‘Cookie Trek’ Charts New Course for Fanfic, Online Fandom And Interactive Fun
Twitch streamers guide fans who create a unique new Star Trek adventure each week
If you’re anything like me growing up, you loved Star Trek fan fiction and those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books which let you make decisions as you read that determined the course of the narrative as the story went along.
Now imagine bringing those two things together, along with the interactivity and immediacy of online fandom.
That’s a good description of what the fans at Architects of Fate (AoF), a channel on the Twitch interactive livestreaming service, are up to Friday evenings with “Cookie Trek.”
AoF hosts Rufus and SimonTCat each week lead participants in building a Star Trek story from basically the ground up, and both are longtime fans.
“But really...all of Trek is like family. If I'm traveling, I will even watch an episode if it's dubbed in another language,” Rufus said.
They started Cookie Trek on Thanksgiving Day two years ago as a joke.
“We started on a holiday as a bit of a joke. We thought no one would show up and we thought that was a funny idea. To do a livestream with no one watching at all,” Simon said.
(The AoF hosts asked to be identified only by their online identities for the sake of theatrics.)
The stream got its name thanks to a little cross-franchise pollination, from the popular “Give Me Solo and A Cookie” memes from Star Wars.
“The original title ‘Solo and a Cookie’ is a riff on ‘Solo and the Wookie’ from Star Wars. We decided to pick a cookie for each episode. We have sampled quite a few now,” Rufus added.
Anywhere from half a dozen, to a dozen or more fans usually show up to participate.
“There are some regulars that come in and chat the whole time, and a couple that come in, launch a popculture torpedo at the story and than sit back and enjoy us managing it,” Simon said.
Cookie Trek also has a bit of a Mystery Science Theatre 3000 vibe, the hosts say.
“We are also fans of MST3K and I think the strategy of riffing is very alive with what we do,” said Rufus, adding, “We try to embrace 'yes...and' from improv. But we also do in-progress retcons like a writer’s room.”
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And you never know what characters will show up, from week to week.
“Last week, we had to deliver Grogu back to his universe. But in the past we have also pulled in characters from the Andy Griffith Show; drag; Mariah Carey; Marcel Duchamp; Tarantino movies,” Rufus said.
“We don't use the established characters, and that really opens up what can happen. And (as Rufus just pointed out) it means that people can just ‘drop in’ when the audience asked for or injects them into the story,” Simon added.
Cookie Trek is a great way for Star Trek fans to spend a Friday evening, the hosts say.
“It’s random and crazy and hopefully lots of laughs,” Rufus said.
Added Simon: “For me just having fun with star trek at the end of the week, taking all the toys you remember fondly out of the toybox and playing with them.
“And also the randomness and that somehow it all gets worked into a pretty good and very star trek story,” he added.
Architects of Fate stream Cookie Trek on the Twitch streaming service each Friday at 7 pm ET.
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