Regarding Star Trek wank...

[zinnith]

I do not follow it, I do not go looking for it. I just read fandom_wank when bored at work.

So, can someone explain how this goes? This is what I have found out:
- Having seen TOS prior to the reboot makes me better than those who haven't.
- However, since I had to watch the reruns (due to not actually being born in the sixties) I'm a n00b trekkie and should shut my mouth.
- Equal liking for TOS and the reboot puts me somewhere in between those who prefer TOS (apparently WIN) and those who prefer the movie (apparently FAIL).
- Writing fic for the reboot is inferior to writing fic for TOS.
- Fangirls are terrible creatures and should DIAF.

Umm... am I a bad person for actually preferring reboot fandom? 'Cause I didn't encounter wank until I started wondering where all the cool old-school trekkies were hanging out. And boy do they have grudges!

Comments

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

Well, I try to think of it this way. Imagine, if you will, that *next year* they produce a reboot of SGA. That they find some (even) hot(ter) actors in their late twenties to play the parts, and make it edgier and take it to the big screen and give it a big budget and all the special effects and it is a HUGE hit.

There would be an enormous amount of outrage among 'veteran' (Brad Wright's words, not mine) fans over how insulting this is to the original production, the show, the cast, the crew. We'd bitch and moan about how there had to be something *pure gold* about the original set of actors and their chemistry together and how we came to love them despite all the plotholes and ridiculous scenarios that the writers came up with. We'd be pissed that other people liked the reboot better. Hmmmm, all this sound a tad familiar? :-)

Now multiple this by 40+ years. TOS fans were some of the first true sci-fi fanatics (other than Dr. Who fans, but then that show has been *on* for 30 years...)that kept a fandom alive and even saw it come back again and again. I realized last night it's been 20 years since Next Gen was on. Twenty *years*. I think for some Star Trek fans, TOS was *last year*, if you know what I mean.

I watched TOS when I was a kid (in fact, I found the episode Arena, where Kirk fights the captain of the Gorn ship on the deserted planet and he has to make a canon out of diamonds and saltpeter, so frightening as a child, I turned the TV off and made up my own ending. I was 6 at the time :-). I don't think that makes me somehow superior--just f-----g old. I think if you watched and loved the characters at whatever age you were when you first met them, then you qualify as a fan.

But for Brad Wright's information, I think it does take a period of 40 years to have a successful reboot. Why do I think SGU will go the way of the series Enterprise? :-)

Ah, I don't think I could read fandom_wank. I think it would raise by BP, and you know how dangerous that can be for the elderly. :-)

BTW: I LOVED the reboot. I've seen it three times already and can't wait for the DVD. :-)

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

A reboot of SGA, you say? Perish the thought! We must smite them at once! ;) Well, jokes aside, I do get where they're coming from. I've promised myself to give SGU a fair chance, but I doubt I'll love it like I love Atlantis. And it was probably the same fans the hardcore SG-1 fans when SGA was launched (once again I'm a little too young to have been one of them - SG-1 was fun but I only managed to catch and ep here and there, I never got into it like I did with SGA).

What annoys me is this tendency to divide people into 'good' and 'bad' fans, and that being an old-school trekkie somehow makes you better than the new fans. I mean, if the movie makes at least one teenager, who got into ST fandom through the cool and the pretty, discover and fall in love with TOS, shouldn't that be a good thing? No, instead there's all this complaining about how they're not real fans, because they weren't there from the beginning. To go back to the Stargate parallel, even if I turn out to hate SGU, I certainly won't see myself as a better fan than those who like it - it just makes me a fan with different priorities. (Okay, maybe I'll judge them a little, but very quietly...) Some of the old-schoolers makes me feel like a Star Trek baby and I've been a fan for fourteen years - I don't even want to know what they'll do to the fans who are only now discovering the awesomeness of TOS.

I get that a lot of new!Trekkies are in it for the pretty, and well, fangirls can be a little bit scary and, especially the younger ones. Also, from what I've gathered, a lot of the wankers seem to be guys who run around flailing and screaming 'Help, there are teenage girls in our fandom! What will happen to our manly manliness?!' I just live in the beautiful illusion that fans of the same franchise should be able to get along. *single tear of emo-ness*

And now I will shut up before I raise my blood pressure ;) I must say though, that reboot fandom has turned out to be one of the nicest and most accepting new fandoms I've ever encountered. I expected a lot of glares for shipping Kirk/McCoy instead of Kirk/Spock, and instead I was welcomed with open arms. Or maybe I just picked the right comms and there's tons of wank going on somewhere else...

I read fandom_wank and fandomsecrets mostly for the lols :D

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

OMG, what a concept--a welcoming fandom! I might have to go check that out myself! :-)

Okay, wait, that sounded snarky. I guess what I should have said is that I've found most fandoms to be very welcoming, except that I've always been part of the majority, so it always took me by surprise whenever I encountered the less-than-welcoming-because-you-follow-the-wrong-concepts mentality.

Oh dear, the fangirls threaten the manliness of the old time fans. I think I need to lay my head down and laugh quietly now.

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Heh, personally I found SGA fandom very intimidating at first... I lurked for a year before I had the guts to post fic (which probably says more about me as a person than about the fandom...) and Supernatural still scares me.

It was absolutely not my intention to diss classic Trek fandom as a whole - there are just (aren't there always?) certain fans who can't seem to behave like human beings.

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

No, no, I knew that. I was just pointing out that there was at least one old geezer that *adored* the reboot and I really have been a ST fan from waaaaaaay back.

[zinfic.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know you do, 'cause you're awesome that way! *squishes*

[sgamadison.livejournal.com]

*grin*