Tag Archives: fans

Toxic Fandom and What is “real” Star Trek?

star trekIf you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

After the controversial Star Trek Strange New Worlds musical episode and whatever latest mess actor Robert Beltran (who played Chakotay on “Star Trek: Voyager”) stepped in, the question once again comes up, “What is a true Star Trek fan?” We could just rephrase it as “What is real Star Trek?”

I’ll say right now that there’s no one right answer. However, fandom being what it is, every perspective in Star Trek fandom believes it has the one, only, and right answer to those questions.

For instance from Quora:

The five series; TOS, TNG, DS9. Voyager, Enterprise.. plus the first 10 movies.. are what I consider canon, because they are aligned with Gene Roddenberry’s vision of what Star Trek is supposed to be, which is the exploration and development of humanity and its borders, and the conflict that comes with it.

All those that violate this established canon, is not what I’d call “real Star Trek”.. and that includes all the Abrams films and ST Discovery. Now I’m not saying that they are not fine pieces or work.. I am just saying that it is not really Star Trek.

Then from reddit:

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I Wouldn’t Want to Belong to a Club that would “Uninvite” a Guest of Honor

groucho

Groucho Marx publicity photo.

“I wouldn’t want to belong to a club that would have me as a member” –Groucho Marx

This isn’t so much about Jason Sanford and the Baen Books forums saga as it is about its major consequence: Discon III “uninviting” Toni Weisskopf to WorldCon 2021.

Once again, Mike Glyer’s File 770 (he must be pleased about all the free publicity I’m giving him and his fanzine) provides the catalyst.

Item 1 in Pixel Scroll 2/19/21 Why, I Sweep My Scroll With A Geiger Counter Every Day, And Nary A Pixel! is DISCON III REACTIONS.

The most interesting response was the first one, from David Weber (makes me think of Jason Bourne’s original name “David Webb”) as posted on his Facebook page on February 19th and quoted by Glyer the same day:

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Jason Reitman and the new Ghostbusters: Respecting the Fans isn’t Misogynistic

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From the teaser/trailer to “Ghostbusters 3”

Apparently, the whole “Ghostbusters” thing, the next movie in the franchise scheduled to hit the theaters in 2020 isn’t over yet. In fact, the controversy seems to be just warming up.

As you may recall, a little over a month ago, I wrote about the upcoming sequel to be directed by Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman, director of the original 1984 film starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Sigourney Weaver.

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Screen capture from twitter

But the announcement that the 2020 film would be a direct sequel to the original, essentially bypassing the very badly received 2016 remake, made a few people angry, as if the younger Reitman’s vision was somehow a slight to that movie’s all-female cast in particular and feminism in general. In fact, actress Leslie Jones, who played Patty Tolan in the 2016 film, got on twitter to express her extreme displeasure (to put it mildly).

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Dabbling in Science Fiction Fandom

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Photo credit – Knoxville News – Science Fiction convention – place and date unknown

In recent comments on the File 770 SF/F news blog criticizing veteran SF writer Robert Silverberg over comments he made about author NK Jemisin’s Hugo Award acceptance speech last summer, one of the things mentioned is that Silverberg hasn’t read any SF stories written in the past ten years, like that’s a bad thing.

In comments I made on twitter last summer criticizing the objectivity of the Hugo Awards, one person accused me of not being “a fan,” as if being a fan were some sort of exalted and coveted position.

But as I continued to gather information about the Hugos and how one is nominated for an award, I realized that although the pool of voters each year is relatively small (I’d estimate anywhere between a few hundred and a few thousand), probably all of them are avid SF/F readers and viewers who consume tons and tons of the latest available works. I guess that’s what my critic meant when she said I wasn’t a fan.

But wait a minute. How much SF/F do I read?

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