| Re: Trekker: WHY!? (Re: Spocko in the news) |
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Group: alt.startrek · Group Profile
Author: GeneKGeneK Date: Sep 6, 2008 07:50
"Wiseguy" yahoo.com> wrote in message > The way I remember it is sometime in the mid-seventies, either during or
> not long after the animated series, serious fans of Star Trek wanted to
> distance themselves from a) the fans (and not necessarily just children)
> who put on Spock ears and pointed plastic phasers at everyone and b)
> non-fans who denigrated both Trekkies and the term itself. Hence, the
> word Trekker was born. It never completely replaced Trekkie and it had
> nothing to do with the motion pictures and certainly not The Next
> Generation which was more than a decade away.
My recollection is somewhat different. The term "trekkie"
was originally science-fiction con speak, and was a
derisive term for people who attended the cons because
they liked Star Trek, but who were otherwise not particularly
fans of science fiction in general.
When the first Star Trek con opened, someone said, "the
trekkies have their own con now," and the media picked
up the term and ran with it, concentrating of course on the
fans with the rubber ears and toy props. The fans soon
divided into two camps: those who took their fandom
very... seriously, and were insulted by the coverage, and
those who shrugged and said, "sure, the rubber ears are
absurd, so what?" The first camp coined the supposedly
more dignified "trekker" and started applying it to them-
selves, and the second said, "ok, whatever," and used
both terms interchangably. Things continued this way
until Shatner's SNL "Get a Life" sketch. " Trekkers" were
insulted by it, "trekkies" rolled in the aisles and said, "hey,
I resemble that remark," and since then, "trekkers" think
"trekkies" are loonies and "trekkies" think "trekkers" are
humorless snobs who could stand to let some looniness
into their fandom.
GeneK
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