Trekkies

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

As the mythic overtures of pop culture sing the praises of Star Wars, along comes a delightfully apt documentary on our other stellar obsession: Star Trek. Narrated by Denise Crosby of Star Trek: The Next Generation fame, this is a fascinating look at the nature of fandom. The movie is fueled by an endless stream of Trek-devotees. What, for example, led juror Barbara Adams to wear full Starfleet regalia to the Whitewater hearings? You'll catch a strange glimpse at the psychology that leads Barbara to wear it all the time, just like the Florida dentist who makes his entire staff and family don Next Generation outfits. Trekkies is at once enjoyable and slightly disturbing—it's not every day you get to witness a room full of humans arguing in Klingon or swapping fetish-fantasy 'zines about the intimate lives of Starfleet command. Director Roger Nygard plays off Trekkies' rampant eccentricity with a fair and reasonable hand (given the subject matter). The result is an oddly human film that entertains while stirring up intriguing questions about the nature of identity and escapism.