2024 marks fifty years since the creation of Starfleet Command as a whole. In it’s early years SFC was a fully immersive fan organisation and still carries a lot of those elements in the 21st century. Even with the split between Quadrant’s 1 & 2 decades ago, we still retain some of the legacy ideologies and policies baked into our “Starfleet Handbook” for new and existing members.
It’s become a thing of legend that Star Trek fans are the type of fans who like to know the details. All the details. It’s a stereotype that’s been enhanced by our own fandom. We had the Nitpickers Guide series. We had Technical manuals. We had fans writing to production staff to ask how transporters worked. In turn we had the infamous ‘Get A Life’ sketch and tributes to the fandoms from news pieces of people doing jury duty in uniform to shows like Futurama introducing the Star Trek church (in a rather affectionate nod!).
I am, one some ridiculous levels, one of those fans myself. My wife won’t play any Star Trek trivia games with me after pulling out a full deck of Star Trek scene it cards and realising I knew too much, but she knew what she was getting in to!
Traditionally SFC’s Academy was part of that stereotype and in fairness, Star Trek fans always liked to share their knowledge or interests whether it be about how closely they’d watched Next Generation to how well they understood the theoretical fantasy physics of warp technology. Toi this day, it’s still somewhat true. You can’t mention the original series uniform on the internet without someone reminding everyone that they knew it was originally green.
But at some point that intricate knowledge of things wasn’t just a mark of pride of who’s the biggest geek in the room, it also became a gateway some people couldn’t or wouldn’t be able to pass through. A gateway that all too often became an accidental exclusion as the curious newcomers weren’t interested in how what the different warp scales meant or memorise the Enterprise D’s shield frequency being 257.4 MHz. Thats where Academy began to change.
For a lot of us, Academy used to be the first point of contact in SFC. Once we’d signed up, we’d be passed to Academy alongside our Unit CO and begin our ‘career’ as part of the membership. Academy was a series of trivia tests based on specialities within the Star Trek Universe and each test resulted in a score. Those who completed the test would advance to Ensign, those who passed with extremely high percentage would be instantly bumped up to Lieutenant JG.
Even just ten years ago this was a relatively big part of SFC but things have changed a lot that changed that trend. One bing element was that new Trek meant new fans or fans looking to seek out other people to join in the fun of new Star Trek after what felt like the franchise had cooled off. The rise of streaming services, such as Netflix, as well as general culture getting a liuttle bit geekier now things like Marvel movies were becoming mainstream also added to a shift in how people were approaching or finding clubs like SFC.
In contrast to Star Trek fandom having a high count of people happy go make Star Trek their specialist subject, Academy testing to get into a club felt like you had to be an expert to take part and like those reddit threads where someone will try and correct or divert into unessential trivia for no particular reason, we saw significantly less interest or affection for Academy and even long term members had fallen to a more casual and carefree vibe over the type of clubs who are still out there with strict policies and requirements.
A few years ago Academy was changed dramatically. There was no requirement to take part. Technically there weren’t any test to take part in within the ‘core’ course. We moved from a test of fandom into an introduction of who SFC were; our structure, purpose and contacts. The role of Commandant became somewhat honorary as, even after retaining old Academy tests just for members who did prefer testing their trivia knowledge, the interest in that fell to 2% of incoming members.
Academy moving from a testing ground for Trek fanatics to basically a welcome tour of SFC still occasionally causes some confusion at times. But looking at how it was re-shaped in recent years is strangely a great example of how we’ve changed and what we value most: Fun over fuss. No gatekeeping, just let everyone enjoy what they enjoy and share in general geeky fun without barriers.
Of course, while Academy as it stands will always be refreshed as a welcome pack, the “Advanced Class” will continue to exist. For now things are in need of a major refresh and there is a plan brewing. But out with that special interest, there will continue to be no barriers to being a fan as part of Quadrant 2.
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