Where No Geek Has Gone Before

Tech Central Station ^ | 5/13/05 | Douglas Kern

[Valin]

The last new Enterprise airs tonight, and soon Star Trek will be, in a sense, dead -- but we should all have such a rollicking afterlife. Forget the five-year mission; Star Trek has succeeded in its thirty-year mission to be the most all-encompassing multimedia geek experience ever. Star Trek doesn't need new episodes, or new anything else. Between hundred of episodes, novels, comic books, video games, role-playing games, conventions, cartoons, and movies, Star Trek has achieved cultural immortality.

Yes, Orson Scott Card, it was inferior science fiction, but so what? Star Trek was family. You don't stop loving your kids just because someone else's kids are smarter and better looking. Star Trek didn't just offer the illimitable joys of William Shatner tumbling out of his chair every time the camera shook, or yet another sermon from the pen of Gene Roddenberry about how organized religion is a childish superstition. It offered a world. It offered a place that dreamers could call their own; a place where wonky, right-leaning dreams of rugged space exploration and pioneering could sit comfortably next to hippy-dippy dreams of world peace and universal brotherhood. It was a kind of home, and home is no place for shrewd critical judgments.

Star Trek offered us middle-class midwestern types a chance at full-body geeky immersion when nothing else did. Now pay attention to yer Grandpappy Kern, you young Gen Y whippersnappers. In the bad old days, when nickels cost dimes, ladies wore petticoats, and high-speed modems ran at 800 bits per second, geeky pursuits were the love that dared not speak its name. In those days, we didn't have "graphic novels." Admitting that you read comic books was like admitting that you read Playboy for the pictures. Video games? If you spent twenty hours a week on the same game, your parents had you institutionalized. Dungeons and Dragons? For Satanists. Tolkien? For Folklore Studies majors who looked like the Pillsbury Doughboy and homely girls who liked unicorns.

Ah, but Trekkers? (Or Trekkies, as we called them in the days before Congress outlawed the word as a hate crime.) Even in the distant hinterlands of the industrial Midwest, folks had heard of such a thing. Mainstream? No. But Trekkies were comprehensible. You could tell your girlfriends "My husband is such a Trekkie" and they would nod understandingly. You could go to Waldenbooks and find racks and racks of Star Trek novels and books and retrospectives, and no one would stare if you read such books on the bus home. You could hold conventions and dress up in Federation uniforms and, while you still might get beaten up, most likely you wouldn't get arrested. Obsessive behavior over Star Trek earned the same shred of respectability as, say, socialism, or nudism. And that sliver of respect gave Trekkies (and fantasy-loving fellow travelers like me) the opportunity to seek each other out.

Something in the human psyche wants to enthuse in the company of like-minded people. Normal people scratch that itch through sports and religion and politics. Imaginative folk scratch it through fantasy and science fiction and comic books. In Star Trek, we dreamers found the means to reveal our true geeky selves to the world, and to each other. It was our Stonewall.

In the church of geekitude, the Internet offers cheap grace. Any jerk with a computer and an ISP can obsess over anything with little effort. Just Google up your favorite TV show/book/comic book/movie/video game/whatever, and you'll find 1,000,000 sites devoted to documenting it and analyzing it in painstaking detail. Master a little HTML and JavaScript, and you can add your thoughts and obsessions to the pile. Hit "send," and you can direct your febrile pop culture vaticinations to millions of like-minded geeks worldwide. Nowadays, to enthuse wildly requires no manic passion, no ferocious intensity.

By contrast, your fathers' geeks had to rely on the U.S. Postal Service for all their mass communication needs. Home pages? Archived documents? No, sonny, we had 'zines - ugly, smudged, badly photocopied homebrewed newsletters that had to be assembled and mailed by hand. And on the strength of this fragile fannish samizdat, a cultural juggernaut was built.

Consider these essay titles, culled from a compilation of articles from the top 'zine:
The Star Trek Movie Novel and Comics Adaptations
Parallels in Star Trek: The Motion Picture vs. the Series
A Brief Look at Spock's Career
Star Trek: The Motion Picture -- A Review
The Psychology of Captain Kirk's Popularity
Vulcan as a Patriarchy
A Trek Into Genealogy
Alternate Universes in Star Trek

Greater love than this hath no geek, to write 2,500 words on Star Trek genealogy for free. If these articles sound awful, well, they frequently were - but they were just as frequently better than anyone had a right to expect. The sheer love of Star Trek inspired some surprisingly thoughtful writing from some unusually smart non-writers.

