My beloved Star Trek…how I miss you

Though I can’t say for sure, I am willing to bet that I’ve been a sci-fi geek from the start.  I’ve really loved anything having to do with fantasy, super-heroes, and of course sci-fi.  Today, there is shortage of movies, books, and TV shows and oddly enough this particular area of geekdom has become very mainstream.  No longer do you have to worry about being ridiculed or made fun of because you are entertained by a guy dressed all in black with a bat on his chest.  In some ways, I miss the exclusiveness of this club but that’s a subject for another time.

My first love was Star Trek.  Actually, one of my earliest memories in life (that I still remember quite vividly) is seeing Captain Kirk through a small window as a door swooshed open in the first ST movie.  What can I say, I was hooked.  As life continued, there were other loves but ST was always first and foremost.  I remember reading about warp theory and taking a keen interest in both the medical and engineering departments within Starfleet.  I’ve been a part of numerous fan clubs, attended the Academy, and played most every game to have come out (computer and paper).  The world called to me, it was a place that I wanted to live and and featured people that you could feel good to call a role-model.  When The Next Generation came out, I was geeked out and can remember making the effort and finding the time to make sure I caught the episode when it aired (long before any sort of net service that made this largely unnecessary.  Much of my earlier fan fiction was based in this universe and it felt very natural to be writing in it.

Sadly, the universe started to lose its way and I became less of a fan and more interested in other things.  Soon, being a Jedi Knight was more appealing than Chief Engineer aboard a starship.  I’m sure that part of it was me growing up and needing different things in my life but I think a big part of it was the franchise owners themselves.  They stopped caring about the fans and people that kept ST alive and were more worried about the bottom line.  No longer was it important for the movies to make money but they had to compete with the big budget blockbusters.  The solution, lets change the format…make it more into Star Wars and bring more fans aboard.  You know what, this worked.  The newer movies made more money, had a larger following, were definitely more popular.  Hell, I even enjoyed them.  However, this came at a cost…and ones that the powers that be either don’t see or don’t care about.  These fans are temporary, only good until the next big film or fad.  They will go see the next film…sooner or later and likely even enjoy it but they won’t dream about the world, wonder what it would be like to be there, strive to bring that world to the real one in his or her own daily lives.  No, they will talk about the movie for a bit and then move on.

This ridiculous lawsuit that is going on right now is a great example of this new way of thinking.  Oh now, a group of ‘unauthorized’ people are trying to profit from my hard-earned legal ownership of this franchise and I must work to protect those profits.  And you know what, they will win and likely should.  When it comes to who is legally right and who isn’t the fan films lose.  But beware of the spoils, you pursue this and the next time your franchise takes a dive those loyalist that kept you going before might not be around to do it again.  Interestingly, I think the people really hurt is the upcoming generation that loses out of having a place like the Federation to dream about and a group like Starfleet to drive thier imaginations to bold new worlds.

-Talk Laters…