Which explains why there are no Firefly Browncoats at all. Nope.
I’ll be in ma bunk…
The big difference between Star Wars and Star Trek is that the latter presents an image of ourselves in four hundred years. The human characters come from actual places on Earth, rather than a nameless galaxy far away. The Federation/Klingon rivalry paralleled the Cold War, but the presence of Chekhov suggested that, at least, the Earth itself would be at peace. Supposedly, Chekhov was added to the show because some Russian critics had pointed out it was only appropriate to include a Russian character in a show about space travel.
In addition the show tried to address current social issues, notably racism. In the area of popular music, 1967 seems to have been a better time racially speaking, although this may be a misconception through my white eyes and ears. But it seems that things weren’t so segregated then. There were a number of bands with both black and white members; Carlos Santana, while not discarding his Latino musical roots, forged a psychedelic bluesy sound that was widely popular. (In fact, some of Robbie Krieger’s work with The Doors sounds a little like Santana). And of course Jimi Hendrix. Santana and Hendrix were not “the Black guitarist” or “the Hispanic guitarist”, they were just damn good musicians.
But I digress. As for Star Trek, I think a lot of the popularity of it has to do with personal nostalgia. I was only 9 when TOS came out, and while I liked it at the time, I didn’t really watch it seriously until I was in college. A couple of afternoons a week I didn’t have class, so I, along with many others, would gather in the TV lounge to watch it. We’d buy some candy, or have a smoke while we watched, and it was a pleasant relaxing ritual. TOS itself was badly made even by the standards of 1977. The content demonstrated again and again why the writers had decided to become SF writers rather than actual scientists or engineers (e.g. amplifying a sound on the order of one to the fourth power). The SFX, in hindsight, were a joke and reminiscent of something one would see on Gilligan’s Island, or even a Three Stooges short. In spite of the mathematical and technical errors, though, many of the stories were well written and engaging. And even though the FX were bad, the producers were often very creative in using what they had available. In addition, TOS was full of visual design touches that reflected the fashions and interior design trends IRL at the time, as well as minor touches intended to emphasize exotic alien cultures. For example, in “Journey to Babel”, in the “cocktail party” scene, two little midget aliens are pouring and drinking some sort of liquid served over brightly colored balls. (Balls of what? I don’t know.) These actors, brief though their appearance was, always impressed me by how well they acted “alien”–compared with the other characters, their sudden darting movements seemed to emphasize their alien-ness.
Also, the total absence of Battlestar: Galactica at sci-fi cons.
Wow all this talk of Obsession and no one’s mentioned the One Ring yet? I think LOTR fans are just as obsessive as Star Trek fans. and just as hard to explain.
- people are good looking
- the women wear revealing outfits
3)the men are heroic types
4)nobody has to go to the bathroom
One thing i never understod-what was life like for the enlisted men/women of the ENTERPRISE? Did they wear sloppy uniforms and curse?
Everybody’s got an obsession - something they’re willing to spend money on, dress up for, speculate about endlessly. Some are just more obvious than others. Some are less acceptable than others.
Which brings me to my own question:
What forms did this need to dive into some topic’s minutiae take in prehistory? No writing, so any narrative was oral. Did cavemen and women quibble over the smallest details of prey animal behavior? Hunting tactics? Food gathering? Did they sublimate it into religious ritual?
Or is our need for these all-devouring devotions a consequence of civilization?
Indeed. Right now, the streets of Boston are lined with people in green shirts and basketball tops, yelling about the Celtics victory. Some of them are holding up signs saying “Celtics Win!”… as though motorists were unaware of that fact.
Such behavior is apparently considered normal.
I think you’re judging TOS too harshly. It was on during my high school years, and I watched every episode on first airing. Criticize the terminology mistakes all you want, but it was the first sf series I remember that realized you couldn’t do ftl travel just by stepping on the gas. The SFX are feeble by today’s standards, but a lot better than Lost in Space or Twilight Zone. They did a fairly good job writing around what they couldn’t show. For instance, being able to show only one ship at a time forced the Enterprise to act more like a battleship than a fighter, which is a lot more scientifically plausible than the swooping fighters of Star Wars.
It also did away with the Gilligan’s Island / Time Tunnel / Lost in Space plot of trying to get home, and failing every week. The earlier shows had a lot more of Roddenberry’s Navy experience in them, and for a teenager at least had a realistic feel. It is also the first show that filled in a universe, like good sf series did. As an sf fan even at that age, it was the first tv series I had ever seen which created a world you can live in, and that is why I think it inspired fandom. Already existing sf fandom adopted ST as something not to be embarrassed about. Even Analog ran a very positive article about it. Then it used real sf writers, and for the first season and a half did real sf plots, so watching ST back then didn’t make you feel slightly dirty. Sure, Outer Limits used Ellison, but anthology shows don’t offer opportunities for getting into the universe.
