Ohhhh hardlyI’m relieved to know that I wasn’t the only young kid who acted out Trek episode scenarios.
The New, Improved Alternative Factor
- Thread starter Spock's Barber
- Start date
Yup. Being an avid Trekker was not a popular choice during my childhood.
I grew up in the 70's, and I wouldn't have tried talking to any random peers about Star Trek because I knew that could be touchy, but my two best friends were also avid Star Trek fans so it didn't feel like it mattered to me.
I grew up in the 90s, was teased and still did it. I was flying a ship on the swing set, using blocks as phasers, and designing my own flags for starships. I had a teacher who was a Trekkie a dad who was, and a mom who was a scientist and that was enough. I was a weird child and got teased no matter what I did.
So, I just dealt with that and did my own thing. I created my own Starfleet officer, Lt. Marseille, chief of Security, as well as my own ships in paint. I used my snowspeeder toy as a starfighter for Starfleet officers, and playmobils for houses.
80s. I definitely got some heat for it and learned to keep quiet. But two contrary memories: (1) going to my little league game in the middle of a TOS marathon on TV, and *everyone* (and I mean everyone, including the 'cool' kids) excitedly talking about the episodes they had watched earlier that day; (2) my older brother coming home after a night of high school carousing to catch me watching Devil in the Dark (at that time maybe only the third or fourth episode I had seen) on Saturday late-night syndication, his mocking the bejesus out of the cheapness of the Horta-- but not leaving until the episode was over, and then Saturday Night TOS quietly becoming appointment viewing for the two of us (at a time in our relationship when we suddenly had nothing else to bond over)
My conclusion: TOS rules, and given enough time everyone comes to understand this.
As for Alternative Factor: my mental trick for enjoying it is to pretend it was improvised on the spot. The turgid conference room scenes with Kirk and Spock feel like William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy trying to brainstorm a workable sci-fi premise. And having the same 'location' shot both on location and in a studio adds an nice eerieness, even if it's a result of someone's screw-up
I was reading adult Trek books, best of Trek, blish, foster, on the bus going to elementary school. I could recite TVH, because I had it on audio tape (self-made.) I saw my first theater movie by myself at 11 in a double feature with TFF and Indy 3. At one point I was trying to type the entire text of some Trek encylcopedia into a document file on an ancient floppy-DOS machine because i didn't want to return it to the library, and I think I tried very young fan fiction when reading Phase 2 abandoned synopsis. I know I tried a TNG/TOS crossover, and I know i tried a sequel to a piece of the action. (I learned to type in 3rd grade and could type like 100wpm even as a child/teen). In 9th grade I used two VCRs to splice footage from my HBO bootleg of TUC to do a presentation in my Global Studies class comparing the fall of the Klingon Empire to the fall of the Soviet Union, and to their dismay, made my entire class watch the video, which devolved into the best fight and action scenes by the end of it all lmfao. I used graph paper to create some ships and transporter-ish effects in my graphics programming class (Pascal). I was dumb, and advertised things because I was proud of drawing the specacle to myself, before i got a little socially more aware but still had to find a new group of people to know the "new" post highschool / wearing contacts version of me lol. It was a kind of an abandoned guilty pleasure for quite a long time, until I found TOS fanfilms.
Met Kyle in August 1972 and he introduced me to Star Trek which had just recently hit the syndication market. I was a few months shy of 10 years old at the time. He needed a "Spock" to counterpoint his "Kirk" (he was the more extroverted, so it fit his personality) and desperate to make a new friend (my father and I had just moved into the expansive apartment complex), I was more than willing to take a "crash course" in the show. We dashed about WillowBend from '72 and '75 when we both moved away. during that time, we pretended the community laundromats (there were at least three, each close to the three swimming pools) were vast computer centers, either Federation or alien, the numerous willow trees served as tendril lifeforms, the holding walls lining sections of the walkways (it was a very hilly layout) became trenches as we bunkered against unseen Klingons or Gorn... Well, you get the idea.
We also acted out other media properties like "Planet of the Apes" and "The Six Million Dollar Man". Kyle always played the "action leads" while I performed the "character roles". But that was fine as they suited our personalities.
