Let’s get this out of the way. I’m an old school Star Trek fan. I just turned 50 years old a few months ago and I have been a Trek fan since about the age of 4. You might as well say if you cut me, I bleed Starfleet. I grew up on afternoon reruns of The Original Series. At the start of my freshman year of college The Next Generation came out. I watched DS9 when I could and Voyager less often than that. I’ve seen every Trek movie in the theater, most of them during opening weekend, and several of them more than once in the theater. I watched every episode of Enterprise as they aired. I’ve watched every episode of Discovery as they were released. I’m watching Picard. Along the way, I’ve read many of the Trek-related novels and some of the Trek-related comic books. I had a dog-eared copy of The Making of Star Trek. I read all of the James Blish novelizations of the episodes. In other words, I have my Trek credentials and am not what anyone would ever describe as a casual fan.
This is why I get so upset with modern fandom. I did not grow up as a gatekeeper of the fandom. Fandom is liking something to the degree to which you can like it. Some of us dive into it so much that we can name that episode just from a screenshot while others just tune in because we like a particular actor and follow them in whatever they appear. It’s alright. I’m not going to crap over your fandom because I don’t participate in it…
