Anyway, I’ll spare JimRob’s bandwith any further on long responses to say that we just don’t see eye to eye on this, at least with respect to the “reboot.” I recall we had a similar discussion some time back (I remember your Sulu pushing the wrong buttons comment), and I took issue then.
I put myself in the category of respecting canon, not in the Sulu pushed the wrong buttons nonsense (the latter of which whose adherents would deserve the ire of Shatner’s famous SNL retort of “Get a life !” Then again, he took a lot of heat for that, because those ultrageeks were the ones who spent boatloads of bucks to see him at conventions where he made more than a few dollars doing the circuit on).
I’ve never met Shatner, but have met Takei and never chided him about pushing the wrong buttons. If I did, it would be time for me to step back (of course, I’ve done that more than a few times). I was going to the conventions back to the ‘80s but haven’t been to any in some time. When I was about 12, I joined a popular paramilitary group based on Starfleet and obtained an officer rank. I think how odd it was then, close to 3 decades ago, when I went to one of the super-conventions that had a meeting within the con of Starfleet members and there were grown men in their 20s and 30s who were dressed in military fatigues saluting me as an officer, as they were only enlisted and NCO rank. We even had a banquet and were serenaded by Nichelle Nichols.
Those events seemed bigger and more real in those days. For many of the newer “stars” appearing at such functions, especially the reboot, I wouldn’t go if you gave me free tickets, it’s not the same. They lost people like me when they decided to change it into something unrecognizable. You disagree, of course, but I’m telling you that many feel the same way as I do. I think it’s rotten when they toss off decades-long fans like me for folks that like the cheap, the shallow and the shiny, with a few explosions thrown in.
Well that’s called aging. Childhood heroes are always larger in life. I don’t like the meet and greets of the modern commercial cons, I’m not going up to Phoenix this weekend even though most of the surviving B5 cast (best show ever) will be there. For a non-commercial, actually spend time with people convention I’d go to meet Urban, but I’d want to discuss Judge Dredd, which he killed at. I think he’s a great Bones but he was magnificent as Dredd (which I’m hoping made enough international money for a sequel).
Many people feel many things. But that doesn’t mean their feelings are a reflection of reality. When I saw the movie with my buddy I turned to him at the end and said “we’ve got Trek back”, his reply was that it had all the adventure of TOS. Then I took my mom (who hadn’t bothered with a Trek movie since FC) and she loved it, she said they’d gotten back to “boldly going”. So for my group we consider it a much more real Trek than we’ve had in 20+ years.
They didn’t toss off the fans like you. They realized there weren’t enough of you to keep the franchise going. Kowtowing to the old canon was causing them constantly diminishing returns. The franchise needed new life. It needed to get BOLD again, it needed to stop being Star Debate and actually do some Treking. And now it’s alive. And anybody that doesn’t like it has 28 seasons at 10 movies they can watch on DVD.