In high school it was assumed that I was a STAR TREK fan. I guess my classmates figured that since I liked reading comic books then the extent of my geekdom must know no bounds and therefore I MUST be a fan of STAR TREK. Remember some guys in one of my classes asking me if i was going to a Star Trek convention the following weekend, and when I said I wasn't, they thought I was lying.
First off, I'm a guy who who read comics during my down time in class, and if I went to a comic book convention I had no problem telling folks about it. Second, I never really got into STAR TREK. I made an effort to get into "The Next Generation" when I was in college, but that was mostly because everyone else I knew was watching it. Frankly, I want my sci-fi to be a bit more explodey. They got those stupid phasers, yet we rarely get to see them zap somebody.
It's weird to me that people would think that I'm a closet STAR TREK fan when I'm very open about my fandom of other things. It's like there's a stigma on it. Reading comics? That's not so bad. You can still carry on a relatively normal life and still read comics. I do know some casual readers whose friends and family don't even know they read.
Then you have your STAR WARS fans. And really, who hasn't tried it at some point in their lives. You know how it is. You're at a party. Someone shows up with Empire on DVD and what the hell. Fire it up, it is a party. Now, I know what some of you are thinking: I don't know man, that stuff makes me paranoid. But really, we as a society need to get past the stigma on STAR WARS. It's not harmful. In fact some people even use it medicinally. Sure you might get a serious case of the munchies while watching it, but hey, what's the harm?
And I've heard the comments about STAR WARS being a gateway to STAR TREK, and I want to say right now that I've known people who have watched STAR WARS for years and never tried STAR TREK.
STAR TREK is pretty hardcore. I've seen it destroy people's lives. It's rough stuff. No parent wants to be going through their kid's things and find the stuff hidden in there. They then know that that kid is in serious danger of throwing away their future of possibly playing sports of getting laid. Even more dreadful is the thought of confronting the kid and asking him wear he got DVDs and Klingon/English dictionary and have him shouting at them, "YOU ALL RIGHT! I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU!"
It's a damn scary thing.
Still, the new movie coming out does look really freakin' cool.
1 comment:
Oh my god, this made me laugh pretty hard. That's going to be my kid you described at the end of your post, but less with the shock and shame - and only because I'll be forcing my geekdom on them like a plague. Seriously, my kid will never not be in Superman PJs, mock my words.
As for me, I'm writing this comment in a coffee shop while wearing a Star Trek shirt that says "Set Phasers to Stun" complete with a huge phaser across the front. For real. Right now. Not even making this up. Check it out: http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9992/trekshirtboooosh.png
And just to throw in more needless information my phone whistles and says "Bridge to Captain Kirk" every time I get a text message, I watched the Star Trek TOS episode "Miri" last night, and I do indeed own a model phaser and communicator (Lee got it for me this past birthday). And I'm crazy stoked for the new film.
Also? Just for reference, I know from personal experience that Star Trek actually leads to Star Wars. 8D
Post a Comment