When did you first become a fan? (Poll)

[StarCruiser]

Been a fan since pretty much the beginning of all things Trek (1966). Wasn't quite 3 when the show aired and yes - watched "The Man Trap" when it first aired. Yes, it actually rather spooked me as a kid but, I came back for more (didn't hurt that my Dad loved Sci Fi).

I hate to bring it up but, did anyone notice how incredibly few people chose the Kelvin and current Trek as what hooked them? The entire point of all of the current Trek is to create a new fan base and this poll alone rather proves that Paramount/CBS/Viacom (whatever they want to be called now) have failed rather miserably in that goal.

Not absolute, scientific proof but, still a pretty ugly picture of the truth...

 

[DonIago]

Fewer than 100 people have voted in the poll, and the majority of Trek fans don't frequent this board, so I don't think the poll is indicative of anything in that regard.

 

[fireproof78]

Been a fan since pretty much the beginning of all things Trek (1966). Wasn't quite 3 when the show aired and yes - watched "The Man Trap" when it first aired. Yes, it actually rather spooked me as a kid but, I came back for more (didn't hurt that my Dad loved Sci Fi).

I hate to bring it up but, did anyone notice how incredibly few people chose the Kelvin and current Trek as what hooked them? The entire point of all of the current Trek is to create a new fan base and this poll alone rather proves that Paramount/CBS/Viacom (whatever they want to be called now) have failed rather miserably in that goal.

Not absolute, scientific proof but, still a pretty ugly picture of the truth...

I didn't vote at all. My wife became a fan via Kelvin Trek.

 

[Lord Garth]

Been a fan since pretty much the beginning of all things Trek (1966). Wasn't quite 3 when the show aired and yes - watched "The Man Trap" when it first aired. Yes, it actually rather spooked me as a kid but, I came back for more (didn't hurt that my Dad loved Sci Fi).

I hate to bring it up but, did anyone notice how incredibly few people chose the Kelvin and current Trek as what hooked them? The entire point of all of the current Trek is to create a new fan base and this poll alone rather proves that Paramount/CBS/Viacom (whatever they want to be called now) have failed rather miserably in that goal.

Not absolute, scientific proof but, still a pretty ugly picture of the truth...

Fewer than 100 people have voted in the poll, and the majority of Trek fans don't frequent this board, so I don't think the poll is indicative of anything in that regard.

Bulletin Boards are on the way down. I'm actually surprised this board is still around, to be honest. Going on Facebook or some other Social Media Platform will generate a different answer. This board, I'm sorry to say, is very insular. It's more a community of ex-fans who are here out of habit than active fans. (They're not even reporting Star Trek News anymore. Yes, I went there.) So I wouldn't go by this board as a scientific measure of anything.

But at the same time, if I wasn't already a Star Trek Fan, there's no way I would've subscribed to CBSAA back in 2017.

Regardless, DSC has enough people watching that they decided to make four more shows to pad out the year. So I'd guess it has the audience it needs in order to keep going.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

There are a LOT of young people who came into the fandom with either the Abrams movies or Disco. They’re just not on message boards like this one because message boards are the dinosaurs of the internet and most of these new fans never experienced them and don’t care to do so now because they’re young and already used to much faster and more direct ways of social media communication. Check Twitter, Tumblr etc and you’ll get a very different fandom picture.

 

[Eddie Roth]

1992, "The Squire of Gothos" rerun on German TV, Saturday afternoon. Had seen, but not fully grasped TWOK and some early TNG before. TOS hooked me, and within a year, I had caught up on all of TOS, most of TNG, the movies. The rest is history.

 

[Greg Cox]

There are a LOT of young people who came into the fandom with either the Abrams movies or Disco. They’re just not on message boards like this one because message boards are the dinosaurs of the internet and most of these new fans never experienced them and don’t care to do so now because they’re young and already used to much faster and more direct ways of social media communication. Check Twitter, Tumblr etc and you’ll get a very different fandom picture.

Sounds plausible to me. We might as well argue that the new shows are failing because nobody is mimeographing fanzines about them.

 

[publiusr]

Now it’s stingy NFTs—pass

 

[USS Firefly]

In the late 90's I saw the BOBW of TNG for the first time and I was hooked. At first DS9 was to dark for me, but became my favorite Trek show. TOS is ok, and I don't like Voyager, Enterprise ( I gave that show up after 10 episodes) and Discovery much.

 

[somebuddyX]

My parents had taped TWOK and TVH, so I had seen them when I was little and I liked TVH because of the whales, not because it was Star Trek. My dad would tape me TNG episodes around when the sixth season was airing here in Oz and I would hire out the VHS tapes from Video Ezy. You could get things like "Redemption" or "Best of Both Worlds" on one tape, so I waited like three seconds to see how they resolved the cliffhanger to BOBW Part 1. TNG Season 7 and DS9 Season 2 were the first "new" airing Trek I ever watched and I always look fondly back on that time when they were setting up the Maquis and you had people like Gul Evek or Nechayev turning up on different shows.

