Fandom way, way back...

[Dave Scarpa]

Lets take a look back, way back, to the fandom of early years. Pre 1979.

In many respects I admire Star Trek more now as an adult then I did then when I was discovering it through young eyes. But I do miss the anticipation and thrill of discovery that had yet to be dulled by oversatuatiuon.

That was a good read and in many ways your Trek Experience Mimic mine, I'll add that Trek Fans of this era seem to be more liberal minded, it boggles my Mind that I'll Often hear very Aggressive Flag thumping and wardrums from Today's trek Fans, especially if today's trek isn't all space battle etc, that's never what Trek Was about, it was very Pacifist in that War and Killing was looked upon as a last resort, not the 1st attempt it has become today.

 

[EEE]

I'll add that Trek Fans of this era seem to be more liberal minded, it boggles my Mind that I'll Often hear very Aggressive Flag thumping and wardrums from Today's trek Fans, especially if today's trek isn't all space battle etc, that's never what Trek Was about, it was very Pacifist in that War and Killing was looked upon as a last resort, not the 1st attempt it has become today.

(Never say never... someone may point out something like Arena as an example).

 

[Warped9]

^^ Yes, but Arena had a point. Kirk's first instinct was automatic retaliation until events caused him to reconsider.

TOS' overall viewpoint was that aggression was sometimes necessary, but only as a last result when saner heads prevail after all other options have been explored.

 

[EEE]

^^ Yes, but Arena had a point. Kirk's first instinct was automatic retaliation until events caused him to reconsider.

TOS' overall viewpoint was that aggression was sometimes necessary, but only as a last result when saner heads prevail after all other options have been explored.

All true and not argued by me. But all of that overlooks my only point... one should never say never.

 

[Warped9]

^^ Fair enough. What I didn't like about the TNG mentality was that they thought were more evolved to the point that any aggression was a failure no matter how warranted. It made them look like complete naive fools just begging for someone to pick a fight with them.

 

[EEE]

^^ Fair enough. What I didn't like about the TNG mentality was that they thought were more evolved to the point that any aggression was a failure no matter how warranted. It made them look like complete naive fools just begging for someone to pick a fight with them.

There were enough things I personally didn't like about TNG that I never watched the last 5 seasons until last year (when I was about to start the 4th season of DS9 and decided I needed the full backstory on Worf when he appeared). And I tried really, really hard to like TNG the first two years it was on. Personally I found them just plain bland.

 

[Warped9]

While I initially didn't care about early TNG it did have folks interested and talking Trek. Indeed at the time TNG helped make Trek more mainstream (for good and ill) and somewhat less ghetto-ized in the broader public consciousness.

Since then I've grown to see that while early TNG isn't good tv overall I find more redeeming things in it than all the Trek that followed.

 

[EEE]

Since then I've grown to see that while early TNG isn't good tv overall I find more redeeming things in it than all the Trek that followed.

I personally found more entertainment in all the others. Some much more than others, but all more than TNG. But I fully acknowledge that's pure personal preference. People want to think TNG is more enlightened, more entertaining, better written or performed or whatever... more power to them! I own my unadulterated TOS DVD's. No one can take that away from me. Nor can they convince me that Kirk wouldn't have kicked Picard's butt. *grin*

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Mom got so mad one time when I pinched bars of soap and carved them in to a communicator and phaser.

Heh...when I was a kid we made communicators, phasers and tricorders out of wooden building blocks and a lot of electrical tape.

Good times!

Legos. We made them out of Legos. Also used Legos to build control panels for the "U.S.S. Intrepid," our own starship.

This was in 1966. As far as I knew from personal experience there were four people in the world watching "Star Trek," although there were reliable reports in the press that quite a few other people did as well.

The first plastic model kit of the Enterprise, with that huge deflector dish and two little "wheat grain" lights for the upper and lower domes was awesome.

And I had a "Star Trek" tracer gun - mine was blue with a brown pistol grip; my friend's was kind of avocado/puke green with a black grip. We assumed that the green one was for Kirk and the blue one was for Spock.

