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Text File | 1991-09-09 | 24KB | 455 lines

STAR TREK CONVENTIONS ----------------------- by Simon Plumbe ----------------- What Are Conventions? --------------------- What is a convention? Well, the best way to describe one, for those of you who don't know, is a gathering of Trekkers, usually for a weekend, where they can meet other fans, watch episodes, take part in discussions, buy merchandise from a range usually only available by mail order and in the case of the larger conventions, meet some of the cast/writers etc! They can be immense fun, although the larger conventions can be equally exhausting as their programmes run for anything up to 24 hours a day for 4 days! It's even worse if you try to stay awake for all of it! (I try at almost every con I go to! Last year at Frontiers 90 in Blackpool I finally passed out after being awake for over 50 hours!!) Where, When, How Much? ---------------------- There are at least 20 conventions going on in the UK alone every year. There are two major conventions, one at the beginning of May, the other during the August Bank Holiday weekend lasting for 4 days each. These are run by independant committees devoted to ensuring that there are TWO large conventions a year. These are the ones where you are most likely to find big guests attending (such as cast members). You can often expect to see anything up to 2000 people in attendance from all over the world! Frequent guests at these include Guy Vardaman (regular stand-in on The Next Generation), Richard Arnold (Paramount's Star Trek Research Consultant), John deLancie (Q), Mark Lenard (Sarek), numerous Trek authors including Diane Duane and Peter Morwood and even Patrick Stewart, Gates McFadden and Marina Sirtis have attended a few! On the other end of the scale, there are small get-togethers run by fan clubs which welcome outsiders to join in (the more the merrier!). These usually have small numbers in attendance, but the enthusiasm is still there. There aren't usually any guests, but there is still the essential mix of games, videos, discussions etc. As well as these, there are various others in between. For information on forthcoming conventions, look in the latest edition of Starburst or in future issues of The Final Frontier (convention organisers - write in for a free plug!). When it comes to cost, it all depends on the scale of the convention. The smaller conventions have lower overheads, so you can usually expect to have to pay around £12-15 for a weekend (Friday-Sunday). There will usually be reduced rates if you just attend for one day, and further reduced prices for children (we must encourage the Next Generation of Trekkers!). The larger conventions, becasue of the guests, are more expensive. The standard price is £25 for a 4 day convention (Friday-Monday), again with reductions for individual days and children. On top of that, you have to allow a certain amount for travel expenses, and for conventions that run on for more than a day, hotel acommodation. This isn't as expensive as you might think, as most convetion organisers arrange drastically reduced hotel rates for convention goers. A typical price for a room is £25-30 per night for bed & breakfast. This is remarkable when you consider that some hotels could normally charge you anything up to £200 a night for some rooms! Obviously, you need money for food, so I would allow at least £15 per person per day (hotel meals aren't cheap!) and then a reasonable amount to spend in the dealer's rooms or auctions. WARNING - if you have never been to a convention before, it is VERY easy to overspend in a dealer's room or to over-bid at auctions. Try to limit yourself to a set budget each day. -------------------- C O N V E N T I O N R E P O R T S -------------------------------------- WE ARE KLINGONS, TOO! ----------------------- Apollo Hotel, Birmingham, March 1st - March 3rd 1991 ------------------------------------------------------ Oh well, after all the great conventions I've been to, there had to be at least one weak one coming up, and sadly "We Are Klingons, Too!" was it! The convention was a lot smaller than any others I'd been to before with only 65 people attending. For a TREK convention, this is very small, but perhaps this was because it was a Klingon convention and not really a TREK one. The price seemed initially reasonable at £12 for the three days or £6 for either Saturday or Sunday which included a 24 page convention book with programme details, info on forthcoming conventions by the same organisers and a selection of articles and artwork. The articles were varied (well, as varied as you can get when they're all about the same basic subject!). And reasonably well written although there was too much of the "anti-Federation" attitude in the articles that was also present at the con (I should know, I was in a Next Generation uniform and many of the others there made similar anti-Federation comments). This gave an impression that anyone in a STAR TREK uniform (original or TNG) wasn't welcome at the con. There was a dealer's room, but this was very disappointing as there were only two dealers there, and one of those was a non-TREK craft stand! Perhaps "Dealer Room" would have been a more appropriate title? The real problem with the convention was the programme. All the events (videos, quizzes, discussions etc.) all took place in the same room. There was an adjoining room for people who just wanted to sit and talk but the entire convention took place in one room! This was a real disappointment and the convention's main let down - there was no CHOICE. As an example, at