The United Federation of Geeky Bloggers have gathered together on the bridge once more to answer one of the universe’s greatest questions.  Our leader, Captain Brian of the USS Cool and Collected has hailed on all frequencies and given us one assignment:

http://coolandcollected.com/this-weeks-assignment-from-the-league-star-trek/

Star Trek.

Damn, I really don’t know how I feel about Star Trek anymore.  Sure I want to watch it at some point in my life.  Check it off the geek check list.  I’ve watched a lot of it over my life as well.  But there’s still just something that bothers me about it.  Help me put my finger, or Vulcan grip, on it.

I’ll take it back to my childhood.  I knew I was a geek and I accepted it.  Comics, cartoons, toys, and books started to pile up in my room.  I really wanted to become more immersed in the geek culture and while flipping through TV I discovered this show taking place in space with aliens and all sorts of interesting things happening.  Star Trek the Next Generation was on and getting popular.  I could sit down and enjoy the episode.  Just the episode though.  I wasn’t worried about what came before or after.  Nor did I want to know the back stories or off screen adventures of anyone.  All that I was concerned about was what took place for that hour.

But it was nice to know that those things were out there.  I knew there were Star Trek figures, and books, and an insane amount of other products out there.  So I forced myself to try to get into more of those because at the time in my hometown they were more readily available than the comics and more I would have been buying instead had I known they were even out there.  (Oh the world before the internet.)

The stuff was alright.  I had a bubble gum relationship with it (this is becoming my buzz term of the week for some reason).  Enjoyable for a couple minutes but ultimately disposable.

Then the focus changed.  I realized it wasn’t all of this extra stuff I had any interest in.  It was the world around it.  I had trouble finding fellow comic book fans or wrestling fans I could tolerate.  Maybe this world of, what do you call them, Trekkies, would be for me?  This could be the geek home I’ve been searching for.

One morning my Mom is reading the Sunday paper and tells me all about an article highlighting a Star Trek club that will be meeting at the local library within the next month.  Finally somewhere to go!  This could be my clubhouse.  So a week later my young self heads down to the library to meet up with these fun people who just want to geek out.

But that’s when I first discovered my limits.  I’m totally a geek and I fly that flag but there is just something different about Star Trek fans.  I walked in this room and was handed a quiz to decide my rank.  Excuse me?  I had to tell dates and years and such minutia for what I thought would just be fun.  I ranked last in the room and was even lower than Wesley Crusher.  Excellent way to build camaraderie and enjoyment.

Sure I have lots of articles on this blog that debate things in comics and wrestling and more.  But these people just took things way too seriously.  I’ll wear my comic book shirts in public, but I wont dress up as Spider-Man to go to the mall.  However, there were at least 5 people in full Starfleet uniforms.  At the mall.  The next day.  I just don’t get it!

The benefit of all this is that these obsessive fans have taught me to not take things too seriously.  I don’t need to know every WWF/WWE tag team champions, or the dates of the pay per views, or what comic book features the first appearance of Rocket Racer.  All I need to do is go in and have some fun.  There’s too much in life that matters, and too much stress, to fill it with this piddling unnecessary facts.

I fully expect shit for this.

Alright, what’s the rest of the League up to: