Odyssey One

Convention
Name:	Odyssey One
Dates:	June 24, 1978
Frequency:
Location:	the State Fair grounds, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Type:
Focus:	Star Trek: TOS-focused, also other media science fiction
Organization:	"Infinite Star Productions"
Founder:	Richard R. Messmann
Founding Date:
URL:
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Odyssey One was a one-day Star Trek and science fiction media con held on the State Fair grounds in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Con Committee

• Richard R. Messman, president, producer, director
• James Fanson, assistant director, general manager
• John Lincoln, public relations: The Boelter Company
• David Brahm and Geln Boettcher, photography
• Dan Guenzel, chief projectionist
• Doug Blair, master of ceremonies
• Tom Skilling, guest master of ceremonies
• Charles Williams, State Fair Park Coordinator

Guests of Honor

• George Takei (Star Trek)
• Walter Koenig (Star Trek)
• Scott Squires (Close Encounters of the Third Kind)

Programming

There was a model contest, a trivia contest, films, autograph sessions, guest of honor presentations, autograph sessions, the Star Trek Blooper Reel, and lots of movies and episode showings.

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Photos

There are some photos of this con in Academy Chronicles #5.

Con Report

It was a day of laughter and tears, hot tempers and broad smiles, soaring spirits and aching feet, frustration and dreams come true. But most of all, it was a day of magic brought about by a lot of hard work. Odyssey One - A Science Fiction Convention.

The Convention doors opened the day show at 9:00 A.M. and closed the night show at 12 midnight with a two-hour break between 3 and 5. All three local TV stations (4, 6 and 12) as well as The Milwaukee Journal and other newspapers covered the activities. There was something happening every minute for the near two thousand people who attended.

Like every worthwhile convention, Odyssey One had its guest speakers. Introduced by Doug Blair (a disc jockey for radio station WZUU), our speakers consisted of George Takei (Sulu), Walter Koenig (Chekov), and Scott Squires (a member of the Special Effects team for the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"). George and Walter talked about past experiences with Star Trek and gave us some hints about the new movie. They culminated their talks with question and answer periods with the audience. Scott Squires gave a slide presentation dealing lith a behind the scenes look at how the special effects were created for "Close Encounters". There were also two autograph sessions with the three guests.

If classic Science Fiction movies or Star Trek episodes were your thing, Odyssey One had those, too. The movies being shown were such known films as "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea", "Silent Running", "The Time Machine", and "The First Men in the Moon". For Star Trek fans, there "were the episodes "The Menagerie", "Space Seed", and "V/here No tlan has Gone Before" as v/ell as the famous "Blooper Reel".

Those who required a challenge, could find it in either one of the two contests held that day. The model building contest consisted of a paper R2D2, a model of the Enterprise wired for light and sound, hand-made phasers and communicators, and just about everything in be-tween. The trivia contest (written by members of Star Fleet Academy) tested your recall abilities about Star Trek and Science Fiction movies. Do you know Captain Kirk's room number?

For those looking for posters, buttons, T-shirts, back issues of Starlog magazine or other miscellaneous goodies, there were, of course, the hucksters. Jewelry, photos, insignias and trading cards were gobbled up by ardent fans.

Other exhibits consisted of a slide show by the Milwaukee Astronomical Society, paintings by artist Don Dixon, a life-size R2D2, and blueprints of the interior of the Enterprise.

The day ended with an auction of posters and other miscellaneous items. The highest price being $37 paid for George Takei's gold Star Fleet shirt (bought by a member of Star Fleet Academy, I might add).

But Odyssey One had it's problems, too. Such as originally scheduling George Takei's speech at the same time as the Star Trek Blooper Reel. And not having the trivia quiz printed up until 10:30 A.M. (It was only ready then because a few members of Star Fleet Academy were quick thinking and resourceful - thank you.) And Walter (through no fault of his owm) being late for the evening show. But the casual observers probably didn't notice the frantic moments these things caused behind the scenes and were happily able to send their minds to outer space for the day.

Those of us who worked at the convention have already forgotten the aching feet and sore muscles and are starting to look forward to next year.

If on June 1, 1978 at 5:23 central standard time, Milwaukee's Mitchell Field, you have arrived on time and are greeted with several Vulcan salutes, a computer printout banner which proclaims "STAR FLEET ACADEMY WELCOMES ITS ALUMNI", and are whisked away in a waiting rent-a-car, then your name is George Takei (tah-kay), STAR TREK'S chief helmsman Mr. Sulu.

The next evening Star Fleet Academy met at the Aster Hotel to present George with his honorary membership certificate, card and a copy of Academy Chronicles 4. As per his instructions, George immediately opened his copy of A.C. to the last page and obviously enjoyed its personalization as much as we did. Getting into the spirit of the occasion, he said, "What does this mean?" One of our members replied, "It means, someday you may get to serve as helmsman on the Enterprise." "Oh, I always wanted to do that!" George smiled back. He was really caught up in our excitement.

The next day Odyssey One began. George was the third speaker. The first ten minutes of his talk consisted of praise to the fans for all the work they had done for STAR TREK. George recited a soliloquy from Julius Ceasar then opened the door to questions. During the interrogation, I mean questioning, it was found out that in STAR TREK-THE MOTION PICTURE. Mr. Sulu will become caption of his own ship. Kirk becomes an Admiral and two new alien crew members are added, one a bald, very sensuous female.

George's evening performance had to be postponed due to an unfortunate scheduling of the blooper reels at the same time. the evening show George helped our Deputy Commandant auction off the uniform shirt he had worn, and received a can of Old Milwaukee beer with a mug, from one of our members as a symbol of Milwaukee.

George is very fond of our fair city. He used to have relatives in Milwaukee and due to them, he saw the premiere episode of STAR TREK here and now plans to be in town for the release of STAR TREK-THE MOTION PICTURE. While he was here, George walked over to the Pabst Theater, and was very pleased with its restoration, He said he liked to see old buildings used for something more functional than museums.