Let's Find a Way to Reclaim Fandom

In my review of Star Trek Beyond, I described the movie as a solid addition to the Trek franchise. Later, someone pointed me to one of the comments on that piece that I think is a good jumping off point for the topic of this article: in the review, I mentioned I hadn't seen every single episode of the original series, and someone's comment was "How is someone who hasn't even seen all of [the original series] qualified to assess what is and isn't an abiding love for the franchise?"

I've seen a handful of original series episodes, and every Star Trek live action film ever made. I have a pretty good handle on the characters, themes, and general vibe of Star Trek, at least as represented in the films and especially in the Kelvin-verse movies (if we were talking about Deep Space Nine or Voyager, I'd gladly bow out and admit I know nothing about those). So yes, that makes me “qualified” to state my opinion about a movie within the larger context of the franchise. Even if I'd only seen the J.J. Abrams movies, or hell, if I'd never seen a single Star Trek movie at all, that still wouldn't disqualify me from sharing my opinion on a site like this. Now, if I were writing a review for a specialized site like StarTrek.com or if I at any point claimed to be a Trek expert, sure, I could understand not taking me seriously because I hadn't versed myself in all of the minutiae of the franchise in question. But I think spending 30+ hours consuming the finer points of a long-running franchise is more than enough to put my opinion out there. 

Here's the real point, though: being a fan of something — especially something as inclusive as Star Trek — isn't supposed to mean that you go around showing off how you're a "better" fan than other people. It's supposed to be about taking part in a community that gets excited about the things you love, not pointing fingers at people who are also excited about those things but haven't consumed as much of them as you have.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but fandom is fractured enough as it is right now without additional pressure from within. (The Marvel Studios vs. WB/DC divide is bigger than ever, and continues to grow with every new film released.) All we can do is share our honest — and yes, informed — opinions with you. It’s up to you how to respond to them, and my hope is that everyone can just chill out a little, take a step back, and do our part to try to reclaim the term “fandom” from the somewhat negative connotation it’s gotten over the past couple of years.