 

[Warped9]

In '85/86 I remember feeling a heightened sense of anticipation and also trepidation over the rumours of the forthcoming new Trek series. Trek was coming back home to TV! But would it be as good or, heaven forbid, could it even be better? Regardless it was a shot in the arm for fans. For me the lustre was flaking off the movies released every two years or so. Something was off. But a new Trek series might just get things back to where they once were.

That was how I felt and it was exciting and also a bit unnerving.

 

[T'Bonz]

I never got to go to early conventions (1970s) as I was too young (13, 14), too broke and living in the wrong place.

But I remember the Lincoln Enterprises. I scraped enough money to buy film clips from TOS. I STILL have them too.

And I remember the Enterprise model that was out in the early 70s. My brother and I each had one. He "Doomsday machined" his, mine was pristine and perfect.

Ah, good days. Between those, the Blish books, reruns of the show and the other three books (Making of, World of and one other), I had all that I needed to make me happy. A few of my friends even liked Trek. What more could a Trekkie want?

 

[Captain Robert April]

Did anyone have a Star Trek colouring book? I had always wanted one, but never found any? Were there any for TOS?

I had a couple of them back in the mid 70's, probably from Whitman. I recall they weren't half-bad, if you just ignored the ridiculous captions.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

One thing about "Arena" - far from being jingoistic, I rather thought that Kirk and the Enterprise crew rolled over in their opinions of the Gorn a bit easily - they became very openminded about strangers who had slaughtered hundreds of human beings as soon as the Gorn asserted a possibly legitimate territorial claim.

The ease of that is a minor incongruity in a laudible episode, IMAO.

 

[Captain Robert April]

In '85/86 I remember feeling a heightened sense of anticipation and also trepidation over the rumours of the forthcoming new Trek series. Trek was coming back home to TV! But would it be as good or, heaven forbid, could it even be better? Regardless it was a shot in the arm for fans. For me the lustre was flaking off the movies released every two years or so. Something was off. But a new Trek series might just get things back to where they once were.

That was how I felt and it was exciting and also a bit unnerving.

I remember being at StarCon Denver the year TNG was set to premiere. Richard Arnold had just given his presentation on what we were to expect of the new show, to thunderous applause and cheering, when Nichelle Nichols came on stage to do her bit.

What she said will stay with me to my dying day.

"I just realized, just this moment, you've won! You've finally won!"

Even wilder applause and shouting from the masses.

Because she was right. We had won. After twenty years of pleading, begging, making complete idiots of ourselves, etc., we'd finally gotten Star Trek back on television with new episodes, with Gene Roddenberry calling the shots.

The feeling was the same kind we got in the Browncoat community, when in relation to the movie "Serenity" being greelit, that amazing bit of dialogue from Mal in the pilot got turned into a mantra...

"We have done the impossible, and that makes us mighty!"

 

[Dayton Ward]

Did anyone have a Star Trek colouring book? I had always wanted one, but never found any? Were there any for TOS?

Oh yeah, there were several. Over the years, I've managed to acquire different ones, all in pristine shape (All Hail eBay!).

I did have a Star Trek tracer gun that fired plastic disks. I used it to fire torpedoes at my AMT models to simulate space combat.

Finding a tracer gun to replace the several I went through as a kid remains on my "To-Do List."

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Here:

Link

I guess I misremembered - it was the blue gun that had black grips and the green/gold gun that had brown.

 

[Warped9]

^^ Oh, man, does that bring back memories!

Fantastic!

 

[EEE]

^^ Oh, man, does that bring back memories!

Fantastic!

Naw... I was never happy that they didn't even remotely resemble a phaser (mine was the blue one). They were dime store garbage with the Trek logo. I felt ripped off and never had to pay for one! That's the type of crap that forced me to cut and sand and paint and detail wood phasers (when I shoulda' been out in the woods defending the galaxy from my brother!).

 

[Therin of Andor]

I had a couple of them back in the mid 70's, probably from Whitman. I recall they weren't half-bad, if you just ignored the ridiculous captions.

Not to mention the one with a b/w tracing of Nurse Chapel, whose uniform collar and science insignia were rendered as a knotted scarf slung around her neck!

 

[Forbin]

Still have my tracer gun .

And here's me and some friends in 1982 keeping the spirit alive (I'm helm):