Love them or hate them, Trek fans make fine entertainment. While the Trek franchise begins to fade, there seems to be no shortage of Trek-obssesives out there to laugh at. I have actually seen several films about Star Trek fans and most are simply not very good documentaries or are just too reverent toward the subject. Trekkies had the cooperation of the Trek cast itself and is narrated by actress Denise Crosby, who played security chief Tasha Yar on The Next Generation. She speaks to Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock) and the other “seven dwarfs” as Shatner calls them. We get a glimpse of the sad lives of the woman on the Whitewater jury who insisted on wearing her Trek uniform, a Trek club in Pasadena attempting to make an indie Trek film, and a Trek dentist office in which the staff is made to wear uniforms, among other nutcases. The people, at first, seem like laughable obssesives, but as we get to know them better, we realize that they are no different than a sports fan with a wedge of cheese on their heads. There is one chilling moment in which a teenage fan’s interview is interrupted by a phone call and he sees fit to berate his friend in a rage, “THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST TIME YOU COULD CALL!” This strangley repressed anger was bizarre and it’s unfortunate this was not further explored.
Trekkies doesn’t quite take us to the final frontier, however, it is the best documentary on the subject and a good laugh.
