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Trekkies (1998) 87 minutes. PG
4 stars (out of five stars)
You don't need to be a Star Trek connoisseur to enjoy "Trekkies," an affectionate portrait of some the more "colorful" fans of the ubiquitous sci-fi phenomenon. The funniest documentary since "Cane Toads: An Unnatural History," "Trekkies" draws more belly laughs than any film in recent memory, including "There's Something About Mary."
Working on a shoestring budget with film stock of varying qualities, director Roger Nygard copes by editing "Trekkies" in the herky-jerky style popularized by MTV. In fact, an apt subtitle for the film would be "The Unreal World." Denise Crosby, Tasha Yar from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," serves as tour guide into the realm of Trek fandom, setting the benign, nonjudgmental tone that makes the feature work so well. While I enjoyed Michael Moore's "Roger and Me" and "The Big One, " how refreshing it is to see a humorous documentary that doesn't batter its subjects with snide commentary. "Trekkies" simply lets the fans speak for themselves, with hilarious results.
Working off a "schematic" scrawled on a piece of notebook paper, one fellow shows off a glittery ball with assorted attachments. "It's a Romulan cloaking device," he explains without a hint of irony, "but I think I can modify it to work on a Federation ship." You know, I bet he can. Watch a befuddled Radio Shack clerk, eyeing the camera warily while the Trekkie shops for parts. Try, just try, to keep a straight face as the Uberfan tools down the street in his customized Captain Pike life-support motorized space-chair, with only his head sticking out of the bizarre contraption. As if the spectacle isn't freaky enough, he sports a brown corduroy winter hat with earflaps because, hey, it's chilly out there.
We also meet Barbara Adams, an employee of the Sir Speedy print shop who gained national prominence when, as a Whitewater trial juror, she insisted on wearing her Federation uniform to court. "Every day I would walk past the reporters with a Vulcan-like stoicism," she says with pride, before launching into a sermon on the ideals espoused by "Star Trek."
The original "Star Trek" debuted in the '60s, when the Vietnam war and sweeping social changes were turning the country upside down. The show presented a vision of a future where mankind not only survived, but thrived, with adventurers of varying races and nationalities united as they explored the far reaches of the heavens. Despite the mini-skirted sexism and imperialistic undertones of the show (as well as a notable lack of gays that continues to this day), the optimism of the series resonated with a determined group of disenfranchised viewers. More than 30 years, three TV series, nine films and countless books later, "Star Trek" lives on.
There's a sweet naiveté beneath the ridiculous costumes and garish make-up of these "Star Trek" fans that makes their eccentricities, if not necessarily endearing, at least understandable. Faced with a tumultuous, uncertain world, they've elected to move to a nicer one. I laughed at Gabriel, a 14-year old computer whiz who fusses over the detailing of his Federation outfits while over-enunciating multi-syllable words, but I also remembered my own painful adolescence enough to like him.
Some of the folks are considerably weirder. There's the transvestite Trekkie who dresses as the nameless wife of some obscure peripheral character, the guy considering having plastic surgery done to give his ears Vulcan-shaped points, and the "Spiner-Femme" who displays an album stuffed with photos of Brent Spiner (Data from "The Next Generation"), before aiming her telescope into the distance and wistfully noting that she can almost see the roof of the actor's home. Incidentally, I'm barely scraping the surface here. Wait until you hear about the "Q" virus!
"Trekkies" gets a bit stuffy towards the end, devoting too much footage to testimonials about the spirit of "Star Trek" before recovering with a last dash of humor, but that's a minor quibble. The film is an absolute hoot, an extremely funny cavalcade of outrageous fans who, outlandish costumes aside, are just people like the rest of us. At one time or another, we all get passionate and obsessive about something. We may not dress like Klingons or wave around phasers, but when you come right down to it, we're all pretty damn silly. Trekkies just wear their goofiness with pride.
© 1999 Ed Johnson-Ott