If there were no Star Trek...

[LMFAOschwarz]

...what would your interests be?

I'm not sure if there's a direct relationship, but I can recall as a boy being very much interested in cars and motorcycles. I even collected those NFL trading cards from whatever gas station offered them at the time. I had the book binder for them, and just loved them to death. So much fun!

But...it's occurred to me recently that I have no idea what happened to that kid. Was Star Trek so influential on me that it washed all the other stuff away? I have no distinct memory of abandoning my football cards, yet it obviously happened. Coincidentally this was around 1970-71, right around the time I discovered Star Trek. Just coincidence?

Nature abhors a vacuum, so clearly if not for one thing, another would fill its space. Do you remember someone else who once filled your shoes? What were his/her interests?

 

[Shat Happens]

Star Wars, of course.

 

[Dynania]

Dotor Who. Oh, wait.

 

[urbandefault]

I have a lot of other interests, hobbies, and things that fill most of my time. Star Trek is a nice diversion from that.

 

[viconia]

I've always been into science fiction and fantasy in general so I would just replace Star Trek with another series. Some of my earliest memories were watching the Star Wars and Star Trek films on VHS in the late 80's, along with all those great fantasy films at the time like The Last Unicorn and Labyrinth. I was only about 3 or 4, but they all made such an impression on me that a life-long obsession was born. So now I'm a huge geek.

If I wasn't into SF and fantasy I guess I'd be into literature and history, since that is also my interests, as well as art and travel.

 

[Greg Cox]

All the other stuff I'm interested in: monster movies, comic books, other science fiction books and shows and TV series. I mean, it's not like I stopped watching TV went Star Trek was cancelled way back when. There was always Dark Shadows, Planet of the Apes, The Night Stalker, etc.

As I've joked before: I love Star Trek, but I'm not married to it. We have an open relationship.

 

[bbjeg]

Maybe cell phones and automatic opening doors would have been developed later.

 

[MacLeod]

DW

 

[HaventGotALife]

I honestly don't know. Star Trek was a part of my life from a very early age. It helped shape my world view. I think I would be a different person. I certainly wouldn't have the relationship that I have with my family because we had divergent interests.

If I had to choose, I think I would replace it with music.

 

[USS Triumphant]

If there was no Star Trek, and more specifically, if Spock, especially "Spock's World" by Diane Duane, was erased from the timeline, I would have no other interests, because I would have been dead at 15. Seriously. That's how significant Trek has been in my life.

 

[Timewalker]

...what would your interests be?
...
Nature abhors a vacuum, so clearly if not for one thing, another would fill its space. Do you remember someone else who once filled your shoes? What were his/her interests?

I was only occasionally interested in SF before Star Trek. I'd read a few Lester del Rey and Ray Bradbury stories in school as part of the reading curriculum, but never sought out science fiction deliberately. I was into mysteries back then, and my TV preferences were a steady diet of cop shows, detective shows, lawyer shows... I had a huge crush on Michael Douglas when he was on Streets of San Francisco.

My tastes in music are still the same now as pre-Star Trek. I still enjoy reading mysteries, although not as much; I've still got (and still read) my Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators books that I started collecting years before even knowing Star Trek existed. I finally got rid of the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew stuff from the collection, though.

After getting into Star Trek, though, I really got into the whole "hey, this science fiction stuff is INTERESTING!" mindframe, and abandoned reading mystery stories, and dropped a lot of the cop/detective/lawyer shows I'd been watching on TV. I started searching out science fiction shows and movies. It was really damn annoying to me that I was too young to see Logan's Run at the theatre, even if I could convince anyone in the family to take me.

Actually, my life would have been quite different without Star Trek. It was reading The Making of Star Trek that got me interested in behind-the-scenes stuff about how TV shows are made. The closest I could ever get to this experience was working backstage in the theatre, and I spent many years working on musicals and dinner theatre.

Star Trek led me to SF/F books, which led me to know about the Society for Creative Anachronism (Marion Zimmer Bradley was one of the founding members), and when I discovered that my city had a branch, I ended up joining. Some of the people I met there turned out to become very good friends. In fact, I daresay that all of my close friendships came about because of some science fiction connection - whether it was over a discussion of Carl Sagan's Cosmos, getting acquainted with a fellow Doctor Who fan at a convention back in the early '80s and remaining friends to this day, or learning some new craft at an SCA University of Ithra event.

I don't know what my life would have been like if Star Trek hadn't come along and steered me on a very different path from the one I was on. There are so many things I've done and so many people I've met that wouldn't have happened otherwise - honestly, I don't even want to imagine how things could have gone.

Maybe cell phones and automatic opening doors would have been developed later.

Automatic doors were around long before Star Trek (1954, according to Ask.com). I certainly remember them at the grocery store my family shopped at, when I was about 4 years old (that would have been in 1967).

 

[Pondwater]

Probably sew more.

 

[Greg Cox]

I've still got (and still read) my Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators books that I started collecting years before even knowing Star Trek existed.

Ohmigod, I devoured those books, too!

I was also into Doc Savage, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and (later) Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, and Michael Moorcock.

Yeah, I went through a real sword-and-sorcery phase, although I gave up on Tolkien midway through the first book. Not enough blood and thunder, probably.

 

[Ro_Laren]

That's a good question. I wonder if my love of sci-fi started because of Star Trek or if my love of sci-fi would have come about even if Star Trek were never created. It's probably the former!

 

[Timewalker]

I've still got (and still read) my Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators books that I started collecting years before even knowing Star Trek existed.

Ohmigod, I devoured those books, too!

According to information on the Three Investigators Yahoo! group, there are several dozen more novels written in German, besides the 40 or so in English.

Unfortunately, I don't read German.

But I did re-read The Mystery of the Fiery Eye a few weeks ago.

 

[2takesfrakes]

If there were no STAR TREK, I wouldn't have this STAR TREK Shame, that's for sure. I am a "closet" Trek Fan - particularly around women. And when my closest friends try bringing it up, I deny ... deny ... deny!!! It's so bad that when a girlfriend stays the weekend, I will hide my STAR TREK shows - any way I can! And if it comes on T.V. when I'm flipping the channels, guess what? NEXT!!! Off it goes and I don't think twice about it. But when the Week End draws to a close and I'm walking her stuff to her car, when I'm back inside ... oh, yes. STAR TREK LIVES!!!

 

[T'Girl]

I would have focused my affections on My Little Pony and Dora the Explorer.

 

[I am not Spock]

If not for ST, I would have become obsessed with some other science fiction series. Probably Star Wars, or Doctor Who (both of which I love anyway). And I'm also a big movie buff, video gamer, and music fan.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I'd have more time to waste on the Beatles and comic books.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Star Wars, of course.

Yes. And I would have gone completely off the deep end for Bab 5.