Post #453219 by Cammo on Mon, May 11, 2009 6:31 PM

Star Trek fans go way back to the show’s original days. A huge fan campaign (organized behind the scenes by Roddenberry) kept the show alive for its final season, and eventually constructed a national event, a fan meeting, a convention, in New York.

Most of these first fans were classic Sci-Fi buffs, who watched the show because their favorite writers were doing the scripts.

Eventually, though, a growing number of very strange people became fans. They were on the fringes of society. They identified with Spock, the half-human alien. Some of them were under prescription medications, which in the 1970’s were pretty strong stuff. Few had children.

And the strange part is, the new fans didn’t want to discuss the writers, directors or extra careers of the principal actors. In fact, they didn’t want to acknowledge that the shows were written at all. They sort of wanted to believe that the shows were real glimpses of the future. They mostly dressed up in later versions of the show, not the 1966 costumes. And acting loud and obnoxious at the growing fan festivals was becoming their all consuming hobby. People had to treat them nicely for once in their lives, because they were part of the fan club.

They were … TREKKIES!