Tag: star trek

J.J. Abrams is not making his Star Trek movie just for Trekkies.

”On the one hand, for people who love Star Trek, the fix that they will get will be really satisfying,” he says. ”For people who’ve never seen it or know it vaguely, I think they will enjoy it equally, because the movie does not require you to know anything about Star Trek. I would actually prefer [that] people don’t know the series, because I feel like they will come to it with an open mind.”

Good call, my man. Good call. Hardcore fandoms are the ultimate mixed blessing: Yes, we know all (or most) of the scary little details and just try and keep us away on opening night, but there’s also the arrogance that comes with only socializing among ourselves that often overwhelms fan chats and forums.

For Star Wars fans, for instance, it’s important to remember that most of the people you saw Revenge of the Sith in the theatre with probably don’t even know that TheForce.net exists, let alone that there are at least a dozen people there who will spend hours arguing over the physical features of a ship seen onscreen for five seconds. Or, for old-school Jaders, people who have spent hours arguing over the love life of a character who shares no significant screentime with any female not somehow related to him. (Not that I would know anything about that, nor have spent a good chunk of my junior year of high school doing so. Nope.)

Not that I would automatically discount all comments and complaints made on fan forums. It just pays to remember that the loud voices aren’t always the only ones out there, and that some things simply can’t be done away with. The key is striking a balance.