Do Trekkies tend to watch other sci fi?

[mr friendly guy]

The fact that fans of Enterprise are willing to raise money for the show to keep it going when there are better sci fi shows available, got me thinking.

What if the only sci fi show trekkies watch is star trek, and they don't like sci fi in general?

[Civil War Man]

What if the only sci fi show trekkies watch is star trek, and they don't like sci fi in general?

I believe you'd get the answer just by observing some of the super-rabid trekkies. The kind that go to work/school/whatever wearing starfleet uniforms or Klingon battlesuits, decorate their room (often parents' basement) to look like a starship, write fanscripts using themselves as a character (and incidentally have them save the Enterprise/Federation/universe), etc.

[Civil War Man]

While many of the rabid trekkies may be extremists, not all Trek fanatics are blind to ST's flaws and other show's greatness.

I wasn't trying to imply that they were. If it came off as such, then I misspoke.

There are a number of extremists already present, though, who think "Star Trek or nothing" (including real life), so studying them would be more than enough to answer the OP question.

[Robert Walper]

I used to watch alot of Trek, but as to other sci fi, I really don't watch much of it. I used to keep my eyes open for some other ones, like Quantum Leap and a few select others.

Nowadays, I just don't watch much TV period. Hell, Trek came on at 3pm here, I was gonna watch it, then flipped the tube off and went to bed. And it was good one.

[Spacebeard]

I've noticed that there are some (casual) fans of Star Trek who simply aren't into any other science fiction at all. Typically they'll be fans of the various morality play episodes of TOS, especially the ones which provided thinly-veiled commentary on contemporary issues, and they won't be fond of the movies or DS9's war arc, which were closer to other sci-fi in that they were more interested in telling a story in a fictional universe for its own sake than as a metaphor for the real world.

Critic Farah Mendlesohn has suggested that some people are simply unable to appreciate most SF because they insist on seeing any fiction that doesn't take place in our world as an allegory. Personally, I think that she's right and that Star Trek at the height of its popularity, when much of it was allegory, attracted many people who aren't interested in other SF.

Of course, I don't think these are the people who are donating money to keep Enterprise on the air, but I do think that TOS and TNG certainly produced some Trek fans who wouldn't touch anything else with a ten-foot pole.

[SCVN 2812]

At the height of my rabidness I considered Star Trek superior to all other sci-fis but still very much enjoyed Babylon 5, Star Wars, Space: Above and Beyond ect.

My SG-1 fandom came after my obsession waned.

[RedImperator]

There are three kinds of Trek fans:

1. General sci-fi fans who happen to like Trek. I count myself among them, and I imagine a lot of other board members do too. Even people we think of as hardcore Trekkies, like Darkstar, can fall into this category.

2. Non-sci-fi fans who happen to make an exception for Trek for whatever reason. Most of these, I've found, stick to TOS, probably because the characters and writing are generally better and the technobabble is at a minimum. My mom, who watched the show's first run as a kid, is one of these.

3. Hardcore Trekkies who watch Trek for the sci-fi, but hold other media scifi or all other scifi in general in contempt. These people are lunatics.

[brianeyci]

I have to admit, I am not a hardcore sci-fi fan. My sci-fi experience comes from casually watching the sci-fi channel. The only reason TNG was my first completed sci-fi series was because right at 4:00 PM, after school, it happened to be the show on television.

That given, I never worshipped TNG and was never rabid, although I never objectively analyzed Trek until much later (and when I did, I found it to be lacking and my worship of Picard to be unfounded). Fortunately when I was a kid dad got me a set of the TOS movies (after he found out I was watching TNG a lot), and after I watched them I went back and watched TOS reruns and was astounded by the better scripts. If anything, I worshipped Babylon Five. I found Star Wars far later when I was a teenager, and only watched the made-for-television versions. So although I like sci-fi, I would be in category 2 because there is far more sci-fi than what is consumed on television by the masses. It depends on what you call a "fan".

Brian

[2000AD]

I watch all sorts of sci fi. Star Wars, Stargate, X-files, Outer Limits, etc.

The only problem i have is that most of it gets shown on sky/cable and since i'm limited to the terrestrial channels then i miss it.

[Robert Walper]

Rather ironic that in posting my viewpoint on Star Trek, I didn't mention my, honestly, love of Star Wars (the term "other sci fi just automatically made me dismiss it...lol). Hell, between it and Trek, I think Wars would win as my favorite.

[General Zod]

i used to be what one could consider a near rabid trekkie (as in watching trek whenever possible), but thanks to voyager my general interest in star trek rapidly dropped to near nil. i still like some of the older trek series (ds9, classic, some seasons of tng), but for the most part there's much better sci-fi out there. like sg-1, babylon 5, etc.

[Thag]

In my case, and maybe a few others, Trek might been seen as the equivalent of cheep college beer. You get hooked on that to start off, then move to higher-grade stuff when you realize what all is out there.

[Darth Lucifer]

*sigh*

Guilty as charged. Used to do the uniform thing, owned the Klingon Dictionary and "Power Klingon" on auio tape, and I even went public with a rubber foreskin on my head on a day not even remotely close to Halloween.

Looking back in retrospect, I watched other sci-fi only just to whet my appetite until the next episode of Trek came on. I was heavily biased and considered all Non-Trek Sci-fi to be crap. I even once thought B5 ripped off DS9.

I even used to susbscibe to the Dr. Evil school of Science (meaning I used to regurgitate crap about the LASERS from outrageous okona).

