Don’t worry, you’re not alone. The people in this one forum I go to also hated Voyager. As Battlestar Galactica writer Ron Moore said:

“The premise has a lot of possibilities. Before it aired, I was at a convention in Pasadena, and Sternbach and Okuda were on stage, and they were answering questions from the audience about the new ship. It was all very technical, and they were talking about the fact that in the premise this ship was going to have problems. It wasn’t going to have unlimited sources of energy. It wasn’t going to have all the doodads of the Enterprise. It was going to be rougher, fending for themselves more, having to trade to get supplies that they want. That didn’t happen. It doesn’t happen at all, and it’s a lie to the audience. I think the audience intuitively knows when something is true and something is not true. Voyager is not true. If it were true, the ship would not look spic-and-span every week, after all these battles it goes through. How many times has the bridge been destroyed? How many shuttlecrafts have vanished, and another one just comes out of the oven? That kind of bullshitting the audience I think takes its toll. At some point the audience stops taking it seriously, because they know that this is not really the way this would happen. These people wouldn’t act like this.”

Sides are shifting now as I often find myself explaining to other people about the ‘geek stuff’ I’m into. Some are genuinely curious/interested, while others are happy to find someone who can actually openly relate to some of the other niche things they are also into.

Funny thing though, that the ones I know who do heckle (the bad kind) at the geekiness of other people can be counted as geeks themselves.

followed by…

“And I noticed another thing too — normal people were desperately trying to adopt geek characteristics in order to seem cool and edgy.”

Ouchies. I guess we all just want to belong. Or be better than most.

Yeah, when I visited Japan (briefly, certainly not long enough to soak in the culture enough), I noticed that unlike what most local otaku think, Japan is not the land of anime. Anime is a small subculture in a complex culture.

Also, actual Japanese otaku are… kind of scary.

I’m no expert on the subject myself, but I’m going to post about my visit very soon, told from the perspective of a wannabe who didn’t even know what merchandise a ‘proper’ otaku would buy Stay tuned!

perhaps due to contact to them i happen to share that same point of view, so i understand a little the thought processes behind what you think is a dual existence. i do not see it as “a betrayal of your geekhood”; everyone has every right to try and fit in with society, but at the end of the day if giant transforming robots are still your thing, then go right ahead and enjoy it alongside your “normalcy”.

i personally would never accuse you of being a sell-out. and if somebody ever did, well — they are the ones who need a little more growing up to do.

thanks for dropping by the blog often. i hope to hear from you again soon. cheers!