Imagine our elation when AMT finally released its Star Trek "Exploration Set" containing kit pieces to assemble a phaser, a communicator and a tricoder! Until then we had to make do with TV emotes as weapons, binocular cases (with shoulder straps) as scanning devices, and discarded makeup compacts as flip lid field radios. (Kyle claimed a black rectangular one as his and I got stuck with the pink round one. I rarely "called the ship.) Looking back, that model kit/roleplay gear collection barely resembled their screen originals and they were woefully kid scaled, small even for your hands), but the assembled props were still worlds better than what we used earlier.
I pretended my church's side door was an atavachron.I’m relieved to know that I wasn’t the only young kid who acted out Trek episode scenarios.
Yes. So was I. I was so into the show in elementary school that I incorrectly assumed reading off all the 78 episode titles to my peers would command respect rather than laughter. This would have been impossible had I not memorized the title locations from all 13 James Blish books.
Surely I can't be the only one.
I grew up in the 70s and was definitely a "weirdo" for loving Star Trek.
As another 70s kid, we all played Star Trek and no one who liked it was considered odd.
I remember there being a bit more pushback in the 80s, because most people at the time considered Star Trek a “kids show”.
I remember there being a bit more pushback in the 80s, because most people at the time considered Star Trek a “kids show”.
While the proportions were off for TOS they were much closer to the Animated Series, which may have been the idea.
I was kid in the 60s who occasionally watched Star Trek, when my parents weren't watching something else. My teen years were the 70s which coincided with the heyday of Trek reruns. My best friend was very into Star Trek so that re-sparked my own interest. If anyone else at school was into it, I never found out. Never really came up. So no opportunities for teasing on that front. Many others though. 
The late 70s and the 80s were college years and my friend group were into Star Trek and SF in general. (One went on to work for the shows in the 90s) Plus it was a new Golden Age of SF&F films. So again, no teasing.
The late 70s and the 80s were college years and my friend group were into Star Trek and SF in general. (One went on to work for the shows in the 90s) Plus it was a new Golden Age of SF&F films. So again, no teasing.
A huge club we were.......unfairly passed off as basement-loving, anti-social hopeless laughing stocks. And then HARRY POTTER and FELOWSHIP OF THE RING came out to theaters so close together. And then finally, we all received long-overdue respect...........
.....except perhaps for the truly crazy ones who waited a week or more just to endure THE PHANTOM MENACE. Most Trekkers would draw the line at 24 hours or less.
Growing up in the 60's and 70's without the benefit of the internet; I thought I was the only one who enjoyed Star Trek. I read about conventions but it seemed like a fantasy, thousands of like-minded Trek fans gathering. It was not until the internet that I realized there are a few of us out there!!
Thanks to Starlog magazine. I knew there were other fans out there and there were a lot of us. I remember not being taunted too much as a kid in the 70s for being such a huge fan of Star Trek. I would bring my Mego action figures and my AMT model kit into school while wearing my Donmoor shirt.
There were, however, a few guys would pick on me because I was so obsessed with a Science Fiction show instead of the New York Mets. All in all, though, my memories of those years are so vague. I probably blotted it out. It was actually the grades between 7 and 10, which were the worst for me. And none of that had to do with Star Trek.
There were, however, a few guys would pick on me because I was so obsessed with a Science Fiction show instead of the New York Mets. All in all, though, my memories of those years are so vague. I probably blotted it out. It was actually the grades between 7 and 10, which were the worst for me. And none of that had to do with Star Trek.
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Growing up in the 60's and 70's without the benefit of the internet; I thought I was the only one who enjoyed Star Trek. I read about conventions but it seemed like a fantasy, thousands of like-minded Trek fans gathering. It was not until the internet that I realized there are a few of us out there!!
I guess the Nielsen ratings and the television network NBC were dead wrong about Star Trek being unpopular with the public at large.
My recollection of growing up as a Star Trek fan was that there were those people who understood your references and quoted lines and Vulcan salutes, and those who had no idea what you were talking about and could only give you a blank look.
The notion that Star Trek fans were a group who needed to be bullied or picked on hadn't been invented yet, and wouldn't be until I was already too old to worry about it.
The notion that Star Trek fans were a group who needed to be bullied or picked on hadn't been invented yet, and wouldn't be until I was already too old to worry about it.
If it had just been a travel pod—fine.
The way the episode started I was expecting to see a tear in space and huge ships pour out as an invasion—after that build up anything short of something like STARKILLER BASE was bound to be a disappointment.
The opening sequence of TAF might be best spliced with The Doomsday Machine.
It was syndication after being canceled that helped TOS gain popularity.
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