This year we attended the Star Trek convention in Chicago. It’s our third convention and the first where we brought our children. The last time we went was 2017, so a lot had changed in the world (COVID) and also in the Star Trek universe (release of Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, Prodigy and upcoming Strange New Worlds). The experience was vastly different than the others we had been to.
Vibe
The thing that stuck out the most to me this year was the energy level of the convention. I’m sure it’s primarily because of all of the new shows that are coming out. This year was electric.
In the past years, it was mostly retrospective. There were a few movies out and the new show Discovery was set to come out that year, but there wasn’t much involvement in the convention yet.
This year we are in the 4th season of Disco, the 2nd seasons of Picard and Lower Decks, and 1st season of Prodigy. Plus there was a large display about the upcoming Strange New Worlds. The fanbase had a ton of younger people. They’re bringing fresh energy to the franchise.
Frankly, it’s wonderful to see a young crowd fired up about Star Trek.
Experience
If I had to guess, I’d say the vendor hall was about as big as the STLV vendor hall was in 2017. The physical space was larger so the booths were spread out more. There were also fewer vendors, so it felt really open. I do think they did a much better job at setting up the autograph lines and tables for the celebrities. At STLV there were some celebs who had tables throughout the hall and you’d walk up to them when they were there and give them cash or a credit card on the spot for a selfie or autograph. The bigger names had a set of 4 tables roped off in the back with a relatively short time window that you had to get in. At Star Trek Mission Chicago (STCHI) each celeb had a table along two walls and there were roped off entrances/exits to their tables. There was a priority line for people who paid for the VIP access. You did have to pay for the autographs in advance and show a QR code at the table. I don’t know how much of a difference it was for the pay of the celebs, but I’m sure the convention took some cut.
The celebrity photographs at STCHI were FAR better than STLV. They had a easy to follow system for where you can store your stuff, queue up, get the picture, get your stuff, and on your way out the picture was already coming off one of the many printers they had set up. Show them your QR code and a minute later you’ve got a the jpg file emailed to you. This was smooth.
One of the incredibly fun things I did while there was to play in a tabletop roleplaying game Star Trek Adventures. This is a game I’ve considered getting for a while, especially because I’ve heard a lot about it from a former coworker of mine who had a long running game. The GM is also someone I’ve been following online for a while, Aliza Pearl. She runs an actual play Klingon game called Blood of the Void. I’ve listened to many episodes of her actual play, so I was thrilled to get the opportunity to play with her. Aliza was an excellent Game Master and she was kind enough to take a photo with me afterward.
Cosplay
Like other conventions I’ve been to, the cosplay was pretty great. I’d say it was about 75/25 mix of old trek / new trek. It looks like the most popular of the new uniforms was from Lower Decks.
For this convention, I bought patterns for the Early DS9 / Voyager uniforms from Bad Wolf Costumes on Etsy. One of the things I really like about them is that they post the entire tutorial online with images that you can easily zoom in on to see a little better.
To finish off the uniforms I 3d printed the pips and communicators and embedded strong magnets in them.
Accomodations
We ended up staying off site at an AirBnB nearby. It was a 12 minute walk to the convention. I didn’t have strong opinions about staying at the convention hotel or staying offsite. In hindsight, I probably would have preferred to stay at the convention hotel just because it would mean we wouldn’t have to go outside and it was a bit cold. It would have also been convenient to drop things off in our room more easily. I don’t think there was a very big difference in cost.
Tickets
I do wish I had paid the extra cost to get the VIP tickets. These give you two main advantages: head of the line privileges in the photos and autographs and better seating (front 5 rows) in the main theater. Those VIP lines for the photographs could easily save us a few hours of waiting around for the more popular cast members. For Kate Mulgrew we ended up waiting an hour for an autograph but she had to leave for a photo op, so we had to wait another hour for her to come back.
Final Thoughts
I didn’t realize until the convention was almost over that it was run by a different company than STLV. Also comparing to a 5 year old con may not be a fair assessment. That said, I think this con was far more organized than either of the other two I’ve been to.
I wish there had been more cast members from the older shows. From TNG there was only Wil Wheaton. Now, Wil is the one person I wanted to meet more than anyone, so seeing him alone was worth it. DS9 had 2 major cast members and 1 minor. VOY had only Kate Mulgrew. There was definitely a push towards the newer shows, each of which had many cast members.
I also wish they had brought in some of the writers, but I know they generally only go to STLV. I hope this changes. I always find it odd, because many of the questions that audience members ask are usually better answered by the writers.