Star Trek Lives: Trekker Slang

Abstract

television show which was cancelled in 1969 after three seasons but which continues to be shown in syndicated reruns. The real life of Star Trek, however, is in the activities of its fans. Although Star Trek conventions are mentioned occasionally in newspapers and news magazines, meetings are only the most public and easily seen activity. In addition, fans are producing large numbers of usually short-lived magazines. These magazines tend to publish either fiction written by fans-as in Warped Space-or news of interest to and letters from fansas in The Halkan Council. The fiction is, for the most part, about characters and places that appeared in Star Trek. However, even the magazines devoted to fan-produced fiction usually include letters to the editor. This study reports in-group vocabulary, especially as used in the letters to the editor and in the editorials of these fan-produced magazines. Thus, the vocabulary of the fiction is not considered, although terms from it like beam up and Kraith are worth study. Some information gathered from conversations is included. The special vocabulary of Star Trek fans centers on three topics: conventions, publications, and the fans themselves. There is a close, if not always amiable, relationship between Star Trek and other science fiction fans, who like to think of themselves as purists and of Star Trek fans as television-star-smitten pre-teens. Trekkers, naturally, resent that attitude. Because of the connection between the two groups, however, some of the words reported here are current in general science-fiction fan magazines too. Indeed science fiction and Star Trek fans are not the only users of the form zine, which the Gale Research Company is using to advertise a new hardbound annual called Pages. New York Magazine (15 November 1976, p. 89) quotes a company spokesman as saying that Pages will be a lavishly produced book-a-zine, a book with a magazine format. Even though some of the following words are used by other groups, a command of the whole constellation of terms is seen by fans as an indication of status within the Star Trek world. The new fan