12:20 PM

Confessions of a Closet Trekkie:

On Super Bowl Sunday 2004, I organized a small get-together with a number of my friends (about half female and half male, if you want the demographic breakdown). I have a fairly good-sized DVD collection, which is clearly visible on a big open cabinet in my living room. While the game was in its uneventful first quarter, one of the girls was eyeing my DVDs from a little ways across the room.

“What’s that 1-2-3-4-5-6-7?” she asked, unable to make out the words above the large printed numbers.

“Oh, those are Deep Space Nine box sets,” I said. For some reason, I didn’t feel a need to actually preface it with the words “Star Trek.”

“It’s Star Trek,” Andy clarified.

I wonder why he made the clarification. It was as if he wanted to make sure my geekdom did not go unexposed, perhaps my price for not putting the boxes out of sight in cabinets with closed doors. Not that I cared.

But I wonder why I subconsciously took the vaguer route of not including the words “Star Trek” in my answer to her question. Maybe because it was faster to simply say “Deep Space Nine.” Maybe because I take a certain pride in DS9 as the lesser-known, superior Trek and I wanted to stress it specifically rather than use the more generic term, Star Trek.

Or maybe it’s because I’m a hopeless closet case that still balks at uttering the words Star Trek in a social setting.

I think I need help.