Boldly Going to College : Fans of ‘Star Trek’ TV series and movies have the chance to debate meaning and metaphor of cult hit’s characters in campus clubs--and in the classroom.

College: the final frontier. Academe’s ivied hallways and gleaming buildings are where great minds gather to discuss Plato, Nietzsche and . . . “Star Trek”?

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Twenty-odd years after the original “Star Trek” television series called it quits, a small armada of college students and instructors live campus life a la Trek . Whether in formal clubs or informal TV parties, they collect books and watch the program’s various incarnations--reruns of the original science fiction series, the sequels: “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” as well as the full-length “Star Trek” films.

Golden West College in Huntington Beach has its share of Trekkers, many of whom recently threw a party to celebrate the TV premiere of “Voyager,” the newest version of the show. UC Irvine student Trekkers pick up comic books based on the series at their campus’ “alt.ant” store, and sources recently confirmed that, yes, even UCI Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening is a Trekker.

“ ‘Star Trek’ is a hope or a vision,” said Ed Dansby, 22, a Golden West College student. “People think, hopefully, that will be our future.”

But college isn’t just a place to be a fan; it’s a place to study the metaphor and meaning of the cult hit’s characters, from its paragons of virtue to its pariahs. It’s about mythology. Philosophy. Social commentary.

“The idea behind ‘Star Trek’ is it’s intellectually stimulating,” Cal State Northridge film Prof. Nate Thomas said. “It says something about technology and imagination.”

UCLA film and television student Daniel Bernardi, for one, can speak to its cultural relevance. Bernardi is analyzing race relations on television through a dissertation titled: “The Wrath of Whiteness: The Meaning of Race in the Generation of ‘Star Trek.’ ”

Professors and lecturers around the country are picking up on the cue. They plaster office walls with “Trek” posters. They use the show in the classroom to illustrate ideals, concepts, intellectual theories. As “Star Trek” extends its tendrils into the world of higher education, it is boldly going where no TV show has gone before.

The Trekker movement traces its origins back to the relative few who watched the original show during its first run in the late 1960s. It gained a larger and more loyal following when the show was syndicated during the 1970s and ‘80s, fans said, and picked up young viewers for its reincarnation as “The Next Generation.”

“A decade or so ago, if you were a ‘Star Trek’ fan and you weren’t a geek, you were in the closet,” said Kenneth Carter, one of the teachers of a “Star Trek” course at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “You were embarrassed about it, but you didn’t know why. Now it’s OK to say you’re a fan.”

Not only is it OK, but the outlets to fandom are endless. There are conventions, fanzines and “Star Trek” role-playing games waged on the Internet. Then there’s the Klingon Language Institute in Pennsylvania, which has translated the Bible into a language used by Klingons, a “Star Trek” race of extra-terrestrial dwellers.

Some fans even use on-line computer connections to share their own “Star Trek” story lines, which go so far as to link the macho Captain James T. Kirk of the original series and the Vulcan Spock as gay lovers.

“People appropriate ‘Star Trek’ to fit their own needs, and they stretch the boundaries,” UCLA’s Bernardi said. “I say, ‘Leave Spock alone!’ But they’re taking (the story) places it can’t go on television.”

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The “Star Trek” story is a way for college students with similar interests to get together, much like the Monday-night gaggles of friends who watch the 20-something soap “Melrose Place.” Bernardi said one of his friends, a doctoral student, used to beg him to go to Thursday night “Star Trek” viewing parties at UCLA that drew a large following.

Biola University in La Mirada has such a club, as do various colleges across the country.

At Golden West, the unofficial club doesn’t have a president, vice president or secretary; it has an admiral, rear admiral and captain. Thanks to Dansby, the club founder, the club also counts two actors from “The Next Generation” as honorary members. Dansby slipped membership forms into their hands during a convention.

Dansby first advertised the group at a college day and offered a trivia contest that drew student Richie Vest, 19, into the group.

“Questions ranged from the really easy to the really obscure,” Vest recalled. “One was, ‘Who won the Academy Marathon of 2324?’ ”

So, did he know the answer?

“Well, yes,” said Vest, of Fountain Valley. “It was Capt. (Jean-Luc) Picard when he was a freshman cadet at the Star Fleet Academy.”

Hmm.

Most collegians don’t have to study very hard to remember trivia from the TV shows, movies and novels. But “Star Trek” has spawned a collection of actual courses and is carving out a small niche in academia.

UCLA’s Bernardi sees “Star Trek” as fertile ground for reflection on modern society. He is examining “Trek” television programs from the 1960s to the 1990s for their portrayals of race, much as scholars would pick apart literature or artistic films. “ ‘Star Trek’ is one of the first programs to be analyzed in a trend that is, in itself, initial,” he said.

It’s a serious effort, he said, but still, “when I tell people I explore ‘Star Trek,’ they snicker.”

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On some campuses, “Star Trek” has won a place amid rigorous teaching. Nim Batchelor, chairman of the philosophy department at Elon College in North Carolina, said his course--”Philosophy in ‘Star Trek’ “--relates episodes to philosophers such as Plato, Descartes and John Locke.

He explores abortion, whether androids should get equal rights, ethics and the meaning of life. “The aim of the course is to get students interested in philosophy in a way that is somewhat more enjoyable than the usual ‘Read this old text approach,’ ” Batchelor wrote by electronic mail.

Other campuses have a varied “Star Trek” selection. A sampling from course descriptions at Trinity College in Connecticut includes “Reading Television: ‘Star Trek’ as Social Text.” “Using readings in modern American political history, we will consider the political issues ‘Star Trek’ raises, including gender and race relations, foreign policy, personal autonomy and privacy,” the description reads. “A working knowledge of both ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ is required.”

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At the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Carter said his course, “ ‘Star Trek’: The Myth of Our Time,” shows students that if they “look past the cheesy effects and polyester uniforms” of the old “Star Trek,” they will see classic morality plays.

Some use “Star Trek” in academic studies, such as a faculty member at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia who researches memory by testing “Star Trek” fans’ trivia knowledge. One engineering school in the Midwest even awarded an honorary engineering degree to actor James Doohan, who portrayed Scotty--the chief engineer--on the original 1960s program.

But at the bottom of the phenomena, some college students said, is a need to hear a good story about the uncharted frontier: the time to come.

“What’s ultimately the most positive about ‘Star Trek’ is that it’s creating communities where people talk about the future,” Bernardi said. “It skirts the line between fiction and the possibilities of the imagination.”