10 Greatest Star Trek Convention Moments

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Hold on to your holo-imagers and set phasers on selfie for these Star Trek convention moments!

BY JACK KIELY
JULY 14TH, 2023

William Shatner (in)famously once told fans at a convention to "get a life," but that was for a sketch on Saturday Night Live, and it might be churlish to suggest that, somehow, he meant it. The skit didn't dispel any myths, but then satire wouldn't work without stereotype. There is always the — distinctly funnier — example of that animatedly irascible 'British' baby who created his own Star Trek gathering with the cast of The Next Generation. What Gates McFadden doesn't know about artesian wells isn't worth knowing!

Star Trek conventions proper are almost as old as Star Trek itself, and science-fiction conventions even older. With fanzines and a letter writing campaign, Trekkers and Trekkies managed to secure a third season of The Original Series, and by 1972, they had kickstarted contemporary fandom with what is generally recognized as the first large-scale Star Trek convention in New York.

By the 1990s, Star Trek conventions had become global mega-events with the founding of Fed(eration)Con in Germany in 1992, the Generations conventions at the UK's Royal Albert Hall in 1995/6, and the One Weekend on Earth Convention in (specially renamed) Star Trek, Alabama in 1996, to name but a few. The 2000s and 2010s were then the domain of Star Trek Las Vegas, Destination Star Trek, and the inexorable rise of the Comic Con.

Choosing 10 greatest convention moments out of the thousands over the years is a daunting task, but here goes…

My thanks to Clive Burrell for his input on this article.