h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi,

Just FYI : you may get into a flamewar if you sweep Trekkers and Trekkies on the same big heap of ST-fans...

Trekkers collect the videos, maybe buy the books(rubbish by the way, and I AM a Trekker ), etcetera.

A Trekkie however, dresses up like James T. Kirk before he/she goes to a StarTrek-convention. If you have a real fanatic, he/she will address you in Klingon :devil:

As far as I can see all the info in your article is correct. This is probably the best one can do in an entry on StarTrek, painting the complete historic picture would require at least 5 books

Anyway, nice to have a StarTrek-entry again.

Greetz,

TM.

I have to disagree....

In my experience the distinction goes like this.

"Trekkie" is a (slightly) derogatory term used to describe a ST fan who knows WAY too much about the show for their own good. A typical conversation with a Trekkie would go something like this:

ME: I seem to remember an episode of Next Gen when Picard......

TREKKIE: Ah, yes. "Heroes and Devils", season 5, Director John Smith. That was the episode when commander Data was forced to re-align the polaron emitters to produce an inverse tachyon pulse and generate a static warp shell; an event that was TOTALLY IGNORED in the next episode "Too many Klingons spoil the Ghach", where the Enterprise D can quite clearly be seen to fly backwards during the opening credits.......etc, etc...

"Trekker" means exactly the same thing, however it is a 'reclaimed' term; self-bestowed by people who take themselves far too seriously.....

gnihton wonk uoy gnilhtraE ynuP. !esrevinu eht fo ecaf eht morf uoy etims llahs I.


Fool there is no TNG episodes with names you list.
Maybe you're thinking of the Sixth season episode "A fistfull of Data's"?

Besides which there is no such thing as a static warp shell, however a reallignment of an inverse tachyon pulse could cause a phase shift in a quantum singluarity permitting a bend in the temporal vortex sufficient to allow a small rodent to travel back to the 1980's.

As we say in Klingon.".eikkert a no tsol si ynorI"

Hi M-boy(I always forget to use 0's so... )

Well I got my info from loads of sources and indeed also from a very very VERY unauthorized book about StarTrek-fans all over the world. Desccriptions of Klingon-feste in Germany with 'authentic' Klingon-weddings come to mind... :ROFL: I'm a fan but I ain't that kind of a fan...

Of course the difference between the two words may be in the eye of the beholder...

IMO both Trekkies and Trekkers are a bit over the top. And I consider MYSELF to be a Trekker. It's just that I don't go over the top going to ST-conventions, buying the book-versions(which I think are rubbish anyway), having my picture taken on the cardboard-version of the bridge of the Enterprise, etcetera. However, Trekkers still remain big fans of ST so the example you used(knowing the exact episodes and all) are very familiar to me... I don't know all the episodes ever by heart but most of them do ring a bell. I can usually get the season right...

And I still have a life!

Greetz,

TM.

I personally don't think it matters what you call them, but there are three types of Trek Fans.

Type I- Casual fan, they watch the show(s) when they can, they try to catch all the movies, and have picked up a book from time to time. They may have a handful of "trek" items in their posession. They also tend to not care much about the "science" behind Star Trek.

Type II- A bit more serious. They watch the show(s) almost religiously, have seen all the movies, and are pretty familar with the characters and the actors who protray them. They've most likely been to at least one convention, and own some (if not all) of the movies, as well as have some of the episodes too. They tend to have more star trek related items than the type I fan. These people tend to be able to semi-understand techno babble, but honestly wouldn't know much about how most of the stuff it supossed to work.

Type III- These are the fanatics you see going dressed up in uniform, speak at least one star trek language, have seen every movie, every episode, and can usually quote good portions of any of those items. Most of them probably have read at least one of the novels written by William Shatner *shudders* and quite possibly liked them. These are the ones who are almost always seen dressed up at conventions. Sometimes the line between character and actor can blur for these people. These people usually have "studied" up on most of the technology used in the Star Trek universe, and can often quote specs from any number of devices. Some of these people even design ships from the bottom up, and create their own races for role play groups. These are the ones that most people think of when they hear any of these terms: "trekker" "trekkie" "star trek fan".

