Trekkies (film)
From Fanlore
| Commentary | ||
|---|---|---|
| Title: | Trekkies | |
| Commentator: | Roger Nygard | |
| Date(s): | 1999, 2004 | |
| Medium: | film | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek | |
| External Links: | ||
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | ||
| ||
Trekkies is a set of two documentary films directed by Roger Nygard about Star Trek fandom. Both starred Denise Crosby and contain interviews with Star Trek fans.
The first was released in 1999. The 2004 sequel, Trekkies 2, travels throughout the world, mainly in Europe, to show fans of Star Trek from outside the United States. It also revisits memorable fans featured in the previous film.
On the cover of the first film package: "A hilarious look at the universe's most fervent fans" and "The biggest laugh generator since 'There's Something About Mary.'"
Judging from the reviews on Amazon, the reactions were mixed, and contain the usual mix of expected comments.
Reactions and Reviews About the First Film
On paper, it would read favorably about Star Trek fans. The actors, on the whole, say nice things about Star Trek fans: that they're intelligent, warm, friendly, and involved in the community. The fans themselves say repeatedly that they are active in community service, raise money for charity, and actively working for a better world. But oh, those pictures. Certainly wearing a costume is a harmless pasttime, but the camera focuses obsessively on the costumes—as if the fans are the costumes—and seldom shows fans wearing street clothes. (The host, Denise Crosby, and most of the actors and producers are in street clothes. The pictures say that the host and celebrities are "normal" but the fans are not.) At one point, the camera is focused on a group of fans dressed as Klingons walking down the street. The lead fan is talking about their charity-raising events, particularly an upcoming miniature golf fund-raising event, where they will play dressed as Klingons. The audience laughs—at them, not with them. The impression they get is from the pictures: "look at the geeks" rather than "how wonderful they're involved in the community and raising money for charity ... I saw a notice on alt.tv. star-trek.ds9 today promoting this film and giving quotes from reviews. More than one reviewer compared it to Something about Mary. I have not seen this film but understand that audiences found it incredibly funny because of a number of grotesque happenings. I am not surprised that those who are not Trek fans would come away with the same impression about this documentary, particularly from the six fans highlighted the most: (1) a teenage male who wears a First Contact uniform and has made up a computer animation of a space battle for the Star Trek script he wrote for his club to produce; (2) the woman who wore her uniform when she was under consideration for the Whitewater jury; (3) a Brent Spiner fan, who refers to herself as a "Spinerfemme"; (4) a family wtere the father, a dentist, has decorated his dental practice office using a Star Trek theme; (5) a man who wears a Star Trek II movie uniform and says he'd get his ears surgically pointed if he could afford it; and (6) a young man who makes technical gadgets resembling those on Star Trek. One could say (and I would say) that the teenager has a bright future as a computer animator, that the young man who"s a regular at Radio Shack has a future designing technological items with practical uses, and that the dentist has added an element of fun to his practice. One could say that the man who wears the Star Trek II movie uniform has a point that people that wear sports jerseys in public get no comment, but someone wearing an ST uniform in public is considered weird One could say that while the prospective juror presents herself in an atypical fashion, at base, her behavior is entirely harmless, and vastly preferable to activities such as gunrunning or drug dealing. But these thoughts are rarely, if ever, expressed in the film, overwhelmed by the "look at the geeks!" pictures...and derisively laughed at by the audience. The overall effect is that the Star Trek fans featured in Trekkies are presented as "typical" fans. Indeed, this is the impression one gets not only from this film, but also from most press coverage of Star Trek fans. It keeps average Star Trek fans from getting involved in any Star Trek project because they think that this is the sort of fan they will typically run into or that they will have to imitate such fans in order to participate in Star Trek fan activities (which is not the case at all, as fans who have made the connection find). The result is that there are only a handful of people in this film with whom the truly average Star Trek fan can identify: there's the practicing psychologist, the four friends who have reunions at Star Trek conventions, and the women radio talk show hosts... Those who are Star Trek fans will not find much to identify with, and those who aren't may not want to come just to "look at the geeks." ... It's rated PG-13, probably, I think, because it shows some erotic fan art (Tasha Yar making love to Data), and discusses K/S. Whether that will draw a larger or smaller audience than it would with another rating, I couldn't say." [1]
Reactions and Reviews About the Second Film
Jacqueline Lichtenberg talks in 2003 about being interviewed for this film:
The Trekkies2 crew went around the world to Trek conventions interviewing fans of the show. They wrote to me asking if I'd come and do an interview -- but I wasn't scheduled to be at any of the cons they were at when they would be there. So we negotiated and as it happened I was scheduled to be in LA on other business when they would be passing through on their way somewhere else. So they mobilized their unit into a truck and came to my hotel (not a convention in progress, just me there) to do the interview. We sat out on the patio with people gawking from inside the glass -- and did the interview -- over an hour. I saw in a chair and they used one stationary camera, and the producer asked questions and the sound guy did what sound guys do, and the camera man was pleased. And I talked and talked and talked -- I answered questions they way I'm answering them here -- only I had show-and-tell to point to. Now the whole film will be about an hour and it has hundreds of people in it. The DVD will contain much more material compiled from their interviews. I have no way of knowing at this point what I said that they'll excerpt. I kept asking them if they had enough or if they were getting what they wanted and they kept inventing new questions and being very pleased with the answers. Joan Winston is also one of those listed on their website... so she's going to be quoted too.[2]
References
- ↑ a review by Joan Marie Verba in the May 1999 issue of Multi-Species Medicine
- ↑ StarTrekFans.Net from a chat with Jacqueline Lichtenberg, 8 March 2003, accessed 9 May 2012
