When did you first realize you were incurable?

[Amaris]

While I have been a fan since the age of 4 (about the time ST:III came out), it was when I was in 7th grade (1992/1993), my friends and I would pass "Starfleet Communiques" between classes, when we would play "away team" in our backyard because it opened out onto a landscaping center, which meant hothouses or "alien compounds", and we used plant ID tags for phasers. That's when I knew I was incurable.

 

[An Officer]

There was a time I used to get up extra early before college each morning to watch a trek episode, just to give me a nice buzz that would last the rest of the day.

I have been a fan 22 years, more than two thirds of my life. And in just a few days, I will have made 10,000 posts on a Star Trek message board. So yeah, I'm definitely aware I'm incurable.

 

[Gaith]

I vaguely remember (or have constructed a memory) of the first time I saw TNG at the age of six or so, and how I fell in love with it at once. My old man was the one who suggested I give it a look, but it was my mother, who'd watched a bit of TOS back in the day, who really nurtured my interest.

Even though I only watch 1-3 hours of official content per year, Trek helped raise me, and it's part of who I am. There is, in short, no cure.

That said, a wee anecdote: when I went to the Star Trek Experience in Vegas and was surprised by the beaming, the officer standing behind the D controls was a Vulcan woman. That moment of recognition, combined the whooshing wind effects and the light tricks, was pure magic - in a way, it felt like being right at home.

(I then did the Experience again later that afternoon, and that time around the transport officer was a simple, boring human. Even as I stood on the pad, I was so glad to have had a nonhuman for my first go.)

 

[mimic]

I reckon I've been cured, actually. Just of the Star Trek virus, though; I managed to pick up the Doctor Who and Buffy bug from you folks and those have proven persistent infections.

 

[Mary Ann]

My first moment would have to be when a friend and I spent several hours making up scenarios of Wesley's demise which were strictly in-universe. We're just a few years older than Wheaton and his character bugged the hell out of both of us.

 

[Gepard]

When

1. You achieve a rank of fleet captain or higher here (which I should be able to make)

and

2. You see this type of thread and feel compelled to post something, anything.

Well fuck, I'm terminal.

.........


For me, it's reading any topic about the new movie, even though I know I'm going to be annoyed by the conversation therein. For any other film I didn't like (which feels like most of them these days), I can just shrug my shoulders and think how underwhelming it was, and move on. But it seems I can't when it comes to Trek XI, merely because it carries the "Star Trek" label. Which shouldn't make one whit of difference, except that I'm addicted. This place is like like pure uncut Colombian Charlie Sheen.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Thanks to my mother, I was endoctrinated at a young age so I've never known what it's like to not be an incurable Trekkie.

I'm a HUGE wrestling fan so I have a lot of sad moments.

Whenever Raw comes to town, I try to go as much as I can, and god bless the souls who come with me because I am very LOUD and they often hold their hats down to cover their faces and pretend they don't know me. I get legit angry at fake wrestling. Not sure how many things are sadder than that.

Just wanted to happily share that a few years ago when I went to Raw, I was in the 3rd row, east floor seats, and I stood up and gave Cena double middle fingers and he was looking right at me. One of the best moments of my life.

I loved it when, right after winning at wrestlemania a few years ago, he posed outside the ring next to a furious guy in a "Cena sucks" shirt. That cracked me up.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

A friend of mine cut off the puffy ball thingy on his snow-hat, and without knowing why, I decided to keep it. Imagine my geek out when I realized it looks like my very own, first pet tribble!

I still have my first tribble. It is 34 years old. I bought it in a Star Trek store (yes a STAR TREK STORE) in Manhatten. It was a very small store and it had a barrel of tribbles. I also bought a little viewer thingy you looked through and saw a still from "The Paradise Syndrome" which I still have and 6 foot poster of Captain Kirk on a transporter pad which adorned the my bedroom door and which I no longer have.

 

[ElBurro]

It was either when I got my Klingon tattoo or when I was shoe shopping with a friend and really wanted a pair of boots simply because they vaguely looked like the ones that Kirk wore. Friend just rolled her eyes at me. Since I'm skint most of the time and the shop stopped selling the boots not long after I found them, I never did get them

Just realised that it was 4 months ago, and I'm still gutted about the boots. So, yep, definitely incurable!

