Around 17.000 participants had attended (19 – 21 October 2012) the “Destination Star Trek London” 2012 Convention and celebrated the 46-year-old TV and film franchise, with six television series and eleven feature films. The event had been organised by Media 10 Ltd in associattion with Showmasters Ltd.
1,083 Trekkies, dressed up as characters from the TV series and films, beaten the previous record of 1,040 set two months ago at the last Star Trek convention in Las Vegas.
The opening day also witnessed the first ever Klingon Wedding in the UK: Jossie Sockertopp married Sonnie Gustavsson, both from Skåne, Sweden. Which can be another record for Guiness Book.
Also, the event reunited, for the first time in Europe, five legendary captains: William Shatner (Captain Kirk – Star Trek: The Original Series), Sir Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard – Star Trek: The Next Generation), Avery Brooks (Captain Sisko – Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway – Star Trek: Voyager) and Scott Bakula (Captain Archer – Star Trek: Enterprise).
All in one, a great success.
More info at:
I read that it was really sucessful and even all Captains showed up – I expected that at least one would be fianally missing. In fact this event was certainly great for fans, but also extraordinary expensive.
Yes it was a big event.
All in all it was _NOT_ a great success.
Size is not everything.
You have to know that this was not a ‘proper’ SF convention
run by SF fans and members of the SF community.
This was a commercial event organised by a commercial body
to attract followers of a particular TV show.
The prices they charged were _very_ high. It was not well organised
(long queues, poor sineage etc).
The complaints it generated made the BBC TV programme ‘Watchdog’.
For example see
http://www.eventmagazine.co.uk/Events/article/1156347/Star-Trek-convention-breaks-records-leaves-fans-unhappy
On the other hand the SF Worldcon in London 2014 will be smaller (probably around 5,000), organised by SF fans (who will be unpaid) and authors will not charge money to have books signed.
http://www.loncon3.org/
See also this clip for more on the 2014 Worldcon in Europe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iGrVCTNcAo
In fact I also prefer conventions made by fans. Especially not only paying the entrance fee, but also for autograms seems strange to me. Usually you should get an autograph by a person still alive for free – no matter if you meet him/her in person or write to him/her. (Of course a self-addressed and stamped envelope is certainly polite.)
But paying for special guest is O.K. for me. Especially as the people have to think how to earn a living due to the time-consuming activities: Some cons do not even pay the hotel for a special guest and that is also poor. Especially as the guest of honour may be famous, but especially authors are usually not rich (there are a very few exceptions), even if they are well-known, so attending a con can sure be a matter of money. – The same with awards: Everyone wants to see the winners on stage, but as long as the journey is not paid, some will simply have to stay at home because they can´t afford going there.