an earlier small convention (T'Kon 90 in Coventry, October 1990) there were about 200-300 fans in attendance and there were TWO video rooms, a Dealer's Room with five dealers, a Main Programme room where quizzes, games etc, talks and the auction took place, and a fanzine library! On top of this there was an outdoor display of Falconry (the profits from the con' were being donated to a charity in aid of birds of prey (not the Klingon ones!). At least, if there was one item you weren't interested in, you could find something else. And it was cheaper (only £5 for Saturday or Sunday)! Back to "We Are Klingons, Too!", I felt that the main problem was that the con was ONLY for dedicated Klingon fans - admittedly this was it's purpose, but it should have still held some interest for the average Trekker apart from the video programme. Also it seemed to be a bad convention for novices and it gave the impression that you needed to be a Klingon expert to enjoy anything apart from the videos. Ultimately, I felt that it was a day wasted, the only highlights being the videos - I saw a Next Generation episode from Season 3 that I hadn't seen before ("The Defector") and the animated episode "More Tribbles, More Troubles" - the first animated episode I've seen! However, £6 for 70 minutes of entertainment is hardly good value for money. The same organisers are putting in a bid to run the major August convention in 1993 - all I can say is that I hope they don't get it as I would seriously reconsider going. UFP CON '91 ------------- Grand Hotel, Birmingham, May 3rd - May 6th 1991 ------------------------------------------------- Yet another convention! This was the first major UK convention for 1991 and held in my home town - so much easier to get there! It was held right in the city centre in the Grand Hotel. The registration fee for the full four days was a reasonable £25 for four full packed days of entertainment. There were several guests in attendance. Diane Duane (author of several Trek novels and co-author of the TNG episode "Where No One Has Gone Before"), Peter Morwood (Diane Duane's husband and author of several Trek novels as well!), Mike Jittlov (Filmmaker, Director, Writer etc. who wrote, produced and done all the other work on a film shown at the con - "The Wizard Of Speed And Time"), David Gerrold (author of "The Trouble With Tribbles", "The Cloudminders", "BEM", "More Tribbles, More Troubles" and story ideas for several others) and Richard Arnold (Paramount's Star Trek Research Consultant - the man who knows more about Trek than anyone else!). There was also going to be another guest, Wil Wheaton, but he had to cancel at the last minute (I'll go into this later). There were about 900 people (about a quarter had a uniform of one sort or another) attending the con - smaller than some, but the organisers were restricted in the number that could attend by the hotel itself. There were fans attending from all over the UK and there were also fans from Germany and even a couple of groups from America!! But what was the programme like? There were several rooms used in the hotel. The main hall was used for the guest talks and for showing all the latest Next Generation episodes from the fourth season including the very popular Qpid and The Drumhead (this was shown on the Sunday, less than 24 hours after Paramount had transmitted it by satellite to all the local U.S. TV stations!). This hall was also used for the auctions and the discos at night. There were three video rooms, one showing The Next Generation, one with the original series and one for anything else! All three rooms were in use from 9:00 am until 2:00 am the following morning, although one room was used until 5:00 am for two nights. The Next Generation room was large enough to hold around 200 people, and the other rooms could seat about 50 fans each. As well as this, there was an art room, three dealer's rooms (more dealers turned up than the organisers expected), rooms for use by fan clubs, a fanzine library and three bars (it's amazing how many drunk Trekkers you can find at 2:00 in the morning!). Upon arriving, you were presented with the obligatory con package. This consisted of a timetable for the videos/talks, several adverts plus a 52 page convention book featuring articles, profiles on the guests, full TNG episode guides, art, cartoon strips and more. In an unusual move, the organisers had managed to persuade some of the guests to contribute to it as well! The best part of the convention had to be the guests talks. Richard Arnold was on stage three times, each talk consisting of slideshows with background trivia on the show and time reserved for questions from the fans (most of which were about Trek 6 and Seasons 4, 5 & 6 of the Next Generation). On the other hand, David Gerrold's talk was basically a history lesson on how The Next Generation was created! As Data would say, "Intriguing!" Again, as with Richard Arnold, he was open to questions afterwards. Then there was the charity auction, held in aid of Muscular Dystrophy. Due to the incredible amount of items donated, it was held over two sessions lasting a total of over 4 hours! Many of the guests donated items and Richard Arnold brought several boxes of items from Paramount with him. The organisers had also managed to persuade a few of the guests to actually chair the auction. Items included signed photos of most of the cast (both the original series AND the Next Generation), episode scripts, a few signed manuscripts for novels including SPOCK'S WORLD, and a few original props including some of the "computer tapes" from the original series (you remember, the square pieces of non-descript yellow plastic!). However, the highlight was a pair of the ears that Leonard Nimoy wore in Star Trek V, along with a signed statement of authenticity - these went for a staggering £400!! In total, the auction raised over £2,500!! Well done guys! However, there were a few disappointments. First, the main hall where all of the talks took place was far too small. The problems arose where there were almost as many people standing at the sides or in places where they couldn't see as there were seated! Next was the abscence of Wil Wheaton. This was, put simply, the fault of U.S. President, George Bush! Why? He decided, in his infinite wisdom, to invite the entire cast of the Next Generation and Gene Rodenberry to The Whitehouse for the same weekend that the convention was taking place. It wouldn't have been so bad, but it was only decided a few days before hand! As you could imagine, George Bush was the butt of hundreds of jokes all weekend. (With saying that, so was Wil Wheaton with messages on the notice boards such as "Where'sley Crusher"!). The real let down was not from the organisers or the guests, but from someone attending the con. On the Monday morning, at 3:50 am, somebody thought it would be fun to trigger the fire alarm, waking everyone in the hotel, calling out the fire brigade and generally causing distress and worry. Once is bad enough but the same person decided to do it again and call the fire brigade on Monday afternoon. Fortunately for that person, nobody found out who it was, or they would have probably left the convention on crutches. This, the abscene of Wil Wheaton and the space in the hotel did have a negative effect on the con, and the atmosphere wasn't as good as that of other conventions I've attended. This was the only real let down. Overall, apart from the space problems, it was a great con and well worth the £25 registration fee. The only problem is that I still haven't learnt about staying awake for the entire con and I only had about 7-8 hours sleep all weekend! Oh well, maybe I'll improve next time (no chance!). SILVERCON ----------- The Central Hotel, Glasgow - 13th - 15th July 1991 ---------------------------------------------------- By this time in the year, my Bank Manager was starting to get a little annoyed! Three major conventions in the space of just 12 weeks! How did I afford it?!? What was it like? Do you really care? This convention was held right in Glasgow city centre, infact right on top of Glasgow Central Railway Station!! The price was £25 for the three day con which started at the very early time of 10:00 am! Now, be honest, how many of you are actually awake before 10:00 am on a Saturday? I arrived the night before after a 6 hour coach journey (there was no way that I was going to catch a coach at 3:00 am on Saturday!) and checked into my room. The rooms in the Central Hotel were reasonably well furnished with a bed (!), dresser with mirror and chair, clock radio alarm, en suite bathroom, and a TV with several in-house movie channels and a few satellite stations including SKY ONE, EUROSPORT and the German channel RTL! I spent most of Friday (and most of my money!) on a tour of Glasgow with a few friends I had arranged to meet (the guys who created the animation for this issue). This night saw my first encounter with... THE PIZZA HUT!! (More on this later.) I also ended up spending several pounds on one of the new Virtuality arcade machines! They have to experienced to be believed! The con package contained the obligatory identity badge, a detailed programme of all the events plus a 24 page, A5 con book featuring profiles on all the guests plus 6 pages detailing the history of STAR TREK. Not a bad book, but small by convention standards, both in dimensions and page count. The actual convention started at 10:00 am on Saturday morning with the first videos. I woke up just after 6:00 am (to get dressed, have breakfast, watch satellite TV and climb into my uniform!). The Opening Ceremony began at 12:00 and that's when the convention sprang to life! As usual, the Committee introduced themselves and generally welcomed everyone to the con. Standard convention introductions, but when it came to introducing the guests.... oh boy! The guests at the con were Richard Arnold Research Consultant at Paramount), Marnie Mosiman (member of Riva's Chorus in Loud As A Whisper - also wife to John de Lancie - this was her first TREK convention ever!) and John de Lancie (Q). Richard Arnold also brought along a young actor, Ken Steadman, with him who will be appearing as an extra in THE NEXT GENERATION (one of his first appearances in in the season five episode "Silicon Avatar" which features the return of the Crystal Entity!!!!). As the first guest was announced, sounds of bagpipes came from just outside the hall and the guests were walked in individually behind the piper! They left the surprise until last. John de Lancie walked in, behind the piper... in a kilt! This gained an incredible response from the fans and the atmosphere was electric! He seemed to enjoy wearing the kilt so much that he ended up wearing it for the rest of the day!! One of the most unusual things I found with the fans is that almost half of the 700+ were attending their first convention and that over 90% of fans present came from Scotland - I felt like an outsider! The biggest problem I had was the language barrier - trying to understand a STRONG Glasgow accent at 3:00 am is not a good idea! With saying that, not many people could understand my Birmingham accent either! I could only feel pity for the party of Germans that were there! Another unusual