GUEST POST: Larry Nemecek Warns of the Dangers of Being Too Passionate About STAR TREK

If you’ve been a Star Trek fan for any length of time, “Dr. Trek,” Larry Nemecek (Dr. NemeTrek?) needs no introduction. I’m going to give him one, anyway.

Nemecek has been a fan almost since the beginning. He was inspired by world-building books like Stephen E. Whirfield’s The Making of Star Trek to write his own TNG companion and the Stellar Cartography reference library. According to him, “back then it took only a couple years to discover he was in a niche within a niche— where it seemed 95% of fan passions (mostly women!) lay in debates over Spock and all things Vulcan, andyou couldn’t find hide nor hair of McCoy on a Tshirt.”

All of that plus a passion for getting Trek creatives their due means you can subscribe to his YouTube channel with “Trekland Tuesdays LIVE,” “Second Opinion,” and “Cadet Alice & Dr. Trek Talk Prodigy,” “The Trek Files” from Roddenberry Podcasts, join the “backstage Trek mini-con all year long” with Portal 47, or take a Trekland Treks filming-location day tour. Or just check out his “Fistful of Data” column in Star Trek Explorer magazine, marking its 27th year!

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Well, it’s a new year, and Star Trek’s landscape is yet again in flux. For both makers and viewers. And I know that injects uncertainty into every conversation about what’s coming — and what might not be.
But can I make an admission? One of the benefits of having been around the Star Trek franchise and fandom  for—well, a while, anyway!— is what you might call having the long view of things. I’ve often referred to this on my shows as the pendulum effect — the swing of trends and “truths,” back and forth over time. And inevitable.

And how, if you’re disappointed or not happy about some aspect of Trek right now, just hang on — and quicker than you can say “General Order Number 1,”  human nature will have swung your upset point back in your direction.

One of the greatest truths of fandom, of course, is how every new iteration of Trek always starts off with some vocal critique by “long-time fans” — sometimes even verging into (gasp) extreme displeasure. And thanks to the artificial megaphone of social media now, we all know how that can viralize and hit “hater” level faster than a Q flash.  (Though I've never actually met any of those folks at cons or other live meet-ups—have you?).

The longer the idle gap in “Fresh Trek” that precedes a new start, or the bigger the leap in new delivery tech — syndication? Newbie network? Streaming?— the louder that disrupted-comfort-zone displeasure by fans gets. In fact, back in the day I used to call the original TNG boycotters the “Loud 10 Percent,” because despite the noise I figured that all the armchair fans just happy to have Trek back again— and with Gene Roddenberry in control!— were actually the vast Silent Majority of total fandom.  And that was in the paper-and-stamp days!

Discovery’s coming in 2017 presented a triple-whammy to unsure fans: the unfamiliarity of both serialized storytelling through a Trek lens, and the streaming tech that delivered it. Not to mention a chaotic, dragged-out birth in the writers’ room — and a radical new take on the visual look. It was a recipe for a lot of loud, right? 

Look, the good news about finally having weekly “Fresh Trek” back on small screens again after 12 years was all the new eyeballs who were finding out about “our” universe. This new generation’s numbers took a while to surface though. Amid the downside: they had no memory of The Next Generation “upstarts” taking so much flak in 1987 … or the “goes nowhere” trash talk about DS9… or the “going backwards” disdain over Enterprise. Trek talkers like me were desperately dragging out all those examples to try to show newbies this was all precedent to this era’s version of the “Loud 10 Percent”— even if trolls and bots made it feel like a lot more.

Thankfully, after a couple years of adding their own noise to the legit critics out there, the “Toxic Tubers” that sprung up with DISCO seemed to have cooled a bit. Most fans across a wider age range began to figure out streaming... and that different flavors of live-action and even animated Starfleet series can still be “real” Star Trek and fit with each other. Even in the era of season arcs and serial storytelling.

Toss in the fact that society is waking up to the whole “negativity magnet” of social media algorithms, and fans (among others) are simply becoming savvier users. That’s why I am optimistic we are actually blending our generations of fans — newbies and veterans all starting to get on the same page with each other as to both the tech and the tones of 2020s Trek. Not to mention the classic series that got us here.

And that’s why, in the end, I just want to offer this bottom line:

It’s all about the passion. After 58 years and all the eras and all the means of fan expression— whether shippers or shipnerds, canonistas or commentary folks—passion is the common denominator! It’s the common core.

And yet,  the very passion that still brings excited new fans to Trek year after year is the same passion that trips folks up when things don’t go right — from the stages and writers’ rooms, to the studio suites and vendors’ offices. And yes: to the meetup pages, club rooms, and podcast studios all around Trekworld, too.

What happens to people who care so much when change happens, or the unknown looms?  Fans used to vent our fears and opine with our buddies, our pen pals, our club members, our con panel Q&Aers. Now we have 100x the fellow-fan contact, but it’s all across that digital divide—without a personal connection. Talking or even debating with so many “strangers”—well, the more fans care, the more they worry. Then perhaps anxiety, then fear— and maybe even anger. Next stop: Gatekeeping and harassment!

Not exactly IDIC, is it?

But, look: no matter when we arrived here or what quadrant of fandom we head to, passion is why we make Star Trek our orbit—and it’s still what we all share, being inspired and mesmerized by Gene Roddenberry’s baby and all its descendants.

And here in 2024 we have new Trek series delayed, other Treks competing for attention, a streaming industry retrenching, merch seeming limited, movies still murky — even the future of Paramount in doubt.

Through it all... as we navigate our fan interactions, our comments to media, our feedback to creatives ... my hope for 2024 is that we can all be open, understanding, enjoy lively debates and even diffuse the painful ones with the simple reminder that we’re all here for the same reason: we all care so much.  We just need to avoid caring too much.

Trek well, everybody!