Outside this BBS, on social media platforms, YouTube, etc., if you seek out just a few fannish things they will show up more and more if you engage with them at all. That's the big difference.
Which version of TOS is canon??
- Thread starter Lt. Tyler
- Start date
so...don’t engage? Apart from speed and quantity of conversations I don’t see much difference.
And I’m pretty sure that casual fans that just watch a series have no idea (or interest) of what the comments are these days...
My comment was about the difference between then and now. Observation ≠ Call to Action.
Fandom. Fandom never changes.
*cue PTSD flashbacks of Memory Alpha arguments, newsgroup discussions, fanzine articles*
I know about the fanzines and once I discovered Starlog had Trek in it, it was on my "must see" list, but we didn't talk continuity or even squabble over the characters much, other than the "Kirk > Spock, Spock > Kirk" type arguments that young teens had.
Part of this was that even in syndication, the show was "live" and one couldn't pause and rewind to catch a mistake.
Honestly, we just enjoyed the show for what it was. I was more interested in the story - was it entertaining? Was it compelling? - than I was in the ship or details that some fans perhaps obsess over more than I would. I chalk that up to being a female fan back then - it was more about the feels than the fact that they got xyz wrong or about ship details.
I'm still more interested in the story. We've had so much Trek now that there are contradictions as well as stuff that is disliked, so I just make my own head canon anyhow. TBH I don't notice most boo-boos 'til they're pointed out. I guess I'm not observant.
P.S. Team Spock. Kirk looked too much like my father back then and one can't crush on one's father. Plus - Spock appealed to those on the fringes and who is more on the fringes than young teenagers - caught between two worlds.
Part of this was that even in syndication, the show was "live" and one couldn't pause and rewind to catch a mistake.
Honestly, we just enjoyed the show for what it was. I was more interested in the story - was it entertaining? Was it compelling? - than I was in the ship or details that some fans perhaps obsess over more than I would. I chalk that up to being a female fan back then - it was more about the feels than the fact that they got xyz wrong or about ship details.
I'm still more interested in the story. We've had so much Trek now that there are contradictions as well as stuff that is disliked, so I just make my own head canon anyhow. TBH I don't notice most boo-boos 'til they're pointed out. I guess I'm not observant.
P.S. Team Spock. Kirk looked too much like my father back then and one can't crush on one's father. Plus - Spock appealed to those on the fringes and who is more on the fringes than young teenagers - caught between two worlds.
Hmm... Maybe that's the problem with fandom today. In those days, Trek fandom was about equally male and female, with women particularly dominating the convention and fanzine scene. These days, I think it's become more of a guy-centric thing, at least where online participation is concerned. I've always wondered why that changed so much.
On the other hand, the writer of that Trek Magazine "Mysteries Solved" column was female. So debating continuity wasn't exclusively a male province.
Was it? Trek fanzines and pro fiction were overwhelmingly female-dominated, and the early convention organizers and most prominent fans were female -- Bjo Trimble, Joan Winston, people like that. My perception of Trek fandom when I was growing up in the '70s and '80s was that it had a very strong female presence.
One of the authors in the 70s (David Gerrold, I think?) estimated Trek fandom as being about 80% female, as opposed to science fiction fandom, at 80% male.
Anecdotally, I had a small connection to fandom in the late 70s, mainly through fanzines, and almost everyone I encountered was female. I think I remember one male fanzine editor (Winston Howlett) and one male cartoonist (Gordon Carleton).
Anecdotally, I had a small connection to fandom in the late 70s, mainly through fanzines, and almost everyone I encountered was female. I think I remember one male fanzine editor (Winston Howlett) and one male cartoonist (Gordon Carleton).
the only big difference I see is how easy and fast is to reply to someone.
Couldn't agree more.
Debates about ship speeds and how many decks there are are less important to me personally than The character interactions and stories are more important to me then debates about ship speeds or the dimensions of the Enterprise.
Saying that I respect that people have different interests.
What would you think the rate of male to female participants on this TOS forums?
All the Star Trek podcasts I've listened to are run by men.
But when it comes to fan fiction I'd very much doubt any men write it. But I'd suspect thats any fan fiction.
I don't spend enough time in the TOS forums to be sure, and one can't always go by the names. But I suspect the distribution is more even.
There are some male fanfic writers, to be sure (I'm married to one), but as far as I've ever been able to tell, fanfic-writing is, and always has been, dominated by women.
Living in Pittsburgh, how was I to know that? Again, I'm going by actually living through it - especially in the early 1970s. I fell off of the Trek world for a while once I hit college. By chance, the man I dated and married also liked Star Trek. He's more of a purist - doesn't like much of anything beyond the original series.
Sci-fi (and Star Trek) was more of a guy thing. I only knew one other female who liked sci-fi. But mine was a small world which only included my junior high and high school.
The communication was *not* where it was these days. At least in my mid-sized city. I'm sure it was different in NY and LA where there were organized efforts to have conventions, fan-run or otherwise.
I'm telling you the experience of a lone girl in the early 1970s. Sci-fi was for the gents, which I thought was stupid, as I really enjoyed it myself and I was definitely female.
I'd have loved to met others. Although I'm not a romantic and the fanzine romance stuff would have had me rolling my eyes.
I've lived my whole life in Cincinnati, and I never went to a Trek convention or got involved with any local fan club. But I read books like The Star Trek Concordance by uber-fan Bjo Trimble; Star Trek Lives!, written by three major female fans and showcasing the convention and fanfic worlds and their participants, who were heavily female; Star Trek: The New Voyages, an anthology of fanfic stories that were all written by women (as were most of the stories in the second volume); and the early Bantam and Pocket novels, which were written by a mix of established science fiction authors (mostly male) and authors who came from the fan world (mostly female).
I couldn't afford the Concordance until years later and while I had the Blish books and a few novels, I wasn't aware of Star Trek Lives until much later.
So my experience was limited due to lack of funds in the early days of my fandom experience.
I knew there were female fans (my direct experience) but I had no idea how many.
So my experience was limited due to lack of funds in the early days of my fandom experience.
I knew there were female fans (my direct experience) but I had no idea how many.
Each and every version of TOS is totally 100 percent canon with itself, though less than 100 percent consistent with itself.
As far as CBS is concerned, every version of tOS they produce is equally canon.
As far as the audience is concerned, every TOS production is almost totally based on the most final version of the script and thus with the plans of the creators of TOS. So except for ad-libs, uncorrected flugs, etc., the story in each version of any TOS episode is what the creators wished to include in the story they chose to make. . The differences that I have heard of are not story differences but mostly differences in the execution, such as redone special effects.and changed music.
As far as I known, the only exception to the story being identical in various versions is that the syndicated versions of TOS often have several minutes cut to make room for more commercials, thus elimiating various lines and scenes and changing the story a little.
As far as CBS is concerned, every version of tOS they produce is equally canon.
As far as the audience is concerned, every TOS production is almost totally based on the most final version of the script and thus with the plans of the creators of TOS. So except for ad-libs, uncorrected flugs, etc., the story in each version of any TOS episode is what the creators wished to include in the story they chose to make. . The differences that I have heard of are not story differences but mostly differences in the execution, such as redone special effects.and changed music.
As far as I known, the only exception to the story being identical in various versions is that the syndicated versions of TOS often have several minutes cut to make room for more commercials, thus elimiating various lines and scenes and changing the story a little.
I don't see that as changing the story, just presenting it incompletely.
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