I have always been infatuated with Star Trek ever since I was a child. However, throughout both my childhood and my experiences in college, I have found that most people frown upon Star Trek as a horrible television show that symbolizes the idea of a 35 year old virgin living at his parent's house while fantasizing about having sex with Uhura. Although there are definitely some Trekkies who fit this stereotype, Star Trek and the culture that surrounds it is not how most people perceive it to be.
Star Trek itself fills a spot in the mind that is completely vacant in the current world of realism in television. At its core, Star Trek is a completely fictional universe. Created completely from imagination, the universe of Star Trek does not follow the normal constraints of our real universe. Within the outer space ream of the Enterprise, travel to distant alien worlds and interaction with the inhabitants there provides stimulation to the minds of the viewers. Even though the personalities of the aliens are often simple and one-dimensional, the strange and exotic nature of these aliens can provoke imagination. Another aspect of the show itself that is unique to Star Trek and its lesser known cousins is futuristic technology. While some advances in technology that are presented in Star Trek are based on real science and engineering to some degree, other technologies are completely based on fiction. However, regardless of an origin of either science or imagination, the technology in Star Trek is very fantastic and can provide hope for the future in a world filled with inefficient technologies like coal-fired power plants, internal combustion engines, and Windows.
The culture that surrounds Star Trek is not quite as bad as its portrayal by most people. For the majority of people who like the television show, it is nothing more than an entertaining television show that is much more imaginative than most television. Unfortunately, Star Trek and its fans have gained a bad reputation because of the few fans who have taken their love of Star Trek too far. Instead of simply enjoying a television program and delving into the fantasy of the future only occasionally, some Trekkies become so infatuated with Star Trek that their lives are consumed by it. While Star Trek can be a very entertaining show that is can provoke the imagination, an entire life dominated by Star Trek is definitely uncool.
Being completely consumed by a pop culture genre is never cool. This holds true for groups of people other than Trekkies as well. For example, Tony in Saturday Night Fever is uncool for his complete obsession with disco. Although he is cool at first for his extreme skill at dancing, the dance floor completely dominates his life. Because he is inept at all other areas of life, he will always be a complete failure outside of nightclubs. If Tony had the ability to do reach outside of his closed life and make something of himself, he would have been a very cool person, but because his only skill is dancing, he is doomed to only be cool amongst his fellow dancers in the same way that extreme Trekkies are only cool amongst fellow Trekkies. Ultimately, although the average Star Trek fan or disco dancer may simply enjoy a cool slice of pop culture, the few extreme members of a group can turn a cool idea into a horribly square pastime.
Even my friends who are biology grad students, who hunt gators, love Star Trek. It has something for everyone I think. But I think sci-fi in general has become the cultural lingua franca to replace magic in stories, in no small part thanks to Trek I am sure.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the line between obsession and impassioned engagement when it comes to any subculture?
Star Trek as an anthology, as maligned as it can be, is one of the few respectable science fiction legacies in existence, especially on television. Battlestar Galactica is the only thing that has really given it much competition in the last few years, and that's considering that there isn't an active Star Trek series on television right now (I'm pretty sure).
ReplyDeleteWhat is so sexy about Star Trek that people almost literally sacrifice their entire lives to it? For that matter, why does anything become that attractive? While you've covered why the actual object "Star Trek" was so attractive to some people, do you think it might also have something to do with the human need to care about *something*?