Wolf 359 (Star Trek convention)

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Convention
Name:	Wolf 359
Dates:	1994-1998
Frequency:
Location:	Leichester, England
Type:	fan run fan con
Focus:	Star Trek
Organization:	in association with 1701 A-D
Founder:	Margo White?
Founding Date:
URL:
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Wolf 359 was a series of conventions.

At least two of them were in the series of British Star Trek conventions and while extensive, appear to be fan run. Other cons in the series appear to have been much more of a for-profit, professional venture.

Regarding the title of the convention: Wolf 359 is a red dwarf star located in the constellation Leo. It was also the scene of a fictional space battle in the Star Trek universe between the United Federation of Planets and the Borg Collective. The aftermath is depicted in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Best of Both Worlds, Part II," and the battle itself is later shown in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine pilot.

Wolf 359 1994

Wolf 359 was held October 28–31, 1994 at the Holiday Inn in Leichester.

Wolf 359 1995 -- Star Trek and Babylon 5

It was held September 15–18, 1995 in Sachas, Manchester. This con had a Star Trek and Babylon 5 focus.

Wolf 359 1996 -- Star Trek and Babylon 5

flyer for 1996

June 7-10, 1996 at the Norbreck Castle Hotel, Blackpool, England.

Guests: Bruce Boxleitner, Michael O'Hare, Stephen Furst, Bill Mummy, Ron Thorton, Peter David, Gareth Thomas, George Marshall, Jackie Edwards, Vir Cotto, Andreas Katsulas, Greg Funk, Gionagh Cush, Rene Auberjonois, and J. Michael Straczynski.

1996: Con Report

As many of you know, I am not a fan of conventions. But I felt that I had to try at least one B5 convention before vowing to never waste my money again as I have done with other genres. So, off to Blackpool I drove one sunny Saturday morning to attend one day of a three day B5 con. It ended up being a pleasant and enjoyable day. The con had an impressive guest list consisting of J. Michael Straczynski (B5 creator), Bruce Boxlietner (Sheridan), Stephen Furst (Vir), Bill Mumy (Lennier), and Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar) who filled in for Michael Hared (Sinclair) at the last minute.

Other guests were Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Peter David (author), Jackie Edwards (Patrick Stewart's personal assistant), and Greg Funk and Fionagh Cush of Optic Nerve, the Emmy Award winning team responsible for alien makeup on B5. Supposedly there were several additional guests but I didn't see them. My day started off with Bill Mumy and Peter David pitching their new show Space Cases, which I had never seen or heard of so it wasn't overly interesting to me. Then Straczynski had the stage for a while but halfway through, I wandered off to another room to watch Optic Nerve spend 90 minutes turning Bill Mumy into Lennier. This was by far the highlight of the convention as I had never seen the process. There was then a dead period which I spent searching Blackpool for an ATM machine that would accept my card as I only had 3.87 Pound Sterling ($5) in my pocket. This task finally accomplished, I headed to the dealers room. As expected, not much B5 stuff is available. There was a wide selection of Red Dwarf, Dr. Who, Star Wars, and Trek. Of the B5 things, I discovered a small run of B5 trading cards was produced by Fleet(?) earlier this year. I would have loved to get my hands on them as only one dealer even had them and even he couldn't get many. Being my usual extravagant self, I purchased the latest B5 book and called it a day.

