C383

Convention
Name:	C383 (Triple C Convention)
Dates:	August 26-29, 1983
Frequency:
Location:	Birmingham, England
Type:	fan-run
Focus:	Star Trek
Organization:
Founder:	Chris Chivers
Founding Date:
URL:
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C383 was a Star Trek con held in Birmingham, England. It was the 16th British Star Trek Convention.

a 1983 flyer

It was also called the "Triple C Convention" as the con committee consisted of Chrissie Chrzan, Chris Chivers, and Carol Collins.

Guest of Honor

George Takei was to be the guest of honor, but he could not attend. Instead, the guest was Bjo Trimble.

Fanworks in Honor

The story "From a Professional Point of Vice" in IDIC #4 is a Professionals meta, RPF that takes place at this convention.

Con Reports

Just before going to print, I'll add in a quick report on Triple C Con,to give all of you who were not able to attend the latest news on Star Trek III. Unfortunately George was unable to come, because he has to work on the movie, so at the last moment Bjo Trimble came over to fill in the Star Trek guest spot. She is a very nice person and gave us a very interesting talk. She was not able to talk about Spock in this new movie but the latest news so far (liable to be changed by Paramount at any time, however) is that the movie is to be titled 'Genesis: The Search for Spock.' We will see Vulcan and Spock's father (played by Mark Lenard) who is to have a disagreement with Kirk. There will be Klingons (hopefully more like the series Klingons, not those from ST:TMP) and new aliens. Some changes inside the Enterprise will take place but costumes remain the same. Uhura and Sulu have better parts in this movie, away from their consoles, and McCoy has a major part. Bjo said that there are a lot of clues in 'Wrath of Khan' (if you look carefully great, I love detective work!) to what will happen in 'Genesis'. We also learn something about Vulcans which we do not know - it's something Vulcans do not talk about normally. There are plans for Star Trek 4 and 5 too!

Bjo said that it would be nice if more fans wrote 'thank you's to Paramount and not just criticism. The address to write to is: Harve Bennett, 5555 Melrose Ave., Hollywood, California 90038 USA, so write and give some encouragement.

There was a fire at Paramount Studios recently, however we were assured that the ST sets were not damaged seriously - in fact the only ST set to suffer was the alien set which was in the first stages of being built, so no real hold-ups have occurred.

All in all, the Con was great fun. There were 3 video rooms (Trek, general SF and one showing general movies which starred ST and SF actors and actresses) plus the main room where we were able to see both Trek movies, guests, etc etc. Thorn Christopher was his usual delightful self and we were all very happy to see him and Judy again. The other guest was Matt Irvine, He too seemed very nice, unfortunately I missed his talk due to Stewards duties.

On the Friday and Saturday of Triple ”C” Con I was very fortunate to meet Bjo and talk with her. She was brim full of energy and eager to get up in front of the fans and talk Star Trek. Until her scheduled spot on the programme she did her best to have a word with everyone attending the convention, telling them of George’s concern that we should not be unduly worried and upset about the fires at Paramount Studio and the damage to a set to be used in Star Trek 3 for things were not as bad as the media made out. The fire had occurred just before she flew overfrom Los Angeles, and George had confirmed with her by phone on the morning she left that the damage was not devastating, the set could be repaired or rebuilt, and filming would go ahead. It seemed that the main worry was whether or not the fire would reach, some explosive materials, used by the effects men, safely dug in though they were. But they remained untouched.

One of the anecdotes that Bjo told us was about some Japanese friends who were staying at her house while they were in Los Angeles. They were fans of Star Trek, and were amazed to learn that George lived close by, that in fact he could be seen jogging past most days. Understanding lady that she is, Bjo arranged a meeting between them, and George came round. He talked with them in Japanese, and Bjo gradually became aware that something, somewhere, was not exactly as it should have been. The girls were exchanging glances. It turned out that they were delighted to meet George, overwhelmed that he had come especially to talk to them, but ... he spoke Japanese with an atrocious Southern Californian accent, and they were vastly amused. George wasn't though. He looked surprised and said "I do?”

Bjo described George as "full of vitality”, "considerate”, and "eager to help”. He lives in the same district of LA that he represents on the LTD. Complaints about transport go to George, and at the time she spoke to us there was trouble with buses that had been re-routed. Complaints were coming in thick and fast.

I felt that Bjo could have talked to us for hours and we would never become tired. She just couldn’t wait to get up there with the microphone and tell everyone about Star Trek. And who is better qualified to tell us?