If there were no Star Trek, I probably wouldn't be interested in the Sci Fi/fantasy genre. Yeah there is a lot of good sci fi out there, but with no Star Trek, I would probably stick with sitcoms or drama series.
If there were no Star Trek...
- Thread starter LMFAOschwarz
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If there was no Star Trek the space on my DVD shelf where the three seasons of TOS sit would be taken up by something else. Nothing more, nothing less.
Good replies, guys! 
I don't know...I'm torn. There are times when I think I'd have been better off without Star Trek...but dang it, I like it. What's so wrong with that?
I guess I'm somewhat like 2TakesFrakes, in that I don't bring it up around others. At an old job a few years back, I made a friend of one guy. We'd talk and joke around, even talked about old tv shows sometimes...but not Star Trek. One day while we were both busy doing our jobs, we walked past each other. For whatever reason, he threw me a Vulcan salute. Even after that, I never brought it up. I continued to bury my shame. And, like 2Takes says, it's never to be brought up around women! (Funny how that works: we can't talk about our show around the ladies, but we'll grit our teeth and sit through Fried Green Tomatoes and Beaches without a problem!)
I only had one fellow Star Trek fan in my childhood, but his family moved to Canada, so that was the end of that.
The only other tv show in my youth that I can remember significantly impacting me was Wild, Wild West. I taught myself how to tell time with it. Whenever the scene changed into an illustration, and the commercials started, I'd look at that mysterious thing called a clock. I soon picked up on that '3' '6' and '9' thing, and before I knew it, I could tell what time it was.
I do find that as I get older, I remember more and more of my youth. I'm hoping to eventually remember my abandonment of football and cars. Personally, though, I think I'd be bored by the 'alternate me' that never was!
I guess I should add that overall, science fiction doesn't grab me. A few exceptions, but nothing worth mentioning.
I don't know...I'm torn. There are times when I think I'd have been better off without Star Trek...but dang it, I like it. What's so wrong with that?
I guess I'm somewhat like 2TakesFrakes, in that I don't bring it up around others. At an old job a few years back, I made a friend of one guy. We'd talk and joke around, even talked about old tv shows sometimes...but not Star Trek. One day while we were both busy doing our jobs, we walked past each other. For whatever reason, he threw me a Vulcan salute. Even after that, I never brought it up. I continued to bury my shame. And, like 2Takes says, it's never to be brought up around women! (Funny how that works: we can't talk about our show around the ladies, but we'll grit our teeth and sit through Fried Green Tomatoes and Beaches without a problem!)
I only had one fellow Star Trek fan in my childhood, but his family moved to Canada, so that was the end of that.
The only other tv show in my youth that I can remember significantly impacting me was Wild, Wild West. I taught myself how to tell time with it. Whenever the scene changed into an illustration, and the commercials started, I'd look at that mysterious thing called a clock. I soon picked up on that '3' '6' and '9' thing, and before I knew it, I could tell what time it was.
I do find that as I get older, I remember more and more of my youth. I'm hoping to eventually remember my abandonment of football and cars. Personally, though, I think I'd be bored by the 'alternate me' that never was!
I guess I should add that overall, science fiction doesn't grab me. A few exceptions, but nothing worth mentioning.
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I also had the Star Trek shame.
But as I get older I'm getting over it. I don't advertise my love of Star Trek but people walk into my house and see the collection of blu-rays and books and assume they belong to Mr CommishSleer.
He quickly denies it and calls me the Star Trek 'fanatic' but its surprising how many people I know who are fans that I would never guess if they hadn't visited me.
While I not a normal girl I don't think other girls would be concerned about men's interest in Star Trek as long as you downplay it. Once you've trapped them into a relationship then you can reveal a little bit more of the extent of your interest.
I think my life would be poorer without Star Trek but I'd probably get more work done.
But as I get older I'm getting over it. I don't advertise my love of Star Trek but people walk into my house and see the collection of blu-rays and books and assume they belong to Mr CommishSleer.
He quickly denies it and calls me the Star Trek 'fanatic' but its surprising how many people I know who are fans that I would never guess if they hadn't visited me.
While I not a normal girl I don't think other girls would be concerned about men's interest in Star Trek as long as you downplay it. Once you've trapped them into a relationship then you can reveal a little bit more of the extent of your interest.
I think my life would be poorer without Star Trek but I'd probably get more work done.
I guess I'm somewhat like 2TakesFrakes, in that I don't bring it up around others. At an old job a few years back, I made a friend of one guy. We'd talk and joke around, even talked about old tv shows sometimes...but not Star Trek. One day while we were both busy doing our jobs, we walked past each other. For whatever reason, he threw me a Vulcan salute. Even after that, I never brought it up. I continued to bury my shame. And, like 2Takes says, it's never to be brought up around women! (Funny how that works: we can't talk about our show around the ladies, but we'll grit our teeth and sit through Fried Green Tomatoes and Beaches without a problem!)
I don't get the "shame" idea.I also had the Star Trek shame.
But as I get older I'm getting over it. I don't advertise my love of Star Trek but people walk into my house and see the collection of blu-rays and books and assume they belong to Mr CommishSleer.
He quickly denies it and calls me the Star Trek 'fanatic' but its surprising how many people I know who are fans that I would never guess if they hadn't visited me.
While I not a normal girl I don't think other girls would be concerned about men's interest in Star Trek as long as you downplay it. Once you've trapped them into a relationship then you can reveal a little bit more of the extent of your interest.
I think my life would be poorer without Star Trek but I'd probably get more work done.