Remind you of any blogospheres you know?
Like the blogosphere, Star Trek fans wielded power that the MSM couldn't imagine. It is a staple of Star Trek lore that a massive letter-writing campaign saved Star Trek from cancellation after its second season. No one knows the exact number of letters that NBC received - I've heard anywhere from 50,000 to a million - but regardless, it was a remarkable achievement at a time when massive letter-writing campaigns received no help from Microsoft Outlook. Later, the passion of the fans kept Star Trek alive in novels and cartoons and reruns until Hollywood caught on to the profits that could be reaped from such excitement. Reflect upon the billions of dollars generated over the last thirty years in the name of Star Trek, and realize: geeks did that.

Star Trek ends having nothing left to prove and perhaps nothing left to say. A clever writer can always wring another tale out of a world as fertile as that of Star Trek, and yet after thirty years it's fair to say that the easy seams of dramatic gold are all mined out. ("Captain Janeway fighting a Romulan-Bajoran hybrid on a planet of sentient Tribbles that's just like Ancient Rome, but in the Mirror Universe? And she's been blinded? By Q? And the story is told in reverse order? Dude, we did that last season.") But so what? The world now contains more Star Trek than anyone could consume in a lifetime. Star Trek has conquered every forum of geekery; now, like an aging pro athlete, it retires before younger, better competitors can show it up too much.

It's easy to yuk it up about geeks and Star Trek, so let me end on a personal note. Seventeen years ago, I was six hundred miles from home, a stranger from the Midwest at a profoundly east-coast institution of learning. And I admit: I inhaled Star Trek paperback novels - sometimes on a weekly basis. It was a cheap luxury for a scholarship student; more important, it was a mental haven, with characters I liked, a familiar and comfortable setting, and a reassuring message that man's potential for greatness could surmount even the most formidable of obstacles. For a few months in 1988, Star Trek was my respite from the world. Kirk, Spock, Picard, and all the rest made for good friends at a time when real friends were in short supply.

So I salute you, Star Trek, as you complete your transition from living entertainment meme to stately cultural artifact. You taught us how to live our love for geekish things, and in the shadow of your committed fans we were less ashamed. In that sense, all fans are Trekkers now.

[Brett66]

I'm no Trek geek! Even though I'm watching the old series on the sci-fi channel as I write this and I create Trek ships with using Lightwave 3d:

[Professional Engineer]

Care to guess where I found this? Heh heh heh

Final Frontier Astronauts Land on Star Trek	05.13.05
NASA Astronauts Mike Fincke and Terry Virts recently suited up for a voyage in "space" without ever leaving Earth. In fact, their most recent space expedition was in Hollywood. Instead of a countdown, their launch began on "lights, camera, and action!" While on vacation, the real-life space explorers traded in their spacesuits for make-believe future space garb as the two made a guest appearance on the upcoming season finale of the science fiction television series "Star Trek: Enterprise." Image above: Astronaut Terry Virts, left, Actor Scott Bakula and Astronaut Mike Fincke, right, beam on the set of Star Trek's final Enterprise voyage. Credit: NASA Fincke, who has a speaking role on the show, and Virts can be caught in the act on the series' final episode, "These are the Voyages," which airs Friday, 9 p.m. EST on UPN. Scott Bakula, whose character on the show – Captain Archer – commands the Enterprise starship, had a chance to chat long-distance with Fincke, Expedition 9 flight engineer, while in orbit last year. Fincke viewed several episodes of the show while flying more than 200 miles above Earth during his stay on the Station. Bakula also participated in an on the Shuttle's Return to Flight. With both feet back on the ground, Fincke and Virts were given an opportunity to perform among actors who take on their roles as space explorers on the screen. The astronauts play engineers of the 22nd century for the day, performing maintenance in an engine room aboard Enterprise NX-01. "It was neat to see the magic of Hollywood make something cardboard and plastic look real," Fincke said. "I've spent my whole career learning switches and buttons. On the set, none of the switches or buttons does anything." "This was my first time on a prime time TV show, and after seeing how talented the actors are, I think I will keep my day job," Virts said. Fincke and Virts said, however, that science fiction like "Star Trek" and other tales of deep space travel captured their interest as children and influenced their careers. "As a kid, I became interested in shows like the original Star Trek series and the first Star Trek feature movies," Virts said. "They definitely had an impact in motivating me to a career with NASA." For decades, space has been a place of fantasy and reality. Both are tied by a common thread: the desire to explore uncharted territory. "There's always been a link between science fiction and science fact," Fincke said. "Science fiction, in general, has inspired not just Astronauts but all humans by giving form to our dreams to explore," Although some science fiction may seem out of this world, fiction has at times foretold the future, including the ingenuity and drama of space exploration. Fincke, who lived in space for six months aboard the International Space Station last year, experienced firsthand science and technology at work in space. During the mission, his schedule was full of scientific studies, including experiments in life and material sciences. While in space, Fincke led research aimed to learn more on how humans react in space, the effects of long-term weightlessness and how to counter those effects. Fincke and ISS Commander Gennady Padalka took part in three spacewalks to repair the Station and ready it for future construction. Fincke also photographed from space an alphabet of hurricanes that stormed Earth’s oceans. Today, the space frontier is expanding, and like the setting of "Star Trek: Enterprise," the nation's Vision for Space Exploration is at the brink of the early pioneering days of deep space exploration. "It was interesting and fun to get a glimpse of how it's done in Hollywood, but there's nothing like the real thing," Fincke said. Amiko Nevills NASA's Johnson Space Center

[Professional Engineer]

Oh, Lord - not more engineers.

