Mirror Universe

Over a decade ago, back when all seven cast members of the original Star Trek series were still alive, and the series Enterprise had yet to arrive on the scene, a documentary film was made about Star Trek fans, called Trekkies. I'd been aware of it for a while, but was in no particular hurry to watch it. I've been to my share of Star Trek conventions both for business and pleasure, and I'm well aware of just how much a Trek fan can remind you that "fan" is short for fanatic. Still, I did throw it into my Netflix queue at some point, and sooner or later, everything will bubble to the top.

It's an interesting documentary to watch. It remains carefully neutral, not really positing an opinion or viewpoint of its own. It simply presents a 90-minute procession of Trek fans expressing their love for the franchise in a wide variety of ways. In maintaining such a blank slate approach, the film essentially holds a mirror up at its audience; whether you're a Star Trek fan yourself (and to whatever degree you are one, if you are), I think your reaction to this film would differ very much accordingly.

I myself have had a very interesting journey as a Star Trek fan, and so my reaction to the film felt complicated. I began when I was younger as an ever more enthusiastic lover of the original series and The Next Generation, and then Deep Space Nine. I never reached a point where I wanted to dress up in costume at a convention, but I certainly had a good collection of Trek memorabilia going -- loaded with items of little real value or use.

Then I went to work at Decipher, making the Star Trek CCG. Watching Star Trek was no longer a recreational activity for me. And this coincided roughly with the Voyager and Enterprise era of Trek, a period where I think we can all objectively agree that the quality of the franchise plummeted. I would say this didn't actually diminish my love of Trek, but it certainly transformed it.

I never would look down on a fellow Star Trek fan who chose to express his passion in a more extreme way than I. For one, we're geeky brethren in a world that largely looks down on us. We should have each others' back, not stab it. Not to mention that these kinds of people paid my salary for over five years. And yet my own love of Star Trek I basically put it in a drawer, like a photo album that could conceivably be brought out to look at fondly on occasion -- but which never actually is. I haven't actually watched an episode of any Star Trek series in any context since I was laid off from that job more than six years ago.

Ummm... I was talking about a movie here at one point, wasn't I? My point being that watching this documentary, confronted with some really enthusiastic fans doing some fairly outrageous things, I didn't look down on them -- but I did think to myself, "man, if I was ever anywhere close to that point, that just feels way, way past me now." So it was a vaguely melancholy experience, which I would imagine very few other viewers of the film would have.

The host of the documentary is Denise Crosby, the actress who played Tasha Yar on The Next Generation. Her own Trek journey is an interesting one too. After fighting to make it on the show, she asked to leave before the first season was even completed. At the time, she was thinking only of her unfulfilled needs as an actress; she was clearly not thinking about how her departure might well feel like a slap in the face to fans and fandom. And so I think this documentary for her was an olive branch (much like her later return to the series as an occasional guest star). "No, really, I do like Star Trek and especially Star Trek fans." And yet you do feel her occasionally stifling a reaction to her interview subjects -- for example, to the woman with a borderline stalker obsession with Brent Spiner.

The only real point the film makes is one I wholeheartedly agree with: liking something like Star Trek should be no less socially accepted than liking something like a professional sports team. Beyond that, the movie is just a nice bit of confection that's easy to watch, if not an excellent piece of filmmaking. I grade it a B. Your mileage will probably vary, based on your own relationship with Star Trek.