If any "significant other" is worth your time and effort in a serious way, he/she will accept your interest in Star Trek just as they would accept you liking other things - what you read, favorite color, favorite foods, etc.A couple of people in my family tried to "shame" me out of my science fiction and gaming interests - telling me to "grow up" - but I told them my interests were no more odd than theirs, and then I cited a list of famous, respectable people who were also into science fiction.
And how many of us here, when trying to solve a problem of some kind, have thought to ourselves, "Logic dictates _____"?
It happens to me several times a week. It helps focus my mind on the problem and the possible solutions.Of course I do have to admit that sometimes the answer comes back as "The answer is 'no." I am therefore going (to do it) anyway."
I don't get the "shame" idea.
Granted, I haven't been in the dating game for ages, but I'd like to think that liking Star Trek wouldn't be a problem--as long as you were capable of talking about something else once in a while.
It's like any other social interaction. You have to gauge the other person's level of interest. If your date is another Trekkie, you can geek out to your heart's content and talk Romulan politics over dinner. But if your date isn't particularly into Trek (or comic books or computer games or whatever), you don't want to subject them to a nonstop monologue on a subject they're not interested in.
Doesn't mean you have to hide being a Trekkie. You just have to be able to carry on a conversation about other things as well.
Never encountered any friction about being a Star Trek fan. Not from any of my girlfriends, friends or acquaintances. My girlfriends were more than willing to wait in line with me for hours to see the first showing of a Trek film. Made me easy to buy gifts for come Christmas and birthdays, too.
Yeah, maybe I've lived a sheltered life, but I honestly can't remember getting any grief for being a Trekkie. Granted, much of my social and professional life has revolved around science fiction fandom and publishing, but I can't say that my non-fannish relatives, neighbors, associates, etc. have ever given me a hard time about it. If anything, people seemed intrigued sometimes.
"There are Star Trek conventions? How interesting. What are they like?"
Just the other day, in fact, I got into a nice conversation about superhero movies with the barista at a local coffee shop--and the guy behind me in line joined in too.
Music! That's perfect! That helps explain my situation much better, I suspect, rather than going to TREKKIES and saying, "I'm ashamed of that which you revere." Of course they're not going to understand. "Oh, but STAR TREK's 'C00L,' now." The stigmatism is still very much there, however, that Trekkies would rather play STAR TREK ONLINE than go cruising for chicks. That said Trekkies live at "home," in their parent's basement, well into adulthood. That Trekkies wear their STAR TREK pajamas to work ... Ah, the foolishness ...
But take a really crappy, over-the-hill butt rocker band like, oh ... let's say "KISS." Who would ever admit to liking them, or their music? For one thing, you'd probably have to go to some Community Center just to hear them play their hit, "I Wanna Rock & Roll All Night." Yes, pops ... I'm sure you do. And yet, their bills are continually - and mysteriously - somehow, being paid! Fandom of this kind of stuff is best kept under Lock & Key. Why even bring it up to a potential partner? No point.
But take a really crappy, over-the-hill butt rocker band like, oh ... let's say "KISS." Who would ever admit to liking them, or their music? For one thing, you'd probably have to go to some Community Center just to hear them play their hit, "I Wanna Rock & Roll All Night." Yes, pops ... I'm sure you do. And yet, their bills are continually - and mysteriously - somehow, being paid! Fandom of this kind of stuff is best kept under Lock & Key. Why even bring it up to a potential partner? No point.
That's OUTSTANDING! I have Great Lusts of My Life, though. I just need a woman for sex and some levity. I already enjoy STAR TREK, I don't need her for that. I tell you true: if she sticks around, that's fine. If she doesn't, that's fine, too. But I have to give it the best chance of success. Don't scare her away with horror stories from my past, or that I'm into geeky sci-fi shows. We go out to dinner and it's just good food, good company. It's a seperate reality ... all it's own. If I let her invade my privacy too much, all that goes bye-bye and I don't want that.
But does anybody actually believe that stereotype anymore? In my experience, the archetypal basement-dwelling virgin fan is like Bigfoot; maybe he or she actually exists, but I'm not not sure I've ever actually met one.
Most of the Trekkies I know have kids and mortgages . . .
On one hand, if that works for her and for you, then I guess that's fine - to each their own. But on the other hand, I think about how close my wife and I are, geeking out on stuff together* and raising our two nerdlings, and I kinda feel bad for you in a way, too. Your way seems lonely to me.
*Our fandoms aren't identical, but we both like each other's fandoms, just to different degrees than each other in some cases.
And if you walk around a largish convention these days, you'll see plenty of families and couples and teenagers doing cosplay with their boyfriends and girlfriends.
It's not exactly the Land of Misfit Virgins.
If there were no Star Trek I probably would have gotten more into fantasy stuff than scifi.
I think a lot of the Trek fans who were virgin basement dwellers in high school then entered the tech industry where their social life vastly improved and they moved out of their parents' basement very quickly.
I think a lot of the Trek fans who were virgin basement dwellers in high school then entered the tech industry where their social life vastly improved and they moved out of their parents' basement very quickly.
Yeah. I can't honestly say with certainty that I'd be dead but I can pretty much guarantee that I'd be miserable. It was thanks to Trek and Spock's World that I got into meditation, Stoicism, etc. Most of my core beliefs have been shaped by Trek. I mean I have a lot of Geek loves, but Trek is just different, and I can't imagine anything that could have taken its very singular place in my life.
Again I agree. My wife and I have helped expand each others horizons. She got me more into SWars and Duran Duran, I got her deeper into Star Trek and comic books as a medium. I know there are couples who have a my interests are my interests and their interests are their interests attitude. And if that works for them great, but to me not to be able to share with and share in my interests and the interests of the person who's the most important in the world to me, it would just feel really empty.
