Trekkie

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

That's "Trekker"!

There are a lot of different ways to make a character into a Hollywood Nerd, from making them interested in science, giving them Nerd Glasses, or removing all social capabilities whatsoever. But all you really need to do is add one small characteristic: an interest in Star Trek. In fiction, only geeks like Star Trek, and all geeks like it. Those who are particularly obsessed are called "Trekkies".

Star Trek: The Original Series was a prematurely canceled television show from the 1960s that had quite a few movies and spinoffs afterward (see the page for more details, if you've somehow managed to live under a rock for the last half-century). It developed one of the earliest cult classic television followings and its fans were always regarded as a little "out there" due to their devotion. Nowadays that sort of dedication is not strange at all and it's relatively common for a fandom to give its more intense fans nicknames (such as bronies or twihards). Regardless, Trekkies are still remembered above all the others.

This is a relatively widespread stereotype, although realistically not everyone interested in Star Trek is automatically a Trekkie, or even a nerd at all, and not all nerds have to like the show. But in fiction, all nerds are Trekkies, all Trekkies are nerds, and nobody just likes Star Trek - if you like it, you love it, and you have all the Trek Fandom Tics.

In Japan, the Gundam franchise fills much the same niche as Star Trek does in the west—the franchise has often been referred to as "Japan's Star Trek" due to a number of similarities: Both shows were prematurely cancelled due to poor ratings in their initial airings, only to gain massive followings in syndication, and become probably their country's most iconic science fiction series, with dedicated followings and seemingly endless spinoffs. Thus, where a western show would use a Trekkie, a Japanese show is likely to use a Gundam fanatic.

In addition to Star Trek and Gundam, this role can occasionally be filled by other movies/shows, though due to the fact that the nature of the trope requires some Popcultural Osmosis, the writer will generally use Star Trek, as its role has already been established. One of the most common replacements is Star Wars, which, incidentally, is occasionally mentioned as a rival to Star Trek.

Note that there are examples of characters who are in no other way considered nerds (although many are still losers), but may still show their inner geek with an interest in the show.

See also Geek Reference Pool.

Examples of Trekkie include:


Anime and Manga

Film

Literature

  • The Night of the Living Trekkies combines this with the Zombie Apocalypse.
  • One of the later Animorphs books has the group encounter a group of Trekkies. It doesn't end well for them.

Live Action TV

Music

The only question I ever thought was hard
Was, do I like Kirk or do I like Picard

Theater

  • In early drafts of Avenue Q Trekkie Monster was an avid Star Trek fan, but that got changed due to potential copyright issues. Now he's into internet porn, although he's still named Trekkie Monster.

Web Comics

Web Original

Western Animation

  • The Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" reveals that Fry is a Trekkie. The episode revolves around an extreme Trekkie floating energy cloud named Melllvar who kidnaps the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series. The episode also mentions that Trekkies formed a major religion that was exiled from Earth because they were too insane. Leonard Nimoy's head also makes regular appearances (even in the pilot).
  • Family Guy: Peter surprisingly seems to be a Trekkie, considering that he takes his family to a Star Trek Convention in "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven." Stewie is one as well, to the point that in the same episode he kidnaps the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation because they never picked him during the Q & A session at the convention. It didn't work out very well.
  • An episode of Dexter's Laboratory has Dexter and two of his friends as Kirk, Spock and McCoy expys (Irk, Spork and McBoy, respectively), going to a Star Trek expy ("Star Check") convention. (They unfortunately get stuck at a Barbie expy Con instead.)
  • In A Goofy Movie, during the school song about what they are going to do during the summer, two nerds sing about how all they're going to do during the summer is read comics, they are dressed as Spock and Kirk, and have severe braces, acne, and both are wearing glasses.

Real Life

  • In the mid-nineties, during the Whitewater trials (loosely associated with then-President Bill Clinton), an alternate juror named Barbara Adams made national headlines by wearing her Star Trek uniform to the courthouse every day.
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