Las Vegas Star Trek convention movie poll is meaningless

If you hang around Star Trek websites, posters have been talking about the Las Vegas convention Star Trek movie poll. The Trekkers voted the recent Star Trek Into Darkness as last of the franchise films. They even rated the non-Star Trek movie Galaxy Quest (1999) ahead of it. So before you J.J. Abrams fans cut your wrists, let me explain why this poll is absolutely meaningless.

First, let's go over the results.

13. 'Star Trek Into Darkness'
12. 'Star Trek V: The Final Frontier'
11. 'Star Trek Insurrection'
10. 'Star Trek Nemesis'
9. 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture'
8. 'Star Trek Generations'
7. 'Galaxy Quest'
6. 'Star Trek'
5. 'Star Trek: The Search For Spock'
4. 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'
3. 'Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'
2. 'Star Trek: First Contact'
1. 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'

So does this mean that Star Trek Into Darkness is universally hated by Trekkers? Absolutely not. Here's why.

1. The Las Vegas poll was non-scientific.

The most accurate report on how the poll was taken is from David Faraci of Bad Ass Digest. Now if you read the story, he does not like Star Trek Into Darkness. More importantly the poll seems to be taken in forum at the convention. Note there are no numbers on the vote count. So were all the Trekkers at the convention polled or just the ones in the room? Faraci uses the number of one hundred. Here's the story. So there you have it. A majority of one hundred Star Trek fans hated Star Trek Into Darkness. It's not a poll of worldwide fans done by Public Policy Polling folks. And you can't take a Star Trek movie poll seriously when you have on the list Galaxy Quest.

2. The only poll that counts is the box office.

I think we can all agree that the people who went to see Star Trek Into Darkness were Trekkers. They may not be hardcore, they could have been light and medium type fans. Yeah, some who went to see the movie might have been new or not fans but most of the people that went to see it like Star Trek.

As of this article, Star Trek Into Darkness is the highest grossing movie of the franchise. Wikipedia. Those Trekkers didn't hate the movie because they came out and maybe saw the movie more than once. Case closed. The majority of Trekkers liked Star Trek Into Darkness. Folks, the Las Vegas Star Trek movie "poll" debunked.

UPDATE 8-19-2013:

Two reports about how the poll was done further debunks the Las Vegas Star Trek poll story. The official site for Star Trek seems to indicate that the poll was done applause style. "Much heated debate ensued. Insurrection elicited some cheers, prompting Hoffman to crack, "A lot of F. Murray Abraham fans in the house." Fans came to the microphone to plead for the placement on the list of their favorites... or least favorites." Then there was this comment to the Convention costume record at Trekmovie.com,

"Re: The poll – which seems to be the primary topic of conversation – it wasn’t a poll. I applaud Jordan Hoffman and the StarTrek.com group for engaging those who were able to make their OneTrekMind sessions in spirited discussions, but the attendees could not hope to represent the fan universe and there were no ballots; no counts. Jordan and crew offered up Galaxy Quest and while it was supported by the Okuda’s it did not originate from the group. The “scoring” was based on a Gong-show type assessment of the audio response to Jordan’s placements. Accuracy was subject to where Garyyou were seated in the room. Seated in the room, there was clearly a group that hated STID. A clear majority – I’m not so sure. So, great fun – yes! Meaningful at a level that merits the preceding discussion – no."

Gary Seven @ 92. http://trekmovie.com/2013/08/13/terry-farrell-helps-vegas-fans-recapture-world-record-for-most-star-trek-costumes/

So the Las Vegas Star Trek movie poll was done as an applause type poll. It was done in a forum with approximately one hundred Trekkers present I say shame on the news organizations that printed this as a story. Regardless, I can say with certainty the Las Vegas Star Trek poll story is debunked and the poll is meaningless.