 

[fireproof78]

There are a LOT of young people who came into the fandom with either the Abrams movies or Disco. They’re just not on message boards like this one because message boards are the dinosaurs of the internet and most of these new fans never experienced them and don’t care to do so now because they’re young and already used to much faster and more direct ways of social media communication. Check Twitter, Tumblr etc and you’ll get a very different fandom picture.

And a lot of costuming sites. I see fans interested because of the creative aspect, not so much the discussion aspect. Youngers don't always look for full on discussion, but the characters, the sensation of it and how it made them feel, to long form fanzine write up.

 

[Greg Cox]

And a lot of costuming sites. I see fans interested because of the creative aspect, not so much the discussion aspect. Youngers don't always look for full on discussion, but the characters, the sensation of it and how it made them feel, to long form fanzine write up.

I occasionally see older STAR WARS fans insisting that "nobody" cares about the new SW characters, then I go to conventions and see plenty of younger fans cosplaying as Rey, Kylo, etc. Makes me wonder sometimes when was the last time some of those curmudgeons actually attended a large con attended by fans younger than them. Or even hung out with fans of later generations in person.

 

[GulBahana]

Most people who are likely to visit these old message boards are older fans. I would guess the younger fans prefer to chat on social media, but I may be wrong. CBS must be getting a good amount of subscribers to watch the new shows or they would not keep making them.

 

[Danja]

Most people who are likely to visit these old message boards are older fans. I would guess the younger fans prefer to chat on social media, but I may be wrong. CBS must be getting a good amount of subscribers to watch the new shows or they would not keep making them.

*** raises hand ***

I like Prodigy and Picard (and I date back to Voyager!)

 

[Daddy Todd]

I forgot to mention, my mom took my brother and I to Space-Con (Star Trek convention, Los Angeles, 1977), at the tender ages of 8 and 6.

My memory is foggy, but I do remember someone had a 70s white panel van decked out like the Shuttlecraft Galileo, and we bought arrow-head/delta insignias (science for me, command for my brother).

Holy crap, I was at that convention. My first con. I was 17. I remember seeing Harlan Ellison, and buying Marshak & Culbreath's "Price of the Phoenix" from them personally in the huckster room. I still have that signed copy around here somewhere...

I have a memory of telling the story of having a memory of watching the first episode when it aired in 1966. I would've been 6 1/2. So, I claim that I've been a fan of Star Trek since there was a Star Trek to be a fan of. Then I watched the re-runs after school, and watched the animated series on Saturday mornings when I was 13-14. By then I was taping the episodes on audio cassette, and only threw away those cassettes maybe 10 years ago.

 

[Jay Kid of Wonders]

Star Trek 09, that’s why I still hold the kelvin timeline in such high regard.

 

[fireproof78]

Most people who are likely to visit these old message boards are older fans. I would guess the younger fans prefer to chat on social media, but I may be wrong. CBS must be getting a good amount of subscribers to watch the new shows or they would not keep making them.

Yes. They just are not all on bulletin board systems.

 

[1001001]

Yes. They just are not all on bulletin board systems.

Damn kids, with their Twirping and their Bitcoins...

 

[There Be Whales Here]

My answer: 70's (TOS Reruns). Which kind of dates me.

Being born during the 3rd season of TOS, my first exposure was later on once it started airing in syndication in the 70's. Though I don't remember the exact age I started watching religiously, but my Godmother was a fan and had one of the original AMT Enterprise models prominently displayed in her home. I remember finding it intriguing every time I visited and we started having conversations about the show, which I then started making sure I saw every time it was aired on a local station (which fortunately back then it seemed like it was usually always on). At that point I was pretty much hooked with my interest in sci-fi in general blossoming as well.

Not being satisfied with waiting till episodes were aired again I began to tape them with an audio recorder so I could listen to them later and could remember whole lines of some of my more favorite episodes. I even bought my own Enterprise model so I could look at it all the time, though I went through at least three of them due to their inherent nacelle flaw. I was in seventh heaven when I saw the original Technical Manual in a bookstore and convinced my parents to buy it and while some may consider that book non-canon, I really don't care, as back in the lean days, one had to take every limited fresh take on the Trek universe one could get. While I admittedly wasn't one of the first in line when TMP came out, I was pretty close within the first week of release. Later on, after we got our first VCR, I started recording episodes to watch whenever I wanted and must have worn out the used Beta tape of TMP I bought; not even caring how terrible the movie would seem later on. Back then it was pure Trek Gold. The later movies along with the debut of TNG only reinforced my passion with the added bonus of much, much more material, whether official or not, being released during those times.

My only regret in those days is in not convincing my parents to let me attend a Trek convention as back then and right up to maybe the TNG days, it was still all about the show and Trek universe almost exclusively, while in modern times Star Trek and even sci-fi in general has been rolled into the superhero, comic book & anime set with nary a Vulcan ear in sight.

 

[Henoch]

1968 1st rerun of Who Mourns For Adonais? was my introduction to Star Trek by my cousin during a visit to his house. My parents didn't watch the show, but later that year, I spent the summer at my cousin's house and I got to watch reruns all that summer. Never saw it again until 1970's syndication.