I was also on a mission from Jeff Habrych to find a B5 costume pattern. I stopped a number of people wearing the various B5 costumes to find that they had all purchased them over the past two years from a costumer who was in the dealers room. They were all impressed by the combination of durability, comfort, quality and price of her work. Several people had purchased several costumes of different genres from her with none ever disappointed. They also liked the fact that she contracted out to provide all the buckets, patches, pins etc. required to finish off the look for each of the costumes. I had a talk with her and got some info which I am sending about custom fit mail order for anyone interested. She indicated that she had not heard of any patterns being available and hers were not for sale. Then it was back to the main hall for Jackie Edwards who had clips and information on the new ST:TNG movie and a lot of information about Patrick's cat. (Being the type of person not overly interested in the stars lives, the bit about the star's pets was a real snoozerl!) Then Rene, Stephen and Bruce each gave an hour long talk. Stephen auctioned off a black and white print autographed by the cast for 300GBP ($465), Bruce auctioned off an autographed poster from the first season and two from the second season for about 850GI3P ($1320) each. Then they losed the hall for an hour to setup and when it reopened, it was a panel forum with all the attending B5 guests. They all had matching third season crew and cast jackets on and the prevailing question throughout the day was, Can I have your jacket? Stephen decided to take advantage of this desire and auctioned off his jacket for his favorite charity, the American Diabetes Society, as he is diabetic. The hardly worn jacket went for a whopping 1000GPB ($1550). After this, the panel was open for suggestions, but after the reorganization of the hall, the sound was crap so I decided I had seen enough for the day and headed home. The con had the usual problems of things running over/late, not much going on except the main hall and the dealers room, huge lines for autographs. But they had done a few good things like installing three big screen TV'S in various parts of the main hall with closeups of the action on stage shown on screen. Overall, I decided that I just don't like cons. But for not liking them, this was the best I'd attended mostly because of the interesting presentation by Optic Nerve and the little discussion a few of us had with Peter David about the state of B5 in the USA vs UK. It appears the B5 fan contingent is either larger or better organized in the UK. This is about the 4th B5 con and there are 4 more this year over which all the cast and main guests will have attended at least one. The UK B5 fan club has been running for 3 years now and have several UK B5 web sites. Peter has yet to hear of a US I35 convention. He has been to several Star Trek ones with one 135 guest but nothing like the one WOLF 359 puts on. If you are yearning for a B5 con, the Raleigh to London plane tickets run between $400 and $1000 depending on time of year.

The guest lists are good and some of the locations ideal. I can provide more info if desired or it is all on the net.

Wolf 359 1997 (The Mission - Star Trek)

Subtitled, "The Mission," it was the 43rd British Star Trek Convention. It was held May 2–5, 1997 at Norbreck Castle Hotel, Blackpool, England.

1997: Con Report (The Mission - Star Trek)

Are you fully functional?" was the inevitable question asked of the main guest, Brent Spiner (Data of TNG). This was Brent's first UK fan-convention appearance (NB: He did appear at the Albert Hall, London in 1995 but that was a professional convention run by the now dead and gone Stargazer). The other guests were: Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris of Voyager), Richard Herd (connected to Trek as L'Kor (Birthright 1 & 2)) but also known as Bill's boss in T.J. Hooker, Captain Galaxy (Quantum Leap) and The Supreme Commander in V) and Tucker Smallwood who has appeared in Babylon 5 but is perhaps best known as Commodore Van Ross in Space Above & Beyond.

The other more 'minor' guests were Jackie Edwards (PA. to Patrick Stewart), Tim Gaskill of The Official Fan Club of the UK and George Marshall, an impressionist who has a vast repertoire of characters from The Next Generation and Babylon 5. I did not sit in the talks taking notes of the Q & A sessions, so this report is my overall Impression of the various exchanges. The big name guests insured a good attendance at this con, but the venue (Norbreck Castle Hotel) was big enough to ensure everyone could get into the main hall for the talks, and have a seat... The opening ceremony took place on the Friday night at 7pm. It began with an amusing sketch by the Klingon Enactment Group. I came in late but the theme of this was The Duras Sisters as the hostesses on a flight of the Wolf 359 Airline Co'. The 'play' was followed by a really excellent film consisting of clips from the various Star Trek series, set to music. For example, to music from the ballet The Nutcracker we saw Worf in his 'Judo' outfit, working out, and Deanna and Bev in tights, exercising. To introduce the guests we were treated to a spectacular entry into the hall of a Space Shuttle!... I met Richard Arnold in the Dealers' room (he had a table) and asked him why he was not down to give a talk. He said even though he had a new slide show with him (all the latest info on DS9 and Voyager) he had been told there was just no room on the time table to fit him in. I was very sad to hear this. Anyone who has been to one of Richard's talks will know why. He will be a Midcon in Leicester in October though....On Sunday morning the Business Meeting was held. Can I ask anyone reading this who attends either the May or August convention ANY YEAR, to please go to the Business Meeting. It is open to anyone attending the convention and it is very important to go along and vote for the events of the next two years. I am really sorry to say that NOT ONE BID was put in for either of the 1999 conventions, I know convention committees take a lot of stick when they have given a lot of time and effort to putting on conventions for us. They are not paid to do it. It is so sad if we, the fans, are driving the goodwill of these committees away by constant complaints. I for one would like to thank the Wolf 359 committee for an excellent convention. It was well run, with something to do all the time, and great value for money. I do so hope that bids will go in for 1999 during the 1998 conventions in Manchester (May) and Southport (August). Perhaps one of the teams who have put on conventions in the past would like to come out of retirement? A really BIG THANK YOU to all those people. I do hope we can all keep Star Trek in Britain alive and well into the next century.

