We all have deal breakers don’t we? For example when you start dating someone and on the third date your prospective future partner announces that “they don’t really like the Beatles,” or they have “never understood the point of Star Trek,” you get that sinking feeling and know that things aren’t going to work out. However if you are prepared to put in a little bit of ground work you may be able to impress your potential future partner and pull your budding relationship out of a terminal dive.
Here then is a list designed to give you a heads up if you find yourself dating a Trekker, a list that may give you some vital tips and you never know in 40 years time you may be mentioning me in your Wedding Anniversary speech, as the guy that set you on your way.
These are the 10 things you must know when dating a Trekker.
We are currently seeking Star Trek contributors on WhatCulture. To find out more about the perks of being a Star Trek contributor, click here.
44 Comments
I love Trek!
But I’m a Trekkie. Maybe it’s for we who grew up w/the original.
I think you are right, Trekker seems to be a more recent thing. We are all fellow brothers and sisters in our love of Trek as far as I’m concerned :)
I disagree. Trekkers is a very old term and if you’re dating someone that self-identifies with that, they’re probably over the age of 55. Trekkies is, I think, the accepted term. Although, most aren’t exclusive to a certain term. I, myself, fall under several: Whovian, Browncoat, Trekkie, etc. I think the most accepted term now is just geek.
Re: #2… Sisko strategized and won the greatest war in Federation history. He did so with dignity and valour and honour. His not being acknowledged boarders on racism. Your Kirk argument is invalid.
lol…. Ever watch ‘Pale in the Moonlight’?
Dignity, honor?
Think again please.
A “Trekkie” is someone who loves all things Star Trek, can name most of the characters and may visit a convention.
A “Trekker” wears their Starfleet uniform for jury duty, lives in their parents basement and tells the story of “That time I kissed a girl”.
Great definition Jeff, made me laugh out loud..
But they tell the story in Klingon, and a glorious battle is what it sounds like.
right definitions just backwards… switch trekkie and trekker and you’re right
Totally agreed. Even mentioned in the article, Trekkie is always a little derogatory and not un-earnedly so. Trekkies to me has always denoted the caricatures. I’ve never chaffe much at being called a Trekkie though.
I tend to chaffe at the tone someone uses no matter whether they want to label me a Trekkie or a Trekker. If someone calls me a Trekker but clearly means basement dwelling virgin as if there is something wrong with that, as if there is something wrong with being a fan of Star Trek… Well that tends to strain the compassion and empathy I learned from Star Trek.
So the label isn’t important when it comes down to it. It is whether or not the labeler needs to learn some lessons from Trek.
@Frimmel “So the label isn’t important when it comes down to it. It is whether or not the labeler needs to learn some lessons from Trek.” Excellent point :)
It wasn’t that he was young, it was that Wesley Crusher was an obvious Gary Stu for Gene Roddenberry. Go Google Gary Stu if you don’t know what that means. I actually felt a bit sorry for the actor who played him, but he seems to have gotten a decent post-Trek career going.
Hey – Thanks for reading, sure I have heard the term, I usually refer to it as Mary Sue but you could be right about Ensign Crusher in terms of what he represented for the ‘great bird’. The reason I liked Wes I think is because I was about the same age as him when TNG first aired and thought how cool it would be to do all the things he got to do.
I’m a Trekkie and proud of it. “Trekker” just sounds like a Trekkie putting on airs.
Brilliant – A Trekkie putting on airs, I now have an image of a Trekkie in a smoking jacket and holding a cigarette in one of those long cigarette holders, quoting Noel Coward :)
And a “Trekkie” is a Trekker putting on ears.
I doubt Trekker is older than Trekkie. I was a BIG fan in the mid-70s and never heard the term Trekker until sometime in the 80′s. I think it is just revisionist Trek “historians” who want to make people believe it is an older term thereby giving it legitimacy.
Trekker is a fan… Trekkie is a fanatic as pictured above. You wouldn’t know a Trekker unless you looked at thier book and dvd collections… we don’t cosplay…
@Dennis, thanks for the comment, I didn’t really like Janeway either but not because I don’t like women but because her character annoyed me slightly. The article is very much a tongue in cheek piece, so please take it in that spirit. Thanks
Some random comments.
#10 Wesley Crusher might be a hated dweeb, Wil Wheaton is awesome!!!
#9 If there were no Trekkies there would of been no Trekkers. It is Trekkies that kept Star Trek alive during the early 70′s when it looked like there was not going to be any more Trek.
#7 Yes we can love both Star Trek and Star Wars for very diffrent reasons. And after seeing what JJ Abrams has helmed over the years I think the new Star Wars film is in great hands
#3 St Generations was good for what it was. A film that passed the franchise from the TOS crew to the TNG crew. It had it moments. Not one of the best Star Trek films but not one of the worse ones.
#2 The author thinks that the casual fan who might watch an episode here and there has no right to have an opinion on ST? Does he/she think that Star Trek can survive with only having Trekies/Trekers watch the shows/movies?
Hi, thanks for reading and your comments. The writer can confirm that at points, whilst writing this article, he had has tongue firmly in his cheek. Especially with my seemingly controversial remarks about poor old Sisko. Avery Brooks is a great Trek legend and I enjoyed DS9 very much and enjoyed every incarnation of Trek for that matter in different ways. It is important not take take oneself too seriously and the article is meant to be a wry look at Star Trek, looking at the imagined pitfalls of dating of all things a Trekker/Trekkie/Geek/insert your own chosen definition of a person who enjoys Star Trek :)
I am a Trekkie because I named my son James Tiberius.
