Geek Syndicate
come true for European Star Trek fans including me who was taking in the moment knowing that I will most likely never get this chance again. The individual talks were also very entertaining but in very different ways ranging from the deep and meaningful Brooks to the powerful and determined Mulgrew; then Bakula’s singing and Stewart being the true British gentleman. But of course the best (for me) was always going to be William Shatner and he did not disappoint even when he defended his favourite film Star Trek V which after his impassioned talk I will actually go back and watch. The other talks on Stage B were at times much more fun and more intimate but also there was a downside to this but more on that later. The talks were either what I would call major B talent like Walter Koening, Brent Spiner and John De Lancie, then we also we had group talks themed as the ladies of trek, the DS9 cast, Klingons, The Dominion and Enterprise. You can guess who was in what based on the attendee’s listed above. My favourite one of these had to have been the Enterprise gang of Dominic Keating, Connor Trinner and Anthony Montgomery who were truly mad and on fire and the whole au54
dience was in hysterics. These guys have a stage act that just seems to show true friendship. A close second was the Klingons represented by JG Hertzler and Robert O’Reilly, Micheal Dorn had his own solo talk. Hertzler and O’Reilly came along with their Bat’leth shaped guitars and seemed to enjoy behaving like Klingon and enjoying life to the max. The DS9 cast always seem to be more serious than any other cast from other shows. Maybe this is because their show was more serious. The Dominion was in force with Casey Biggs, Jeffery Combs and Marc Alimo who talked a lot about playing the bad guys and also Shakespeare. Stage C was aimed at the behind scenes of trek with talks from the Producers and crew. Every day the first session was to meet the team at SFX magazine with the audience asking questions about life as a journalist or how the internet has changed how they do their job. Other talks included meet the producers from all the shows of which my favourite were the talks with Ronald D Moore who always gives amazing insight into how it all started and the various challenges. Also on stage C were talks with the owner of the Star Trek Museum in Germany and a lesson on how to apply Klingon makeup. The last stage was the Stunt Stage which had some debates about the best of each of the various Trek shows and the evolution of the fan. These were medley entertaining and I wish they had more interaction and more attendance. The reason you had the
Stunt stage was because there was a paid Stunt show which I watched some of but unfortunately this was far from a Star Trek stunt show as it was really a group of young guys doing flips and parkour but wearing various coloured Star Trek tops. This just seemed wrong to me and I was expecting to see Klingon bat’leth training fights etc or how to take a fall from a Phaser blast. As every good convention goer knows one of other key parts of the con is what you can buy. At DSTL there were some good quality stalls which ranged from official merchandise to a £100 replica of the original series Phaser. As always Forbidden Planet were there with Star Trek themed items for purchase and from what I could see it was always rammed in the small area they were allocated. There was also a collectables stall that you could buy those hard to find items at a high price. Along with these types of stalls we also had The Official Star Trek Magazine and SFX both offering special rates for new subscribers. One stand that I loved was the Star Trek Official Starships Collection which launches in the new year. These miniatures of the various ships in Star Trek looked and felt lovely and I highly recommend you look out for them when they launch. Star Trek games have always been hit or miss and at DSTL we had both video and board games represented. The creators of Star Trek the Game were