element was that out of the 700 + in attendance, there were only about 5 or 6 in uniform (including myself!!). Still, that didn't stop me walking around all weekend in a TNG Season 1/2 jumpsuit!! The video programme was extensive, with one room dedicated to TNG, another to the original series and one for other sci-fi and fantasy shows including RED DWARF, SPACE 1999, ALIEN NATION, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, DOCTOR WHO and lots more. Finally, the main hall was showing selected NEW episodes in between the talks and other events and on the Sunday/Monday was the marathon film session, showing all five films. All the video rooms were open 24 hours a day! This didn't do me any good at all! It seemed that I hadn't learnt my lesson from UFP and I only got 3 hours sleep between 6:00 am Saturday and the time I arrived home at 4:00 am on Tuesday!! The talks from the guests were fantastic. On Saturday, Richard and John both gave talks scheduled for 90 minutes. Richard's first talk was a slide presentation from THE NEXT GENERATION, followed by questions on the show, whereas John's talk was just a Q+A session. However, the organisers let them carry on for as long as they needed/wanted and Richard's talk lasted for almost 2½ hours! On the Sunday, Richard talked and gave another slide show again, this time about the film series, while John was joined by Marnie for his talk. On the Monday, all four guests held a joint panel which ran for about 40 minutes. One of the problems with conventions is trying to find time to fit in the occasional meal, and being able to afford the hotel's prices! Fortunately, I spent money as a regular in the local Pizza Hut! One medium (12") pizza a day is all you need to survive a con! That way, you can get away with spending about £10 a day on food! Also, once again, I kept up with my usual convention tradition of trying to stay awake for all of it! This time I nearly succeeded! I woke at 6:00 am on the Saturday, went to sleep on Sunday morning at 1:30, woke up again Sunday moring at around 4:20 am and I finally didn't get to sleep until I arrived home on Tuesday moring at 4:00 am! I'm trying for the full four days next time! The only disappointment for me came from the charity auction. They had raised over £1,000 in about an hour, but I was upset at being out-bid for an item I'd been trying to get for quite a while - a signed photo of Brent Spiner. I was out-bid for it at UFP, and I was out-bid for it this time by just £3! What was annoying was that the person who bought it (for £80) had reached her limit so if I could have stretched to £85 I would have got it!! What made it worse was that I COULD have afforded it, if I hadn't had bought two other photos earlier on! Overall, I'd say that this is the BEST convention I've been to. It didn't have the best ever guest line up, although it was very good, but it had a fantastic atmosphere - something that's important in a con, and something that spoilt UFP '91. If the organisers plan another, it will definately be worth another trek up to Scotland! (They are also releasing a con video - expect a review in issue 2) ---------------------- F O R T H C O M I N G C O N V E N T I O N S ------------------------------------------------ SOL III '92 ----------- Date: 1st - 4th May 1992 Place: Grand Hotel, Birmingham, ENGLAND Price: ??? Guests: Guy Vardaman Contact: Heather Hillsden, 148 Reede Road, Dagenham, Essex, RM10 8DX, ENGLAND CONTAGION '92 ------------- Date: 18th - 20th July 1992 Place: Central Hotel, Glasgow, SCOTLAND Price: £30 Guests: Contact: CONTAGION, P.O. Box 867, Glasgow, G73 4HR, SCOTLAND REC-CON ------- Date: 28th - 31st August 1992 Place: Picadilly Hotel, Manchester, ENGLAND Price: ??? Guests: Contact: Tina Hewett, Rec-Con, 65 Park Road, Dartford, Kent, DA1 1ST, ENGLAND WARP ONE -------- Date: 30th April - 3rd May 1993 Place: Middleton Tower Holiday Centre, Morecambe, ENGLAND Price: £25 (before 31st December 1991), £30 after Guests: Contact: WARP ONE, 69 Merlin Crescent, Edgware, Middlesex, HA8 6JB, ENGLAND ---------------------- N E X T I S S U E ---------------------- Hopefully, next issue we'll be looking at one of the more unusual occurances at conventions - fans wearing replicas of Star Trek uniforms - why do they do it? Find out next issue. Also we are trying to put together a Beginner's Guide To Conventions - expect to see it in either issue 2 or 3. As well as that, there will be more con reports, including one from CONDUIT 91 in Manchester (23rd - 26th August 1991), one from T'KON '91 in Coventry (mid-October), one from WARP THREE in NÜrnberg, Germany (23rd - 25th August 1991) and more along with a few photos from each. Be there! Also, I may re-publish a convention report I wrote about a year ago for FRONTIERS - The 29th British STAR TREK Convention held on the 4th - 7th May 1990. It was originally published in my fanzine TEMPORAL PHYSICS, but it will be undergoing a MAJOR re-write and there will be some photos from the con as well. Let me know what you think of the idea of reviewing older cons. Should we just stick to the recent stuff, or do you want a mag that ISN'T restricted by time? If anyone wants to write a report on a convention or send some photos of what went on we'd be glad to receive them. We apologise, but we can't return photos unless you include a suitable sized SAE. Also, if you have taken any home videos of conventions, we'd love to see them (we can digitised images real time straight from video). Just send the tapes on standard VHS cassettes. All videos will be returned. Finally if your a con organiser, send us details of your next TREK con for a free advert!