Not too long ago, I was chatting online
with some fellow geeks when one of them said that they were bored
because there was nothing good on to watch. This was followed by the
usual nerd battle over which particular fandom was the best and how
all others pale in comparison. (For the record, classic Doctor Who is
the best fandom.) It amazed me how so many fans of geek culture and
shows put on blinders and tune out almost everything except one or
two franchises that check all their beloved boxes. I pointed out that
they should be thanking their lucky stars for what's going on in
geek, and by extension, popular culture. Allow me to step out of my
old man cave, yell at young nerds standing on my lawn, and explain
why we might be living in a golden age of geekdom.
Before I begin, a little personal
history so that you know where I'm coming from. I was born back in ye
ancient epoch known as 1970. I grew up as a geek due to my father's
influence. He loved Tolkien, Star Trek, Robert E. Howard, the
Universal monsters, Michael Moorcock. Godzilla, Edgar Rice Burroughs,
and so on. He was a geek through and through, not to mention being a
machinist, amateur gunsmith, hunter, carpenter, and so on. We watched
Creature Feature every Saturday night, and he took me and my brother
to the movies every week to catch the latest flick, which was usually
sci-fi or fantasy. (Nothing says joy like seeing Alien when you're
nine!)
So what does my age have to do with
today's state of geek affairs? Quite simply, the state of popular
culture is a far different beast than it was when I was growing up.
We only had one or two shows a year that might be of interest to
geeks, such as Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Six Million Dollar
Man, Battlestar Galactica, or Buck Rogers. Most shows of this genre
only lasted a single season, and many of them didn't get that far,
such as Fantastic Journey and The Phoenix. Our one constant on TV was
syndicated Star Trek and later Doctor Who on PBS (donate now!).
Conventions were rare and not that huge, and the huge sci-fi movies
were essentially relegated to the latest Star Wars film. Now let's
look at geek culture today in regards on several fronts.
TV is probably the best reflection of
the dominance of geek culture today. My teenage self would have been
blown away by just the CW network alone. Just think about the number
of nerd-friendly shows on that SINGLE network: Supergirl, Arrow, The
Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, iZombie, The 100, and Supernatural. Then
look at what other offerings are available on other networks and
cable channels: The Expanse, Agents of SHIELD, Killjoys, The Walking
Dead, Dark Matter, Gotham, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Westworld,
Mr. Robot, The Librarians, Once Upon a Time, Preacher, Colony,
Shadowhunters, and so on. Whew! That's even before we take Netflix
into account with their insanely awesome Marvel shows. There is
honestly too much crunchy good stuff on TV right now for geeks to
even keep up with (and I've tried!). Even better is that many of
these shows are enjoying lengthy runs. Just compare this lineup to
what older fans had to endure, such as feeling lucky that new
episodes of Man from Atlantis and The Six Million Dollar Man were
airing the same week.
Now let's turn my old man diatribe to
the movies. It is true that we had the original Star Wars and Star
Trek films. Outside of that, most sci-fi films were usually blatant
rip-offs of said franchises and good fantasy films were extremely
rare. For every Conan the Barbarian, we got a lot of Italian
sword-and-fantasy flicks like Ator: The Eagle Warrior and Yor: Hunter
from the Future. While entertaining, they were not exactly top-notch
productions that set the world on fire. As for superheroes, forget
about it! Now it seems that a major geek-themed film is released
every other week. We have the never-dying Johnny Depp in the Pirates
of the Caribbean films, a new series set in the Harry Potter
universe, and even a new Star Wars movie every year. Every year! To
think I waited three years apart to catch the original trilogy way
back when. We've seen a slew of great (and not so great) sci-fi
flicks released over the last few years (with Interstellar being one
of the best). However, it's the comic book movie that is truly night
and day different from ye olden times. Marvel is still setting the
box office on fire while the idiots at Warner Bros. can only stand
there, puzzled at how they're failing. Captain America, The Avengers,
Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man, Doctor Strange - the hits just
keep coming. While some may decry the X-Men films, you can't deny the
good run that they've had, not to mention the Michael Bay-shaky cam
Transformers. The only fly in the ointment is that fantasy is still a
distant cousin to the superhero and sci-fi films in terms of
popularity, but with everything that's out there right now, who can
complain? Movies that cater to geeks are now the norm, not the
exception.
Another sign of the current golden age
of geekdom is gaming. Video games have never been hotter, and many
releases actually earn a lot more than blockbuster movies. Consoles,
PCs, and mobile devices are all readily accessible for some gaming
action. The rise in eSports has been phenomenal, and even ESPN has
been forced to show some tournaments due to the tens of millions of
gamers that regularly watch them. The prize pool for last year's DOTA
2 The International was over $20 million! Then there's the matter of
tabletop gaming. The amount of games that geeks can enjoy playing is
astronomical. We have tons of role-playing games, with the 5th
edition of Dungeons and Dragons leading the pack. Miniature games are
still going strong with the likes of HeroClix, Attack Wing, and
Warhammer 40K. However, it is board and card games that have really
exploded over the last ten to fifteen years. Settlers of Catan helped
usher in this golden age of quality gaming. Whether you're looking
for intense strategy or just some laughs, there are lots of options
available, such as Forbidden Island, Exploding Kittens, Ticket to
Ride, The Resistance, Cards Against Humanity, and Talisman (an update
of the classic title). Playing such games is no longer considered a
shameful act that has to be hidden from prying eyes. How can you deny
that we live in a golden age of geekdom when there are bars that
cater specifically to geeks and encourage gaming?
I could go on and on with how us geeks
are living in a golden age. The amount of fantasy and sci-fi books
that bookstores carry is staggering. Children are getting hooked into
our culture through the massive proliferation of YA literature.
Conventions are now a huge business and can be found being held every
weekend. Then there's the amount of collectibles that devour our
savings to consider. Seeing Doctor Who action figures in a retail
bookstore was something that would have been impossible to conceive
of thirty years ago, and I'm not even going to get into the Funko pop
vinyl mania. The point is that we can see a new geek-themed movie
every other week, watch at least a few dozen shows on network
television, play more games than we have time to do, and read a
library's worth of sci-fi and fantasy books that are released every
year. Are we living in a golden age of geekdom?
It's hard to
argue against it.
Jeff Francis has been a lifelong geek,
be it for toys, comics, Star Trek, D&D, classic horror, or Doctor
Who. He once owned a game shop for over a decade and has been an
online gaming journalist for over seven years by the moniker of
Jeffprime. You can visit his personal website at Starbasegeek.com to
read more of his mad ramblings.
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