Is Appreciating Star Trek Sad?

[JonA]

So here I am once more.

Sitting at work opposite a man with no neck and he is leading the monthly "lets take the p*** out of jon for being a star trek fan".
Guffaws all around the office with mucho pointing of fingers and sniggering.

I don't do conventions. I don't dress up. I don't draw attention to the fact I like trek. I mention it in passing occasionally. My only crime it seems is to be seen buying some ST videos in my local Tower store and reading the NG one day at lunch (won't make that mistake again - my colleagues got a good three days of fun out of that).

So I ask why do some of us get given such a hard time? Is it uncool to like Star Trek but ok to sing the praises of football/baseball/hockey/insert sport name here? I know what i'd rather watch on tv.

Am I alone or can anyone relate?

Oh, any tips on some devestating comment that will make them all shut up and leave me to my chosen hobby would be greatfully received.



Jon "stressed at work" A

[JonA]

Sorry can a mod bump this over to Star trek chat. I posted this on the wrong bored.

Thats how stressed I am.

[CorpBoy]

Doesn't sound like a place I'd like to work. Most of my collegues are at least aware of my Trek (and LOTR) fascinations, but I luckily don't get hassled for it.

Oh, and it's perfectly normal to appreciate Trek.

[Dr. Jonas Bashir]

Obviously, like anything, it depends on the degree of your appreciation. You may like football (or soccer) and watch every match on Sundays, or have a fanatical treatment of the thing, and kill someone from the other team.

Like Soylent Cola, it varies from person to person.

[Owen E Oulton]

No, liking Trek isn't uncool, what's uncool is being a flaming sphincter so insecure that one has to belittle others in public to boost one's own self-image.

I don't know where you work, but if this happens on a regular basis, you have a harrassment suit just waiting to be begun. Talk to your supervisor or Human Resources manager. Harrassment, no matter how trivial the excuse used by the bully, is no laughing matter, and your supervisor should be able to help you.

[C5]

You know, as someone living in France, the country where Star Trek is "the stupidly kitsh moronic american series with the pointy eared guy only a lifeless nerd would like and have you seen my cool lightsaber mockup ?", that sort of reaction doesn't surprise me much...

I have yet to understand why Star Trek is so easily associated with geeks.
Maybe it's the same thing than with roleplayers, after all : once people have heard from a friend of the sister of a guy whose cousin met a bloke at the bar who had met for sure someone who had read in the newspaper that a roleplayer went mad and suicided himself/killed someone, they decide that every roleplayer is a dangerous psycho; likewise, maybe they heard about a fan who dressed in uniform to come at work and thus decided that every fan was a dangerous dork who worships his Captain Kirk lifesize doll and is sure that Leonard Nimoy is actually Spock in disguise.
Or maybe it's just that Star Trek is a sci fi series that carries a message of peace, understanding, exploration and betterment of mankind, and that such a positive utopia is now soooo uncool and lame. I mean, it must be much better to love a series or movie about cops who kill muggers, or aliens who kill witnesses, or fighters who kill computer programms, or what have you that is violent, desperate, and glorifying the current barbaric human nature.

Sorry, rant over.

As for your co workers, here's a little trick I usually play on people who gather to make fun of something I do, but I don't know if it could work (or if you'd like to do it) : enhance what they make fun about you. If you start behaving like a typical Star Trek geek, they could run short of silliness to make.
I of course can't garantee if it would work. Other than that, a huge blow in their head would be my current reaction

[Ramage]

Of late I have tried (and failed) to start two different Trek games. They failed mainly because my gamer-pool started rolling their eyes, making noises about how "silly" Trek is, about how it is "old fashioned" and too "clean".

Trek, sad to say, is a passing phenomenon. Due to overexposure, poor scripting, and the collective imagery of being a "Trekky", it is more the butt of jokes than anything else. Sure, there are people who like it (am I preaching to the choir here?), but in many way it has lost its shine.

Unlike DS9 and TNG, I don't know of anyone who is watching Enterprise except people who previously watched other Trek shows farily regularly, and not even a large percentage of those. Talking about Trek is less fashionable in most circles than talking about Star Wars (yes, even in spite of Episode I).

There is another aspect as well, even worse in many ways. I am, in many ways, a "casual Trekky". I have not seen every episode (got bored with TNG in about Season 5, saw only first 2 seasons of Voyager, only about 3 episodes of Enterprise). I haven't picked up any cast bios and I have read only a handful of the books. I have not even seen all the movies! I then find myself talking to other Trek fans only to find myself dissed for "not understanding Trek". Yes, because I don't have a certain bit of trivia at my fingertips fellow Trek fans have actually publicly lambasted me for my lack of knowledge! That can really frost a day for me.

I ran into a new gamer the other day. He talked to me for about an hour as my eyes sank lower and lower, telling me about every single character he had ever played. Finally I said, "Dude, you are geeking on me." "Huh?" "Look", I said, "hearing a little bit about a fun campaign you were in is good, but consider -- I was never in the campaign, I don't know the set-up, I don't know the people you were gaming with, and I haven't even used the system you were using! Catch a clue -- highlights, good; constant babbling, bad." We met another time, he calmed down, and now things are on an even keel. The same sort of situation goes on with many other types of games or interests -- it is far, far too easy to "go geek" on someone, to babble on about miniscule details that the other person has no interest in. I've heard this with people talking about bridge, the Greatful Dead, cars, and, of course, Star Trek.

