Deja Trek?

Once again, there's hot gossip and brewing panic on the Star Trek BBSs of what a flop they expect/hope the next Star Trek film will be. Have I posted about this before? Talk about deja vu, 'cos it's back again.

Fans will claim, "This is one of the biggest problems with Trek today. The powers that be have no understanding of their own franchise or the audience that likes it. And they consistently try to work against the existing fan base." Etc.

Huh?

Many of these complainers are probably too young (or not born) to recall the huge block of antagonism to the changes Gene Roddenberry, Harold Livingston and Robert Wise made to ST for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (TMP). In the lead up to the film's premiere in 1979, fans complained about the Enterprise being remodelled, crested Klingons, new uniforms, the revamped bridge set, Kirk's promotion, Spock's rejection of his friends and all humanity to undergo Kohlinar, "the interloper" Will Decker, the focus on SPFX over character interplay, not enough Alexander Courage theme music, the changed transporter effects, Vulcan's orbiting planetoid (even though it had been seen in TAS), Ilia in Chekov's chair...

TMP got me into Star Trek, and it took me only days to find the local fanbase, but it took years to find more than five new ST friends who actually accepted TMP for what it tried to do. I felt quite alone in a fan club of hundreds.

ST II came along and most fans seemed to happily forget TMP altogether, but it's also had a grudging acceptance, by whoever's left in original fandom, as they look back with nostalgia and compare TMP to what came later. And ST newsletters in 1978 were filled with similar sentiments about TMP. And again, as they anticipated detesting the infiltator "Mary Sue" Saavik in ST II, who was being groomed to replace Nimoy. Not to mention the assumed Kirk replacement, David Marcus.

In their haste to hate the upcoming JJ Abrams' new film already, I assume that they do not care for "Lost" and the fresh take that series has given television drama in the midst of the reality show overkill.

Sometimes, they'll hold up Peter Jackson and his "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy as a franchise done right, but I disagree that that series has been uniformly accepted by the diehard LotR book fans. I sat next to a very dear friend of mine who gnashed her teeth all through "Fellowship" because Jackson dared to name a creature Lurtz. "Lurtz," she muttered. "Who's Lurtz?" She was almost inconsolable during the change of venues in "The Two Towers".

Mind you, she now has a new respect for the trilogy and has learned to appreciate the impossibility of filming Tolkien exactly as written.

(She was also the one who shouted at the screen after seeing the premiere of "Dune" in the 80s, "It doesn't rain for two more sequels, you idiots!")

Me? I can't wait for Abrams' Star Trek.

How I got into science fiction media

As a kid, I followed "Batman" on TV (so cool!), and vividly recall reading "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" in the 60s. At high school, we were expected to read "The Black Cloud" (by Fred Hoyle) and "The Hobbit" (Tolkien) as set novels. Then came two attempts to read "The Lord of the Rings". The introduction of colour TV in 1975 saw the return of "Star Trek: The Animated Series", as repeats during the innovative and new breakfast TV, plus a few selected "Star Trek" episodes on weekends.

At teachers college we were expected to read "Dune" (Frank Herbert) in our literature course, and produce an essay on ewater symbolism, but I didn't like the book much, and preferred that lousy motion picture they made, featuring Sting in bizarre silver underwear, and where it rained at the end (two books too early, I believe)!

Movie releases that swept me away in the 80s included "Superman: The Movie", "Barbarella" (which I saw at someone's Christmas party on 16 mm), "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and "Superman II", quickly followed by the first "V" mini-series on TV. "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" was a popular hit, and ensured that TOS repeats returned in prime time! Somehow I missed the "Star Wars" phenomenon until "The Empire Strikes Back"; the magazine "Starlog" became an essential monthly purchase.

From 1980, I had become deeply involved in "Star Trek" fandom, and began attending conventions, writing fan fiction and skits, publishing fanzines, making costumes, collecting rumours about new trek projects, and producing a regular column for the NSW club's newsletter. Since the 90s, as fan club activities and conventions became more splintered, I began using the Internet to satisfy my Trek yearnings. As a direct result of "Star Trek", I now read general science fiction novels by the likes of David Gerrold, Larry Niven, Vonda McIntyre, Peter David and others. I still buy and read all the licenced "Star Trek" novels and comics, and "Starlog".