Trekkie

[12] The first widely publicized fan convention occurred in January 1972 at the Statler Hilton Hotel in New York, featuring Roddenberry, Isaac Asimov, and two tons of NASA memorabilia.

[15] By then more than 100 fanzines about the show existed, its reruns were syndicated to 125 American TV stations and 60 other countries,[11] and news reports on the convention caused other fans, who had believed themselves to be alone, to organize.

[12] Some actors, such as Nichelle Nichols, were unaware of the size of the show's fandom until the conventions,[16] but major and minor cast members began attending them around the United States.

The reruns' great popularity—greater than when Star Trek originally aired in prime time—caused Paramount to receive thousands of letters each week demanding the show's return and promising that it would be profitable.

[24][30] "Star Trek" Lives!, an early history and exploration of Trekkie culture published that year, was the first mass-market book to introduce fan fiction and other aspects of fandom to a wide audience.

[31][20] While discussing that year whether to name the first Space Shuttle Enterprise, James M. Cannon, Gerald R. Ford's domestic policy advisor, described Trekkies as "one of the most dedicated constituencies in the country".

The Guardian's Damien Walter joked that "the 50% of the early world wide web that wasn't porn was made up of Star Trek: The Next Generation fansites".

He noted their fixation on one subject:[19] The facial expression is a near sultry somnolence, except when matters of Star Trek textual minutiae are discussed; then it is as vivid and keen as a Jesuit Inquisitor's, for these people know more of the production details of Star Trek than Roddenberry, who created them, and are a greater authority on the essential mystery of Captain Kirk than [William] Shatner, who fleshed it out.In December 1986, Shatner hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live.

'"[37][26][38] Although many Star Trek fans found the sketch to be insulting[2]: 77  it accurately portrayed Shatner's feelings about Trekkies, which the actor had previously discussed in interviews.

[40] The Saturday Night Live segment mentioned many such common stereotypes about Trekkies, including their willingness to buy any Star Trek-related merchandise, obsessive study of trivial details of the show, and inability to have conventional social interactions with others or distinguish between fantasy and reality.

[37] Brent Spiner found that some could not accept that the actor who played Data was human,[26] Nimoy warned a journalist to perform the Vulcan salute correctly because "'Star Trek' fans can be scary.

It is scary to be surrounded by a thousand people asking questions as if the events in the series actually happened.A Newsweek cover article in December 1986 also cited many such stereotypes, depicting Star Trek fans as overweight and socially maladjusted "kooks" and "crazies".

[37] The sketch and articles are representative of many media depictions of Trekkies, with fascination with Star Trek a common metaphor for useless, "fetishistic" obsession with a topic;[36] fans thus often hide their devotion to avoid social stigma.

"[48] Jenkins' subsequent monograph Textual Poachers (1992), which was written "to participate in the process of redefining the public identity of fandom", also focused at least in part on Star Trek fans.

Although 99 percent of the people that come to these conventions don’t realize it, they’re going through the rituals that religion and mythology provide.7,200 of the Elect are there to bear witness, and those 79 episodes are their revealed texts, the scarred tablets by which their lives here and now and beyond are charted.

According to Michael Jindra of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the show's fandom "has strong affinities with a religious-type movement", with "an origin myth, a set of beliefs, an organization, and some of the most active and creative members to be found anywhere".

Star Trek costume designer William Ware Theiss stated at a convention:[19] The show is important psychologically and sociologically to a lot of people.

Star Trek museum exhibits, film studios, attractions, and other locations such as Vulcan, Alberta offer opportunities to perform pilgrimages to "our Mecca".

The mass has its Kyrie, its Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Dies Irae, and so on... Star Trek has its Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Klingons, Romulans, etc., and the rest of the universe Roddenberry bequeathed us.

For them,[43] Star Trek provided positive role models, exploration of moral issues, scientific and technological knowledge and ideas, Western literary references, interest in television and motion picture production, intellectual stimulation and competition through games and trivia challenges, fan writing and art and music, explorations of erotic desire, community and feelings of communitas, and much more.Despite their common interests fans differ in their levels of—and willingness to display and discuss—their devotion because of the perceived social stigma, and "[o]vercoming the Trekkie stigma entails a form of freedom and self-acceptance that has been compared to homosexual uncloseting."

[54] Despite fans' stated vision of Star Trek' as a way of celebrating diversity, Kozinets found that among the Trekkies he observed at clubs "most of the members were very similar in age, ethnic origin, and race.

Bjo Trimble was among the leaders of the successful effort to persuade NBC to renew the show for a third season, and wrote the first edition of the important early work Star Trek Concordance in 1969.

[1] While men participate in many fandom activities such as writing articles for fan publications and organizing conventions, women historically comprised the large majority of fan club administrators, fanfiction authors, and fanzine editors, and the Mary Sue-like "story premise of a female protagonist aboard the Enterprise who romances one of the Star Trek regulars, [became] very common in fanzine stories".

[61] The distinction existed as early as May 1970, when the editor of fanzine Deck 6 wrote: ... when I start acting like a bubble-headed trekkie (rather than a sober, dignified — albeit enthusiastic — trekker).

During an appearance on Saturday Night Live to promote the 2009 Star Trek film, Nimoy – seeking to assure Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, the "new" Kirk and Spock, that most fans would embrace them – initially referred to "Trekkies" before correcting himself and saying "Trekkers," emphasizing the second syllable, with a deadpan delivery throughout that left ambiguous whether this ostensible misstep and correction were indeed accidental or instead intentional and for comic effect.

She said she believed in the principles expressed in Star Trek and found it an alternative to "mindless television" because it promoted tolerance, peace, and faith in mankind.

Actors such as Stewart and Jonathan Frakes have praised the accuracy[74][75] of its satiric portrayal of a long-canceled science-fiction television series, its cast members, and devoted fans known as "Questerians".

A Trekkie featured in one episode of the television series The West Wing, during which Josh Lyman confronts the temporary employee over her display of a Star Trek pin in the White House.

"What was really great about Star Trek when I was growing up as a little girl is not only did they have Lt. Uhura played by Nichelle Nichols as a technical officer […] At the same time, they had this crew that was composed of people from all around the world and they were working together to learn more about the universe.

He came up during a time when there was Neil Armstrong and all of those guys; so how was a colored boy from South Carolina - wearing glasses, never flew a plane - how was he gonna become an astronaut?