I'm in my 20's and what worked with me to start watching was TOS. (But I think that I'm a exception
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Do people under 40 care about Star Trek?
- Thread starter ELCHawk
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Yes, they do! Both high school and college interns at my company have not only watched Star Trek but are legitimate fans of the franchise.
I think Star Trek has a lot of different age ranges depending what 'Social media' you are on.
Personally I am 18 years old, my mam's boyfriend got me into star trek reletivly recently and i've been getting through it all, watching TOS, SNW than ill start with TNG and go in order. I am getting through it slowly since I am in college and watch whenever I can really.
I am on here because I love to ask questions about Star Trek and seeing everyone's different opinions I find it so interesting an fun to read.
I think if you were apart of the fandom on TikTok or Instagram you'd find that a lot of the fanbase is younger and under 40s. Star Trek is still quite popular and people who are 'worried' about the fandom I really don't think its going to die anytime soon.
Personally I am 18 years old, my mam's boyfriend got me into star trek reletivly recently and i've been getting through it all, watching TOS, SNW than ill start with TNG and go in order. I am getting through it slowly since I am in college and watch whenever I can really.
I am on here because I love to ask questions about Star Trek and seeing everyone's different opinions I find it so interesting an fun to read.
I think if you were apart of the fandom on TikTok or Instagram you'd find that a lot of the fanbase is younger and under 40s. Star Trek is still quite popular and people who are 'worried' about the fandom I really don't think its going to die anytime soon.
Of course not. Assuming an average lifespan of eighty+, then those who grew up during the Berman era are likely in their forties now guaranteeing fandom has another forty years in it right now.
if star trek fans under 40 goes to the many different conventions like comic cons fan expos then yeah i think they would care about star trek
I'm early 30's and got into it with the premiere of Lower Decks, which I enjoy. I also went back to TOS to watch eventually and I'm also enjoying that. So I'd say not only was the new stuff a good accessible entry point, the old stuff ends up being fine too.
On a conceptual level I wouldnt say any era is doing anything wrong (live action stuff leans a bit too much into the past but whatever). I'd even say nothing was wrong with Prodigy other than Paramount and Netflix taking bets on who can promote and release the episodes in a worse way
On a conceptual level I wouldnt say any era is doing anything wrong (live action stuff leans a bit too much into the past but whatever). I'd even say nothing was wrong with Prodigy other than Paramount and Netflix taking bets on who can promote and release the episodes in a worse way
Hi everyone. I would like to weigh in on this topic. I'm from the UK, 29yo, and I've always been a massive Star Trek fan. My mum was married to by then stepdad in 2001 when I was 6 and he was already a big trek fan. One day I remember seeing him watching TNG on video in the living room and started watching with him. It was the espisode when Dr Crusher was in the cargo bay and a bunch of dead patients from another ship suddenly sat up. What a scene to see as small child! I may have been 7 by that point. I remember thinking what the heck is going on! That is what drew me to it, I think, and as a way to bond with him instead of any other qualities a little kid could enjoy about Star Trek. Regardless, from that point on I was hooked! We had just a dozen episodes or so on video but I used to watch them on repeat. Fortunately for me they were some of the better episodes, including Power Play, Disaster, Encounter at Farpoint, Parallels etc.
And then our local video shop closed down. My stepbrothers and sister went down there and bought a tonne of video casettes home, bags full! All sorts of movies but importantly they grabbed a bunch of Star Trek movies too! The one I remember watching the most was Star Trek 3: The Search For Spock. The scene of Kirk stealing the Enterprise was such an adrenaline rush, and of course the film had Doc Brown in it as the villain, and the Enterprise self-destructing was just mind blowing for me at that age. I remember my stepdad wouldn't let me watch TWOK because it was "too violent" which now I can understand. So that's how I got into Kirk Era trek too!
In 2006 my parents split up but I always used to visit my "Ex-Stepdad" every weekend and watch the Kirk movies and Voyager too. From that point onwards I started to explore Star Trek on my own. In college I made an account on this message board (the account is long gone!) but all the different opinions and discussion just made me realise how passionate the fanbase was about this Franchise.
Then I watched all of DS9 for the first time, then TOS. I enjoy TOS as it was the coneceptual genesis of the IP, and introduced many concepts and tropes that would carry on into the later series. Some other people my age have postulated that its a relic of a by-gone era and it hasn't aged well... but I disagree! Its campy yes, but IMO makes it more entertaining, and it has some of the best episodes of the entire Franchise. DS9 was a big departure from the status quo of ST up to that point, but it had some of the best character writing and action of all the series.
