Snowflake Challenge 2025 #2: "To the journey"

[alchemicink]

Challenge #2
In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story.



I think my fannish origin story starts with Star Trek Voyager.

I've talked a bit about that before in this post. But to summarize, I stumbled across Voyager when I was around 8 or 9 years old and quickly fell in love with the characters who were on a long journey home. It helped that UPN played reruns of the series every weeknight, so I was able to watch over and over and over again.

I remember doodling characters and daydreaming scenarios all the time for the next several years. But I didn't have any sort of access to the larger fan community at the time (I wasn't really even aware it existed), so I generally enjoyed all my fun fannish stuff by myself.

By the time I got to high school, Voyager had ended and, even though I still continued my rewatches, my active interest had shifted to things like Stargate SG-1 and anime (particularly at the time, series such as Yu-Gi-Oh, Yu Yu Hakusho, Fullmetal Alchemist, Fruits Basket, etc). And by that time, I had various friends who were interested in those things too. So I finally had people to "fangirl" with for a bit. At the same time, I was exploring the internet more and stumbled into reading fanfic.

I even wrote a little bit of fic with my friends back then (thankfully, we never posted any of it online 😂 I'm glad I waited until my writing skills had drastically improved before becoming a full-fledged fanfic writer!)

Over time, I've added plenty more fandoms along the way, met new friends, and focused on fanfic as my main way of interacting with fandom. But I still notice that Voyager had such a big impact on what I enjoy today.

One of my favorite fic tropes, for example, is a good old roadtrip. One with plenty of disasters and group bonding along the way. Just like the Voyager crew, right?

B'Elanna, the angry half-Klingon chief engineer, was always my favorite character on the show. And I've noticed over the years that I still gravitate towards angry-ish characters as the most interesting ones for me to write. And I enjoy any AU featuring a mechanic or engineer.

I also have to say that, as a young girl, seeing a woman in the captain seat was quite inspirational to me. (I live in a place that's still steeped in the traditional "a man should always be in charge" mindset. But I could always point to Captain Janeway and think "why not a woman too?")

Anyway, this got more rambly than intended! But Voyager was my introduction to the idea of being fannish about something, and it still has an impact on me today, 25+ years later.

(I will wrap this up by shamelessly linking to my Voyager fics 🤭 I'm hoping to write more of them this year!)

Comments

[gingicat]

Nice! Captain Janeway is a major character in the Star Trek: Prodigy animated series - she's the holographic mentor to the children, voiced by Kate Mulgrew.

I'm doing a Voyager rewatch and I'm delighted at how well it holds up. Agreed with all your observations.

[alchemicink]

Oh yeah, I was able to watch Prodigy a few months ago and really enjoyed it! I'm glad they included Captain Janeway in the series

A lot of episodes really do hold up quite well!

[bluedreaming]

I remember you writing about that! It’s such a great starting out origin I think; sometimes I think of starting out in fandom/first being fannish as the online/or at least interactive side, but it’s a good reminder that fandom/being fannish about something can always be a group of one too (and still impactful). ♡

[alchemicink]

Yes, I was definitely doing fannish things by myself before I found other people to enjoy them with! Though it's more fun to share with others, it wasn't any less fulfilling to enjoy on my own too 🥰

[linky]

It's really nice to learn how you got into fandom! :D One of these days I really wanna check out Star Trek.

[alchemicink]

Star Trek is great sci-fi! And every series is a little bit different than the other, so if you don't vibe with one, you may enjoy another one! I hope you get to check it out some day 🥰

[silveradept]

The pre-Internet days were full of a lot of people doing their fannish things themselves, or communicating at best with zines and conventions. And being slightly relieved that they didn't have the Internet to post all of their things on.

Voyager was a good Star Trek. Different than DS9, but having a woman as captain, and a woman Klingon as chief engineer, definitely made for a different vibe on the ship, and a likable one. Without Janeway, we probably don't get Captain Freeman for Lower Decks, too. So, hooray for Voyager and the sheer amount of women characters it had in important roles.

[alchemicink]

For sure! It was definitely a different time back then

I totally agree. The series really set the stage for women in leadership, and it's been great to see that continue in later series. (I love Captain Freeman!)

[silveradept]

It's interesting to think of Star Trek as one of those shows that does things that rile the conservative-minded under the guise of "well, it's the future," even as those same people think of it as a conservative kind of show. How far we go in such short times.

(I love Lower Decks, if for no other reason than the Freeman-Mariner dynamic and how self-aware Mariner is of her unsuitability for command, even though she's great for leadership.)

[alchemicink]

True! I've never understood how they can watch the series and still think of it like that. Baffling

(Oh yes, the Freeman-Mariner dynamic is really great to watch. We don't really get a lot of other mother-daughter relationships in the franchise.)

[silveradept]

No, we don't get all that many mother-daughter relationships in Star Trek. I can't think of any other than that one, honestly.

[alchemicink]

The only other one I could think of was Deanna and Lwaxana. But that wasn't very frequent

[musyc]

One of my favorite fic tropes, for example, is a good old roadtrip. One with plenty of disasters and group bonding along the way. Just like the Voyager crew, right?

......... huh. You make a solid point. XD

[alchemicink]

Haha, yes, I had the realization a few years ago and it blew my mind 😂