A Trekker's Con-Fessions
| Meta | |
|---|---|
| Title: | A Trekker's Con-Fessions |
| Creator: | Roberta Rogow |
| Date(s): | 1977 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS, conventions |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
A Trekker's Con-Fessions is a 1977 Star Trek: TOS essay by Roberta Rogow.
It is about her enthusiasm for attending conventions, emphasis on costuming.
It was printed in the for-profit zine, All About Star Trek Fan Clubs #2.
Some Topics Discussed
- going to Star Trek conventions even though she's been to many already
- getting a babysitter for her kids so her husband doesn't have to watch them
- the predictability of the stage performances and shtick the celebrities provide and how she never gets tire of hearing about the old stories
- about the joy of watching episodes uncut and without commercials, being able to recite all the dialogue
- candid photos of John Townsley at the May 1976 Mini Trek Con, photo of two unidentified fans at the same con, titillating photo of an unidentified "lovely trekker worth her weight in gold at the costume call at the 1976 Star Trek Lives!, two photos take at August Trek in July 1976 (one of David Klapholz and an unidentified fan dressed as Strider from Lord of the Rings and a Rigellian Warrior, one of Rogow herself dressed as Queen Azura), a photo of Rogow as Sylvia at the 1976 Star Trek Lives!, two photos of costumers at Bicentennial Trek in 1976 (the prize-winning Thalasian, and "Salt Vampire" and "Klingon Kadette," and "Flutter Fantasy"
- much about costuming and watching the "girls"
- conventions as a place to meet up with old friends and meet new people
- wishing to recreate Star Trek's vision of the future on Earth now
From the Essay
I have a terrible confession to make.I, a respectable librarian working in a large city in New Jersey, mother of two, married for thirteen years to a free-lance copy writer and public relations man, am a Star Trek Convention junkie. I have attended all the Star Trek Cons in New York City since 1973, and have branched out to include Philadelphia and College Park, Md. in my frenzied search for Star Trekdom.
Each time I say, "I can't afford it. I cannot take any more time off from my job. My husband will divorce me and cite Star Trek as the Correspondent." But when I hear the magic words - Star Trek Convention - I pack up my bags, get a baby-sitter, and go.
My friends and co-workers think I'm crazy. "You've seen it all before," they say. "Don't you ever get tired of it?" But their scorn does not penetrate. I am hooked, and that is that.
I live for the moment when I can see the stars of Star Trek on-stage. I never tire of hearing how William Shatner stole Leonard Nimoy's bicycle [and many other old chestnuts that the celebrities told on stage a multitude of times].
I take advantage of the Dealer's Room to stock up on posters, pictures, books, and other paraphernalia pertaining to Star Trek, including the famous fanzines, publications that can often be purchased only at Cons. I even get the chance to talk to the writers of my favorite stories, and to arrange for some of my own deathless prose to be published. I like to check the art show, not only to see the works of others, but to show off my own original needlework.
I gleefully participate in the Costume Call. One year I strutted up as Roxanne Jones, Cyrano's sister, and gave a sales pitch for "Denebian pornography: seven sexes, twelve bodily orifices, and more hangups than you can shake a stick at!"Another time I flapped mournfully as The Great Bird of the Galaxy.
I have stalked majestically as Queen Azura from the Flash Gordon serials, and menaced the group as Sylvia, the witch from "Catspaw".
The highlight of my costume career came in New York in 1974 when I schlumped onstage wearing a two-piece bathing suit, the bottom half of which was draped In a sarong; a Harpo Marx blonde wig; a shell necklace; and a strategically-placed pillow. 2,500 people roared with laughter at "A Vaal worshipper six months after the Enterprise left."
I still treasure the prize I won as Most Humorous Costume - a poster showing Captain Kirk up to his waist in tribbles.
I don't just want to show off myself, I want to see what the other costume designers have come up with this time. I take picture after picture of girls like Monica Miller and Angelique 'Destiny" Trouvere, who go by the maxim "less is more." I marvel at the intricate make-up that rivals that of professional make-up artists. I am proudest of all when my own girls take their places onstage wearing costumes they helped design themselves. In my house Star Trek is a family affair.
Most of all, a Star Trek convention gives me the chance to catch up on old friendships and make new ones. Through Star Trek I have met high school and college students, teachers, media persons, crafts people, business men and women, military personnel, people from all over the country and all over the world, drawn together by a love of Star Trek and the world of the future which it represents. All of us want to help create that world in reality, not just on film. It's a world in which differences of race and sex are not so important as talent and capability; where a Vulcan can respect a Human and vice versa; where it is no longer a matter of "If we reach the stars" but when."