Star Trek and the Faithful Trekkies
Popular Culture as a Religion
Star Trek can be defined as a religion within its own right. Jonathan Z. Smith sees religion as a subcategory from which different species are rooted, to be shelved below the concept of activity, below the beginning category of institutions. He takes issue with seeing it as a stand-alone category, yet forces himself to define it as human activity as an interaction with a superhuman being through various culturally determined mechanisms. He states that “’Religion’ is not a native term; it is a term created by scholars for their intellectual purposes and therefore is theirs to define” (Smith 281). The intentional vague explanation and lack of specificity allows for the interpretation of the show as a religion.
Star Trek’s fan’s worship of the show, its characters and its plot can be defined as human interaction with ‘superhuman’ beings through the fandom and its mechanisms. To be more specific, Smith does not define what superhuman is, thus the concept of the characters on the show, can considered as such. Captain James T. Kirk, though human, is revered as an extraordinary human as the main character, and other characters such as Spock are half human half Vulcan, and could therefore be defined as ‘superhuman’. The interaction between these characters and their fans are non-tangible, just as many monotheistic religions are today. The culturally determined mechanisms used to interact with these characters ranges from devoutly following the show, the learning of the made up language Klingon, cos-play, the purchasing of merchandise to do with the show as items of reverence such as poster, figurines, costumes, etc. and many more.
Just as Star Trek is considered to be a religion, by Smith’s loose definition of the word, it is also considered to be a part of popular culture. Just as the definition of religion is subject to interpretation, as is the definition of popular culture. Holt N. Parker states that “a precise definition of popular culture is elusive, perhaps delusive” (169). In support of this he also states that it does not necessarily need to be defined that, “Popular culture is like pornography — in, oh, so many ways: we may not be able to define it, but we know it when we see it” (Parker 147). Star Trek is a large part of the television and science-fiction community. It’s presence within these two spheres and the fact that it has a global reach can place it within a basic concept of popular culture as a form of entertainment. Star Trek can be considered a polytheistic religion, with the many main characters acting as the gods, and the people who follow the religion paying tribute to all of them through sacrifices of their time, attention, and money.
Star Trek is an addictive popular culture entity, and its addicts worship it as a religion. These addicts or worshipers call themselves ‘Trekkies’. These Trekkies are so involved in their worship of Star Trek that many become enveloped in their forms of worship.
Conan O’Brien even states that Star Trek is a religion, when discussing the success of the latest movie featuring Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, and demonstrates the importance of the franchise to their form of worship. The beginning of this clip emphasizes this point:
Star Trek ‘The Original’ series first debuted in 1966, and its following has been growing exponentially, even in the 1970s, people were worshiping this parcel of popular culture. There is a large history to the following of the series. Here is an old clip that demonstrates the commitment of the Trekkies to the ‘religion’.
The following link takes a satirical look at the Trekkies, to emphasize how involved they are in the worship of the show today.
To conclude, Star Trek is an example of popular culture as an implicit religion. Some people worship this entity, arguably in just as intense a manner as monks would in Buddhism or Christianity. The worshipers’ or fans’ human activity based on interacting with ‘superhumans’ through cultural mechanisms is a form of reverence, addiction, or religiosity, or all of them combined. Star Trek can be defined as a religion.
P.S. If interested in learning Klingon visit: http://www.kli.org
Works Cited
Parker, Holt N. “Toward A Definition Of Popular Culture.” History and Theory 50 (2011).
Smith, Jonathan Z. “Religion, Religions, Religious.” In Critical Terms for Religious Studies. Ed. Mark C. Taylor, 269–284. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