Enterprise-D was Galaxy class, not D-class. D-class just sounds un-classy.
We should probably qualify the Wesley Crusher one a little. I think we liked him early on, then grew to hate him.
You ARE aware that the honorific “Dr.” applies to degrees other than a medical doctor?
Of course, but Spock is often called Dr because people remember the name Dr.Spock, who did have a medical degree :)
I prefer Trekkie to trekker. Trekker always made me think someone was asking if I had climbed a mountain recently. And on #7 though I am a Trekkie and prefer it to Star Wars 1 Han solo would kick kirks a$$ as he’d simply shoot him 2 Star Trek has had a few horrible blunders same as Star Wars I.e nemesis, generations and a few of the originals.
I am with you on Generations and Nemesis was abit of a misfire, I still liked parts of it but it didn’t feel right..
#7 is NOT true, wel lthe wars vs trek fight is but not the link thing…we already have a link between trek & wars a loooooonngg time ago with george takei as star trek’s first sulu & lends is voice in the star WARS cartoon…..jj abrams is just another dude….no offence. but please get yoru facts right….
#6..speaking of knowing yoru jargon…you screwed it up so much i cant even begin…the D class? REALLY? D is NOT a class…D is simply a way of counting how many enterprises there have been…this particualy one would be the fifth (first is usually a protoytype labeled NX)…kirk’s first ship which was later retro’ed..then he destroyed that & get the enterprise A then another captain got the B…a lady captin got the C but was lost in space…so they brought out the D…which was a saucer sepreationist ship of the GALAXY class. other saucer-serperationist ships in this same class (aka they look EXACTLY like the enterprise D) are the yamato, the challenger, the galaxy (which was built first of its kind & all other ships mad e like it are of the class…class is named after the first ship that starts it usually…not always but 90 percent of the time it does) & one other unammed ship that i can think of.
hope that helps….
hey buddy…you should blank out such spoilers like in #4….maybe make it so that its blank but if you roll the cursor onto it one can stil lread it if they dare….just a suggestion :)
Hi, spoilers are not usually required for 19 year old movies and I’m sure you knew what happened! As for jargon, that’s why I’m glad I’m not dating a Trekker, look at the trouble it can cause:)
LOL wise decision. as for the spoiler thing…younger generations are coming into the fold cuz of jj’s movies. one of my own friends just started the entire star trek saga with me last year…from the very first “the cage” straight through every series, including the cartoon & movie in order. we’re nearly done with voyager now & then we’re doing enterprise. she wants to try & see all of star trek before the next movie in may…so the spoiler thing, like i say perhaps blind it so regular fans can simply roll over it & others can skip it…anyway..the rest was pretty good!
I was with you right up till your scandalous remarks about Captain Sisko, the great hero of the Dominion War.
You are right, Kirk didn’t have to wait that long to be made Captain, according to JJ Abrams it took only one film, which probably makes him inexperienced and unready, Sisko was fighting the Borg 3 seasons before DS9 even started, he earned those pips. Unlike a certain acting ensign I could mention
@Dan, I believe the popular vernacular is LOL…
I just wanted to comment that “Will you marry me?” in Klingon is either *chonayqang’a'* if asking a woman or *choSawqang’a'* if asking a man. I really have no idea where you got your sentence, but it is completly innacurate in every way. *lu luq ra nay jIH* would mean something like “I marry ra yes fall from power,” or something (it really makes no sense).
Perhaps more Klingon approach will be {HInay} and {HIsaw}.
That would indeed work, flr, but remember that the {S} needs to be capital.
{cho[nay/Saw]qang’a'?} translates the Human sentiment well, which is perhaps sufficient in this case.
I’m not sure Klingons themselves would have a set phrase for the purpose; it’s not unlikely there are a large number of varying regional traditions pertaining to such things.
Worf seems to observe the tradition of immediate post-coital marriage (like Kahless and Lukara/Kellein before him), and the Klingons of the meqro’vaq region have their leg of lIngta’ ritual (although that seems to be to initiate courtship, not marriage), and there are likely many other traditions.
HIvqa’ veqlargh!
You have made my day, since I wrote this piece I have been waiting for someone to correct this. Thanks, it really made me smile. As I said in the article, you gotta know your jargon and equally you gotta know your Klingon…
batlh bIHeghjaj
(May you die with honor.)
You can’t get more “nice” than that in Klingon.
Thank you. By the way I got that translation from something called the Klingon Dictionary, as it will shock you to hear I do not speak klingon :(
The phrase appears to have been put together by somebody at the Star Trek Answers wiki, after which it spread. I’ve now updated the article:
http://star-trek.answers.wikia.com/wiki/How_do_you_say_%22WIll_you_marry_me%22_in_Klingon
A wiki? Good thing wikis are easy enough to fix. People like Mr. Klingon and his bizarre blog and “translator” are a bit more tricky to deal with, since not only are they totally wrong and he refuses to make it actual Klingon (or call it something else with huge, disclaiming letters at the top of the site instead of in the tiny fine print at the bottom), his mistranslations are absolutely everywhere on thr internet, spread by people who don’t know any better. I even saw one in Star Trek Online.
Cool article, by the way. Glad to see some Shatner love.