"You know, before I answer any more questions there's something I wanted to say. Having received all your letters over the years, and I've spoken to many of you, and some of you have traveled... y'know... hundreds of miles to be here, I'd just like to say... get a life, will you people? I mean, for crying out loud, it's just a TV show! I mean, look at you, look at the way you're dressed! You've turned an enjoyable little job, that I did as a lark for a few years, into a colossal waste of time! I - I mean, how old are you people? What have you done with yourselves? You, you must be almost 30. Have you ever kissed a girl? I didn't think so. There's a whole world out there. When I was your age, I didn't watch television, I lived. So move out of your parents' basements, and get your own apartments, and grow the hell up! I mean it's just a TV show, damn it. It's just a TV show!"
There are a lot of different ways to make a character into a nerd, from making them interested in science, giving them Nerd Glasses, or removing all social capabilities whatsoever. But all you really need to do is add one small characteristic: an interest in Star Trek. In fiction, only geeks like Star Trek, and all geeks like it. Those who are particularly obsessed are called "Trekkies".
Star Trek: The Original Series was a television show from the 1960s that had quite a few movies and spinoffs afterward (see the page for more details). It developed one of the earliest cult classic television followings and its fans were always regarded as a little "out there" due to their devotion. Nowadays that sort of dedication is not strange at all and it's relatively common for a fandom to give its more intense fans nicknames (such as bronies or twihards). Regardless, Trekkies are still remembered above all the others.
This is a relatively widespread stereotype, although realistically not everyone interested in Star Trek is automatically a Trekkie, or even a nerd at all, and not all nerds have to like the show. But in fiction, all nerds are Trekkies, all Trekkies are nerds, and nobody just likes Star Trek — if you like it, you love it.
Outside of the US, fans of other shows are sometimes substituted in the role — especially if there is a major locally-produced sci-fi franchise that can serve as an equivalent (such as Doctor Who in Britain or Gundam in Japan).
Note that there are examples of characters who are in no other way considered nerds (although many are still losers), but may still show their inner geek with an interest in the show.
See also Geek Reference Pool and Small Reference Pools. Often overlaps with Nerds Speak Klingon. And see also Fan Community Nicknames if you're curious as to what other fans of different fictional work call themselves.
Also compare Otaku, which shares many similarities to Trekkies.
Examples:
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Comic Books
- In Marvel’s Eternals, the Machine - the almost omniscient computer that’s integrated with planet Earth - mentions that it loves Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
- In Marvel's Avengers and the Infinity Gauntlet, Spider-Man attempts to make a Star Trek reference by saying "Warp Factor 9, Mr. Spock", only for Dr. Doom to point out
◊ that it's Sulu who sets the speed. Spidey then proceeds to mock Doom for knowing enough to correct him.
Films — Animated
- In A Goofy Movie, during the school song about what they are going to do during the summer, two nerds, one overweight and the other slim, sing about how all they're going to do during the summer is read comics, they are dressed as Spock and Kirk, and have severe braces, acne, and both are wearing glasses. The thin nerd later turns up at Stacey's speech, begging her to "talk to him".
Films — Live-Action
- Given that Galaxy Quest is essentially a tribute to Star Trek, it's no surprise that the Show Within a Show's fans are essentially this. However, it turns out that their encyclopedic knowledge of all the technical details of the ship that none of the actors understand prove vital near the end of the film.
- The 1997 documentary film, Trekkies, and its 2004 sequel Trekkies 2, are of course all about the reality behind this. Both films starred Denise Crosby, who played Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
- In Fanboys, the eponymous group of Star Wars fans run across an angry gang of Star Trek fans while on their road trip to infiltrate Skywalker ranch. In one of many comical cameos, William Shatner himself turns up to secretly give the group the schematics to Lucas's mansion, provided he not be connected to it in any way.
- That's an in-joke. The "Star Trek Revival Campaign" in '68 was mostly orchestrated by Roddenberry, who remained behind the scenes to make it look spontaneous.
- That's an in-joke. The "Star Trek Revival Campaign
- Free Enterprise is similarly about a pair of Trekkies (as well as fans of other media) approaching their thirtieth birthdays, and how a chance meeting with William Shatner changes everything for them.
