Trekkies (1997)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1997
Running Time	83:06
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Roger Nygard
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Denise Crosby Majel Barrett Roddenberry James Doohan Walter Koenig DeForest Kelley Nichelle Nichols Leonard Nimoy William Shatner George Takei Grace Lee Whitney Levar Burton John de Lancie Michael Dorn
Case	?
RPI	$24.95	Music	J. J. Holiday Walter Werzowa

    This is a movie length documentary about the fans of the Star Trek set of TV series and films. Obviously, Paramount must have been pleased with it, for they released it theatrically (despite the fact that it looks like it was originally intended as a TV special). It was also "produced" by one of the "family": Denise Crosby ("Tasha Yar").

    We not only get lots of interviews with different fans, but with cast and crew of various incarnations of the various shows, plus an in-depth look into the world of fan conventions, collectibles, fan clubs, fanzines, and it even has a segment about the relative merits of using "Trekkies" vs. "Trekkers" to distinguish different types of fans.

    Just about everyone in the original "classic" TV series has been interviewed:

• Walter Koenig ("Chekov")
• James Doohan ("Scotty")
• William Shatner ("Captain Kirk")
• Leonard Nimoy ("Spock")
• Grace Lee Whitney ("Yeoman Rand")
• DeForest Kelley ("Doctor McCoy")
• Nichelle Nichols ("Uhura")
• George Takei ("Sulu")
• Majel Barrett Roddenbery ("Nurse Chapel")

    Also, additional cast members of the other Star Trek spin-offs are also interviewed, with the only notable exception being Patrick Stewart ("Captain Jean-Luc Picard"):

• Denise Crosby ("Tasha Yar")
• Michael Dorn ("Worf")
• John De Lancie ("Q")
• LeVar Burton ("Geordi LaForge")
• Jonathan Frakes ("Riker")
• Brent Spiner ("Data")
• Kate Mugrew ("Captain Janeway")
• Ethan Phillips ("Neelix")
• Chase Masterson ("Leeta")

    In addition, various people connected to the Star Trek universe are also interviewed:

• Dr. Mark Okrand ("Star Trek" linguist)
• Brannon Braga (co-executive producer, "Star Trek Voyager")
• Jeri Taylor (co-creator/executive producer, "Star Trek Voyager")
• Richard Arnold ("Star Trek" consultant)
• Michael Westmore ("Star Trek" Make-up Supervisor)
• Pat Rimington (Convention Promoter)
• Buzz Aldrin (Astronaut)
• Glen Proechel (Founder, Interstellar Language School)
• Lori Saul (merchandising dealer)

    Of course, the real stars of the show are the fans themselves, and the documentary captures sound bites from many fans from around the world attending various Star Trek conventions. There are in-depth interviews and mini-studies of the following fans:

• Gabriel Köerner, who at the age of 15 has already attended 28 conventions, is a member of several fan clubs, makes his own uniforms and is in the middle of trying to create his own film called Star Station Nemesis (it's interesting how the most recent Star Trek film is called Nemesis), plus his father Richard even drives a van that looks like a Federation Starship - the Roddenbery NCC-76432
• Barbara Adams, who wears a Star Trek uniform to work, and even attended jury duty in uniform
• Laurel and David Greenstein, who have decorated their house in a Star Trek theme, plus David goes to the supermarket in a uniform, has travelled around the world on his Star Trek passport, and dreams of getting his ears surgically altered to look like Vulcan ears
• Denis Bourguinon and his family: Denis is a dentist who runs a clinic decorated with a Star Trek motif
• Douglas Marcks, a Star Trek "cross-dresser" who is into "filking" (Star Trek folk singing) - he can even sing the Khan's "Vow of Vengeance" from Space Seed from memory!
• Anne Murphy, who heads up a group of female fans of Brent Spiner who calls themselves Spiner Femmes
• Joyce Mason and Evelyn DeBiase, who hosts a radio show called Talk Trek and Beyond
• Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps, hosts of a radio show on 95.5 KLOS
• Erik Larson, an avid collector of all Star Trek paraphernalia
• Debbie Warner, a fanzine writer specializing in "Kirk/Spock" romances (I kid you not!)
• Daryl Frazetti and "Bones" (his cat)
• J. Trusk, a Captain Kirk look-alike
• a fan who legally changed his name to James T. Kirk
• Richard Cronfield, who has a dog called "Computer" and loves building replicas of Star Trek props, such as Captain Pike's chair
• Fred Travalena, a Star Trek Elvis impersonator

    The documentary even covers towns connected to the Star Trek universe, such as Riverside, Iowa (where "Captain Kirk" was supposed to have been born) and Vulcan, Canada.

Video

    This is a full frame transfer, presumably in the intended aspect ratio given that it was probably intended to be shown on TV. They may have matted it for theatrical presentation, but in any case the framing of most scenes seems to be consistent with 1.33:1.

    The original film source seems to be a combination of 16mm and video, then transferred to a 35mm master.

    Detail levels are about average, and ditto for colour saturation.

    Many of the scenes, particularly those that have been shot indoors (during a fan convention) look like they may have been originally captured on video camera, as there's quite a lot of low level video noise.

    I did not notice any compression artefacts.

    There are a multitude of European and Eastern European subtitle tracks, including both English and English for the Hard of Hearing. I turned both of these on, and the only difference between them is occasional dialogue attribution for the latter track.

    This is a single sided single layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two audio tracks on this disc: English and German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s).

    The audio track is pretty average sounding, with no major faults or any notable points. Dialogue is pretty clear and synchronised.

    The original music is credited to J.J. Holiday and Walter Werzowa but to be honest I never really noticed any background music.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extras. For some reason, the menus are 16x9 enhanced, even though the feature is in full frame. All menus are static, and available in several languages.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

• Trailer

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

• Additional foreign language audio tracks, subtitle tracks and menus

    R1 wins by an extremely narrow margin, but really there is no point getting it just because of a trailer.

    Trekkies is about the world of Star Trek and its many fans. If you are a fan, then nothing in this documentary will surprise you. If you are not, then I'm not sure why you would want to watch this.

    The video transfer quality is okay, given the average quality of the film source.

    The audio transfer quality is average.

    There are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall