A new generation of Trekkies

[Kegek]

I'm not sure what my opinion is yet, but there are a couple of situations I thought about: The most obvious being, will there be a rift in the fans between old Trek and new?

Yes.

Will we see the old terms of Gushers and Bashers being applied?

Or their equivalents, yes.

Will the stalwart Trek fans welcome the new fans into the fold, and aid them in their slow assimilation of 40 years of Trek?

Yes.

Will there be a feeling that the new fans have cheapened or sullied Trek somehow?

Yes.

And I'm not being cryptic or nonsensical, just laconic. First off, it's almost entirely certain that the new film will have its detractors and its supporters among existing fans. Just look at the ten films that have already been released: Whatever the popular consensus on their quality, ones widely derided as bad have their defenders and vice versa.

Secondly, should the film be, as you suggest, a boffo success, it'll probably give rise to a whole new wave of fandom - and those that like the film and dislike the film will react accordingly. Not to suggest that those who don't like the movie will simply reject new fans out of hand - I'm sure plenty won't and will be positively civil and courteous - but the opposite will also be true. And maybe people who liked the movie won't care for the younger fanboys hyping it. All varieties of things are going to happen.

There are plenty of divisions in fandom, plenty of derision about whatever person X doesn't like as having tarnished Star Trek's name - but they're all based on disputes that, in the instant-up-to-the-milisecond existence that is the internet, happened in the dusty past. I was around for some of the more recent battles - the ferocity of DS9/VOY rivalry, for example. For better and for ill, I think this film will get that bloodline flowing all over again.

Kegek; one pathetic loser and lifelong Trekkie.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I prefer the term Trekkers myself because Trekkie is a lot like junkie or druggie. And that's why some people have problems with the term.

I've been into Trek since 1966; I came aboard back when we were just called "losers."

I got some bad news for ya...

 

[Sector 7]

"Trekkies" was a derogatory term when I was a teen. I hated being called that. So when I heard "Trekker" during the TNG era, I fell in love with it. It wasn't so bad liking Trek then.
I know it is very subjective, but that is my experience.

As for newbies, I will welcome them warmly.

 

[Therin of Andor]

If this leads to a new wave of fans, does anybody have any opinions on what will happen in general, or to the long-time fans?

Well, I was often called "a newbie" through the 80s because I found ST fandom via TAS and then TMP. I became president of their club and numbers rose from 222 to about 600. When ST IV and TNG came along, the club lost a lot of "first fandom" members (some in disgust at ST IV) but the club grew to over 1000 members.

At which point it became impossible to predict numbers of attendees at monthly meetings, impossible to cater food and drink without a truck, impossible to show episodes in anything that was bigger than a fan's lounge room (thus we were in breach of copyright) and the whole thing imploded under its own weight. And the arrival of the "Official" Australian ST club.

The point is, fans sort themselves out according to their own pecking order. You can't predict this things. but people who like ST usually have lots in common with others who like ST. Some will be too shy, or too intimidated to hang around. Others will embrace change and difference and nostalgia.

IDIC and at that.

 

[Nowhere Man]

we will have to go back to 1955 to stop Biff from recieveing the sports almanac

 

[Jon1701]

we will have to go back to 1955 to stop Biff from recieveing the sports almanac

Why don't you make like a tree...and get out of here?

 

[Nowhere Man]

we will have to go back to 1955 to stop Biff from recieveing the sports almanac

Why don't you make like a tree...and get out of here?

sorry BTF 2&3 has been playing on HBO last few days , had to throw it in there

 

[Jon1701]

One point twenty one gigawatts!!!!!!!!!

 

[Trevacious]

I plan to be right here, bitching my head off, for all eternity.

In your spinning inter-universal corridor?

But what of Lazarus? What of Lazarus?