(Yes, I know this entry is three days late. I'm a terrible procrastinator, especially in the Internet world. :-( )
Last Friday, September 8, 2006, Star Trek fans all over the world celebrated the 40th anniversary of the premiere of the television show that started it all, the original Star Trek. Back in March, I wrote a short essay about my history as a Star Wars fan and what it means to me. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Star Trek, I'm going to write a similar essay focusing on Star Trek.
My Star Trek story actually starts from the same point as my Star Wars one - the "You Know You're A Star Wars Geek When..." list. It contains a couple of references to rivalry with and even violence against Star Trek fans. A lot of the other Star Wars-related humor I was reading online at that time treated Trekkies the same way. The end result was that I got it into my head at the age of ten that, because I liked Star Wars, I was forbidden from ever liking Star Trek.
Wow, was I ever wrong. One of the things I regret most as a sci-fi fan is that I had this prejudice and it kept me from getting into Star Trek sooner. I encourage anyone out there to never, ever let anything like that stop you from trying out something new.
I finally got into Star Trek during my 2002/2003 winter break. My dad was watching TNG on what was then still TNN, and I started watching too. In spite of how I felt toward Star Trek as a kid, I wasn't totally ignorant of what it was about, and I had realized by then that it was stupid to like one thing and dislike another just because "everyone else" did.
The scene that first caught my interest was the last ten minutes of "Hide and Q." The first full episode I remember seeing was "Tapestry," and that was when I really got hooked. I've been a big fan of Q since the beginning. He's become the recurring antagonist in my fanfiction series
The Daydream Dome Chronicles, which is set in the border dimension of Subreality, where all shows, characters, and fandoms meet.
Apart from the DDC, I haven't written any Star Trek fanfiction except for
this poem. This is because I've mostly grown past my fanfiction stage and am more interested in writing original works now. I am, however, planning to write a Star Trek one-shot at some point within the next year (I hope).
Throughout the second half of my junior year of high school and all of my senior year, I watched TNG on TV with my family almost every weeknight. I love the show because the characters are wonderful, well-defined, and well-acted, and the ways they interact and work together are a great pleasure to watch. My favorite characters of the main cast are Data and Picard. (I admit to having had a crush on the latter in the early days, but now I think I've outgrown that too. By the way, Picard/Crusher OTP! :-D )
In my senior year (2003-2004), I also watched Enterprise. I liked it (not as much as TNG, though), and I was wholeheartedly supportive of it because I was a fan of TNG. I continued to watch it the following year, its fourth year, and saw it get much, much better, creating interesting links to the other series and appealing better to the fans. I was very sorry to see the series end.
I got into Deep Space 9 somewhere along the way, too. I think it was in the summer of 2005. So far I've only seen most of the first two seasons, but I really want to see the entire series all the way through. I'm not quite as fond of the characters on DS9 as I am on TNG, but the storytelling is even better on DS9. (That's not just hearsay, either - I have seen "In the Pale Moonlight" and "Trials and Tribble-ations." Granted, I saw them out of order, but they were still awesome.)
I still have not been to a Star Trek convention, but I want to go to one as soon as it is financially and logistically feasible. The closest I have come was going to Star Trek: The Experience in July of 2005. That was incredibly, awesomely fun. It's total fantasy fulfillment for fans - you get to be inside the world of the show. I have a "live long and prosper" T-shirt that I wear all the time, and a picture of myself in the captain's chair (no, it's not posted online).
At the present, I'm not actively watching any Trek series, but I think of it often. I have a
really lazy Star Wars and Star Trek fansite, a few ideas for fanworks I want to do, and goals for attending conventions and buying series on DVD in the future. I'm happy to be the Star Trek fan I am. Happy Anniversary, Star Trek, and here's to whatever the future may bring!