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'Trekkies' shows how devotees keep Klingon to a fantasy
Documentary depicts fans' alternative world but avoids ridicule.
Trekkies goes where no full-length documentary has gone before: Into the often uproariously funny world of Star Trek Fans. It's been 30 years since the first episode of Star Trek beamed into living rooms, turning Capt. Kirk and Mr. Spock into household names, and offering a hopeful vision of the future.
Since the original TV series first aired, it has spawned four series, nine movies and millions of dollars worth of merchandise.
With more than 30 million people watching some form of Star Trek every week, the movie should have a built-in audience.
But if youÕve been only an occasional viewer or even a non-viewer, don't let the Trekkies and Trekkers have all the fun.
Trekkies (***1/2) is a hoot; the biggest laugh generator since There's Something About Mary.
Not because the filmmakers set out to mock and ridicule these dedicated fans. The opposite is true. The went for balance, letting the film's subjects tell their own stories, in their own words, without the filmmakers intruding with snide comments or cutting judgments.
For nearly every laugh, there's a heart-tugging story about a suicide aborted or a life enriched by the show.
Those inspirational testimonials become a bit heavy-handed before the movie ends, but they can't quash the fun.
Roger Nygard, the director/editor, and Denise Crosby, the host (Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation) visited conventions all over the country, where she interviewed several original Star Trek cast members, casts from more recent spin-offs, fans, fanzine writers, and the authors of "adult" Trek publications. They also stopped by important Trek locations, including Riverside, Iowa, population 826, the future birthplace of Capt. James T. Kirk (in 2228).
Which life is 'real'?
Crosby even followed her subjects to their homes or their jobs. Among those seen in the film:
Barbara Adams, a lieutenant commander in a Star Trek club, who works for a quick-printing company. She caused a stir when she wore her Starfleet officer's uniform to the Whitewater trial in Little Rock, Ark., after she was chosen for jury duty.
Gabriel Koerner, a 14-year-old Bakersfield, Calif., fan with a large collection of Trek -related merchandise, a gigantic vocabulary and a tendency to over-enunciate. He has attended 28 conventions and has created some impressive Star Trek special effects on his computer.
Dr. Denis Bourguignon, an Orlando, Fla., dentist who has turned his office into Starbase Dental, a memorabilia-filled, themed work area where his wife Shelly and staff work in Star Trek uniforms. Only one patient didn't like his Star Trek dental experience, but he wasn't happy about his bill either.
The Greensteins, David and Laurel, of Woodland Hills, Calif., who dress -- like their black poodle, Tammi -- in Starfleet outfits. David says that, if it weren't for the expense, he'd have his ears surgically pointed to resemble a Vulcan's. His wife's startled reaction: No way.
Trekkies is dedicated to Bones, a tabby cat dressed in a Dr. McCoy uniform by his veterinary student owner, Daryl Frazetti. Bones died a few months after filming.
At Red Lake Falls, Minn., Crosby talks to Glen Proechel, founder of the Interstellar Language School, where students learn to speak Klingon. In Los Angeles, Joyce Mason talks about her 7-year stint as host of Talk Trek for CRN Radio.
And at a Star Trek convention, an auctioneer tells of a fan who bought a half-full water glass used by a virus-plagued John de Lancie, the super-being Q from Next Generation.
The auctioneer tried to dissuade the buyer, but to no avail; he gulped down the germ-laden water as if he were quaffing a Big-Gulp from Lourdes.
Weird? No way.
Some of the interviewees acknowledge that they're different and take pride in their diversity. What they can't understand is how a guy wearing the uniform of his favorite sports figure year-round can call them weird for dressing Trek.
It's a good point.
One of the funniest passages in the movie involves a discussion of Trekkies vs. Trekkers. No one can agree on a definition.
Crosby and cast members acknowledge that some Trekkies are extremely bright, and that's borne out in interviews.
They're also eccentric.
Like the Spiner Femme (as in Brent Spiner, who plays Data), who has taken hundreds of photos of Spiner, and even a picture of her pictures.
That's just the tip of the Trekkies iceberg.
Trekkies runs only 87 minutes, but it seems even shorter because it's so enjoyable. If moviegoers aren't frightened by the word documentary, and enough people see it, good word-of-mouth could help it live long in theaters and prosper.