"So there's more than Voyager?"
- Thread starter JRoss
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And adults who have had access to a wealth of Star Trek information online for over two decades. Was there never any curiosity? Never wanted to look something up? Never been to IMDb?
"I really love Earth."
"Me, too. What about the other planets?"
"There are other planets?"
"I really love Earth."
"Me, too. What about the other planets?"
"There are other planets?"
By the same token, that saturation makes it easier for something to get lost in the crowd and go unnoticed. As you say, it's all competing for their attention.
Then be boggled. I've never seen Farscape or The 4400. I'm vaguely aware that Godzilla is some Japanese monster movie character, but never bothered to watch any of it. I have only a superficial knowledge of the Star Wars prequels; I tried to watch them but found them so boring that they literally put me to sleep.
It's been decades since I bought any Star Wars merchandise, so I have absolutely no idea what's available in the toy section of Walmart. My visits to Walmart are for household cleaning supplies, cat supplies, groceries, and a few other miscellaneous things that have nothing to do with toys.
Not everyone is into superhero comics. I've only heard of the Green Lantern because a friend on another forum is a fan and has a thread dedicated to his favorite comics.
Hmm. I used to watch the old Spider-Man cartoon. I've never seen any of the movies, or follow any of the media stories about them.
I'm actually on the flip side of this regarding The Handmaid's Tale. So many of the people who watch the TV series have never read the novel, and never heard of the 1990 movie. A lot of the detractors hysterically insist it's all anti-Trump, feminist propaganda... and refuse to consider the facts that the original novel was published 33 years ago in Canada, and the first season of the TV series was already shot before the 2016 election.
Say whut?
I guess that gives me the right to go around saying that everyone who hasn't heard of my favorite authors or TV shows or movies is of below-average intelligence, hm?
Well, I could... but it would be pretty damned rude. Every time somebody says they haven't heard of the novels of F.M. Busby (I've been working on a long-term fanfic project based on his books, since he stopped publishing in the mid-'90s and died over 10 years ago), that gives me an opportunity to explain about them and hopefully find someone else who is willing to try them. That's more positive than saying, "You haven't heard of the Hulzein series? Gosh, you must be stupid!"
Why?
Introducing the dregs of a franchise is hardly the way to get new fans.
I'm reminded of a conversation on this site years ago, when someone was pontificating about how terrible and unwatchable and boring all black and white shows and movies were. Granted, it takes a bit of extra mental effort to imagine what the real colors might be, but then sometimes a colorized version comes along and you realize that it was much better in black and white. If that sounds odd, compare a black and white episode of The Adventures of Robin Hood (from the 1950s) to a colorized version. The outlaws looked absolutely ridiculous in color, and I much prefer the black and white episodes.
There are a depressing lot of people who seem to think that anything that happened before the internet age began is hopelessly primitive. It's even an education on a comics site I belong to, that's rerunning the entire Canadian comic strip For Better Or For Worse.
The strip is up to the year 1989 now, and it's been an eye-opener into the different generational attitudes between older readers and younger readers... the younger ones are dumbfounded and shocked at how much direct supervision the kids in the strip don't get all day, and a couple of posters are hysterical at the moment because one of the kids actually played in a mud puddle and got her clothes dirty ("she's gonna get sick!"), and then went home and sneaked a box of cookies ("she's gonna end up with diabetes and hypertension!").
Some of us don't have a favorite streaming service, or if we do, it's got a hell of a lot of stuff geoblocked. American Netflix users seem to take it for granted that everyone can watch what they can watch. That's not how it is.
That's not even how it is since CBS decided to lower their noses a little bit and let Canada access their streaming service. There are still popular programs we won't be allowed to see.
I still get my music on CD, and the vast majority of my book collection is in the form of physical books. Just yesterday a visitor to my home noticed one of the Outlander novels I'm reading (the TV series was based on them), and was horrified at how thick the books are. She'd never heard of the TV show, and couldn't care less about 18-century history. A previous conversation revealed that she'd never heard of Henry VIII, and I found myself wondering how that was possible.
But it just goes to show that not everyone is into either history or historical drama.
A co-worker recently admitted that he'd never heard of Gomer Pyle, USMC.
I just walked away.
I just walked away.
Golly!!A co-worker recently admitted that he'd never heard of Gomer Pyle, USMC.
I just walked away.
However, not everything is saturated into everything quite like Star Trek (and Star Wars).
To be oblivious to any Trek series but one, is to say never seen commercials, seen countless shows parodying Trek (like "Futurama, "The Simpsons", "Family Guy", old SNL skits going back decades, and plenty more old and new going back decades), trailers in theaters, posters, merchandise, various advertising campaigns, mentions of Trek conventions in the news, interviews with cast and crew, documentaries, specials, video games and much more.
How one could avoid the myriad of ways it has permeated the culture from the top to the bottom, is odd. Even Webster's dictionary -- which each year removed old words not quite in use like they once were in include new ones -- put Klingon in the dictionary; even books worms would have encountered that.
I used to be like that with Doctor Who. I was really surprised at the Doctors before the one I saw first.
I think it's kind of - sweet that they enjoyed the Trek they first saw. To think they can now watch all the other versions!
Yep, especially if they like the tone of Voyager, Discovery is quite different.
For some people its a matter of being practical. It simply doesn't come up in their mind.
Probably for the best! (Horrid thing...)
When I was a child I was pretty smart, I think. But I remember a lot of pop culture references that I had to ask my father about.
For example, there was a cartoon - Ruff and Ready I guess - where the heroes fought an Irish giant, "the Goon of Glocamorra", and I went and asked my father what the joke was in "the Goon of Glockamorra", and he was surprised that I never heard of "The Moon of Glocamorra".
