I’ve bee a Star Trek fan ever since my dad sat me down in front of the TV in 1983 and said, “Watch this.” The “this” ended up being a rerun of “The Man Trap,” the first episode of Star Trek. The rest, as it’s said, is history. (In my memory the episode was followed by an afternoon screening of Forbidden Planet but I’m fully willing to admit I may be conflating memories into one singular, perfect afternoon).
From there we would go out to the movies whenever a new on hit screens and it wasn’t much longer until Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered. I can still recall my dad and a couple of my uncles talking excitedly about it after the premier… Data was an early crowd favorite.
In the intervening decades there hasn’t been a Trek movie or TV series that we haven’t watched. In 1998 we took a family vacation to Las Vegas since it was being marketed less as “Sin City” then and more as a family vacation destination (National Lampoon did a whole movie about it. Check it out.) The highlight of the trip was going to Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton. The lowlight of the trip was walking from the MGM Grand to the Hilton in the 114 degree heat.
Star Trek is in my blood. I’m a Next Generation fan and a next generation fan since my father watched The Original Series as it aired. Yet, somehow, I’ve never been to a Star Trek convention.
Until now.
If you’ll pardon the pun, I’ll be making the trek to Las Vegas to check out Creation Entertainment’s STLV: The 58-Year Mission on August 1-4, 2024. Set phasers to FUN, am I right?
Since this is my first Trek convention I decided to do it up proper.
There are 178 celebrity guests. Let me type that out…one-hundred and seventy-eight guests. I’m paralyzed by choice over who I want to meet. How does one choose between Gowron and Martok?
There are EVENTS, so many events! I’m for sure planning on attending the Out of Drydock: Relaunching the Enterprise D panel on day one of the convention.
There’s a vendor room where you may see me purchasing a Starfleet uniform or Spock’s marshmallow dispenser from Star Trek V. I bet you thought I was going to type “marshmellon” well, there you go.
There’s still time to get tickets and boldly go to Las Vegas or you can always watch this space to see what I get up to at the convention. Heck, maybe I’ll snag an interview or two if I’m lucky.
See you…out there.
