Fandom Grandma

* who has shipped Spirk since that night in 1967 that Amok Time first aired * and helped storm NBC to keep TOS on the air for a 3rd season * and wrote fanfic way back in the day * and was privileged to be around for the earliest days of fandom, when Leonard used to come to your house if that’s where the fan club was meeting and sit on the sofa with you in that Spock hair cut and eat cake

All of you who are writing TOS/AOS fan fiction and creating fan art now: remember, YOU are the ones shaping the traditions of fandom. You have inherited the kingdom. Bless you for keeping it vibrant, growing, alive. In fifty years, you will be the ones who are remembered for molding it and handing it down to the future. It probably doesn’t feel like now, but you are making history.

Your current addiction to TOS and the feels you get when you contemplate the love between Jim and Spock will be with you for life. It won’t always be in the forefront; you will sometimes go years, sometimes go a decade, without Star Trek being more than a passing thought. But then something will remind you and every consuming feeling you feel right now will come rushing back, every bit as powerful and deep and strong as it is today. All there, right where you left it.

The friendships you make in fandom will be with you for life. Like all friendships, they will wax and wane as the focus of your life shifts over time, but you will always be able to pick up the thread. You will — to give you a hypothetical example — be 77 years old and discover Tumblr and get a rush of Spirk feels after a decade of not giving TOS a thought, and contact your 83-year-old fangirl friend in the nursing home, to whom you haven’t spoken in several years. You will open the conversation with, “So, Jim and Spock love each other and that just makes me so happy.” And your friend in the nursing home will sigh and say, “Yes. They do love each other. It’s such a comfort.”

That look that Jim and Spock give each other, of absolute adoration and acceptance and love? That’s real. It’s rare, but it’s real. One of my greatest joys in life is to see my son and his husband give each other looks like that. Of course I don’t know you; I don’t know your strengths and struggles or your place on the spectrum of gender or anything about your sexuality or what you look like or what your life has taught you to believe about yourself, but I do know this: YOU DESERVE TO BE LOVED AND LOOKED AT THE WAY JIM AND SPOCK LOOK AT EACH OTHER. Please don’t accept less than that in your life.

The future of our planet does not seem very hopeful at the moment. But please remember that when Gene created Star Trek, the world was in turmoil and the future seemed very bleak. Star Trek is, was, always shall be about hope. Reach for it. When TOS first aired, we hoped to see some form of a Starfleet on the horizon in our lifetimes. That vision must be passed on to you. Do it. Make the world worthy of launching the human race out into space. CREATE STARFLEET.

You are all creative and funny and amazing. Far more amazing than you know. Be kind to yourselves. Live long and prosper, kids.

* who has shipped Spirk since that night in 1967 that Amok Time first aired * and helped storm NBC to keep TOS on the air for a 3rd season * and wrote fanfic way back in the day * and was privileged to be around for the earliest days of fandom, when Leonard used to come to your house if that’s where the fan club was meeting and sit on the sofa with you in that Spock hair cut and eat cake

All of you who are writing TOS/AOS fan fiction and creating fan art now: remember, YOU are the ones shaping the traditions of fandom. You have inherited the kingdom. Bless you for keeping it vibrant, growing, alive. In fifty years, you will be the ones who are remembered for molding it and handing it down to the future. It probably doesn’t feel like now, but you are making history.

Your current addiction to TOS and the feels you get when you contemplate the love between Jim and Spock will be with you for life. It won’t always be in the forefront; you will sometimes go years, sometimes go a decade, without Star Trek being more than a passing thought. But then something will remind you and every consuming feeling you feel right now will come rushing back, every bit as powerful and deep and strong as it is today. All there, right where you left it.

The friendships you make in fandom will be with you for life. Like all friendships, they will wax and wane as the focus of your life shifts over time, but you will always be able to pick up the thread. You will — to give you a hypothetical example — be 77 years old and discover Tumblr and get a rush of Spirk feels after a decade of not giving TOS a thought, and contact your 83-year-old fangirl friend in the nursing home, to whom you haven’t spoken in several years. You will open the conversation with, “So, Jim and Spock love each other and that just makes me so happy.” And your friend in the nursing home will sigh and say, “Yes. They do love each other. It’s such a comfort.”

That look that Jim and Spock give each other, of absolute adoration and acceptance and love? That’s real. It’s rare, but it’s real. One of my greatest joys in life is to see my son and his husband give each other looks like that. Of course I don’t know you; I don’t know your strengths and struggles or your place on the spectrum of gender or anything about your sexuality or what you look like or what your life has taught you to believe about yourself, but I do know this: YOU DESERVE TO BE LOVED AND LOOKED AT THE WAY JIM AND SPOCK LOOK AT EACH OTHER. Please don’t accept less than that in your life.

