SPACE AND ENTERPRISE STAR TREK IMPRESARIOS VIE TO CATCH KIRK’S FAITHFI LS

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34107, 20 March 1976, Page 14

SPACE AND ENTERPRISE STAR TREK IMPRESARIOS VIE TO CATCH KIRK’S FAITHFI LS

* By

RAYMOND HEARD.

in .Neu- York. for the Observer f-reiyn > Service)

The last episode of “Star Trek” was made in Hollywood eight years ago. Before the network abandoned them. Captain .Janies Kirk and his indomitable crew were confident that all was well back on Spaceship Earth. As they set off into deeper space for new adventures in the Enterprise, mankind had abandoned war. waste and greed. Earth-people had at last beaten their inter-continental ballistic missiles into starships to explore the reaches of the universe with multiracial crews selected by . the United Nations or its more effective successor.

Since “Star Trek” was) 1 cancelled as a television series, it has spawned a j multi-million-dollar growth industry with boundless commercial prospects. There ; may be no “peaceniks” in ! Gerald Ford's America of [the mid-19705. There are millions of “Trekkies." ' Most are science fiction fans in their late teens. They| ’became addicted to the escapist world of “Star Trek” a decade ago when their older brothers and sisters were out in the streets demonstrating against arrogant Presidents and undeclared wars.

The message of the “Trekkies,” who will spend good money to pursue their ideal,, is that peace and goodwill can prevail if we follow the selfless example of Captain Kirk and his companions, including the dispassionate, spike-eared i Mr Spock, a refugee from

[another civilisation in the' universe.

To pander to the hunger of the "Trekkies” scores of books have been written about “Star Trek.” These! cover such esoteric subjects! as the ecology of the heax - enly body “Regulus” which Kirk visited before he was canned by Hollywood. A cartoon version of “Star: [Trek” has just reached television. The live-action origi-j nal has gone into re-runs on; hundreds of television stations around the world a.i pressure has mounted from the “Trekkies” for reviving [the real thing. The “Trekkie"j can buy a T-shirt proclaiming the gospel that “Star| [Trek Lives," jewellery bear- ( [ing the images of Kirk and! t his associates, long-playing [records based on the theme-[ Isong, and a walkie-talkie j whose headset “ears” make !the wearer look like the I [enigmatic Mr Spock. Real money But the real money of the ‘“Star Trek” industry lies in, 'the conventions which bear [its name. At least 20 have [ been staged in the United j States in the last year. In [New York, there have been I three in a month, the biggest of which drew 20,000 of the faithful to the New York [ Hilton. (What Presidential candidate or rock star could muster a crowd of that size to hear him for an hour, let alone for five days?

The “Star Trek” convention I visited this month I was a lesser affair than the' show in the Hilton. Only (iOOO delegates, some from as far away as Britain and Japan, had paid $2O each to register for the week-long programme in the seedy Commodore Hotel on 42nd Street. Most were pale, pimply and overweight. One felt they had spent too much time indoors watching re-runs of “Star! Trek,” “Planet of the Apes,” and similar fantasies than had been good for their physical health. It was more difficult to get press credentials for “Star Trek” than to cover a United States Presidential convention, which may tell us something about the mood of America today: strangers are more than welcome at a Gerald Ford or Jimmy Carter rally; they are treated like zygons from an alien body when they try to infiltrate the realm of the “Trekkies."

Song contest For six days and nights, [ the “Star Trek” cultists occupied the Commodore. They exchanged views about the “meaning” of the series. They sought the autographs of the lesser stars. William I Shatner, the Canadian-born I actor who played Kirk, and[ Leonard Nimoy, who was Spock, did not show up. They listened to speeches by Isaac Asimov, Gene Roddenberry (a creator of “Star Trek”) and other eminent science fictionists. There was a “Star Trek” song contest and a competition for the best masquerades of the many characters, earthly and otherwise, in the TV series. Lectures were given on the writing of a “Star Trek” script and the relative merits of live action versus

animation in bringing th® story to small and big

There was also controversy — a row which would have saddened the tin materialistic Captain Kirk and Mr Spock. The promoters of the "Star Trek” leg end, it turned out. were divided into hostile camps. The\ had all been on the same team between 1972. when the first international “Star Trek" convention was held — 500 were expected 'but 3,000 pitched up — and a successful convention m 1974.

But in that year the entrepreneurs. who wanted to make bigger profits from the “Trekkies", had fallen out [with the idealists, who insist ■ that the message of the 'series is more important [than the commerical spinoff, and sponsored the Comitnodore convention.

Rivals’ light So, for two years, there has been litigation between the two camps: law-suits and countersuits, out-of-court settlements, rival coni ventions, and shrill rhetoric And this has been reported by the section of the United ‘States press in almost as much depth as the rivalry ’between the tactions of Anglola.

Bearded Albert Shuster, whose "Star Irek’ convention brought only 4.000 true belivers to New York recently and was busy selling his wares in the Commodore, admits that his main aim is to exploit the series commercially. He concedes that some “Star Trek” programmes were good but dismisses others as “pure tripe, utter bunk, complete garbage.” One of his rivals is Lisa Boynton, of Chicago. Two weeks after his convention, she was able to bring 20,000 /‘Trekkies” to the New York [Hilton. This upset Shuster to [the point where he accused [her of the ultimate heresy ol [“misleading” the cultists fot 'the purpose of “raping and [pillaging” the “Star Trek” message. —O.F.N.S. Copyright.