For those of you who were in early Trek fandom...

[anivad42]

I'm writing an essay about fan-producer interaction before and after the Internet, and decided to focus on early Star Trek fandom for the 'before' section because it was probably the largest and most active one back then.

So for those of you who were in the fandom around the 1960s-1980s / early 1990s, do you have any stories to share specifically of fan-producer interaction or other ways in which fans tried to get their reactions or suggestions heard by the studios?

For instance, apparently there was a script involving gay characters (Kirk's nephew?) that got rejected by the studio, and which eventually got made into a fan-made episode; what was the initial fan reaction like to discovering the rejection, and how did they try to get this reaction known to the studios, if at all? What was their response like?

And any related incidents - fandom reactions to things like Kirk and Uhura's kiss, or Spock's death at the end of Wrath of Khan; petitions to keep the show going or re-aired, network reaction, if any, to fanzines and other fanworks including slash, and so on.

Thanks a lot!

 

[The Wormhole]

This is how I see it:

If the internet existed in the 80s:
Holy shit, you hear the latest rumour about the new Star Trek movie? The Enterprise is going to be destroyed?! WTF, Bennett? This totally rapes my childhood.

 

[Anji]

I can recall going to a convention in the early 1980s (Chicago, IL) where a rumor was spreading that Roddenberry, who attended the con, was soliciting scripts from fans. I can neither deny nor prove the rumor, but it may be something you can investigate.

 

[Forbin]

Well, I remember a little kid in the audience of the 1976 NYC con telling Marc Lenard his idea for a good Spock/Sarek story, but I don't think that counts.

 

[WillsBabe]

You might want to do some research about the writers who pitched their story ideas to the producers of TNG. Some of them were fans, and also the writers who interned with the TNG writers, some of whom were also fans.

Other fans of note, who may or may not have had input with TPTB are Joan Winston in the US, and Janet Quarton in the UK.

 

[Navigator_NCC2120]

This is how I see it:

If the internet existed in the 80s:
Holy shit, you hear the latest rumour about the new Star Trek movie? The Enterprise is going to be destroyed?! WTF, Bennett? This totally rapes my childhood.

CompuServe (Information Service [also know as CIS]) was the first major commercial online service during the 1980s. Here is a link to its history on WikiPedia. So there were people online during the 1980s discussing "Star Trek".

Duing 1981 or 1982 I recall reading an article in the Starlog magazine about a women who did a financial analysis of TWOK, how it would fail and how much it would lose at the box office and video tape market if Spock died and how it would succeed and how much it would gain if Spock lived.


Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\

 

[The Wormhole]

This is how I see it:

If the internet existed in the 80s:
Holy shit, you hear the latest rumour about the new Star Trek movie? The Enterprise is going to be destroyed?! WTF, Bennett? This totally rapes my childhood.

CompuServe (Information Service [also know as CIS]) was the first major commercial online service during the 1980s. Here is a link to its history on WikiPedia. So there were people online during the 1980s discussing "Star Trek".

Duing 1981 or 1982 I recall reading an article in the Starlog magazine about a women who did a financial analysis of TWOK, how it would fail and how much it would lose at the box office and video tape market if Spock died and how it would succeed and how much it would gain if Spock lived.


Navigator NCC-2120 USS Entente
/\

I meant if the internet was as widespread as it is today.

 

[Lord Garth]

I used to read the Star Trek: The Official Fanclub Magazine during the '90s, in junior high and high school, starting from 1991 on. That's where I first read about the development of DS9. That's also where, in the letter columns, I read what people thought about TUC and how much they thought it was a return to true form after their disappointment with TFF. I also read Starlog, which was the go-to magazine for finding out about sci-fi during the '70s, '80s, and '90s.

Strangely enough, TV Guide was also a good place to find out about Star Trek news. Of all places, a December 1993 issue of TV Guide is where I first found out about VOY. And I used to buy "unauthorized" books with people writing reviews about and talking about Star Trek. There was a book series called Best of Trek where people wrote commentaries about Star Trek. There were also books by people like David Van Hise and Phil Farrand. When I first went online in 1996, I used to post on a site called Psi Phi Bulletin Boards, under my current username. I was 17 at the time. I also followed news on Star Trek News and followed a site called Planet Riker, where I posted in the chat room a lot and spent entire nights there, overnights sometimes, talking Trek. And then there was a guy called Christian, who started advertising this place!

Yeah... so that's what my teens were like.