 

[bluedana]

I guess it was obvious I was incurable in 1969 when Channel 56 started showing Trek five nights a week and I watched every night no matter how often I saw each episode. I never thought of it as diseased or sad, though-- I thought of other people as diseased and sad for not getting it.

Around 1980 or so, between the Boston channels and the Providence channel (we lived half-way between, so we could get both cities' stations), Trek came on (and I watched it) 3 times a day. Even my mom began to be able to recognize the episode by the first 10 second or so of the teaser.

 

[Skellington]

When I first saw this thread I thought the title was, "When did you first realize you were incredible?"

I'm not bumping that "Are You Aweesome?" thread again.

I reckon I've been cured, actually. Just of the Star Trek virus, though; I managed to pick up the Doctor Who and Buffy bug from you folks and those have proven persistent infections.

That Who bug is hard to get rid of, but then why would you try?

Star Trek and Star Trek: TNG are actually pretty socially acceptable where I come from, so no real problem there. My "sad git" moment was probably Who-related and happened when I was about eleven or twelve. It may have been when I related the history of the Time Lords to my best friend (who commented that I should know that much about my schoolwork), or the time when I summarised the show (badly and very embarrasingly) in front of a class, or the time when I purchased a copy of Marvel Superheroes with Captain Britain on the front flying over the UK and Éire and realised on some level that my love for superhero stories was greater than any sense of embarrassment.

(Note: The only item of Doctor Who merchandise that I own is a Dalek bottle-opener that says "EXTERMINATE!" when you use it. This gets a pass.)

 

[Lookingglassman]

Everyday when I look in the mirror.

 

[captcalhoun]

my really sad moment was when we had to do a presentation to class for GCSE English and i did mine on the history of the starships Enterprise.

(which was the 1701, -A, -C, -D and a brief bit on the -B which hadn't yet appeared on screen as that was pre-Generations.)

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Everyday when I look in the mirror.

Why? Got Nero's tatts on your head?

 

[Sephiroth]

come back from my first deployment first thing I do after getting a burger is break out the TNG

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I'm a HUGE wrestling fan so I have a lot of sad moments.

Whenever Raw comes to town, I try to go as much as I can, and god bless the souls who come with me because I am very LOUD and they often hold their hats down to cover their faces and pretend they don't know me. I get legit angry at fake wrestling. Not sure how many things are sadder than that.

Just wanted to happily share that a few years ago when I went to Raw, I was in the 3rd row, east floor seats, and I stood up and gave Cena double middle fingers and he was looking right at me. One of the best moments of my life.

Were not going to see you on You Tube soon crying to Terry Funk "It's still real to me dammit" are we?

 

[RJDiogenes]

I guess it was obvious I was incurable in 1969 when Channel 56 started showing Trek five nights a week and I watched every night no matter how often I saw each episode. I never thought of it as diseased or sad, though-- I thought of other people as diseased and sad for not getting it.

Around 1980 or so, between the Boston channels and the Providence channel (we lived half-way between, so we could get both cities' stations), Trek came on (and I watched it) 3 times a day. Even my mom began to be able to recognize the episode by the first 10 second or so of the teaser.

That must have been when 56 brought it back when the movies were coming out. I remember once they had Mark Lenard host a few episodes when he was in town for a convention.

 

[Velocity]

I've refused to upgrade my cellphone. I want to keep the flip phone model, so much like a TOC communicator. But the ringtone isn't Trek--it's the BtVS theme. The voice mail is Al Yankovic's "White and Nerdy" which I really relate to.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

When the skit I did for my high school drama class was based on Star Trek, albeit in light-hearted parody style.

 

[Joshua Howard]

It hit me when one of my coworkers told me in jest that I needed to start wearing spock ears due to my inordinate use of the word "logical"... which I had picked up after my first TOS-watching marathon.

Then there is the instance when I purchased my first box of Earl Gray tea just because it was Picard's favorite drink... and my running habit of naming and numbering my vehicles after the various Enterprises.

If you must know a secret, it isn't unusual for me to ad-lib a "Captain's Personal Log" to myself when I'm pulling out of the driveway... and when I'm cruising along, I naturally translate "35 MPH" into "Warp 3.5"...

I often think of my work facility as the "Starship" which I am stationed on, and regard my fellow employees as "crew".