Hey Hey! So I just found out a little while ago that Trekkies who love DS9 are called Niners??? When did this happen? Why would their be a sperate catagory for this show? I just thought I was just a Trekkie who liked the best show out of all of them! Do Niners have a sperate sub-culture with their own meetins and such?
I don't know about meetings and sub-cultures, but the term game directly from the show. It was the name of station's baseball team in that one episode.
Right, man I hate that episode! You become very aware that you are watching people in rubber masks and makup when you see them running around in a real life setting...
I always loved that episode... then again I'm a huge baseball fan too, so that colors things a bit. Though it was funny that none of the Ferengi or Worf could get a batting helmet on.
When you have a franchise with multiple entities you'll always get people identifying with one over another. DS9 fans are just lucky that we have an easy and accessible handle to use unlike those TOSers, VOYeurs, GENners, and ENTers.
I merely consider myself a Trekkie (I hate Trekker), though I prefer a plain title of "Star Trek fan". I enjoy most of the franchise, but I hate Generations, all of Voyager and most of Enterprise. DS9 offers a unique experience, where Roddenberry's idyllic future is pretty much BS and it pulls no punches stating that. At times, TOS and TNG wear a dunce cap while it expounds on how enlightened humanity has become, but the cracks in the writing betray just how sexist/racist/arrogant we still are.
Oh, I don't think that's entirely fair. DS9 doesn't displace the utopianism as much as it explores achieving it, maintaining it, and recognizing its limits. That could not have happened if there hadn't been a certain amount of lore that preceded it.
I think by the time of "Take Me Out to the Holosuite", the term "Niners" had already been in use for a while. I remember Michael Piller referring to it in a magazine article around the time of the third season.
^ No, it isn't. I was just having some fun. I far as I know none of the other series have a handle for their fans. Their names don't lend themselves as easily to it as DS9 does. This view was a lot stronger a couple of years back, particularly from a few from the VOY forum. There was a lot of cross forum sniping and baiting and generally unfriendliness.
OH, I'll take that name! No baseball cap though, I'll have it embroidered on my Queen Arachnia photon fur stole. AHAHAhahshahaha.. Good.