Trekkies (1997)

Rarely has there been a phenomenon more tailor-made for documentary filmmaking than the far-reaching culture of Star Trek fanatics. All director Roger Nygard needs to do is show up at the right places and roll camera, and he's got more stranger-than-fiction footage than he'd need for three films. Trekkies captures all the inner workings anyone could want, and then some, of the most sophisticated corresponding lifestyle to crop up around any construct of popular entertainment. For example, who knew that Hamlet and a dozen other Shakespeare texts had been translated into Klingon? That an original member of the Whitewater jury had insisted on wearing her Starfleet uniform to court? That surgically altered Vulcan ears are a sought-after commodity? Along with its fiction companion piece two years later, Dean Parisot's Galaxy Quest, this film pays glorious homage to the geek love of Star Trek, while also ridiculing it with mere juxtapositions of footage and the simple fact of releasing it on the world in all its inherent goofiness. Accustomed to mockery, Trekkies themselves (or Trekkers, as many prefer) should find this a thorough and fulfilling compilation of their experiences, perhaps even some validation of their years of paychecks expended toward arcane memorabilia. But the freak show quotient, however sympathetically presented, is so fascinating that it should engross anyone even slightly familiar with the show. Because Trekkies has little structure beyond listing instances of devoted behavior engendered by Star Trek, the film eventually seems to have said all it can say and become repetitive. For at least its first hour, though, it's a hoot. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide