Un-conventional

I was sad to hear that Dave Prowse, aka Darth Vader or the Green Cross Man, has passed away at the age of 85.  He was a regular guest at British Sci-Fi conventions.  His session was one of the first celebrity guest talks that I attended at the first "official" convention I went to.  He was a very interesting speaker and very approachable, and learning of his death has reminded me of the good times at conventions.

Most  people like to go on holiday to somewhere warm and sunny.  David and I were not "most people".  Our idea of a good time was a long weekend at a Star Trek convention - or a sci-fi con, at a pinch.  When you factored in the costs of registration, travel, hotels and, of course, our costumes, it probably worked out the same as a week or two in Spain.

In their heyday, the British Star Trek conventions were a weekend-long party.  There were two "official" cons a year, run by independent committees, and the profits went to a charity designated by the committee.  The quality of the convention could be a bit hit and miss, depending on how good the committee was.  We went to one fairly dreadful one in Southport - it felt as if the committee had started off with good intentions, then lost interest until realising that the convention was two weeks away and they'd better do something quick!  

Me, David and Alison.  I have no idea who the guy on the left is! 

The guest of honour, Nichelle Nichols, went about with a fixed smile on her face surrounded by her entourage.  The most cringe-worthy moment of the event was when the committee chairman got up on stage surrounded by the celebrity guests to propose to his girlfriend.  

However, there were some good points - like bumping into Robert Picardo (The Emergency Medical Hologram from Voyager) in the foyer of the hotel, and the guest whose expertise was in pyrotechnics in films.  I swear he would have blown the world up just to hear the bang. He finished his presentation with a rendition of the last part of the 1812 overture with real explosives, saying gleefully, "They wouldn't let me do this in Liverpool!" At the end of the performance, the Safety Curtain was lowered, and the sound of fire extinguishers being deployed could be heard.

One of the other good things that happened that weekend was learning about the next convention, which was to be in Manchester and turned out to be one of the best conventions we went to.  The pictures on this page were all taken there.  David wanted to be an Andorian (They're the blue ones) and I had the fun job of creating antennae.  In case you're interested, they were made from a wire coat hanger (bent to fit round his head and poked through the wig) padded out with papier mache and with suction cups attached.  He was meticulous about the details of his costumes - "good enough" wasn't acceptable!

David as Andorian and Jimmy as Beetlejuice

The hotel was in the centre of Manchester and was entirely full of Star Trek fans and a small group of aircrew on layover who had clearly never seen anything like it.  The lifts were rather small and quite slow and definitely not up to the job of transporting groups of fans who spent most of their time shuttling to and from their rooms for costume changes.  The look on the faces of the "normal" people when they summoned the lift only to find it crammed with Klingons was priceless!

Does the Vulcan nerve pinch work on Jem'Hadar?  Maybe not!

David's sister, Alison, and her husband Phillip joined us for this convention which made it even better.  David and I had travelled up on the train ( surrounded by a group of soccer fans who got on at Neath and had started on the lager before we reached Cardiff - it was a long journey!) amd we arrived first.  When Alison arrived she told us that Phillip wasn't going to stay, he was going to have something to eat and drink and then go home. In the bar, surrounded by Trekkers in full uniform, he decided that he would stay after all (I mean, he'd paid to be there) but he wasn't going to get all dressed up...then he disappeared and came back wearing a Trek T shirt. Later he felt underdressed so got into his Starfleet uniform.  By the end of the weekend he was dressed as Darth Vader for the Fancy Dress party.    Conventions get you like that!

Vulcans don't smile. Even Alternate Universe Vulcans.