Over the years I've been reduced from a rabid trekkie to casual fan. I've even learned to dabble into and appreciate other Sci-fi also. Thank god.

[Laird]

The fact that fans of Enterprise are willing to raise money for the show to keep it going when there are better sci fi shows available, got me thinking.

What if the only sci fi show trekkies watch is star trek, and they don't like sci fi in general?

You're an idiot for thinking that, I watch star trek, SG-1, BSG, Farscape, and many other good scifi shows.

[mr friendly guy]

The fact that fans of Enterprise are willing to raise money for the show to keep it going when there are better sci fi shows available, got me thinking.

What if the only sci fi show trekkies watch is star trek, and they don't like sci fi in general?

You're an idiot for thinking that, I watch star trek, SG-1, BSG, Farscape, and many other good scifi shows.

I suppose that would depend if you consider yourself a general sci fi fan, or a trekkie and how many trekkies are the rabid variety.

[Stark]

Most, if not all, of the people I know who watched ENT watched no other scifi. Same with VOY - they people I knew watching them were regular morons, not scifi morons.

[Spacebeard]

Like I mentioned a few posts up, I think that the reason the "category 2" Trek fans don't indulge in SF is because they can't suspend their disbelief for fantasies unless they are seen as metaphors for the real world. In my experience, there are quite a few people whose only taste in fantastical fiction is Star Trek (TOS, often TNG also), the Twilight Zone, and the Outer Limits. Every Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episode, of course, is pretty much a morality play of some sort using some alternate universe or impossible supernatural occurence as a metaphor for a real-world concept like greed or prejudice. I think this type of fan sees Star Trek as the exact same thing. For them, warp drive and transporters are no more or less believable or understandable than ghosts and dream realms. They accept them as vehicles for social commentary, but they can't believe in them as part of a world with understandable rules.

As for the mental patients who would try to self-finance Enterprise, I would speculate that some of them probably enjoy other SF, but that Star Trek has some special hold over them. In the minds of some rabid Trekkies, Star Trek is our ideal future, while other SF is just entertaining fiction. See how many Trekkies take flip-top cellphones as proof that Star Trek has "predicted" the course of technological development, and also claim that Trek "inspired" the moon mission and the space shuttle.

As an aside, in my personal case I've never seen any of the non-Trek SF TV shows mentioned in this thread. My SF fix comes almost entirely from books (I generally read one SF book every week or two) and movies. Apart from Star Trek, the only American television SF I've seen is Firefly.

[Bellator]

when I was a big ST fan (DS9 days) I watched loads of other sci-fi (x-files, B5, etc). But Voyager killed most of my love for ST. Oddly enough, the the only sci-fi show I still follow is Enterprise. I watch SG or other shows when they happen to be on, but the only sci-fi show I actually follow is Ent (other non-sci-fi shows are Top Gear UK, Southpark and soon Family Guy and American Dad). Ent's season 4 isn't half bad though now that Beavis & Butthead have been pushed aside.

[HemlockGrey]

Eh. I like TOS, the TOS movies, a few scattered episodes of TNG and DS9...but that's it. I do know one lunatic back in the States who would often spout off on the superiority of Star Trek to all other forms of human entertainment, often in the middle of class, completely randomly.

[Firefox]

Even when I was a die-hard, SW is cheesy Trekkie, I watched other sci-fi. Space: Above and Beyond was a favorite of mine (curse those responsible for its cancellation), and there were a few films I liked (Alien series, The Last Starfighter, Stargate, etc.)

Since converting to SW, I'd say my level of sci-fi intake's about the same as before.

[The Dark]

I enjoy TOS and the TOS-era movies, most of TNG, a very little bit of VOY (it's definitely gone downhill over the years).

That said, I'm also a fan of the Macross sci-fi anime, the old BSG, some B5 (early seasons, I lost the plotline after a while), SW, S:AAB...I like most any science fiction, because it does always say something about the world in which we live.

[Lord Revan]

Well you call a trekkie in sense that I do like ST (I own all TNG DVDs plus all exect the last to of movie DVDs), but I like SW, B5, Firefly and other scifi (if they're good that is).

[Bob the Gunslinger]

I grew up with TOS and later on with TNG. Star Trek was just something I loved--but I also loved other science fiction, too. I grew up with Star Wars as much as with ST and probably couldn't have picked a favorite between them. I read a lot of books and saw a lot of anime and Robotech and SF movies like The Last Starfighter and Enemy Mine without ever comparing them to Trek. The first time I ever made such a comparison was with B5.

The first season of B5 bored me. I became one of those obnoxious fans who said it was ripping off DS9, that it was stupid and unoriginal. But by the time the second season came along, I was no longer watching DS9 regularly, and was pretty disillusioned with ST. B5 season 2 made me a believer and a hardcore fan of that show. To this day that is still my favorite series ever.

[Stofsk]

Ok here's the million dollar question: what makes Trekkies the rabid lunatics that they are? (I said Trekkies, NOT 'Star Trek fans' - there's a difference)

[Nick Lancaster]

And what about literary SF? Clarke? Asimov? Heinlein? Those guys?

Do they know Harlan Ellison as anything other than, 'the guy who wrote 'City on the Edge of Forever'?

Do Trek or rabid-Trek fans read Science Fiction, or is the horrid trend of mega bookstores an omen? (That is, shelves of syndicated novels for Trek, Mechwarrior, Xena, Buffy, B5, Halo ... but try to find something by one of the deans of literary SF, and you come up dry.)