Got Sliderule?

[Professional Engineer]

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal.

That didn't take long. LOL

[Professional Engineer]

The only kids Star Trek appeals to are the forty-year old single ones that live in their mom's basement and collect comic books.

I was nine, and haven't had a comic book in decades.

None of the Trekkies I grew up with are scientists or engineers. A few are IT guys.

Most engineers I work with are Trekkies.

Like cracking open a book which doesn't involve Klingons for starters.

You've obviously missed the literary reference above.

[Professional Engineer]

I would say that the few engineers I do know have one thing in common: they're really into cars.

Among other things. I've always been fascinated by any kind of mechanical gizmo.

If it's not broken, it doesn't have enough features yet.

[Professional Engineer]

May the flees of a 1000 tribbles come to rest on you!!!!

ROFLOL

[Vic3O3]

ping

[tarheelswamprat]

The Ferengi were a cross between space pirates and corperate socialists with a tax system that made the IRS Income Tax code look simple.

The Ferengi were not capitalists, and the Federation would not know what a capitalist is considering thet are all communists.

I'll grant you the pirates, but socialists.... that's nonsense. A cross between pirates and mercantilists (remember their obsession with gold-pressed latinum?) would be more accurate. And they were most definitely capitalists of a sort (that obsession with profit thingy).

[KevinDavis]

At least in July, SG1, Atlantis, and Battlestar is coming back!!!!

[timtoews5292004]

Bakula also participated in an on the Shuttle's Return to Flight.

Apparently Amiko's editor decided to skip this sentence.

[Paul C. Jesup]

I'll grant you the pirates, but socialists.... that's nonsense.

You should watch the later episodes of Deep Space Nine, everything the Ferengi collects/makes in gross (before profits) is audited, taxed and controled by their race's government, which head by their Grand Nagus.

It's socialism anyway you cut it.

[Billthedrill]

I hate Star Trek. Well, with certain exceptions - the Wrath of Khan is a classic - but it isn't actually any of the series that did it. It's the geeks. Every stinkin' IT shop in the world - you want Katmandu? You want Timbuktu? - every stinkin' one of 'em has a server named "Enterprise." EVERY FReepin' one of 'em has a workstation named "Picard." EVERY ONE! Do you realize how IRRITATING that is? I'm on the phone with my buddy Bamha in FReakin' Calcutta and I say "hey, looks like Enterprise SNMP is down" and he says "ah, no, no very much, I just rebooted and is looking good Enterprise" only he's talking about the one down the hall. Enough already! I hate it! I HATE IT!! It's enough to make me draw my light saber and start laying about...

Oops. Busted. I'm outta here...

[Alkhin]

If it's not broken, it doesn't have enough features yet

I am ROARING with laughter...you sound my husband (who is an engineer) ROFL!!!

Thanks for the belly laugh!!

[Alkhin]

Dr. Who is a classic British sci-fi show that started back in the 60s. It involves a machine called TARDIS, which by all appearances is merely a standard London telephone box. The character himself is some alien being that goes through several reincarnations and is a time-traveler fighting against another race of aliens called the Daleks and he very often has a female companion from Earth. Its a pretty bizarre show, but has a following to equal that of Stargate or

Any Doctor Who fans can correct me if they like. It has been EONS since I have had the chance to watch Dr. Who. I cannot rely on the local PBS station to broadcast my fav Brit shows anymore (Red Dwarf being one of them), as they are making halfhearted attempts to keep up with the Free Market (they are failing of course but trying) - which means more silly DIY home improvement shows and endless documentaries on World War II and Hitler. BBC America is absolutely USELESS.

[Billthedrill]

"Time And Relative Dimension In Space."

EX-TER-MI-NATE!

[Billthedrill]

I am not a geek. I am not a geek. I am not a geek. I am not...

[nuke rocketeer]

Who he? Who me? Who eeeee!

[DM1]

Roddenbery was a utopian fruitcake but i loved most trek except Voyager
When trek was preachy it sucked, when it focused on battles, first contacts and spylike intrigue it was a lot of fun
oh and Captain Kirk Rocks

[DM1]

actually in STNG the first season Picard rants about how they did away with money
this changes AFTER Roddenbury was made Producer and had NO input whatsoever in development just his name on it