Actually I'm not much into many aspects of popular culture - science fiction novels, movies and TV shows are a big exception.
And I am certain that many people will be surprised by how different in some ways and how similar in other ways the lifestyles of earlier generations were. And the differences between their own lifestyle and those of other economic classes or other countries.
For example, many suburban kids would be surprised to know that I never took a school bus to go to school, walking there instead. And that I remember when the crossing guards were older school children.
For example, there was a cartoon - Ruff and Ready I guess - where the heroes fought an Irish giant, "the Goon of Glocamorra", and I went and asked my father what the joke was in "the Goon of Glockamorra", and he was surprised that I never heard of "The Moon of Glocamorra".
Actually I'm not much into many aspects of popular culture - science fiction novels, movies and TV shows are a big exception.
And I am certain that many people will be surprised by how different in some ways and how similar in other ways the lifestyles of earlier generations were. And the differences between their own lifestyle and those of other economic classes or other countries.
For example, many suburban kids would be surprised to know that I never took a school bus to go to school, walking there instead. And that I remember when the crossing guards were older school children.
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Yeah, it's annoying when I encounter people who think the show only began in 2005. It's also annoying when people dismiss the Classic Doctors era for trivial reasons of older sets and special effects. At least I never needed a flow chart to understand any Classic Who story arc.
When I was a kid in the 70s Doctor Who was Jon Pertwee and when I told my classmates about the other Doctors like Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell they didn't believe me! Or they said I was crazy and needed to get out more!
But it's the same today with people having absolutely no interest in the old original series of the 60s or 70s or actually not even being aware of them which is fascinating to me!
JB
But it's the same today with people having absolutely no interest in the old original series of the 60s or 70s or actually not even being aware of them which is fascinating to me!
JB
Say whut?
It's basic math.
It is hard to believe someone could be totally unaware of Star Trek, but it's really great people are still discovering our beloved franchise. How exciting. I envy them!
Oh, god, yes. I was never a big LOST IN SPACE fan, being more into STAR TREK and THE OUTER LIMITS and BATMAN at the time. But, yes, that ep freaked me out as a kid.
On other fronts, I agree that this isn't an intelligence issue. The individual who didn't know that "the Flash" and "Flash Gordon" were not the same person is, in fact, a highly-educated publishing professional who specializes in young-adult fiction. Just not a comics fan, that's all. And another story: I actually met someone not too long ago whose sole knowledge of Batman came from vague memories of the old Adam West show. ("Didn't he have a search-light on his roof or something?") And this was AFTER the nineties movies, the Christian Bale movies, etc. Again, not a dumb person, just somebody who doesn't care about movies or TV particularly.
Not everybody knows everything and the world is full of people who skip over the ENTERTAINMENT section in their favorite newspaper or magazine or whatever. Lord knows I toss out the SPORTS and BUSINESS sections unread. (And, yes, I still read an old-fashioned newspaper every morning.)
That being said, the "Yoda" thing still amazes me since, even you've never seen one of the movies, how do miss STAR WARS as a huge pop-cultural phenomenon? There are tons of movies and TV shows and books and music that I've never sampled, but I've heard of them and know the basic idea. I know what FIFTY SHADES OF GREY is about, and DALLAS, and THE BLACKLIST and THE VOICE and Tyler Perry movies or whatever. I've never read Tom Clancy or Danielle Steele or Nicholas Sparks or Amy Tan or Patricia Cornwall, but I know who they are and what kind of books they write. Heck, I finally saw THE GODFATHER for the first time last year, and still haven't seen the sequels, but I've known who the Godfather is and understood references to it for decades now. "I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse," etc.
In short, some stuff is more ubiquitous than others. On the Wal-Mart front, I wasn't just talking about toys. I'm talking lunchboxes, beach towels, tee-shirts, greeting cards, cereal boxes, calendars, Pez dispensers, etc. It's hard to miss. Ditto for Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, etc. That stuff has gone mainstream--unlike, say, Babylon-5 or Elfquest or whatever.
Timewalker: You may be amused to know that F.M. Busby was one of the featured guests at the very first science-fiction convention I ever attended, way back in the early eighties. I remember liking his stuff back in the day.
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Fair enough that you wouldn't have heard of say DS9 or Enterprise, and/or grew up with no interest in Sci-Fi in general so would never think to investigate that kinda thing. But to have never heard of the original Star Trek, Captain Kirk, Mr Spock, Beam me up Scotty, etc...
And the recent three movies, I mean they just never saw any advertising or anything whatsoever for those?
Not bashing them btw, because I know and discover people like this all the time, not necessarily about Star Trek just about anything-just people with no basic general knowledge.
And the recent three movies, I mean they just never saw any advertising or anything whatsoever for those?
Not bashing them btw, because I know and discover people like this all the time, not necessarily about Star Trek just about anything-just people with no basic general knowledge.
I've been introduced as a "STARS WARS author" more than once. Always a bit awkward:
"Hello, everyone. Today's speaker is the author of many best-selling STAR WARS novels . . . "
"STAR TREK."
"Excuse me?"
"Um, er, no big deal, but I write Trek, not Wars."
(Baffled look from librarian or English teacher who clearly doesn't know the difference.)
"Hello, everyone. Today's speaker is the author of many best-selling STAR WARS novels . . . "
"STAR TREK."
"Excuse me?"
"Um, er, no big deal, but I write Trek, not Wars."
(Baffled look from librarian or English teacher who clearly doesn't know the difference.)
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