Some things that stand out in regards to DS9. During the first season, I remember people not liking it because, as one person put it, "I prefer the clean and orderly world of The Next Generation." And I remember, in the fourth season, that the reaction to "Rejoined" was pretty bad in some circles. Now, no one would care (except for a few hold-outs), but back then some people thought Dax still having feelings for a woman had no place in Star Trek. My parents didn't like the episode either, only because they had a problem with even the hint of a same-sex relationship. Times have changed since then. For the better.

 

[F. King Daniel]

For instance, apparently there was a script involving gay characters (Kirk's nephew?) that got rejected by the studio, and which eventually got made into a fan-made episode

It's worth pointing out that "Blood and Fire" began life as a Next Generation story for the 1987 first season, and was eventually rewritten as a TOS fan film in 2008. More info here.

You may also find the Fanlore site a useful resource. Click.

 

[donners22]

"The World of Star Trek" by David Gerrold has a section dedicated to early fandom, and their rather intense interactions with cast and studio.

"Star Trek Lives!" is a 1975 book looking at fandom at that point.

Plus there are titbits in various other books - eg Nicholas Meyer talking about how he received death threats after Roddenberry leaked the proposed death of Spock.

I have a bunch of fan magazines from the early '90s - plenty of debate about whether TOS or TNG is better, and plenty of hate for DS9 as being "not Star Trek".

And I remember, in the fourth season, that the reaction to "Rejoined" was pretty bad in some circles. Now, no one would care (except for a few hold-outs), but back then some people thought Dax still having feelings for a woman had no place in Star Trek. My parents didn't like the episode either, only because they had a problem with even the hint of a same-sex relationship. Times have changed since then. For the better.

Yeah, per the DS9 Companion it was censored by some southern US stations, and they received numerous calls complaining about it.

There are definitely some hold-outs - I remember seeing quite a few complaints about a same-sex relationship in Discovery. I even had a fellow fanclub member insist to me that it was contrary to Roddenberry's vision to feature a gay character.​

 

[Qonundrum]

I recall from 1986 where someone quipped "Star Trek IV - are they getting a TARDIS and ride from Doctor Who? Ha ha!" It wouldn't have been me, I would have rambled on endlessly about real life factoids (as remembered from the show or from printed sources) until they couldn't handle reality anymore regarding how often TOS already used time travel (twice) as a plot device, the second time being deliberate - and as easy as if they were doing nothing more than making a peanut butter sandwich. The humor dated so badly that even the snark quip has dated better by comparison... The music too, which seemed atypical at the time.

TNG had book covers advertising the show in schools in 1987. I was wondering why this was happening since it seemed tacky and inappropriate..., as if kids never knew of a thing called television and the sponsors' commercials like the ones bombarding video games systems and other teeniebopper things all the time... It didn't help that season one was seen as a mess by general fandom, and it's remarkable the show got renewed (Thank Kirk for that. Seriously. Trek fandom was at a high due to the 80s movies up to that point, even TVH - what amounted to a 2 hour romcom, muzak and all - ensured TNG would tangentially continue no matter what indulgence Roddenberry did, the making-of books are a real treat to read...)

 

[1001001]

I used to read the Star Trek: The Official Fanclub Magazine during the '90s, in junior high and high school, starting from 1991 on. That's where I first read about the development of DS9. That's also where, in the letter columns, I read what people thought about TUC and how much they thought it was a return to true form after their disappointment with TFF. I also read Starlog, which was the go-to magazine for finding out about sci-fi during the '70s, '80s, and '90s.

Strangely enough, TV Guide was also a good place to find out about Star Trek news. Of all places, a December 1993 issue of TV Guide is where I first found out about VOY. And I used to buy "unauthorized" books with people writing reviews about and talking about Star Trek. There was a book series called Best of Trek where people wrote commentaries about Star Trek. There were also books by people like David Van Hise and Phil Farrand. When I first went online in 1996, I used to post on a site called Psi Phi Bulletin Boards, under my current username. I was 17 at the time. I also followed news on Star Trek News and followed a site called Planet Riker, where I posted in the chat room a lot and spent entire nights there, overnights sometimes, talking Trek. And then there was a guy called Christian, who started advertising this place!

Yeah... so that's what my teens were like.

Some things that stand out in regards to DS9. During the first season, I remember people not liking it because, as one person put it, "I prefer the clean and orderly world of The Next Generation." And I remember, in the fourth season, that the reaction to "Rejoined" was pretty bad in some circles. Now, no one would care (except for a few hold-outs), but back then some people thought Dax still having feelings for a woman had no place in Star Trek. My parents didn't like the episode either, only because they had a problem with even the hint of a same-sex relationship. Times have changed since then. For the better.

Dude, you know better than to bump a 9 year old thread...