I introduced Star Trek to my girlfriend with Voyager. I already tried with TNG but she wasn't really feeling it. She enjoyed Voyager and she like Enterprise. We skipped most of season 1 and 2 of Enteprise, but we both agreed that S3 & 4 are fantastic (except for the finale!). So thats my story. If anyone asks me about Star Trek in public I need practice saying less, because without it my life would probably be very different. Anyway thats my Story. Not everyone will like all the series but thats fine.
The only series I disliked was Discovery, despite it probably being marketed more to my age bracket. It suffers from poor writing and doesnt repsect the established lore of the Franchise, so I could never get into it.
And then our local video shop closed down. My stepbrothers and sister went down there and bought a tonne of video casettes home, bags full! All sorts of movies but importantly they grabbed a bunch of Star Trek movies too! The one I remember watching the most was Star Trek 3: The Search For Spock. The scene of Kirk stealing the Enterprise was such an adrenaline rush, and of course the film had Doc Brown in it as the villain, and the Enterprise self-destructing was just mind blowing for me at that age. I remember my stepdad wouldn't let me watch TWOK because it was "too violent" which now I can understand. So that's how I got into Kirk Era trek too!
In 2006 my parents split up but I always used to visit my "Ex-Stepdad" every weekend and watch the Kirk movies and Voyager too. From that point onwards I started to explore Star Trek on my own. In college I made an account on this message board (the account is long gone!) but all the different opinions and discussion just made me realise how passionate the fanbase was about this Franchise.
Then I watched all of DS9 for the first time, then TOS. I enjoy TOS as it was the coneceptual genesis of the IP, and introduced many concepts and tropes that would carry on into the later series. Some other people my age have postulated that its a relic of a by-gone era and it hasn't aged well... but I disagree! Its campy yes, but IMO makes it more entertaining, and it has some of the best episodes of the entire Franchise. DS9 was a big departure from the status quo of ST up to that point, but it had some of the best character writing and action of all the series.
I introduced Star Trek to my girlfriend with Voyager. I already tried with TNG but she wasn't really feeling it. She enjoyed Voyager and she like Enterprise. We skipped most of season 1 and 2 of Enteprise, but we both agreed that S3 & 4 are fantastic (except for the finale!). So thats my story. If anyone asks me about Star Trek in public I need practice saying less, because without it my life would probably be very different. Anyway thats my Story. Not everyone will like all the series but thats fine.
The only series I disliked was Discovery, despite it probably being marketed more to my age bracket. It suffers from poor writing and doesnt repsect the established lore of the Franchise, so I could never get into it.
Honestly, Discovery respected the established lore more than Enterprise ever did. Romulan cloaks anyone?
I admit there were definitely some very avoidable continuity breaks in Enterprise. But they also tried to fix others made in other series, such as the Klingon Forehead discrepency. I admit that they also shoved in the "how the federation began" arc far too late in the series. But its the only show that shows this, so theres no point of comparison either. It definitely started rough, playing it safe and copying over some if the not-so-great elements of the series. But at least it showed the relationship between Humans and Vulcans at that time. Enterprise still never showed a human and Romulan face-to-face which respected TOS. Just ignore the Ferengi, and all the other crap the show did wrong!
I admit Enteprise isn't the best series, but I still prefer it to Disco. Its just my opinion man.
No, that's totally fair. I'm currently in my umpteenth rewatch of Discovery right now, and I totally love the things it brought to the franchise. Just as Enterprise brought new information and perspective onto the early days of the Federation, Discovery brought new information and perspective into the early days of Spock's life adding context and texture that has deeply enriched the character -- and this was before he even appeared on the show.
Keep in mind that aesthetic changes don't bother me. The changes to the Klingons actually did bother me once -- in 1979. Ever since then, the Klingons have quite frankly been changed on such a regular basis that it has just become a background thing that does not affect the story for me. My favorite explanation for the TOS Klingons actually came in DS9 and I would have preferred if they had just kept it at that. My least favorite Klingons are actually the Kelvin Klingons.
And Discovery did backtrack on their Klingon aesthetic a little bit in season 2, so it's not as if they didn't acknowledge that they maybe had gone a little too far this time.
Keep in mind that aesthetic changes don't bother me. The changes to the Klingons actually did bother me once -- in 1979. Ever since then, the Klingons have quite frankly been changed on such a regular basis that it has just become a background thing that does not affect the story for me. My favorite explanation for the TOS Klingons actually came in DS9 and I would have preferred if they had just kept it at that. My least favorite Klingons are actually the Kelvin Klingons.
