‘Trekkies’ Journeys Into the World of the True Believers

Where oh where to begin this survey of Planet Trek? Do you start with the mob of Klingons who casually walk into a fast-food restaurant and order almost everything on the menu? Do you begin with the people who wear their Star Fleet regalia and insignia to the supermarket, their workplaces, courtrooms? Do you dare ponder the existence of those who would, if they could, surgically alter their ears to look like Mr. Spock’s?

Your reviewer almost lost his composure early in “Trekkies” over the story of the guy who paid $60 for the right to finish the half-empty glass of water that a flu-ridden John de Lancie (who played “Q,” the perennial bad guy on “Star Trek: The Next Generation”) was nursing while speaking at a “Trek” convention. This maniac, after polishing off the glass, shouted repeatedly before what you hope was a stunned audience: “I’ve got the ‘Q’ Virus!”

To the credit of the Trekker telling this tale, he was just as freaked as any earthling would be by such behavior. Which, as much as anything could, typifies the attitude taken by director-editor Roger Nygard and the producers of “Trekkies,” a laid-back excursion through the “Star Trek” phenomenon that boldly goes where millions and millions of fans have gone--in and out of costume.

As tour guide through this strange world, Denise Crosby, a co-executive producer of the film and an original cast member of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” is both bemused and solicitous toward her various interview subjects. She, Nygard and the other filmmakers manage to stride a thin line between dismay and affection throughout their odyssey.

You can label such an attitude, at best, calculated ambivalence, if you want. But whether you love or hate “Star Trek” in all its various manifestations on the big and small screen, you’d have to be a total grinch not to kick back and enjoy the ride.

You meet, up close and personal, Barbara (“Call Me Commander”) Adams, the Arkansas woman who served on the Whitewater jury until she was excused because she kept coming into the courtroom wearing her Star Fleet uniform. (Never leaves the house, she says, without her “tricorder, phaser and communicator badge.”) The camera follows her to her day job at a printing plant, where her bosses and co-workers praise her diligence, competence and smarts. So, see? She has a life. Right?

Denis Bourguignon not only has a life. He has a wife, children and a dental practice. His whole office suite is a shrine to “Trek.” (Even the receptionists have to dress as though they’re working the Starship Enterprise’s sick bay.) There’s also a fan who legally changed his name to “James T. Kirk” (same as William Shatner’s brawny captain of the original TV series) and another who teaches the Klingon language to fans (it says here) “around the world.” (If you have to ask what a Klingon is, this documentary may not be for you.)

At some point, the waves of fan excess reach such a peak that, much like Kirk himself used to do, you want to turn to the First Officer nearest you and shout, “Spock, why?” Well, Spock aka Leonard Nimoy is among the actors interviewed by Crosby, and he hasn’t a clue. He and everyone else in the various “Trek” casts have simply submitted to the inexhaustible power of the phenomenon. A power that, in at least one instance, saved a life, as shown by James “Scotty” Doohan’s touching story of a fan he saved from suicide by inviting her to conventions across the United States.

Laugh if you want at the Trekkers and their obsession. Many of them have enough sense to laugh along with you. But in the end, you find yourself oddly touched by these folks who share a faith in a future of equality and possibility. If you think there aren’t worse things to believe in, you’ve been skipping the front pages lately.

* MPAA rating: PG for mild sexual and drug references. Times guidelines: Aside from the bizarre behavior of a cult fan, there’s little to offend youngsters.

‘Trekkies’

As themselves: Frank D’Amico, LeVar Burton, Denise Crosby (narrator), James Doohan, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Walter Koenig, Kate Mulgrew, Nichelle Nichols, Leonard Nimoy, Brent Spiner, George Takei, Wil Wheaton, Grace Lee Whitney, John de Lancie.

Paramount Classics presents a Neo Art & Logic Production. Director, editor Roger Nygard. Producer W.K. Border. Executive producers Michael Leahy, Joel Soisson. Co-executive producer Denise Crosby. Associate producer Scott Nimerfro. Original music Walter Werzowa, Jimmie Wood, J.J. Holiday, Billy Sullivan. Cinematography Harris Done. Running time: 1 hour, 26 minutes.

At selected theaters.