In general public perception, sci fi is something you read when you are young. After a while, the common wisdom goes, you outgrow it, like comic books and Laura Ingels Wilder books. When someone admits to liking these things later in life, many people are "tolerant", but some are downright incredulous; it is the equivalent to them of saying you still wear diapers. Star Trek, due to its longevity, hits an extreme button that way -- "Isn't that just a show for teenage boys? Why don't you watch something grown up, like 24 or The Sopranos?"

So, the combination of uberfandom, faltering public perception, and overexposure has gone a long way towards tarnishing Trek's reputation. That's what we have to deal with. But there are still people who enjoy the shows and movies without going into overdrive. We seek each other out and keep the Trek vision of the universe going in our games.

It's what it's all about.

[qerlin]

Originally posted by JonA
So I ask why do some of us get given such a hard time? Is it uncool to like Star Trek but ok to sing the praises of football/baseball/hockey/insert sport name here? I know what i'd rather watch on tv...Oh, any tips on some devestating comment that will make them all shut up and leave me to my chosen hobby would be greatfully received.

Extreme fandom in all things: Tek, NASCAR, comic books, sport, dressing up in camo and using specops hand signals fro paintball -- it's all laughable and ludicrous, IMO. For some reason, stripping to your ckivvies and painting you team's name on your chest is fine, dressing up in a Kirk uniform (sans torn shoulder seam) isn't; I laugh at both groups.

As for what to say to them: I'd suggest a "belt up or I'll put a hammer through your skull" kinda response would work well. Of course, you live in England -- they'd probably fire you, call the bobbies, and you'd find yourself in all sorts of trouble for the crime of showing backbone.

The older I get, the more I think a lot of problems can be circumvented by the proper application of a fist. Forebearance only goes so far...

[Liz Not Beth]

This message has been removed on request by the
poster

[First of Two]

My cow-orkers know my policy on this, so I have no problems.

My policy?

Anyone making fun of my Star Trek thing will eat blazing thermonuclear death. Nothing they say or do will be safe from satire, scorn, innuendo, or abuse. I will heap it on, using all my vast stores of knowledge, experience, and capacity. There will be no survivors.

[Robbert Raets]

All I can say is Retaliate!! Find out what the bullies like, come up with some extremely funny and degrading comment about it and watch 'em shrink. And if you've got problems thinking about insults about something, just mail the subject matter to me. Good luck!

[Dan Gurden]

To be honest I must have been really lucky. I have never worked in a place were my addiction to Trek, or partaking in RPG's has ever been a problem...

In my personal experience the vast majority of people that I have workied with in Basingstoke, Birmingham, Farnborough, London, Solihull and Southampton are aware of the show, most watch and enjoy, and a very few are closet trekkies who are glad that they can 'open out' when I start up on trek...

If anyone has loudly put the show down, they simply are not worth your time. I am sure there were people that felt it was a case for amusement, but then I have a two pronged defence mechanism.

1 - I couldn't care less what someone else thought, its my life and if they want to devote a significant portion of theirs focusing on me, thats their business...

2 - I have a very sharp, dry wit, combined with a short temper. Anyone I find acting like a bully (at me or others) gets the sharp end and usually ends up looking unpleasantly foolish (I am taking steps to control this and stop it getting too bad after getting one of my bosses fired a couple of years back)...

Two completely contradictory personality traits that make it very difficult to attack my personality as its never clear which Dan is in at the time...

[Owen E Oulton]

Guys, retaliation is all well and good in a social situatiojn, or in the schoolyard, but bear in mind this is a work situation. The sort of retaliatory shenanigans you're all advocating are a major mistake. For one thing, this sort of bully is the type to either escalate, which can get really messy; or to make his own official complaint, and if you've retaliated you don't have a leg to stand on.

Don't play the idiot's game - go through channels, that's what they're for. Don't even warn him you're going to do so, although you should let him know that you are upset by his comments. Then, next time he starts, you've met all the requirements for making your case. Don't be afraid to name witnesses and others involved in the harrassment.

[Joe Dizzy]

"Is appreciating Star Trek sad?"

That depends entirely on which form of Star Trek you appreciate.



Judgmental Joe

[D.S.McBride]

Ladies and gents, I've got to get on board with Owen 100% here; as Michael Stivick said on All In the Family, "This -" smacks fist in palm, "- only gets you this back." Fist smacking in palm repeats.

It's a tall order, but exhibiting the kind of patience and forbearance that lesser intelligences are unable to comprehend is the only acceptable way to defuse these situations. Even a attempt to turn their argument on its head - "You guys ever consider how stupid it looks for a bunch of men and women to go around swatting a little white ball with clubs on unhealthily-short grass and paying for the privilege?" - will only engender confusion and further alienation. A simple smile, shrug, and, "It's something I enjoy doing in my spare time," works far better, in my opinion and experience, than trying to knock the grenade back into the other side's trench.