- X-Men: Days of Future Past: It's hinted that Hank is a fan of Star Trek: The Original Series (an episode is playing on one of his TVs), which is fitting considering that he's a nerd. He describes Peter's mutation as "fascinating," which is a reference to Spock. Director Bryan Singer's favourite fandom is Star Trek, so it's natural that he would want to bestow that quality on the character (who, coincidentally, can be called Dr. McCoy). His Trekkie-ness is more obvious in The Rogue Cut because Beast is enjoying the episode while sipping a beverage.
Literature
- The Night of the Living Trekkies combines this with the Zombie Apocalypse.
- One of the later Animorphs books has the group encounter a group of Trekkies. It doesn't end well for them.
- The Dresden Files: In Ghost Story, Molly is revealed to be one. Harry, being a Star Wars fan, is unimpressed. Molly is quick to point out that they now live in a "post-closet nerd era" and that it's okay to like both.
- Journey to Chaos: Tasio (a fantasy trickster god) has been known to cosplay as Q (a science fiction trickster god) and trick people into reenacting certain Star Trek: The Next Generation scenes at inappropriate times, such as when Eric has been kidnapped by an Evil Sorcerer who wants to dissect him.
Live-Action TV
- William Shatner's famous "Get a life!" skit on Saturday Night Live.
- In the episode of The Kumars at Number 42 where they interviewed Patrick Stewart, Sanjeev wears a Starfleet uniform, against the wishes of his father.
- It's established in Criminal Minds that Reid is a complete idiot when it comes to pop culture in everything except, well, Star Trek (and Star Wars, Doctor Who, and a small number of other exceptions).
- Played with in Degrassi: The Next Generation: "You outgeek everyone, James Tiberius Yorke."
- In JAG, Bud gets closer to a suspected Al-Qaeda terrorist and convinces the guy to give Bud what he wants through their mutual love of Star Trek.
- In "When the Bough Breaks", Bud makes comparisons between Shakespearian works and Star Trek episodes to Admiral Chegwidden's girlfriend (a Shakespearian scholar); Macbeth and "Dagger of the Mind"; The Tempest and "Requiem for Methuselah"; Hamlet and "Conscience of the King'.
- Bud also says in the same episode that he works on a Fan Fic for a Trekker webzine: "Picard III", based on Richard III.
- The four main characters, the archetypical nerds, are all huge trekkies on The Big Bang Theory.
- Penny, the leading non geeky lady, is implied to becoming a closet Trekkie as the series go on, recalling plots, using Star Trek metaphors, and even seeing the new movie before Sheldon did on her own while the guys were out of town.
Penny: You know, like in Star Trek, when they raise their shields? (to herself, aghast) Where did that come from? - A "Triumph the Insult Comic Dog" bit has Triumph turning this on its ear. He goes and makes fun of hundreds of Star Wars geeks... then to poke fun at them he brings out a guy dressed as Mr. Spock - who proceeds to flip them all off.
- The West Wing had Josh chewing out a trekkie White House staffer in one episode for wearing a Star Trek badge.
- Simultaneously subverted: Josh's explanation of the difference between "being a fan" and "having a fetish" makes clear that he is well-versed in Star Trek.
- Stargate SG-1:
- Aversion with Jack O'Neill. He is apparently a fan—for crying out loud, the guy wanted to rename Earth's first FTL-capable capital ship the Enterprise—but as a decorated Air Force pilot and Colonel Badass, he's nothing like the stereotype.
- In "The Other Guys", Dr. Simon Coombs, an SGC scientist, starts complaining in one scene that his companion Jay Felger isn't a trekkie. (For bonus points, Coombs is played by John Billingsley, who played Dr. Phlox on Star Trek: Enterprise at around the same time the episode first aired.)
Felger: Bite me, Coombs! At least my heroes exist. If this was a Trek convention you'd be all dressed up like a Klingon.
