Ne'A'Driar

Convention
Name:	Ne'A'Driar
Dates:	1987-1999
Frequency:
Location:	the UK
Type:
Focus:	Star Trek:TOS
Organization:
Founder:	Claire Saunders
Founding Date:
URL:
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Ne'A'Driar was a Star Trek: TOS mini-con held in the UK. There were at least eight of them, the third (if not more) generating a con zine.

cover of the con zine for the third con

Ne'A' Driar 1 (1987)

Ne'A' Driar 1 was held in 1987.

Con report:

Its venue at Shepperton Moat House Hotel, which proved a lovley building. Ideal for Cons. It was just that Shepperton is not easy to reach by public transport on a Sunday! I was later arriving than I'd hoped, but then I was in good company - so were Diane Dunne and her husband Peter, the guests of honour! The Con itself was friendly and well run by the Middlesex Group, and I was delighted to find transport laid on from the station to the hotel and back again afterwards - a nice gesture that was appreciated. I enjoyed the fancy dress competition, unusual perhaps at a one-day Con, and was pleased to see almost all entrants get recognition for their incredible efforts. The Dealers' Room was a nice mix of professionals and amateurs, and I was pleased to get a copy of 'Strangers from the Sky' at last, and several other goodies. The Committee laid an two full video programmes and devised a quiz game which held virtually every attendee enthralled for hours - no mean feat that! Diane and Peter gave a very good talk - they sees a perfect foil for each other and very funny together. Afterwards, she autographed the novels I'd carefully taken with me and both she and Peter seemed to be quite conspicuous for the rest of the day. I hope they enjoyed it too! The Committee were running their first Con and it must be a tribute to all the hard work they put into it that It went so smoothly and was so enjoyable. The only drawback was that the Moat House Hotel Group's idea of cheap food differs somewhat from that of the average fan! But I hope Ne'A Driar plan another Con for next year, and I can always take sandwiches then!

Ne'A' Driar 3 (1989)

Ne'A' Driar 3 was held on 29 October 1989 at the Shepperton Moat House; guest was Rupert Evans; there were guest speakers, videos, fancy dress competition, quiz, and dealer's tables. There was also a con zine.

Ne'A' Driar 3 (1989): Con Report

My first report for my first con! It was rather nerve-racking walking into the Moat House and seeing the queue of people waiting to register, many dressed in outfits from both Star Trek and The Next Generation - and one or two in other outfits, including: Troy Tempest. But the people behind the desk soon put me more at ease and handed me my envelope of information. Including a con badge and a Spock badge (my having already indicated he was my favourite character). The programme for the day was impressive and I was immediately torn between which thing to see first. I decided on a visit to the Dealers' Room, where I would see the familiar faces of Marion and Richard from 'At The Sign of the Dragon', as I knew no-one else beforehand I knew I'd feel more at home once I'd spoken to them -- I was right. By the time I'd chatted to them for a while and bought my copy of 'Cry of the Onlies' they'd kept for me, I felt more at ease. I then looked around the rest of the tables and spent some more of my savings. I was only part-way round the hall when we were called to the opening ceremony, and I had some zines put by for me until later. The committee and the guest speakers were introduced. It seemed that Rupert Evans had always been visiting Gene Roddenberry whenever asked to be a guest, so this time the con had been fixed to fit in with his visit!

Only 200 people had been expected, but over 230 had already registered by the opening ceremony. After the opening ceremony I stayed for the talk by Brian Johnson, He had worked on a variety of films including 'Aliens', and also on 'Space: 1999' (mentioning that no matter how good special effects were, if the story wasn't good then no-one watched!) He showed us excerpts from various films and then explained how they'd been put together. 'The Empire Strikes Back' was the one I liked best, they'd employed over 120 visual effects technicians and used 420 special effects shots in the movie… At noon I scooted over to the Raleigh Room to see 'Wolf in the Fold', one of the original episodes which I hadn't seen for a long time. I decided it was not one of the best, but I had forgotten quite a lot of it, so it was worth seeing again.

After lunch I went back to the main hall for the charity auction, which raised £319 for the British Diabetic Association. The most expensive item was a painting of Spock and the Enterprise which went for £29. There were also signed photos of Uhura, Scotty, Nurse Chapel, the Squire of Gothos and Q. and some non-Trek items from UFO, the Professionals, etc. There was even a German Star Trek book!

I was still hooked on the main hall when Stuart Galloway, an optical supervisor according to the programme, talked about his experiences. What surprised me most was that he felt directors didn't trust "new technology" and wanted to stick to things they were sure would work. So much for 'To boldly go...' He recommended everyone should see the film 'Willow' which was very well done both technically and artistically. His talk was followed by the fancy dress competition.

By this time things were running a little late. There were only 9 sets of contestants to my surprise! The Silver Warrior, the Elder Lord of Elat, Miss Galaxy 2000 and Troy Tempest were nominated for prizes, and Alison and David Stone got special commendation as 'A New Generation', being the younger generation rather than The Next Generation if you see what I mean.... [much about the quiz] ...Unfortunately I was then torn between staying to hear Rupert Evans and going to see the Mission Impossible episode with Mark Lenard. I'm afraid the latter won, so I can't report on the guest speaker's talk, except to say that it was late finishing, and he gave it to a packed audience. Only six of us watched Mission Impossible....

Returning to the con itself, I then joined up with Christine, Karen and Jeremy and went back to the main hall to see the bloopers. They were great, some TNG ones, and some old ones. The one I particularly enjoyed was an excerpt from 'Operation Annihilate' when the creature that was supposed to land on Spock's back hit another part of his anatomy! The hall was in uproar by the time we'd seen all the bloopers, and I think this was my favourite part of the day. They wore just so funny. Some of the TNG bloopers had purposely used pieces from the original series together with pieces from TNG, and although they were obviously put together specially, it worked very well. We missed the closing ceremony, having settled down to tea and cake gust beforehand, but we were there in time to join in the singing of 'Row row row your boat' as a 3 part round.

I finished the evening by catching up on some more series episodes like 'The Doomsday machine' and 'Catspaw.' The episodes of TNG were so popular that it was too full in the Garden Room and they had to be transferred to the main hall so that everyone could watch. Also 'The Wrath of Khan' had to be rescheduled because so many people wanted to see it and it would originally have clashed with the main hall events. I really enjoyed the day, particularly after I met the other fans, since it was a bit daunting being among so many people on your own. I am still not sure if I will have the courage to go to Frontiers next year, as I am told there will be around 1,000 people there. I am working up to it slowly. However, I think I can safely say that I'll be at Ne 'A' Driar again next year.

Thank you to the committee for organising it, and particularly to Claire Saunders, who answered my original application in such a friendly manner that it gave me the courage to go in the first place.

Ne'A' Driar 4 (1991)

1991

This con directly followed a "murder banquet" the night before. There is a a con report for this con in IDIC #18.

Ne'A' Driar 5 (1992)

Ne'A' Driar 5 was held on July 26, 1992. Venue: The Runnymede Hotel in Egham, Surrey. "A one day Star Trek con and evening river trip."

Ne'A' Driar 6 (1993)

Ne'A'Driar 6 was on August 7-8, 1993. It was at the Shepperton Moat House Hotel.

Ne'A' Driar 7 (1995)

Ne'A'Driar 7 was on September 2-3, 1995. It was at the Shepperton Moat House Hotel.

Ne'A' Driar 8 (1999)

Ne'A' Driar 8 was held on 24 October 1999 at the Shepperton Moat House.[1]