At the official StarTrek.com website there is a very good article by Cindy Massre titled “Before Home Video, Science-Fiction Fans Worked Harder to Keep Fandom Alive” Before you read this blog post any further, take a moment to read that article. We will wait for you.
Back? Great. Admiral Stark was very impressed with this article as it aligns with some of the goals he has been promoting within the Seventh Fleet. Part of the reason we have our fan club is to keep the Star Trek dream alive. That through infinite diversity through infinite combinations life is worth while. This is why we are a “big-tent” organization instead of focusing on just one thing. You having fun with your corner of Star Trek fandom is something we want to help out with.
Do you like to create Cosplay? We want to see your costumes. The article talked about fanzines and books created by fans. As you can see from the photo above, we have many members interested in putting together art and publications. Putting together a Star Trek fan film? We’ve had experience doing that. Has Star Trek inspired an interest in science? It has with us as well. Prop building? From the hand held to the very large, we have had some experience putting these together. We have members who express their creativity through Star Trek filk songs just like the ones mentioned in the article. We love attending conventions and running booths that allow us to perform community service which requires a lot of creativity and planning. There are a lot of things we can create as fans to keep the Star Trek dream alive. Influences from the fandom of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s made their way into official publications and episodes (including episodes of Star Trek: Discovery).
There is also an added benefit from expressing our creativity for others to see. These become archives for the next generation of fandom who get a glance of what life was like for Star Trek fans at the date of publication. If you get a chance to look at your chapter’s past newsletters, you can see back into time. Admiral Stark has been trying to preserve older club newsletters and publications in PDF format so that they are easily available for all to see.
To give our members the opportunity for creativity, chapters can publish a newsletter or post articles on the ship’s blog. If your chapter doesn’t have a newsletter or a website yet, talk with your commanding officer. They are always looking for volunteers and there are those in the fleet that are willing to give advice on sites and publications. The Seventh Fleet will also be collecting the best articles of the year and publishing them in a Seventh Fleet Annual fanzine. This gives you the opportunity to display your creativity for future fandom. Currently an Issue Zero (concept publication) is currently being created and will be released soon.
What would you like to make today? Who would you like to inspire tomorrow? Let’s create.