ST conventions jump started off of sf conventions, but had a much broader base to get people from. All the other things about GR’s positive outlook helped, but I think the real reason was that ST was the first show you could write yourself into, which a lot of the early fan fiction did.
I’ve been reading science fiction since the mid-1960s, so I understand fandom in general. But both Star Trek and Star Wars are pretty simple-minded juvenile stuff; it seems odd that people would focus all their fandom energy on one of those mediocre fictional worlds, when there’s a whole universe of other, better science fiction.
Or maybe it’s not so odd. Silly as they are, those stories present iconic images in a powerful visual medium. Many of the fans have probably never read what you might call books, but they know the shows and movies by heart.
Wow, incredibly insightful and ridiculously patronizing in the same post. Good show.
Yes, we Star Trek and Star Wars fans come from a primitive civilization that has not yet discovered writing and publishing. Book and book…what is book? :rolleyes:
Yes, …We make holes in teeth…
I’ve been unsuccessfully trying to figure out for the last five minutes what the Crest Cavity Creeps have to do with Star Trek or illiteracy or Spock’s Brain, but I’m clueless.
Nitpick: 1966
Juvenile? SW, maybe, but in the context of the mid-60s ST dealt with subjects far above the juvenile. Consider how Matheson examined how our conflicting impulses interact, or Ellison examined the problem of love vs. duty, or how they made their lead character look silly for being prevented from going to war. They got more obvious later on with Vietnam stories and race stories, but this was long before every damn after school special was about race or drugs or single motherhood. Yeah, the appeal was broadened by those who watched for the monsters and phasers, but a lot of the stories were as sophisticated as written sf.
Unfortunately, there is evidence that you are right. The early fans read, and I guess the big ones do, but lots don’t read much, I’d guess. The Blish ST books sold better than anything else he ever did, which is sad. He wrote that he tried to direct his readers to real sf. He worked hard at fleshing out the characters and plots in the first few collections, but slacked off later. I don’t know if he got feedback to leave the scripts alone, or if it was health, but I’d guess the quality of the writing didn’t sell the books.
The percentage of space in the SF section of bookstores dedicated to ST and SW cookie cutter novels is very depressing - even more if I had novels published.
Walking Sports Database Scorns Walking Sci-Fi Database:*En route from The Fan Zone to Lidz, a mall baseball-cap shop, Moreland spotted Dansby emerging from The Astral Plane, a store specializing in fantasy games and figurines.
“The guy even dresses like a total geek,” said Moreland, who rarely leaves the house without a jersey or T-shirt displaying his team loyalties. “What does his shirt say? Akira? Whatever that is, I’m sure it’s not cool.”
Added Moreland: “The Islanders are gonna kick some major ass this year. They picked up [Alexei] Yashin from the Senators and [Chris] Osgood from the Red Wings. And Mark Parrish looks way improved from last season. Don’t be surprised if we give the Flyers a serious run for their money in the Atlantic.”
Watching Dansby exit The Astral Plane with a “Forgotten Realms” interactive atlas CD-ROM under his arm, Moreland questioned the science-fiction fan’s enjoyment of role-playing games.
“What is that all about? Imaginary elves and shit running around doing imaginary things and winning imaginary gold?” Moreland asked. “I mean, I could see playing D&D when you’re 12 years old, but this guy’s got to be at least 25. It’s pathetic.”
As of press time, Moreland’s online ESPN.com fantasy-football team, DaJerseyJintz, was 4-1.*
It’s all a matter of taste. The weirdest of them are, of course, Wodehouse fans, who enjoy discussing and often acting out characters with unpronounceable names. Yep, much stranger than people who spend time developing and nitpicking chronology for the Sherlock Holmes stories. And then there are Shakespeare fanatics, some of whom even dress up and speak dialogue for fun. Buncha weirdos, all of 'em.
Stranger
The irony here is that this pretty much sums up the greater literary world’s attitude toward the SF genre.
I also suspect that merely reading SF does not automatically convey any understanding of the SF fandom phenomenon.
Because Star Trek and Star Wars ROCK!
Well I wouldn’t want to be accused of judging it harshly. I’ve always loved the show regardless of the now-primitive FX, or maybe even partly because of them. They add to the charm.
Though I wouldn’t defend every episode. I’m sure every fan has their list of the worst ones, as most shows do.