And Discovery did backtrack on their Klingon aesthetic a little bit in season 2, so it's not as if they didn't acknowledge that they maybe had gone a little too far this time.
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It's sort of a running gag at this point.
Which was something that didn't actually need to be fixed. Worf's line in T&T summed up things far better.
I'm 27, and watched all the trek that was available when I was 13 (in 2011, via netflix, on my 3ds), and have been rewatching it all recently with my wife of the same age. We watched Lower Decks together before she had seen a lot of other trek, and she liked that even without the in-jokes so that got her interested in the rest of trek. She couldn't get through the original series, and even I will only really watch it in the background while doing something else.
We also watched The Orville, which is another love letter to 90s trek, and I assume it has a lot of fans our age.
We also watched The Orville, which is another love letter to 90s trek, and I assume it has a lot of fans our age.
Discovery looks different, but it drew on previous Star Trek regularly, especially TOS (for obvious reasons), and while it could be dark at times, it never forgot Star Trek's core values, which for my money Enterprise did. And I'll take the writing on most of Discovery over a lot of Berman era Star Trek.
Not enough of them, though.
Simple fix then. The next Star Trek film needs to repeat what 09 did, make star trek cool again.
The films NEED to be EVENTS to get the buts in seats, and JJ did that with some over the top action and pew pews. And as much as I would like a philosophical and brainy movie, Its needs some Michael Bay pew pew and boom booms in it to keep the younger generation interested.
( and NOT Section 31.. whatever it was.. ugh)
The films NEED to be EVENTS to get the buts in seats, and JJ did that with some over the top action and pew pews. And as much as I would like a philosophical and brainy movie, Its needs some Michael Bay pew pew and boom booms in it to keep the younger generation interested.
( and NOT Section 31.. whatever it was.. ugh)
No two versions of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy are alike, no two versions of the Cantina scene are alike and no two versions of the Klingons are alike. That actually appeals to me on a certain level.
I'm 24 and watched reruns of TNG and DS9 on and off growing up as a kid in the 2000s. Got more versed in the series as a teen, and have been a Trekkie since then, although more generally a broader science fiction fan as I loved my Stargate, Alien, and Battlestar Galactica (2004) as well, alongside mecha anime like Gundam.
I do meet Trekkies around my age, mostly online in certain circles, but I will admit it is not as common as I meet a Gen X, Boomer, or older Millennial/Xennial Trekkie. Trek isn't really the "nerdy" thing with young people in 2025, unlike the way anime/manga or Star Wars and Marvel are. I think the main reason is that we haven't really had a blockbuster on the level of TNG. I am not sure we will again, and I personally didn't like the reboot movies when I saw them in their heyday, but I am not sure how most people my age felt about them. Moreover, there's just more options for science fiction, and Trek just would come off as another science fiction TV show in an era where people have limitless options at their fingertips, especially arguably more creative and innovative ones as opposed to what we've seen with post-2009 Trek (just my personal take though).
The decline of cable TV didn't help. Reruns playing in the background got me into Trek, but it's just not the same anymore with streaming taking over in the mid 2010s. Going through Trek can seem like a daunting and monumental task for a new timer.
I do meet Trekkies around my age, mostly online in certain circles, but I will admit it is not as common as I meet a Gen X, Boomer, or older Millennial/Xennial Trekkie. Trek isn't really the "nerdy" thing with young people in 2025, unlike the way anime/manga or Star Wars and Marvel are. I think the main reason is that we haven't really had a blockbuster on the level of TNG. I am not sure we will again, and I personally didn't like the reboot movies when I saw them in their heyday, but I am not sure how most people my age felt about them. Moreover, there's just more options for science fiction, and Trek just would come off as another science fiction TV show in an era where people have limitless options at their fingertips, especially arguably more creative and innovative ones as opposed to what we've seen with post-2009 Trek (just my personal take though).
The decline of cable TV didn't help. Reruns playing in the background got me into Trek, but it's just not the same anymore with streaming taking over in the mid 2010s. Going through Trek can seem like a daunting and monumental task for a new timer.
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It's almost like it's art not science.
I know some youngsters that enjoy TNG - but they don't watch VOY or DS9 - because they're unwatchable because they are not in HD. Nothing wrong with catering to the over 40's - we've got the money for merch. Trouble is they want the youth - and they keep failing with that.
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