicule” or “a Trekkie is the kind of fan I don’t want to be associated with.”
