Some Thoughts on Trekkies

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Title:	Some Thoughts on Trekkies
Creator:	Ruth Berman
Date(s):	1974
Medium:	print
Fandom:	Star Trek
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Some Thoughts on Trekkies is a 1974 essay by Ruth Berman.

It was printed in Trumpet #11, and is a response to complaints by science fiction fans about Star Trek fans.

The author identifies as a "Trekkie," ending the essay with "In short, when you call me a Trekkie, pardner, smile."

The Introduction

A great many people have been complaining about Trekkies -- so much so that I am coming to feel their complaints even more annoying than the most annoying of Trekkies. My objections to their objections, I find, go in stages.

Some Quotes Included

Berman includes some quotes by some BNFs about Star Trek fans:

• "A perfect example of exploitation by entrepreneurs" -- Harlan Ellison
• "Trekkies... have some strange -- and decidedly unusual -- ideas; they confuse morality with virginity." -- David Gerrold (this is a quote from The Awful Offal, though in that essay Gerrold spelled it "Trekkees."
• "Are there any pot-head Star Trek fans here? -- Al Schuster

Some Topics Discussed

• the battle between Star Trek and Science Fiction fans
• the word "Trekkie" is undefined, and appears to mean to non-fans "anyone who likes Star Trek" or for fans, "anyone who likes Star Trek more than I do"
• Berman specifically addresses David Gerrold and his disparaging views, as well as quoting his 1969 essay The Awful Offal
• Berman specifically addresses Harlan Ellison and his disparaging views, as well as quoting his
• Berman points out many hypocrisies and addresses the pecking order of fans

Excerpts from the Essay

What is so annoying about Trekkies? Trekkies yell and scream when Spock twitches an eyebrow they are unable to see any flaws in Star Trek, they talk about nothing else and pay no attention to anything outside the show and its (squeal shriek!) actors, they flood fanzines, art-shows, and costume balls with dull imitations of the show -- so, nu?

The noise is excessively irritating if one is in the same room with a group of them, but no one is obligated to talk to them or read their fanzines. Lack of egoboo has pretty much driven the imitations out the costume balls and art shows. The argument that day-in and day-out devotion to Star Trek (and Star Trek alone) displays a seriously stunted personality is, I think, correct, but I doubt that ridicule is an appropriated reaction, except from those who feel the lure of that kind of escapism enough to feel threatened by it.

... I am a Trekkie; many have called me one. In definition, I'm not so sure. Certainly, I do talk too much about that show -- but, as mentioned above, no one has to listen to me. I do not make noises when watching the show or the actors, I am well aware of the many serious flaws of the show, I have a sizeable number of other interests, and I restrict my Star Trek imitation stories to Star Trek fanzines where they need not bug hose who don't share the interest.

The first time I was called a Trekkie, my reaction was annoyance with those who had given Star Trek fans a bad name. But, on second thought, I found myself even more annoyed by the extravagance of the name-callers.

The complaint that Trekkies don't care about anything else has been advanced most fully by Harlan Ellison and David Gerrold, who argue that it is ridiculous for fans to idolize actors and not the men who created what the actors merely put into motion. It seems odd to me that they make this objection, because, in fact, Trekkies have given a great deal of attention to the "backstage" people -- one Nimoy fan club printed a long letter from Ellison on the subject , another wrote to authors like Gerrold and Bloch asking then about their writing. Fred Phillips, the make-up artist on the show, received a hundred or so letters of fan-mail (normally he receives a dozen or so).

Normally, no one pays any attention to who writes a television show. I don't recall that Ellison ever complained about a group of Man from U.N.C.L.E. fans who put on Thrush badges and went to see Robert Vaughn in "Hamlet" but never said anything when Ellison wrote an episode of U.N.C.L.E.

Trekkies should perhaps be praised for paying some attention to writers, instead of scolded for not paying more. And, at that, I am not so sure more attention should be paid. Is the writer who writes a single episode contributing more to the show than the actor who develops a character throughout every episode of the show? Besides, a fan may sometimes find himself praising a writer for someone else's work. The general theme and outline of The City on the Edge of Forever were Ellison's work, but, as he himself has pointed out, his text was so heavily re-written that most of the lines and many of the incidents were the work of others.

If all Star Trek fans are to be called Trekkies, then the term is merely descriptive and cannot -- or, rather should not -- be used as an insult. If it it is to be used as an insult -- and the sound of it is insulting -- those who use it should consider more carefully whom they oppose and why. As it stands, the use of the term Trekkie puts the speaker on par with those newspaper reporters who describe the propeller beanies and flying saucers taking over the town when those kooks who read that crazy Buck Rogers stuff hold a convention.