The lines between each of these types often blur, and I know I can't place myself in any particular one, but if you were to take a poll between all trek fans, the majorities would probably be clumped into one of these three catagories.

I consider myself to be somewhere between a type II and a type III. I would like to learn Klingon (and read Hamlet as it's ment to be, in the original klingon ) and I want to put together a costume of one of my characters for a role playing group I'm involved in. I don't know much about the "science of Star Trek" other than what I did my research project on in 8th grade, and only that was limited to trying to see what we're likely to be seeing for real human use somewhere within the near future. I am somewhat interested in the Klingon culture, but I know about as much as the typical anime fan knows about Japanese culture. I don't care for the Star Trek novels much... and I stay far far far away from the garbage that William Shatner calls writing.

Put me down as a type II who has been known to drift into type III, but only in an ironic fashion, of course...

I go to the local conventions when I can, because they're really quite funny, and once went on from a convention with my ex-girlfriend to have a sit-down Chinese meal in an expensive restaurant... She was in an ultra-miniskirt with Bajoran nose and earrings, I was in full series one uniform with phaser and communicator...

Sounds like fun! When I finally get my costume together, I'll be a klingon/trill hybrid by the name of Diziara, wearing a black football Jersey that says DeathKitten on the back I'll hav'ta get a current movie uniform comm badge to go with it too

Hmmm... You'll have to use a white Trill pattern to make it show up on the dark Klingon make-up... Unless you have a white Klingon in the same way that Tuvok appeared as a black Vulcan...

Not all Klingons were dark skinned, and ~half~ Klingons (like my character is) aren't nearly as dark skinned as the full blooded Klingons, case and point, B'Elanna Torrez. Therefore a Klingon/Trill Hybrid would most likely be a fair enough skin tone to show off the spots very well, thank you very much!

...and she's a red head. She got all those lovely recessive genes from her daddy, and still got that dominate Klingon forehead, and additude from her mama She's also the oldest of a set of tripletes, the other two are boys who look very much more Klingon.

If you haven't noticed, there is a variation on skin tones amoung Klingons... the best I assume in order to get away with the claims I do about her hair color and skin tone is that there was enough light skinned Klingon in the family line that she could get lucky and get a bunch of the recessive traits popping up with her daddy's contributions to the gene pool.

But if you want the short of it, I created a character for my use and just assumed that were she creative, genetics would be nice enough to hand her all these recessive genes even if the Klingon genetics like to dominate.

In a bit of shamelessly targetted self-cross-promotion, can I point out to anyone who may be interested that there's an entry in Peer Review about the Klingon Language? The entry is - A739145 and if you like it, hate it, or whatever, go here... http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F48874?thread=180530&post=1967483#p1967483 to comment... Thanks! H.

Well first of all there is a static warp shell (all good things...) and second, you aren't speaking klingon, you're scrambling letters.

pataq'!

QM, (s)he's not just scrambling letters, (s)he's typing backwards...

You spelled it wrong! It's petaQ!

Actually, it's p'TaQ!

ummm... no. I'm right and I can point you towards a Klingon dictionary, or the Klingon Language Insitute web site if you want, KLI.org, to see I am right.

Hmmm. I had to subtitle a Klingon once, and I got him to write everything down for me. That was how he spelled it...

I see... well, I know that my copy of the Klingon dictionary has it spelled petaQ. It isn't in the normal area where it gives the word and the translation, since the people who put together the language want to keep it PG, they won't translate the fun tid bits like the cursing and body parts. *rolls eyes* But in the amendum there's a section called "Other Kinds of Words", the second page of it, 178 in my copy, it offers a list of insults. It's right their at the top of the epithets (name calling), petaQ.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I think we have several winners

*blink* Winners?