I'll go a step further and say that anyone who is splitting hairs to support a distinction between Trekkie and Trekker is taking Star Trek waaay too seriously. It's just a TV sho - [inundated by millions of tribbles]
The difference between Trekkie and Trekker?
- Thread starter NuFan
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Now you've done it!
I was a Trekkie kid in the 70s. When I heard Trekker, it sounded pretentious.
I would appear normal to most people (house, wife, kids, yippee, no mom's basement), and I am a fan of TOS Star Trek (as well as Tigers baseball, Wolverines football, and pizza). Yet, I am a "Trekkie." There's enough division in the world.
I would appear normal to most people (house, wife, kids, yippee, no mom's basement), and I am a fan of TOS Star Trek (as well as Tigers baseball, Wolverines football, and pizza). Yet, I am a "Trekkie." There's enough division in the world.
W.S. Baring-Gould, an expert on the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, had to explain a similar dichotomy. He wrote something like:
"English Sherlockians call themselves Holmesians; American Holmesians call themselves Sherlockians."
And, properly, he did not address the issue further.
"English Sherlockians call themselves Holmesians; American Holmesians call themselves Sherlockians."
And, properly, he did not address the issue further.
Trekker is a self-conscious repurposing of Trekkie, an attempt to get rid of some of the fangirly overtones. It never seemed quite natural to me. Before you say "Trekker," there's always that self-aware, exclusionary, humorless beat.
Nicely put. I feel the same way. Too self-conscious, to avoid negative connotations that maybe a person deserves if one
takes SO seriously what name of Star Trek fan one uses to describe oneself. So Trekkers would really be Trekkies, for using "Trekkers."
It's simple really. A Trekkie is a fan of Star Trek, whereas a Trekker is a fan of Star Trek.
Anyone who tells you otherwise is over-thinking it.
I'd restate that slightly: a Trekkie is a Star Trek fan who needs a goofy name to identify his or her fandom, whereas a Trekker is a Star Trek fan who needs a goofy name to identify his or her fandom. Me, I'm just a Star Trek fan.
Very true, in my experience. But ultimately Trekkie = Trekker = Star Trek fan.
Personally, I think it was bunch of snobby NexGen fans who thought Trekkie sounded childish and 60's hippie-ish. Although, I have to admit I'm becoming snobby, myself. I've got where I prefer Trekker over Trekkie.
The term had been around for quite a while before NextGen.
I remember being "schooled" in the early 80s by someone (probably my older brother) who basically said something like, "A Trekker is someone who likes the show for its merits, a Trekkie is an obnoxious dweeb that runs around Star Trek conventions shooting people with a toy phaser."
And yes, it sounds a bit pretentious.
And yes, it sounds a bit pretentious.
As with just about every other aspect of Trek, individual definitions vary. A lot.
that and nothing (but I do consider myself a Trekkie)
I have a strong preference for the aesthetic sound of "Trekkie", but the seriousness with which people take this question amuses me. In Trekkies 2, there was this little old lady who said the name of the first film, Trekkies, was "anathema" to her. That's the word she used.
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