Wolf 359 1997 (The Alliance -- Babylon 5)

Subtitled, "The Alliance." It was held July 11–14, 1997 at Norbreck Castle Hotel, Blackpool, England.

1997: Con Report (The Alliance -- Babylon 5)

Mira Furlan summed it up at the opening ceremony when she told us this was not so much a convention as an experience. So true.

[...]

Friday morning Sam, I joined the first queue of the weekend - the one to register. Upon arrival, it was already about 400 people long and within half an hour it stretched out beyond the car park, along the path, around the comer and out of sight. An hour later I made it through the door and into a baby queue for alphabetical listed names. I was processed in less than 30 seconds. Does anyone else get in and out in that short a time? It sure doesn't feel like it. You queue for hours and then get through in no time. Exasperation set in! Anyway, I got my fluorescent yellow wristband which you used to get into function rooms and such like, the convention book, leaflets, plus a ticked book for autographs which had a ticket for each guest which in turn you gave up when you got their scribble. I had two books because although my Mum is a bigger Babylon 5 fan than me, she didn't want to queue up.

The next queue was for the main hall. It was ten thirty by now. The action wasn't due to start until 11.30 but judging by the length of the registration queue, we would be on 'Convention Time' well before lunch. The doors opened, everyone gave a strange salute to the stewards whilst showing their wristbands and the steeplechase for good seats had begun. I won by a good 20m and got my preferred seat at the front on the right aisle. Nice and handy for jumping up and down for the photo opportunities.

The seats began to fill up steadily while the speakers belted out the 'Funky Gibbon', sad thing was that everyone knew the words. Other great TV themes played out until all attention fell upon one of the balconies to the right and the bunnies frolicking therein. Two at first, then three, then four and then they were joined by a squirrel. They disappeared and the speakers went quiet. Then, as one being they reappeared to the tune of 'Wannabe'. One with ginger ears, one with yellow. Yes, ladies and gentlemen the Space Bunnies were in the house.

Finally when the Bunnies had left the building, the lights dimmed and Joe Strazynski's (JMS) assistant Joanne Higgins took the stage. She introduced the first video clip by calling it 'One moment in time', footage of the previous year's convention when JMS had told us of season four's pick up. When the lights came back up, JMS took the stage for real and announce confirmation of season 5. Most, if not all of us, knew it already but that did not stop us screaming and shouting all over again. We went nuts!

The opening ceremony had begun in style and it was just getting better. A video montage kicked things off sending the crowd wilder. .Then one by one, the guest's were brought up on stage. In no particular order, they were Bruce Boxleitner]], Mira Furlan, Jeff Conway, Jeffrey Willerth, Josh Cox, Wayne Alexander, Andreas Katsulas, Pat Tallman, Claudia Christian, Ed Wasser, Jason Carter, JMS, John Copeland, Bill Mumy, Stephen Furst, Richard Biggs, Peter Jurasic, Michael O'Hare, Walter Koenig, Julie Caitlin Brown, Tony Dow, Greg Funk and Fiona Cush. The list goes on but my wrist aches. Some guests received standing ovations, some got a lot of screams. Actually, most of the good looking men got the screams, I wonder why? The whole thing was basically one big high.

After it had finished, there was a break for lunch and I ended up in the first autograph queue of the weekend. Only a 4 hour wait outside in the scorching July heat, but I did make some American friends and some German ones too. A 16tl)f gossiping went on and I eventually got six guest autographs. In fact, out all of all the guests 1 only needed 3 scribbles - John Copeland, Jeffrey Willerth and Josh Cox. Al the rest I had got at other events. Of course, these were the three I kept missing.

They ran the queues in ground of 200 in 2 hours. You either had a number on your hand in either Purple or Green (geddit?) or a raffle ticket. The guests were rotated so you weren't guaranteed of getting the guest you joined the queue for. For instance, if I got in the queue for the room with Jeff Willerth and didn't get in there within 2 hours, I didn't get his autograph as they had replaced him with someone else." A bloody stupid idea if you ask me. However, most of the guests were happy to sign a couple of things as long as you were quick. JMS has said that he won't be attending anymore Wolf 359 events until they get this sorted out. And good job too!

