Star Trek is arguably the most successful sci-fi franchise
of all time, although there are plenty of people who would argue that that
accolade should go to Star Wars. Of the two my preference is for Gene
Roddenberry's creation, but I am by no means fanatical about Star Trek. There
are however plenty of die hard Star Trek aficionados, people who I have always
thought of as Trekkies, but I understand that plenty are known as Trekkers. Is
there a difference between a Trekkie and a Trekker? If there is, does it
matter? There is a school of thought that a Trekker, while an enthusiast,
enjoys the shows and the Stark Trek universe as an entertainment whereas the
Trekkie is more full on. Some hold that the distinction is that while a Trekker
thinks it a shame that the show came to an end, the Trekkie is sad that the
Enterprise is being decommissioned and the crew reassigned.[1]
Roddenberry himself favoured Trekkie.
Whatever the distinction, and I would say that it is a
little more blurred, less defined than that and that there is plenty of
crossover, Star Trek has spawned a number of series, characters and worlds of
imagination that have brought pleasure to many people the world over. And that
pleasure has extended to people attending Star Trek conventions, dressing up in
Starfleet uniforms, or as Borg or as Klingons, or actually learning Klingon. I
had never, before last weekend, come into contact with anyone who did any of
those sort of things (although I may have seen someone in a Starfleet uniform
at a fancy dress party), but having been offered some discounted tickets for
Destination Star Trek 3, off I went to the Excel Centre in London.
To my surprise and slight disappointment, the concourse at
Excel was not thronging with wannabe Captain Kirks or Mr Spocks, but there
again I did arrive two hours or so after the event opened. In I went and again,
initial impressions were not favourable. All I seemed to have got for my money
was access to a number of merchandise stands. But initial impressions can
sometimes be wrong; while there were a lot of merchandise stands, there was
other stuff too. Like the display of uniforms and other props from the shows
and films, the talks and the photograph and autograph opportunities, although
these last two were another means of parting visitors from their money. I admit
that we did spend some money on a signed photograph of Brent Spiner, but all
told we managed to keep our spending to within reasonable limits.[2]
The talks were well attended; we caught the end of Bruce
Greenwood's[3]
talk, although I confess that the acoustics in the Excel, coupled with my
notoriously flaky hearing meant that I understood little of what he was saying.
The talk given in the afternoon by
Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden and Denise Crosby[4]
was packed out; presumably it gave the merchandise stall holders a chance to
have cup of tea and a sit down, with about 90% of the convention visitors in
attendance (or so it seemed). It wasn't particularly insightful, but it was
entertaining. Probably the most significant thing I learned was that Marina
Sirtis is a Spurs supporter and that her accent is very North London.
 |
| Left to right: Marina Sirtis, Gates McFadden and Denise Crosby. |
What is unique about the Star Trek canon is its place in
other fiction. Almost unlike any other show, Star Trek can be relied upon to
pop up in other TV shows, either by indirect or direct reference. It has always
amused me that if a character in a TV show is actually watching TV they always
seem to be watching a wildlife documentary. I think that it was in Phil
Redmond's soap opera Brookside that a metafictional soap opera was invented to
give the characters a TV programme to talk about, after all have you noticed
that in TV programmes the characters never, ever speak about programmes in
general or soaps in particular? Hardly art imitating life.
Star Trek features heavily in programmes like The Big Bang
Theory, going so far as to feature Will Wheaton (Wesley Crusher in The Next
Generation) as himself. The Noel Shempsky character in Frasier was a big Star
Trek fan and in one episode he asked Frasier Crane to obtain Scott Bakula's
autograph for him at a convention. Shempsky was unable to do so "because
of William Shatner's restraining order." Much of the plot of that
particular episode turned on Frasier's failure to get the autograph, resulting
in him making a speech in Klingon at his son's bar mitzvah[5]
but redeeming himself by obtaining Joan
Collins' wig from the episode 'City On The Edge Of Forever' from the original
Star Trek series. City On The Edge Of Forever was the second to last episode of
the first season of Star Trek and is in my view the pinnacle of the original
series. That episode was written by Harlan Ellison, just one of a number of
eminent writers who contributed to the series.
 |
| Pic: NBC |
Star Trek gets referenced in novels also. In The Electric
Ant Philip K Dick refers to Star Trek by using "Captain Kirk" as a
generic term for a science fiction TV show; 'They watched the captain kirk to
its end, and then they went to bed.' John Scalzi's excellent Redshirts, while not
being about Star Trek by name, is about Star Trek, just as the film Galaxy
Quest is really Star Trek.
Roddenberry's idea
for Star Trek was that it be a "Wagon Train in space," Wagon Train
being (as the name suggests) a Western series that ran for many years and that,
along with his involvement in writing for Highway Patrol are clear influences
on the early Star Trek themes, James Kirk being another in a long line of slightly
maverick law men except that instead of a horse or patrol car he has a
starship.
Of the six different elements of the Star Trek canon it is
the original series and The Next Generation that have the most adherents,
although these days I find the original to be very dated indeed. The most
recent series, Star Trek: Enterprise, was great fun in my opinion, although it
was amusing to note the obvious struggle the producers had with the fact that
technology has advanced so much since Captain Kirk first took to the screens,
yet the series had to be less technically sophisticated than Shatner's
universe.
 |
| Kirk's uniform from Star Trek: Generations. |
Many years ago, while I was listening to a radio phone in
show, it became apparent to me that a caller believed that a character in a TV
soap was actually a real person. There are plenty of people like that, the sort
that send flowers when a soap character is killed off, or memorably the person
who sent Granada TV a cheque to buy The Rovers Return in Coronation Street when
the pub was put up for sale on the show, and there are obviously enough
Trekkers out there who must know that Star Trek is a work of fiction yet treat
it as though it is real. Roddenberry was a script writer who struck gold with
Star Trek; had his series The Lieutenant (about the US Marine Corp) not been
cancelled after one series, we may never have had the opportunity to boldly go
where no-one had gone before.
[1]
Thanks to Francesca Black for the definition: http://www.science-fiction-corner.com/trekker-vs-trekkie.htm
[2]
Your definition of reasonable may differ from mine of course.
[3]
Bruce Greenwood played Christopher Pike in the J.J. Adams Star Trek reboot and
the sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness.
[4]
Deanna Troi, Dr Beverley Crusher and Tasha Yar in Star Trek: The Next
Generation respectively.
[5] In
revenge for his failure to obtain Scott Bakula's autograph, Shempsky, who had
agreed to translate Frasier's speech into Hebrew, translates it to Klingon.
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