There can be something strange about some fans - of anything.
Star Trek is a continuation of a line of genre shows that began in the earliest years of television; "Captain Video," "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet," "Space Patrol"...
There are, you may be surprised to know, still cells of fandom for these old shows. They call themselves "The Solar Guard," and they even identify themselves as "Cadet _____" in their posts on their respective board and website.
They're about as weird as we are. You can buy costumes and everything. They are us - just, mostly, a hell of a lot older - in their seventies.
They say with age comes wisdom... and perspective. The one shining example of this is how they view THEIR show.
It's a show. It was their childhood, with laser-pop-guns and mail-away premiums. Real life has far exceeded anything the show considered futuristic, and they have come to accept their show as part of their time - not as some strange, actually-existing, canon-is-God, picayune, voraciously defended icon of all that is good and right in the universe.
Believe me, these guys would not whine about the sets not having painted on dials, not using communicators without telephone cords attached, et al., if somebody was to reboot "Tom Corbett." It would be "Son of Tom Corbett" to them, an extension of their childhood in the new world.
Many Star Trek fans - especially, I think, those who have managed to actually spawn, understand this "Circle of Life" thing instinctively. Some understand and it perfectly well because they have well-developed lobes. Others. Well, Imagine this...
You're standing in that Best Buy, and they're showing a trailer for an upcoming "Space Patrol" movie. IMAX. 150M budget.The show has the sort of basic premise that would allow this to be done.
Now, you see some 14 year olds watch it and drool, some 24 year olds thinking its pretty cool, some 39 year olds who are lovin' it... now two real-life Statler and Waldorf types wander in; one with a walker, one in a wheelchair with a leg off from diabedes...
"Ha - look - they made the Command deck look like a Hotel Lobby! There's only supposed to be two chairs in there..."
"Where's the yoke? How do you steer this thing, with all those buttons? Is there a button that says "'turn left' in there?"
"
Captain Correy??? He was a
Commander - Everybody knows that!! And he doesn't look
Anything like Ed Kemmer. This is really going to suck..."
"Is that supposed to be a Space-O-Phone!!!? It's a cell phone!!! Don't they know the difference? I had the primium back in '51 - didn't they do any kind of research?"
"WHAT DID THEY DO TO THE SHIP!!!!!?? It's a V2 shape - not a ... whatever that is!!"
Like that? How would you view this kind of verbal exchange?
"Space Patrol" ended in 1955 - 54 years ago.
"Star Trek" ended in 1969 - 40 years ago.
The.... acceptability for that kind of idiocy must have a 14-year window.
I don't think you'd actually find any of the Solar Guards actually bitching like that. On the other hand, Trekkies still have their hold-outs. More and more, however, that seems to be a vanishing minority.
