What is with the star trek obsession with many people – they dress up in uniforms and try to learn klingon.
Seems strange – this also applies to star wars. Why do people so love these two movie/franchises, and not say, masterpiece theater? You dont see people dressing up in 19th century uniforms (in public at least).
Clearly, you’ve never heard of the SCA.
Same reason every religion in the world encodes its wisdom in the form of stories. Narrative is power.
Moving to Cafe Society.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Not just Star Trek, but just about every SF television series seems to have a fanatic cult following out of proportion to other genres of television.
Sure, people like Seinfeld and Law and Order, but it’s not like they go around dressing as Kramer at Seinfeld conventions, converting to Judaism “for the jokes”. or arguing about whether Alexandra Eames or Olivia Benson would win in a catfight between the two.
Never been to a Renaissance Faire or US Civil War re-enactment, I take it. OK, so Ren Faires aren’t 19th century, but still.
Seriously, though, while it’s not something I’d be into, the shows and films mentioned have a bunch of clearly-defined archetypes running around wearing (what some consider) cool outfits and carrying cool weapons. Those two aspects alone are catnip to persons who like to playact.
Why is it that someone dressing up in a black cape and a respirator mask is weird, but a fat guy with no shirt in sub-zero temperatures with his sports team’s colors painted on his torso is normal? Everyone has their hobbies, and most hobbies look a bit odd to the people outside of it.
People rationally enjoy Star Trek because it is perfection itself and the key to all human knowledge and enjoyment. Except for the inconsistencies and non-canon stuff which I have exhaustively detailed on four websites. Did you know that stardate doesn’t correspond to actual time? And the movies! For Spock’s sake, the movies! And is warp speed on an arithmetic curve, or a geometric one? and…
What is with the football obsession with many people. They dress up in uniforms paint their faces and try to learn every minor stat.
Seems strange-- this also applies to baseball.
See we all have hobbies and some take them overboard. the difference is that some are seen as more socially acceptable. Think of that the next time you see some obviously non athletic type sporting a jersey and wonder… why its ok for him to play dress up in public.
Oh… I thought the sports guys were well prepared in case of an injury on the field 
. The coach just might ask them to sub if they’re wearing the right uniform.
There’s always Dickens Fair.
<Pokes head out from Cuthbert’s Tea Shoppe> Hello! Care for a spot of tea?
These guys can also be a little obsessive.
I think a large factor is that a lot of SF – and Star Trek in particular – posits a new world order in which social ills are largely cured, humanity accomplishes great things, yadda yadda yadda. As opposed to, for instance, Law & Order, which serves mainly to show us the large number of ways in which humanity at this point in time is really dysfunctional. It makes for interesting stories, but is somewhat less inspiring.
Trek fans and Sci-fi fans in general get more attention for whatever reason. The most obsessive, scary, fixated people I know aren’t Star Trek fans (or involved in any “fandom” at all)–they’re academics. They have (many) conferences and some even get dressed up, too. Based on experience, I’d rather be stuck in a room full of “Trekkers” than Shakespeare scholars, all things being equal.
Star Trek came out in 1967. 1967 wasn’t a great year for the US – the war in Viet Nam was dividing us, there were anti-war demonstrations & race riots. I turned 14 that year, and I remember thinking that, like many of my generation, I would never reach 20. We wanted to change the world; we looked at all the pollution, war, & hate in our world, & knew it had to change or we would perish.
Star Trek showed us there was a bright future. It sounds naive these days, but back then it gave us hope. Spock, Uhuru, & Sulu were minorities. Aboard the Enterprise, they were treated as equals. Checkov was Russian (not one of the hated communist Russians). He was an equal. Perhaps, we thought, in the future we could all be equals.
Yep I agree w/the arguments/explainations listed above. But for some of us older folks, there’s the always the memory of that old hope in less hopeful times.
Love, Phil
To the OP, why not?
There’s football hooliganism, Northern Irish own brand bigotry, general thuggery and a vast slew of other evils to choose from, Star Trek being the least of them for me.
Alexandra Eames and Olivia Benson…catfight… :dubious:
The appeal of Star Trek and Star Wars are quite different. Sure, they’re both Science Fiction, “space operas” and it’s often the the same people that a drawn to both.
But, as earlier posters suggested, Star Trek’s appeal is it’s Utopian hope. Racism, disease, war, poverty, etc., have been solved - or are at least under control.
I believe Star Wars appeal is the thrill of adventure and the clearly defined lines between good and evil.
What both have in common is that both constructed their own universes that can contain endless stories and allow the fans to imagine their place it the stories. Also, the universes have room for endless additions to the storyline. Sure the movies and TV shows may end, but the offshoot books and video games can go on forever.