GREETINGS!!!
Thank you for your great offer to help me with my project. I know there are a lot of questions here-
DON’T PANIC!!
They are a guideline to the things I’m interested in; feel free to answer as many or as few as you wish, and also
to add any anecdotes or insights into fandom…The sky’ s the limit!
1.WHO ARE THE STAR TREK FANS?
a) What is your age (approximately!)?
b) Where do you live?
c) What are you studying, or in what field are you working?
d) Did you start watching Trek because you are interested in science; or has watching Trek
inspired an interest in science?
e) Has becoming a Trek fan influenced your choice of career or study?
f) How much time do you spend on Trek-related activities (e.g. club, conventions, reading)?
g) What activities?
h) Which is your favourite Trek series, and why? What is your opinion on the others?
i) Which other TV programs do you watch on a regular basis?
j) Do you have a favourite Trek character? Who and why?
k) Do Trek’s ideals influence your life in any way? In which way?
l) What do you think when people say: “Star Trek changed my life”?
m) Do you think a positive future as presented in Trek is possible?
n) Do Trek fans work towards this future in any way?
o) If you could change anything on Trek, (correct something in the past or make a decision for the
future) what would it be?
2.THE APPEAL OF STAR TREK
a) Why did you start watching Trek?
b) What was it about Trek that changed you from a casual viewer of a TV series into a fan?
c) In your opinion, why has Trek become a world-wide phenomenon while so many other
series have come and gone? What is it that inspires such devotion in so many people?
d) What is your favourite aspect of Trek?
e) Do you think it is possible to become too involved in Trek?
f) Do you know/have you heard of a case like this?
3.THE FAN SCENE
a) How do non-fans see the Trek fans?
b) Does this coincide with the Trek fan scene as you see it from the inside?
c) Does the cliché “Trekkie” (lives in parents’ basement, has no life outside Trek etc) really exist, or is
this just a prejudice?
d) Has money corrupted the fan scene?
e) Is Trek popular where you live? Is there a “fan scene”?
f) There seem to me to be divisions within the overall Trek fan scene (e.g. Federation,
Klingons). Are these the divisions you see, or do you see others?
g) What are the characteristics of each group?
h) What relationship do these groups have to each other?
i) Are you in a club? If so…
j) Which club? What position do you hold?
k) What activities does your club have?
l) What sorts of people are attracted to your club? (Which ages, what interests, etc)
m) What do you like most about being in a club?
n) Is it important to you if you’re called a Trekkie or a Trekker or anything else?
4.MERCHANDISING/ MARKETING
a) Today you can buy everything from high-quality models to coffee with the Star Trek logo on it. Is
this over-commercialization of the series?
b) Do you buy any of these goods?
c) Why /why not?
d) Could Star Trek become merchandise-driven at the expense of creativity and originality?
e) Do the later series (DS9, Voyager) depend too much on the Star Trek name and
unquestioning loyalty of the fans? Or are they maintaining the high standards of
creativity and quality that distinguished the earlier series?
5.THE FUTURE OF THE FAN SCENE
a) Is the fan scene dying down?
b) Or are there more fans and fan clubs than ever?
c) Do you agree with the critics when they say that the franchise is deviating from the original and
that the quality is deteriorating?
d) The Original Series was something special; something about it caught the imagination of so many
people. Are the later series lacking in this respect?
e) Does anything set them apart from all the other Sci-fi series that are around?
f) What do you think will happen within the fan scene in the next few years?
Thank you very much for taking the time to answer some of my gigantic questionnaire. The distinctiveness of your answers will be assimilated into my project, bringing it closer
to perfection. Resistance is futile!!
Sincerely,
Frances
| 
