Are You Spending Your Vacation in a Windowless Room?

Let's be honest. The idea of spending six to twelve hours in a windowless hotel ballroom for four or more days straight would make most people run for the hills. It’s a bit like volunteering for jury duty. But we do it — happily! Thousands of us do it. Flying, driving, sometimes for hours, just to sit in that hotel ballroom and listen to Trek royalty share stories about phasers, spaceships, and Hollywood. How on Earth (literally) did that happen?

Star Trek Lives! 

In reviewing early Star Trek convention program books and articles, Star Trek Lives! (always with the exclamation point) is a phrase that appears again and again. The fandom of the early 70s was insistent that the world of Star Trek idealism continue even if the television show itself had not.

Many fans petitioned the network to return the show to the air. Many more carried the torch by producing what would be referred to today as fan fiction. Years before the earliest electronic bulletin board systems (BBS), and decades before the Internet, fans printed, Xerox'd, and mimeographed (and yes, even typed) what became known as 'zines or Trekzines - combining magazine and Star Trek. 

What the gorgon does this have to do with Trek Conventions - here's what

True to the era, connecting with other fans who shared your love of the series meant connecting face-to-face. A true fan can't be expected to wait months for the next snail mail delivery of their favorite Trekzine or Starlog magazine to arrive. In true Veruca Salt fashion, we want it NOW. The latest Trek t-shirt, please. Latest Starfleet uniform pattern, yes, now. The newest novelization, you guessed it, would also be Now. And if I want to ask my favorite Trek cast member what it was like to be on my favorite television show, and that means going to wherever my favorite cast member happens to be appearing, pack the car, we're (boldly) going to a convention.

Set Phasers to Fun

So here we are, on the verge of the 60th anniversary of Star Trek. No longer just a canceled series but an even more popular collection of television series, ten feature films based on what is now the Star Trek Prime universe, and preparing for the third installment of the rebooted franchise. And we're still sitting in that windowless ballroom, anxiously waiting for one more story, one more question to ask. Maybe it wasn't the cancellation of the original series that prompted the need for the Trek Convention (although that certainly helped). In retrospect, perhaps Gene Roddenberry's idealism and imagination were never meant to be contained in a single series or thirteen films. Maybe Star Trek is a truly interactive experience, requiring discussion and active exchange with other fans, and conventions were inevitable. 

Or maybe I'm overthinking things, and conventions are just plain fun.