Melanie Nemer
| Fan | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Melanie Nemer |
| Alias(es): | |
| Type: | |
| Fandoms: | Star Trek, costuming |
| Communities: | Austrek |
| Other: | |
| URL: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Melanie Nemer (1972 - ) is a fan who has been active in the Australian science fiction media fandom community for over twenty years.
Melanie grew up in a Victorian country town where access to TV stations was limited and there were no local movie theatres. She moved to Melbourne in 1991 and was introduced to Star Trek: The Next Generation by a family member. The weekly video store hire became a 'not-to-miss' event, with each release of a new Star Trek TV series, her love for the genre grew. While living in Northcote during the 1990’s, she began attending the Westgarth Cinema, which held 24-hour horror and sci-fi movie marathons, as well as screening the 10 Star Trek movies in a row in the early 2000’s.
Star Trek Fandom
In the year 2001, Melanie was introduced to fandom when she attended an Austrek meeting, at that time based at St Mark’s Church in Camberwell. She immediately joined after her first meeting, became a regular attendee, and followed when the club later moved to a new location at the Northcote Town Hall.
She was drawn to Star Trek because of its optimistic outlook:
People who’ve had a struggle in life often say they feel better after they’ve watched Star Trek... It’s the opposite to the feeling you get from watching the news when you usually see humans at their worst.[1]
After 6 years in Austrek, Melanie became a general committee member, assisting at the meetings with setting up, catering, memberships, meeting organisation and meeting notes. During this time, Melanie regularly contributed artwork for The Captains Log, as well as creating more than 25 issues of the Captains Log publication over the years.
Melanie was Austrek Vice-President between 2011 to 2014, and she then took on the role of President for 6 years, until 2020, just before the beginning of the COVID lockdowns in Victoria.
"It might be the wrong thing for the club president to say but, to be honest, when it comes to arguing about the technical design of the Enterprise or what happened in a specific episode, well that's not me... For me Star Trek is not so much about the technology; to me Star Trek is about booking my ticket to travel somewhere else – I'm along for the ride and the adventure, not all those little technical details."[2]
During her time as President, the club celebrated its 40th birthday (2016) coinciding with Star Trek's 50th Birthday. A gala ball was organised in the month of September for 100 guests, including a sit down 3 course meal, LED dance floor, live band and DJ, raffles, door prizes and of course, every attendee either in black tie or full-dress costume. The organisation involved more than 9 months of constant committee meetings and decision making, all the while the continuation of the usual monthly club meetings, Captains Logs continued.
There were many other costumed “away mission” style events for the club during this time, including the Soda Rock Café, Kryal Castle and a visit from the Victoria UFO Action group which took years to coordinate due to logistical issues.
Melanie started the club's Instagram page and YouTube pages.
In 2024, Melanie was recipient of the Allshorn/Marchant Award from Austrek, for her services to the club and fandom.
Pop Culture Fandom
The first pop culture event for Melanie was in 2004 via First Contact Conventions with guests Cirroc Lofton and Penny Johnson Jerald. This also was the beginning of her love of making Star Trek costumes, with the assistance of her grandmother. TOS, Klingon, T’Pol, Orion slave girl, and Andorian, to name just a few.
Melanie regularly attended pop culture events, originally starting in 2007 working as a volunteer at Armageddon, being a stand assistant for wrestlers Rob Van Dam, Jasmine St. Clair and Sabu. Pop Culture events became regular annual occasions with Armageddon, Supernova, Comic Con, as well as the smaller suburban events, that became an important stepping stone for Austrek to reach out to new members and reconnect with old ones. Melanie attended and worked on the Austrek stand during a majority of these events, effectively serving as an Austrek ambassador to the media.
Some Other Accomplishments
Melanie appeared as a team member for the "Star Trek versus Star Wars" game show on the Australian television program, Bert's Family Feud in 2008. In 2016 during Austrek's 40th Birthday year, Melanie interviewed (for Channel 7 Morning Show) actors Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban and John Cho. This was a fantastic opportunity to not only interview the actors, but also to shine a light on Austrek as the world’s second oldest continuing Star Trek club.
Gallery
Pop events: Mr Vile with Mel (centre) and Reels.
Bert Newton with Melanie and her team mates on his TV quiz show.
Mr Vile and Mel at a Melbourne pop culture event
Mel interviewed by TV news for the Sydney premiere of Star Trek Beyond in 2016
Melanie with cast of Star Trek Beyond in 2016
Melanie with club co-founder Geoff Allshorn at Austrek's 40th anniversary, 27 August 2016
Mel meets Brad Altman during a George Takei talk in Melbourne, Australia, in 2017
References
Unless indicated otherwise, all photos supplied by Melanie.
- ^ Quoted in Julia Irwin, 'Australia’s oldest Star Trek fan club to celebrate 40 years in Northcote', Northcote Leader, 16 October 2015
- ^ Quoted in Adam Turner, 'Austrek celebrates Star Trek fandom', Sydney Morning Herald, 5 July 2016