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No franchise has gone through a more severe stress test than "Star Trek" does this weekend. Hollywood studios have reinvented many a TV or movie franchise, but never one with a continuous four-decade history and a body of lore as loaded with characters, incidents, parables and interpretations as the Old and New Testaments. At the same time, few movie or TV series with a solid fan base have been in as much need of new blood and rethinking. This "Star Trek" movie is actually Star Trek XI. Does anyone remember the name of Star Trek X?
Blair Learn, a veteran point man for the Baltimore-based sci-fi convention, Farpoint, says "there's been a half-joke going around for years that 'Trekkies will buy anything if you put the words Star Trek on it.' And it's true that there will always be people willing to give the franchise 'one more chance.' But eventually, you get to the point where there've been too many disappointments, not enough people will give that 'one more chance' and the show will die."
Learn feared that the new movie would throw 43 years of "Star Trek" lore "out the window" without "telling a compelling story to keep me interested." But on the eve of seeing it himself, he said he was "cautiously optimistic. I know a few die-hard fans of the original series who were disappointed. But I've also talked to several people who enjoyed the movie and have found themselves with a renewed interest in the entire series."
Says Inge Heyer, science and literary coordinator for another Baltimore-based sci-fi convention, Shore Leave, "I think a reboot is good for any system, it takes care of stale processes." An astronomer at the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hilo, Hawaii, she says she saw the new "Star Trek" at its Berlin premiere on April 16, and "was very impressed ... the story here is definitely intriguing, and definitely Trek."
That bodes well for the Trekker or Trekkie response to the movie, which brings new faces to the characters of Kirk and Spock as well as innovative slants to their chemistry and psychology. Heyer, a Trekker since 1972, says the new movie stays true to the essential vision of Trek: "a window into a world that could be. This world, the future, is what we make of it, and as the crew ably demonstrated, depends on hard study, courage, and an open mind. ... And that is why I am an astronomer today."
Will new fans embrace that message? Generally, Heyer feels, "Fandom used to be a very much participatory culture, you joined a group or club to be able to share your creative activities: writing, drawing, costuming, etc. Nowadays, the younger fans seem to be more of a consumer culture."
But Heyer says that's not the case at Shore Leave, and Learn notes that, as fan-run conventions, both Farpoint and Shore Leave maintain an emphasis "on fan-produced materials." Farpoint features a fan-made "radio-play and programming tracks focusing on fan produced-movies and podcasts as well as discussions covering current shows, and real world science (the latter includes speakers who work at NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute)."
As the webmaster and sometime-chair of Shore Leave, Learn projects a balance for its July 2009 edition between fan-produced works and science panels and celebrity guests. The latter include Rachel Luttrell (Teyla Emmagan from "Stargate Atlantis") and Robert Picardo (Richard Woolsey on "Stargate SG-1" and "Stargate Atlantis" as well as the Holographic Doctor on "Star Trek: Voyager").
Heyer says, "Science fiction fans are among the most liberal and accepting folks on the planet, so they tend do be inclusive." And the loyalty of fans makes a title like "Star Trek: The Next Generation" seem outmoded: "At our convention we now have fans in the fourth generation."
The new "Star Trek" may just pull off the trick of attracting new audiences and keeping the loyalists coming.
Blair Learn, a veteran point man for the Baltimore-based sci-fi convention, Farpoint, says "there's been a half-joke going around for years that 'Trekkies will buy anything if you put the words Star Trek on it.' And it's true that there will always be people willing to give the franchise 'one more chance.' But eventually, you get to the point where there've been too many disappointments, not enough people will give that 'one more chance' and the show will die."
Learn feared that the new movie would throw 43 years of "Star Trek" lore "out the window" without "telling a compelling story to keep me interested." But on the eve of seeing it himself, he said he was "cautiously optimistic. I know a few die-hard fans of the original series who were disappointed. But I've also talked to several people who enjoyed the movie and have found themselves with a renewed interest in the entire series."
Says Inge Heyer, science and literary coordinator for another Baltimore-based sci-fi convention, Shore Leave, "I think a reboot is good for any system, it takes care of stale processes." An astronomer at the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hilo, Hawaii, she says she saw the new "Star Trek" at its Berlin premiere on April 16, and "was very impressed ... the story here is definitely intriguing, and definitely Trek."
That bodes well for the Trekker or Trekkie response to the movie, which brings new faces to the characters of Kirk and Spock as well as innovative slants to their chemistry and psychology. Heyer, a Trekker since 1972, says the new movie stays true to the essential vision of Trek: "a window into a world that could be. This world, the future, is what we make of it, and as the crew ably demonstrated, depends on hard study, courage, and an open mind. ... And that is why I am an astronomer today."
Will new fans embrace that message? Generally, Heyer feels, "Fandom used to be a very much participatory culture, you joined a group or club to be able to share your creative activities: writing, drawing, costuming, etc. Nowadays, the younger fans seem to be more of a consumer culture."
But Heyer says that's not the case at Shore Leave, and Learn notes that, as fan-run conventions, both Farpoint and Shore Leave maintain an emphasis "on fan-produced materials." Farpoint features a fan-made "radio-play and programming tracks focusing on fan produced-movies and podcasts as well as discussions covering current shows, and real world science (the latter includes speakers who work at NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute)."
As the webmaster and sometime-chair of Shore Leave, Learn projects a balance for its July 2009 edition between fan-produced works and science panels and celebrity guests. The latter include Rachel Luttrell (Teyla Emmagan from "Stargate Atlantis") and Robert Picardo (Richard Woolsey on "Stargate SG-1" and "Stargate Atlantis" as well as the Holographic Doctor on "Star Trek: Voyager").
Heyer says, "Science fiction fans are among the most liberal and accepting folks on the planet, so they tend do be inclusive." And the loyalty of fans makes a title like "Star Trek: The Next Generation" seem outmoded: "At our convention we now have fans in the fourth generation."
The new "Star Trek" may just pull off the trick of attracting new audiences and keeping the loyalists coming.
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