1. Who are you? What are you looking for in this community?
Because your community description says "Star Trek, old school style." I'm always on the lookout for fans who want to hang out to talk about ST:TOS--my first fannish love.
2. How long have you been a Star Trek fan? How did you first become one? How would you describe your previous involvement with the fandom?
I have been a fan since the series began, drawn to it because I already was a science fiction fan (and one *yearning* for something better than the likes of "Lost in Space"). When ST first aired, my household, as was common at the time, had only one television. The decisions about what programs to watch were made by my father (also common), but fortunately my father liked the action-adventure elements of the series enough to watch it each week. Whew! :-)
I was not, at the time, involved with organized science fiction fandom, although my brother and I were aware of the write-in campaign to save ST from cancellation. And, although fans started publishing ST zines while the series was on the air, it wasn't until after the series was off the air that I hooked up with ST fandom. Pretty much all I had to survive on to that point was my well-worn copy of "The Making of Star Trek." My first ST fanzine was a non-fiction zine, the "Star Trek Concordance of People, Places, and Things," compiled by Dorothy Jones and edited by Bjo Trimble (the woman best known to ST fans as the person who spearheaded the Save Star Trek letter-writing campaign). Along with that I got information on the Star Trek Welcomittee and sent off for their directory, which provided information on zines, newsletters, clubs, conventions, and all things Star Trek fandom. I started buying fiction zines and never looked back.
I am now in my 37th year of fanac, and I went to my first ST con 34 years ago. I added Internet fandom to the mix a dozen years ago. I've always been pretty much a "rank and file fan" (consuming, reading). My involvement has been through fanzines and fan fiction, cons, letterzines/discussion lists/LJ discussions, and so on. Over the years I've helped more active fans with production of their zines (editing, typing, collating, schlepping artwork to the printer, etc.) I LoC (review, comment) in various forums from time to time. All of my oldest and closest friends--people I've know for 30+, 25+ years--I met in fandom. (On a side note, as ST fandom expanded into media fandom, my fan activities expanded right along with it, taking me into some 3-4 dozen different fandoms in the last almost-four decades.)
3. What do you consider part of your personal canon? What's your personal fanon? Technically, canon is anything that was aired. Personally, I accept ST:TOS and ST:TAS, as well as some of the information provided in "canon-related" sources like "The Making of Star Trek," various interviews, etc. Since I was well-entrenched in ST fandom (and the world of fanzines) before the ST:TOS movies began, I don't feel as connected to them, canon-wise.
I watched ST:TNG regularly until the third season, after which I was it only sporadically. I bailed on ST:DS9 even faster, again seeing it only occasionally afterward. Of "Voyager" and "Enterprise" I saw only a few episodes.
4. For you, what is the most essential thing about Star Trek that makes it Star Trek to you?
People. Ideas. Ideals. The characters, the ideals they promoted and the relationships they held dear. Caring and sharing and putting yourself on the line for a higher principle or for a friend (even the idea that putting yourself on the line for a friend *is* a higher principle). The idea of peaceful exploration and rendering aid instead of exploitation and greed.
That kind of stuff.
5. If you could rec us only one book/episode/comic/movie, which would it be? I've got forty years of this rolling around in my head, and you want me to come up with *one* thing? Not. Possible. :-)
6. Link us to a fic, website, discussion post, or community - yours, or someone else's - that we should all check out. Well, in keeping with "old school," here's a link to 1001 Trek Tales. http://www.trektales.com/
"This site is dedicated to Star Trek: The Original Series and the seven movies featuring the original cast. Its primary purpose is to preserve fan fiction from classic ST fanzines of the last thirty years, to encourage the creation of new fan fiction set in the TOS timeframe, and to serve as a contact point for fans of the entire Star Trek universe."
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-06-28 11:13 pm (UTC)Because your community description says "Star Trek, old school style." I'm always on the lookout for fans who want to hang out to talk about ST:TOS--my first fannish love.
2. How long have you been a Star Trek fan? How did you first become one? How would you describe your previous involvement with the fandom?
I have been a fan since the series began, drawn to it because I already was a science fiction fan (and one *yearning* for something better than the likes of "Lost in Space"). When ST first aired, my household, as was common at the time, had only one television. The decisions about what programs to watch were made by my father (also common), but fortunately my father liked the action-adventure elements of the series enough to watch it each week. Whew! :-)
I was not, at the time, involved with organized science fiction fandom, although my brother and I were aware of the write-in campaign to save ST from cancellation. And, although fans started publishing ST zines while the series was on the air, it wasn't until after the series was off the air that I hooked up with ST fandom. Pretty much all I had to survive on to that point was my well-worn copy of "The Making of Star Trek." My first ST fanzine was a non-fiction zine, the "Star Trek Concordance of People, Places, and Things," compiled by Dorothy Jones and edited by Bjo Trimble (the woman best known to ST fans as the person who spearheaded the Save Star Trek letter-writing campaign). Along with that I got information on the Star Trek Welcomittee and sent off for their directory, which provided information on zines, newsletters, clubs, conventions, and all things Star Trek fandom. I started buying fiction zines and never looked back.
I am now in my 37th year of fanac, and I went to my first ST con 34 years ago. I added Internet fandom to the mix a dozen years ago. I've always been pretty much a "rank and file fan" (consuming, reading). My involvement has been through fanzines and fan fiction, cons, letterzines/discussion lists/LJ discussions, and so on. Over the years I've helped more active fans with production of their zines (editing, typing, collating, schlepping artwork to the printer, etc.) I LoC (review, comment) in various forums from time to time. All of my oldest and closest friends--people I've know for 30+, 25+ years--I met in fandom. (On a side note, as ST fandom expanded into media fandom, my fan activities expanded right along with it, taking me into some 3-4 dozen different fandoms in the last almost-four decades.)
3. What do you consider part of your personal canon? What's your personal fanon?
Technically, canon is anything that was aired. Personally, I accept ST:TOS and ST:TAS, as well as some of the information provided in "canon-related" sources like "The Making of Star Trek," various interviews, etc. Since I was well-entrenched in ST fandom (and the world of fanzines) before the ST:TOS movies began, I don't feel as connected to them, canon-wise.
I watched ST:TNG regularly until the third season, after which I was it only sporadically. I bailed on ST:DS9 even faster, again seeing it only occasionally afterward. Of "Voyager" and "Enterprise" I saw only a few episodes.
4. For you, what is the most essential thing about Star Trek that makes it Star Trek to you?
People. Ideas. Ideals. The characters, the ideals they promoted and the relationships they held dear. Caring and sharing and putting yourself on the line for a higher principle or for a friend (even the idea that putting yourself on the line for a friend *is* a higher principle). The idea of peaceful exploration and rendering aid instead of exploitation and greed.
That kind of stuff.
5. If you could rec us only one book/episode/comic/movie, which would it be?
I've got forty years of this rolling around in my head, and you want me to come up with *one* thing? Not. Possible. :-)
6. Link us to a fic, website, discussion post, or community - yours, or someone else's - that we should all check out.
Well, in keeping with "old school," here's a link to 1001 Trek Tales. http://www.trektales.com/
"This site is dedicated to Star Trek: The Original Series and the seven movies featuring the original cast. Its primary purpose is to preserve fan fiction from classic ST fanzines of the last thirty years, to encourage the creation of new fan fiction set in the TOS timeframe, and to serve as a contact point for fans of the entire Star Trek universe."