Matter Anti-Matter

As Syfy happily reports its best year ever, one of the burning questions on my mind is this:

If Syfy’s rebrand has helped expand its core audience, does it then follow that the core audience of science fiction is changing as well?

In other words, is there a new ”average” science fiction viewer?

I imagine the audience for science fiction is still largely male.  But I also know that I exist, therefore it’s highly possible that there are more of me out there.

I started this site because I love science fiction—especially science fiction television shows—and because I don’t really know many other people in my age/gender bracket who are like-minded.

Don’t get me wrong—I meet plenty of people who are obsessed with Battlestar Galactica or Lost.  But for me, there’s still something missing.

As I’ve written before, there’s certainly no shortage of “Geeks” on the internet or walking around out there on the street, individuals whose personal obsessions drive their geekiness.  But I can count on one hand the number of people I personally know who would enjoy sitting around with me watching every single last episode of Enterprise, no matter how terrible, in order to satisfy my completionist compulsion. And I know exactly 0 females who would want to do this with me.

At the same time, a few years ago I went to the ginormous Star Trek convention in Las Vegas wondering if I’d meet people like me.  I will say that while everyone I met was very nice, they were definitely not like me.  There was something about the Star Trek fan that also was a little off for me.  I love Star Trek—watching it, discussing individual episodes, comparing the different series, debating continuity issues, playing with toy phasers, etc.  However I don’t remember individual episode titles and I can’t tell you if a particular phaser model is from Star Trek Voyager or Star Trek: Nemesis.  Among the hardcore fans at the convention, I felt pretty out of my league.  As a female I felt even more out of place and at times, kinda creeped out.

To get to the heart of the matter, I find myself somewhat in-between worlds.  I consider the joy that science fiction brings to me a defining part of who I am—a core part even—but a part nonetheless.

Which brings me back to my original question.  Fans and viewers of science fiction—who are you?