The future of our planet does not seem very hopeful at the moment. But please remember that when Gene created Star Trek, the world was in turmoil and the future seemed very bleak. Star Trek is, was, always shall be about hope. Reach for it. When TOS first aired, we hoped to see some form of a Starfleet on the horizon in our lifetimes. That vision must be passed on to you. Do it. Make the world worthy of launching the human race out into space. CREATE STARFLEET.

You are all creative and funny and amazing. Far more amazing than you know. Be kind to yourselves. Live long and prosper, kids.

Lwaxana: *looks at Jim, then Spock, then back to Jim*

Lwaxana: *looks at Spock, then back to Jim*

Lwaxana: *points to Spock* Is he all you think about?

Jim: (◡‿◡✿)

Spock: (///__///)

~

Jim and Lwaxana picnicking on Betazed and laughing at everything while Spock and Mr. Homn quietly sip tea on the other side of the blanket.

~

Lwaxana putting a flower behind Spock’s ear. Jim using that as his personal lockscreen. Because Spock blushing green is really, really cute.

~

Jim playing chess with Lwaxana even though he knows he’s going to lose. But it makes her happy so it’s worth it.

~

Stranded plant-side on a mission gone wrong and taking refuge in a cave, Jim and Spock sit side-by-side and wait for the others to sleep. To their misfortune, Lwaxana pushes her way to sit between them because “it’s warmest here!”

~

Lwaxana taking Jim’s arm as he leads her around the observation deck.

~

Jim officially introducing Lwaxana to others with her full title.

~

Also…

Chapel: (☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞

[Tell me about your experiences meeting Nimoy, Roddenberry and the rest of the cast.]

Leonard Nimoy was the only cast member I met when the show was still in its original run. When he was in Oregon in 1967, he came to the home of the president of my sci-fi club and chatted with us for about 45 minutes.

Gene had invited me to visit the set in 1966, but I didn’t go. If I had known that 50 years later Star Trek would still be around and I’d still be a fan, I might have tried harder to get there!

In 1970, my husband got a job that took us to Pasadena, which was lucky timing for me. The show was beginning its run in syndication and growing more popular, Trek fandom was beginning to consolidate through the first conventions, the founding of the Welcommittee, the proliferation of print zines, and the push to get the show back on the air. I fell in with a group of fans who were incredibly busy with all of those things, and there was such a buzz of energy and creativity when we met, because everything was new and untried and exciting.  Fans were basically inventing fandom as know it today, and for almost 4 years I was in one of two spots (the other was NYC) where most of the action was happening.  

Meanwhile, all the cast except Leonard were pretty much out-of-work actors — they were not movie stars back then — and living next to LA meant it was very easy to get to see them. They did not charge anything to come to fan events in those early years. Jimmy Doohan once came to my house when a bunch of us were meeting for the campaign to get the show back on the air, basically because we offered him home-made lasagna!

interview part 1

If you’ve know Karl Urban (Bones), like at all, then you know that he’s an upbeat sunshine guy that’s a rare gem blessed upon our world. 

At conventions he’s the kindest, most generous guy you’d ever meet, I know a couple of people who have gone through things from fainting to panic attacks to being disabled and he’s accommodated every single one of them.

But over the past year, as the vast majority of you already know, ‘fans’ have basically started throwing him face first into shit he doesn’t deserve, from spending 3 weeks harassing him over a joke to the point of saying he needs to be deported from the country to making fake social media accounts under his name and trying to pick up and fraud girls with them. In fact the latter happened only yesterday. 

I thought it would be nice if we Star Trek fans and Urbanites actually did something to show our appreciation for a change, to show him there are more of us that DO care than the ones that don’t.

We’re asking for anyone, absolutely ANYONE to record a video of up to 20 seconds of yourself saying anything from simple encouragement to your favorite character of his, how you met him, how he inspired you, etc. 

If you don’t want to show your face, or don’t want to speak, then just record your hands holding paper with any nice quote on it, “thank you” or “keep going” or anything that’s short and snappy.

Send the video to [email protected]. If you want your name on there then tell me in the message so I can add it in the credits. The deadline is 1st March 2018. Once I’ve finished compiling all the videos into one, I’ll send it on twitter and you guys can retweet the hell out of it to make sure he sees it. 

(please for the love of god don’t advertise this on twitter-he checks that everyday, and this is a surprise)