A Word on Conventions

Our American correspondent discusses his experiences of Science Fiction Conventions and the tendencies of over-eager fans!

I have thought through the years that Star Trek fans were pretty strange, especially those who dress as characters and learn to speak Klingon. You look at these people from afar and have to think "we have no life." Now I once had the occasion to work at a Sci-Fi convention setting up the lighting and running the sound board.

As the technicians sat in the auditorium, watching the people walk in to see the guest speakers, we nearly laughed ourselves to death. A couple of hours before we had ran the lights and sound for one of the Star Trek stars, now we were doing a Dr. Who thing. People wandered in with scarves trailing behind them, Celery stuck over their shirts, and my all time favourite fashion statement of a silver bowl and bathroom plunger attached to the body while saying exterminate, exterminate.

Knowing what Dr. Who was and being a fan myself I did know what all of this meant, but some of the other techies didn't (you can imagine what they all thought). Anyway, I went to check the cordless microphones and asked, while backstage with the actors, if this was the usual turn out. One of the actors stuck his head around the curtain, looked at the audience and said "DAMN, Only fifty people are dressed as me, Looks like we have a small crowd today." Then he informed me that this was calm compared to the strange people who usually showed up.

So I guess the point of this article is why do people dress up at the conventions? Why more do they attack the actors? It's frightening when you are sitting near people who really do think Jon Pertwee is a time lord. The guy who played Mr. Scott on Star Trek had so many people saying "Beam me Up Scotty" at him that we took a pool as to how many there would be in 10 minutes. The correct answer won our collected dollars.

If any of you are people go to conventions remember 2 things: