I've wanted to write this post for a while, detailing my relationship with "Star Trek" media and fandom. I wrote one of these for "Star Wars" a while ago, and I want to do the same for "Star Trek," because my experience with the franchise is similarly filled with odd little nuances that I want to have a record of somewhere.
As a child of the '80s, "Star Trek" meant "Star Trek: The Next Generation." It was one of the earliest shows I became a fan of that wasn't a cartoon or children's programming. My syndicated station ran the reruns in the early evenings before anyone else was using the television, so I could watch it regularly. I didn't have the access to watch any "Star Trek" in prime time until the mid-90s, so my fandom was entirely based on repeated viewings of the earliest seasons of "Next Generation" starting around 1993. I was able to get my hands on episode guides and a few tie-in novels from the library, which also helped. Metamorphosis, the one where Data becomes human, remains a favorite.
The 90s were arguably the peak of "Star Trek." At one point there were three series airing simultaneously, plus shows like "Babylon 5" that were going after the same audience. There were plenty of fans around and plenty of chatter about the series in wider pop culture, which filtered down to me eventually. The premiere of "Star Trek Voyager," the flagship for the new UPN network, was a big deal in 1995, and I purposely rearranged my schedule so I could watch the show live. However, I found that I didn't like the characters much and lost interest about halfway through the second season. I started watching some of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" around that time, though it was a tougher show for me to keep up with. Eventually I would watch most of the last two seasons live, and more in syndication, starting around 1996. I keep meaning to go back and watch the whole thing properly one of these days, but I haven't managed it yet.
I was very aware of the original 1964 "Star Trek" by this point, but I had almost no exposure to it except occasional archival clips and parodies. The movie series with the original series cast was over by 1991, and I wouldn't seek any of those out until I was an adult. Of course I knew who Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and all the rest were just via cultural osmosis. To date, I've watched a handful of the most famous older "Star Trek" episodes, like "The City on the Edge of Forever" and "The Trouble With Tribbles," but I have no nostalgia for the series and no interest in watching more. I didn't even know about the existence of the first animated series until a few years ago.
With the 2000s came "Enterprise," and I was ready to call it quits. The previous shows had all ended. "Enterprise," with its very different aesthetics and attempts to broaden the appeal of the franchise, looked so off putting in the advertisements that I still haven't seen any of it beyond the unfortunate title sequence. By that time I was in college and had plenty of access to other genre media that was taking precedence. I was still watching the movie series, which had switched over to "The Next Generation" characters starting in 1994, but these were also in decline. 2002's "Star Trek: Nemesis" would be the last until the 2009 reboot. I largely stopped paying attention to "Star Trek" for the rest of the decade.
However, just because I stopped watching "Star Trek" didn't mean I wasn't still a fan. When the reboots did come along, I was very receptive to having "Star Trek" in my life again. I've watched every single movie and episode since 2009. Even "Prodigy." Even the "Short Treks." I went back and watched all the older "Star Trek" films and all the episodes of "The Next Generation" that I'd missed. I've watched multiple documentaries on "Star Trek," and even visited the Las Vegas Hilton so I could go to "Star Trek: The Experience," with its recreations of the Enterprise D bridge and Quark's bar.
Ultimately, I think I have to admit that I'm more of a "The Next Generation" fan than a "Star Trek" fan, but I've gotten awfully attached to other parts of the franchise, and I don't plan to stop watching anytime soon.
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