When my husband and I first met, I was about as far from a fan of Star Trek as you could possibly imagine. I enjoyed sci fi movies and shows, but rarely watched them unless my father put them on the television. I lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere, and we generally stuck to Star Wars and Dune when it came to getting our geek on.
At first, he basically forced me to watch it – I was bored and uninterested (although I will admit, the original series and movies still are a bit of a struggle to get through for me). The Next Generation was different, though. It was interesting, and I became a serious Data and Picard fangirl. I would watch what they were in and when they were on, and that was the extent. A lot of the time I hated the other characters – Troi, Riker, and Wesley were my mental punching bags, but I had a soft spot for Worf and Geordie. The characters I disliked were basically just a target of adolescence – I was only sixteen or so. I read the hilarious fanfiction, watched the first season and movies, but fell away from it as soon as he stopped making me watch it.
I recently started watching The Guild, and I enjoyed it immensely, and between the show and Twitter, I was led over to Wil Wheaton’s blog and tweets. I read some posts, but like everything before, drifted off and forgot it. I saw the new Star Trek movie, and it was amazing, but I still felt kind of neutral towards the original shows and TNG… until my husband loaded up the Memories of the Futurecast.
It was an entirely new way to experience Star Trek. It made fun of the silly things in a loving way, but brought light to things I had missed when watching the show – nuances of the writing, plot pieces I hadn’t even recognized. After hearing the podcasts, my husband and I stayed up late to catch reruns on television of the first season – and suddenly, Star Trek wasn’t something dorky that used to be boring and no fun before the new film, it was something I enjoyed. The “Data & Picard show” was suddenly filled with a full cast of interesting characters, ones that I wanted to see a beginning, middle, and end of stories.
I have listened to every podcast of Memories of the Futurecast released thus far, and it’s built a new connection between my husband and I – something we can share and enjoy together – and it’s also allowed me something I never thought I would have. I’m okay with being a geek. I’m even happy about it! If the people who love these things, and people like Wil Wheaton and Fecilia Day are the people who I am in good company with by loving Star Trek and D&D and video games, then that is where I want to be.
Thank you, Wil Wheaton, and all of the other geeks who have opened up and taught me by example how awesome being a geek can be. FTW!
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