Coombs: Vulcan, Felger, Vulcan. And I don't know how you can call yourself a scientist and not worship at the altar of Roddenberry. - Supernatural: In Season 4, Closet Geek Dean Winchester discovers the end of the world is nigh, and he suggests a farewell road trip that includes the Grand Canyon, the Bunny Ranch, and The Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas. Writer Sera Gamble says on the DVD commentary that she single-handedly turned Dean into a Trekkie since he only references Star Trek in episodes she wrote.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The Trio, the main villains for Season 6, make plenty of references to Star Trek and Star Wars as per their nerdy depiction.
- One of the bizarre cases dealt with by the Night Court is a fight between fans of TNG and the Original Series. The former win the argument by having themselves teleported out of the courtroom when the judge tries to sentence them.
Music
- "Weird Al" Yankovic, "White and Nerdy":
- "Born Again Trek" by Julia Ecklar is a Filk Song about becoming a "born-again" Trekkie thanks to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, with a couple of Take Thats to Star Wars along the way. Probably the clearest example of Trek Fandom as a "religion", with the narrator even becoming (tongue-in-cheek) The Fundamentalist ("We'll make the whole world follow Trek and, if we must, use force!")
Theatre
- In early drafts of Avenue Q Trekkie Monster was an avid Star Trek fan, but that got changed due to potential copyright issues. Now he's into internet porn, although he's still named Trekkie Monster.
Webcomics
- "Don Luke Piccardo" in Evil, Inc. qualifies in spades. Everything he does is Trek-themed...EVERYTHING.
- Half the cast of El Goonish Shive. Susan, Tedd and Justin are the most prominent examples. Tedd and Susan have frequent slapfights over Star Trek. Also, Justin's former best friend, Melissa is revealed to be one as part of her Hidden Depths.
- Scandinavia and the World: Canada cosplays as Geordi La Forge, complete with a VISOR and a tricorder. note
Web Original
- Linkara of Atop the Fourth Wall
- SF Debris began by reviewing Star Trek episodes before branching out into other SF/Fantasy works.
- Mike of The Literary Lair
- Among the Badass Bookworms and Tabletop Game players of The Saga Of Tuck, second-generation Trekkie James Tiberius Cooper stands out as being particularly nerdy, though at least one of the freshmen girls see him as Endearingly Dorky.
- David Murray, aka The 8-Bit Guy, often references Star Trek when pointing out retro computers in popular culture.
Western Animation
- The Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" reveals that Fry is a Trekkie. The episode revolves around an extreme Trekkie floating energy cloud named Melllvar who kidnaps the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series. The episode also mentions that Trekkies formed a major religion that was exiled from Earth because they were too insane. Leonard Nimoy's head also makes regular appearances (even in the first episode).
- Family Guy: Peter surprisingly seems to be a Trekkie, considering that he takes his family to a Star Trek Convention in "Not All Dogs Go To Heaven." Stewie is one as well, to the point that in the same episode he kidnaps the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation because they never picked him during the Q & A session at the convention. It didn't work out very well.
- Neil Goldman is another one.
- An episode of Dexter's Laboratory has Dexter and two of his friends as Kirk, Spock and McCoy expys (Irk, Spork and McBoy, respectively), going to a Star Trek expy ("Star Check") convention. (They unfortunately get stuck at a Barbie expy Con instead.)
- Season 3 of The Owl House reveals that both of Luz's parents were big fans of a series called Cosmic Frontier, though her mother is very much a Closet Geek in the present day. Gus and Hunter also become fans during their stay in the human realm and end up dressing up as characters from the series for Halloween.
Real Life
- In the mid-nineties, during the Whitewater trials (loosely associated with then-President Bill Clinton), an alternate juror named Barbara Adams made national headlines by wearing her Star Trek uniform to the courthouse every day.
- James McAvoy's favourite fandom is Star Trek, and he gets quite excitable in both parts of this interview.
- Bryan Singer is a big science fiction fan, and he especially loves Star Trek. He even did a cameo on Star Trek: Nemesis.
- Evan Evagora, who portrays Elnor in Star Trek: Picard, identifies himself as a big Trekkie in this interview.
- Bob West, the voice of Barney the Dinosaur, is a HUGE fan of anything geeky, but he particularly loves his Star Trek.
