Post #453639 by Cammo on Wed, May 13, 2009 12:05 PM

I mulled over the phone conversations while driving to the movie. There really seemed to be a universal hatred, at least a revulsion, of anything “Trekkie”. This wasn’t just a San Diego thing, a friend in Canada had been talking about it too. Trekkies had so muddied their own bathwater that it almost seemed planned, like a dog systematically pissing on fire hydrants to mark his territory.

Star Trek, to me, felt …. well ….pissed on.

Was that the point? Was it some sort of bizarre ownership thing, to make a club so repulsive that only diehard fans and ones who believed in the same hardcore principals could join? And then speak for and own the criticism of a creative property? To be so obnoxious that they clear the room of any reasonable competition?

Or were they just a bunch of dicks?

The documentary film “Trekkies” had been made in 1997. It introduced the whole world to the fan cult, and I think it was initially made as a fun comedy film about adults dressing up year-round in Halloween costumes. As the filming went on and more Trekkies were contacted and gave interviews, it fast turned into a black comedy. Some of these Trekkies were geniuses, some were professional people who used Star Trek to promote and enjoy their businesses. But some were very odd indeed; stalkers, slightly disturbed, and passionately involved in the underlying philosophy of Star Trek’s pacifist basis.

Which is ridiculous, of course.

Because the whole point of Roddenberry’s pilot film “The Cage” was to dramatize the idea that it is far better to have a hard but realistic view of your life than to enjoy a self-serving illusion. It’s simply better to enjoy being yourself than to pretend you’re something else.

So it was with dragging feet and a sinking heart that I actually made it to the 1:00 afternoon showing. At this point I had major doubts about the film and my ability to enjoy it at all. San Diego has two IMAX theaters that run commercial films. This was the best, the centerpiece of the whole multiplex, a new theater with even newer speakers that had been refurbished just days before, and it cost 16 clams 50 to get in.

So here was the first thing I saw:

Yes, an entire TABLE OF TREKKIES! They were sitting around selling Star Trek toys! At least that’s what it looked like; when I got closer I realized that they were just showing off their toys, which weren’t all that great to begin with. They look creepily-played-with, actually. I don’t think they realized how bizarre it was to be showing off your slightly beat up, yellowed-box set of Shatner and Nimoy dolls in front of a giant sign with different people playing the same characters.

Look at the picture - I wish I could make this stuff up.

Which makes you wonder – what will happen to the classic Trek collectible market when Billy Shatner isn’t seen as being Kirk anymore? Like, in other words, last weekend????

But the saddest guy at the table, the absolute lamest thing I've ever seen, (I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of it) was the guy at the end who was showing off his collection of STAR WARS toys! That's right, somehow he had snuck in and had one of those Darth Vader toy boxes that hinge open to hold leetle teeny Darth Vaders inside...

...he was SO proud of it.