Twenty years ago this week, Cindy Wagner and I attended our first Star Trek convention, Space Con V, at the King Henry VIII hotel in St. Louis. We had only known each other for two months, but in sharing an office at Burnham City Hospital in Champaign, Illinois, we quickly realized we both were both longtime Star Trek fans who had heard about conventions but never attended one. As this was at the height of Star Trek mania, coming off a string of hit reunion movies and a successful launch of the Next Generation, it felt like the right time to explore this world of sci-fi geekdom.

It was a lot of fun to meet and mingle with thousands of happy people who all had this bond in common. To be sure, you had to be a hardcore Trekker to appreciate some of the convention speakers, such as Richard Irwin (editor of the Best of Trek book series) and Paramount’s Richard Arnold. Additionally, there were non-Trek guests such as Ron Perlman -- the Beast from the TV series Beauty and the Best (remember that one?) – who now plays the title role in the Hellboy movies. But the primary draw for Cindy and me and others was the chance to meet George “Sulu” Takei and Nichelle “Uhura” Nichols. Both gave very entertaining presentations, telling stories they have probably related countless times over the past thirty years.

My journal entry from that day is atypically detailed for that period of my life:

June 24, 1988
- Arrive at King Henry VIII hotel at 9:45 a.m. Receive our badges and programs.
- Find seats in the ballroom and catch the tail end of a talk by Richard Irwin (ed. Best of Trek series).
- Richard Arnold, Paramount’s Trek specialist, presents a talk and slide show on ST-TNG 10-11:15.
- George Takei talks about recent events in his life, answers questions. A very interesting, funny presentation. Stars in a major film, Return to River Kwai, opening in Nov. Star Trek V starts filming in October, to open next summer. George really wants the original cast to return to a TV series revolving around Sulu. Told a very funny story about a trip to England, told us why the scene with his ancestor in ST IV never made it into the film. Talked for one hour. Doesn’t like new bridge.
- We ate lunch near the pool, met two of Cindy’s fellow ST friends from Champaign.
- Got my photo taken with a cute Vulcan girl in female version of old Spock uniform. Her name is Cheryl Storm, and she met her husband at a ST convention last year.
- Shopped at the dealer room at various points in the day – I bought a Starlog and two photos. Also looked at the art show and peeked in the video room.
- Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) talked from 1:15 to 2:15. She tells us about the making of ST IV, her ad-libbed “…fair maiden” response (which was “Sorry, neither”), appearing on Head of the Class, her hope for Uhura’s future (to return to Earth and be in charge of communications for the Federation), her Win Lose or Draw week (her
mother was mad because Nichelle didn’t tell her about it), her touring plans. Uhura doesn’t want to return to TV Trek.
- Shop until about 3:50, then get in line for the autograph session. Met a writer for Enterprise Incidents in line. Finally, get up to Nichelle and Cindy says, “I had a hard time finding any good pictures of you.” Groan! She responded, “Well, there are a few of them out there.” She was not in a great mood anyway, it seemed. George was much better. He serenaded Cindy with an old tune called “Cindy,” which made me laugh. Then he said, “And what’s your name?” Jerry. “I don’t know any songs called Jerry, so I won’t serenade you.” Uhura looked matronly in person, Sulu looked fit.
- The banquet started at 6:30. We sat at a table with a large man and his family who
helped organize the can, and a couple in their late 20’s. The conversation was very interesting. George, Nichelle, Richard, and three others ate at a table on the stage. Later, Nichelle performed a musical set which included “If They Could See Me Now,” “Do I Love You,” and “Summertime.” A charity auction hosted by Richard Arnold followed, lasting about two hours and raising thousands of dollars for the Salvation Army. A piece of art by Data (on the show, but not really by him) sold for nearly 300 clams.
- At about 11 pm-12:30 am was the costume contest, judged by Irwin, Arnold, and two others. There was a long break prior to the contest, during which “Star Trekkin’ Across the Universe,” a novelty tune by a British comedy group, was played and well-received. The contest consisted of six categories: children’s, general Trek, Trek uniforms, fantasy, humor, media. The winner in general Trek was a girl dressed as
Zarabeth, complete with purple polar bear robe, skimpy costume underneath, with
some corny ‘60’s hairdo and light blue eyeshadow Zarabeth had in that episode (“All Our Yesterdays”). Cheryl Storm, who won second place, had a hilarious “surprise” revealed as show walked on stage – Saavik, pregnant with Spock’s child. She said, “He told me he only wanted to go where no man has gone before…” The media category consisted of many Beauty and the Beast entries – B&B was quite popular at the convention, and Ron Perlman was the third main guest.
- We left after the contest, at about 12:30 am or so.

Cindy and I attended about a dozen or so Star Trek conventions over the next decade (she and I both ended up in Indianapolis durnig the 1990's), but none were as fun as this first one. I ended up meeting the entire cast of the original Star Trek series, except for my favorite – DeForest Kelly, who played Dr. “Bones” McCoy, and who was the first to pass away, in 1999.

Things have been quiet in the Star Trek universe over the past few years, with the last two movies and last two TV series widely seen as failures. However, buzz is building on next year’s relaunch – a new movie featuring younger actors playing the original crew we all know and love, with Leonard Nimoy back as the older Spock to pass the torch. I’ll let you know what I think of that in May, 2009.