A brief stop in the Dealer's Room and back to the main hall for 5 pm. I sat through a couple of talks . then went off to my bed choosing not to stay for the "How the West was Won" party. Apparently it ended up on the beach at 3am. Saturday morning saw another autograph queue. I guess this one lasted 3 hours but it was in a long glass corridor, still in the July heat and with only 2 windows and a door open. The words 'air conditioning' don't exist up there and many people's personal hygiene was called into question. I still didn't get the autographs I wanted.

More guest talks in the afternoon, the highlight of which was Boxleitner and Wayne Alexander on stage together. The two share quite a bit of screen time together on the show with Wayne having played the 2nd season Sebastian, the 4th season's Lorien and the upcoming Drazi. During JMS' talk, along with John Copeland, they showed a montage of clips from the unshown TV movie "In the Beginning". Now, I know I'm biased here but it looks to be spectacular.

Party of the day was "Heroes and Villains". I went as myself. Well, I see myself as being quite heroic, after all, someone had to take on the bar and defy the fire alarm. Yes, I said fire alarm. Anyone who knows of 96's con knows that the fire alarm went off a couple of times during the Saturday night then. When it went off during the afternoon this time, nobody took the blindest bit of notice until stewards chucked us all out. It turned out to be a smoke alarm that had been set off by some smokers.

[...]

The nice big surprise waiting for me in toe dealer's room was a guest signer. Warwick Davis had come along for toe day and was in toe Dealer's Room. He was willing to say that he was in toe new Star Wars Prequel but he wouldn't tell me anymore than that, no matter how many drinks I offered to buy him.

The SFX awards part was held that night It lasted until 4am. Everyone knew toe results and Babylon 5 won practically everything. There was a nice video message from Dean Devlin on toe set of Godzilla and JMS was giver his award by Gareth Thomas in full 'Blake' make-up, scars and all. I spent a good part of toe evening hunting down Jeffrey and had scouts out and everything but all o no avail.

[...]

ll morning notices had been put up around the hotel saying "Special Guest. Main Hall 11.30am". Now, there was a lot of gossip about Jerry Doyle showing up which had all been denied by the organisers. They said tiiey had fallen out with him and he was at another convention in the States anyway. 4,000 people were intrigued enough to cram into the hall. A Wolf security guard got on stage and told us he had to employ extra help to control all of us. The lights dimmed and on the screen a jumpgate appeared, through it flew the name Jerry Doyle. The place went WILD!

He was jet-lagged, upset and his luggage had been lost on BA. It was the best talk of the weekend. He had been to the US con but had flown all the way to the UK just for us. What a hero, huh? He answered questions and insulted people in a way only he could. When he'd finished, he toddled off to do a signing session on the other side of the building. The queue was very long and it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, the other queue had gone down a bit. What did I have to lose? Nothing as it happened. The original queue had gone down drastically as Boxleitner had gone and joined Jerry on the other side. I was in the room in less than 10 minutes as I only wanted Jeffrey's. I got let in as soon as there was a gap at his table. Not only did he give me his scribble, he also gave me a hug when the steward told him how long I had queued for him. Heaven!

Most of us girls that had stuck together agreed that for a hunk like him to be suck behind Kosh's shower curtain all that time is a crime. He's kind of like Boxleitner but with a brain. Jeffrey was dumbstruck by the whole thing and all of the attention the show got here, and he was such a cutey.

Ah, back down to earth. In the main hall, Boxleitner had the last talk of the weekend and at the end brought up all the other guests onto the stage (minus Claudia Christian - we now know why). The official goodbyes were made and the charity auction held. A fully autographed guitar, a tour around the B5 set and a signed picture of the Space Bunnies were all there for the right price. The video montage was shown again and many of us danced our way through it. Singing along and screaming in the right places. Tearful goodbyes were said to new and old friends and then it all started again for the Lurkers Party. Can't wait for the next one.

One last thought. Just after Joe Strazynski showed us footage of the movie "Third-Space" on Sunday, he told us that Babylon 5 was all about choices, consequences and responsibility. We choose to watch and support Babylon 5. The consequence is that we got a fifth season and the responsibility is ours.

Wolf 359 1998 -- Star Trek

Wolf 359 was held May 1–4, 1998 in Manchester at the The Palace Hotel. Guests Include: Robert Beltran. It was the 45th British Star Trek Convention.