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When I started this blog project, I realized I did not own any Star Wars shirts.Not a single one.
Reviewing even the shirts long discarded, out grown, or converted to rags (see yesterday's T-shirt #44), I never owned a Star Wars shirt.
Even back in the day.
Not a one.
(Yes, I know I am writing fragments, but I am doing so for effect).
STAR TREK vs. STAR WARS
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As I mentioned yesterday, I have featured four Star Trek shirts already of a total of eight that I own. But I am a fan of both franchises. Granted, Star Trek had a more seminal effect on my geekhood. How could it not? It's older. Though I was pretty young when the original show aired in its nightly time slot (1966-1969), I did watch it as much as possible. I was already a huge fan of Lost in Space, and so I naturally loved Star Trek. It's original time slot made it easier to watch as a young boy between the ages of six and eight as it came on early in the evening, but when NBC dumped it into the 10 p.m. Friday night slot, I missed a great deal of the show. But the show lived on in syndication, and it filled one of three slots in the triple threat of after school programming in my intermediate school years (grades fourth-sixth). Every day, from from 4-6 p.m. as I did my homework, I would watch a 30 minute block of Bugs Bunny cartoons, followed by Gilligan's Island, and then Star Trek. I collected all the Star Trek books, toys, and models. My cousin actually joined a Star Fleet fan club and had official uniforms, of which I was envious, but I did not have such opportunities. But, please realize that for most of my childhood, there was no Star Wars to love.By the time Star Wars came along, I was fifteen years old and taking driver's education. Though it came out in May, I am not sure if I saw it until school recessed for the summer in early June. By the time I did see it, I was blown away and quite hooked. However, I did not forsake my Star Trek love. But I put a lot of energy into Star Wars geek love from 1977 to 1983. After all, at the time, the Star Trek franchise was languishing in mediocrity. Though many of us enjoyed the animated series(1973-1974), there were no new products (other than the books) issuing forth from the Paramount pipeline until the first motion picture (1979), owing its existence to the way that the Star Wars franchise revitalized an interest in science fiction (especially "space opera") that had waned for the better part of the 1970s from its filmic heyday in the 1950s and 1960s born of its "pulpy" popularity as a written form dating back to the late 19th century.
With these two great franchises, I do not see the decision of fandom to be a dichotomy, such as the question of PC or Mac. (Honestly, I do not even see that marketing strategy segregation as necessary.)
Why not both?
