Frontiers (Star Trek convention)

Convention
Name:	Frontiers
Dates:	May 4-7, 1990
Frequency:
Location:	England
Type:	fan-run
Focus:	Star Trek
Organization:
Founder:
Founding Date:
URL:
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Frontiers was the 29th British Star Trek Convention. It took place May 4-7 at Castle Norbeck.

The Guest of Honors were Guy Vardeman (Wil Wheaton's stand-in, Brent Spiner's photo double, and a background character in corridors and elsewhere) who substituted for Richard Arnold, Mark Lenard, John de Lancie, Diane Duane and Peter Morwood (both Trek authors), Bo Maxwell (talked about Space Programme), Meg Davis (folk singer) and Les Barker (comedian).

a flyer

This convention generated a con zine called Frontiers.

For a list of other cons in this series, see The British Star Trek Convention (series of cons).

Contest Winners

• 
  printed in IDIC Newsletter #10
• 
  printed in IDIC Newsletter #10

From the Business Meeting

The "official" UK cons had business meetings, presentations and Q&A, and voting by fans to determine the convention two years in the future.

Lost Out in 1992

The business meeting was interesting and it is the first time we have seen such a close bid between two conventions - Frontiers and Sol III for May, 1992. Our congratulations to Sol III for winning the vote and our commiserations to Frontiers for losing, as we felt it was the hotel which let them down.

If it hadn't been for the state of the hotel we could well have ended with a tie - although we're not sure what would have happened then. Both bids were good and it is a pity we couldn't have both conventions. We hope the Frontiers committee will try again sometime soon.

Comments About the Business Meeting

Thoughts on fandom.

At the business meeting at Frontiers '90 there were several questions raised about the way con bids were made and the way the cons themselves are run, and we felt there were some points which, due to lack of time, weren't covered fully, so we would like to comment on them ourselves.

Alternative Items on the Programme

At the business meeting both the Frontiers and Sol III committees were asked what additional activities would b e on the programme, together with the videos, films and guest talks. We would like to point out that at Frontiers alone three items had to be cancelled due to lack of interest from the people at the con, and this is not unusual.

Other committees have had the same trouble; they can only provide the ideas and facilities for these additional items, and the rest is up to audience participation. It is unfortunate that in recent years most people seem content to be entertained by guests and videos rather than try and entertain themselves. When was the last time we saw a fashion show or a drama competition?

And how often does the committee make a last-minute appeal for entrants for the fancy dress? And how often do we see a well attended game or quiz? The only recent game we can remember with a large audience was Recon's Trekerty Trek, because the guests were on the panel. Would all the seats have been filled if they hadn't been there, or would the video room have been full instead? And if the panel had been made up of fans trying to make their con more enjoyable by joining in, couldn't they have been just as entertaining? The only solution we can see is closing down the video rooms to encourage people to take a more active part in the con, but since this would be impractical and very unpopular, what else can we do? Does anyone else have any ideas? Or do we just omit the additional items from the programme altogether, and just have a guest and the video rooms? Is that what people really want? We don't!

Guests

The subject of guests was raised at the business meeting, and although this was covered we felt that since so few people attended, it should be covered again in a newsletter. No committee makes a choice between Original Trek or Next Generation guests, or even non-Trek guests, especially at the time of the bid, because no-one can guarantee they will be free in two years' time, and even if they did agree at such an early stage, they will have a 'let out' clause in their contract which allows them to cancel their appearance at a con up to a month before the event. And that is only the business agreement. It doesn't cover personal reasons for not attending, Letters are sent out to everyone the committee can think of, and the number of guests depends on who has the courtesy to reply and how much they want as a speaker's fee. Some actors are very expensive and the registration rates would have to go up considerably if they attended a con. One solution to cut down the costs could possibly be to have one actor and other guests connected in some way to the series, eg, writers, special effects people, directors, etc., but how many people would attend their talks because they weren't actors? We have seen too many minor guests giving talks to small audiences recently, and it's a shame because most of them are extremely interesting.

Hotels

We know the Norbreck Castle was one of the worst hotels we've stayed in for a long time, but we think it was unfair for people to judge Frontiers by the standard of the rooms rather than the high standard of programme items the committee offered. It was unfortunate the hotel wasn't up to our usual standard, but the commitee were told it was being refurbished, and since the bid was put ni late to ensure there was a con over the May Bank Holiday this year, they had no chance to change the venue. Would you rather have stayed at home for the weekend? And besides, even if there had been another hotel available, it would probably have been a smaller one, and a great number of people wouldn't have been able to attend. Would you have been pleased if you'd been one of them? Since the size of our cons is increasing all the time, there are only a few hotels who are able to cope with our numbers, especially in places where people are willing to travel to, and they are also used by other organisations as well, which makes it even more difficult to get a booking. You may think it is easy to find a venue, but it isn't at all, especially for the May con, which is always much bigger than the August one. Also another restriction is the price of the rooms, not only our rooms but the function rooms as well. We would love to go back to somewhere like the Metropole in Birmingham, but if a committee put forward room rates of $45 for a single and £35 per person for a twin and put up the registration rate to cover the £7,000 the hotel wanted to charge for the function rooms, they'd lose the bid! And we do feel it should be said that people are wrong to complain so bitterly about the rising cost of our rooms. Why should inflation hit everything else except our cons? What most people seem to want is five star accommodation at bed and breakfast prices, and in most cases this simply isn't possible any more. The normal prices for our rooms are anything from £60 per night, without breakfast usually, so even if our prices are increased slightly we would still be getting the rooms cheaply.

After all, if a hotel can fill their rooms at their normal rate, and many of them can now, which is a great shame for us, why should they give us a cheap rate? We've been lucky to get them for so long. The only way to get cheap accommodation would be to use something like Halls of Residence at universities, but no-one would like the standard offered, so what else can we do? We know the room bills always come as a shock at the end of the con, but isn't it about time we started to be a little realistic about this? Of course cons were cheaper ten years ago, but so was everything else! The rates will have to go up, and to be honest, so will the registration rates to cover guest fees, hotel function rooms and equipment. Wouldn't it be worth it to ensure we always had those nice large screens the Frontiers committee provided?

The Business Meeting

We were very sad to see that only about 250 people attended the business meeting at Frontiers, especially considering there were well over 900 people registered at the con, if not more. How can you expect committees to run conventions which cater for your own personal tastes and wishes if you don't tell them what they are? They run cons for you, not themselves, and it would certainly make it easier if you gave them a little help occasionally. How can you complain about the programme if you don't put forward any suggestions yourself? And do you really want a minority to choose the committee and the venue for you? Don't you care what happens to the cons and fandom at all? Shouldn't we all be responsible for something which gives us so much pleasure? And if anyone does have a complaint about the standard of the cons, or the content, or even the rules of the business meeting, wouldn't it be better to suggest an alternative rather than to keep on complaining about them? It's pointless, and although we know everyone is entitled to their own opinion, nothing ever gets done fi al you do is talk and not act! If you don't like what's happening in fandom, you only have yourselves to blame because the business meeting is there for you to do something about it!

Con Reports

"I'm as Sane as the Next Banana," as the Actress said to the Bishop, or Frontiers '90 - a Con Report

(I would just like to point out before people read two lines and start thinking that it sounds dreadful: please read the whole report -- it's only the hotel that was bad. I had an excellent time at the con itself.

...my room was four floors up and at the end of a corridor, and was reached by means of a lift marked, To use this lift after 1pm please ask at reception'. Needless to say this basically translated as 'If you want the lift after 11pm, that's just tough My room was in an, um, interesting state; it turned out that the North Wing, where it was situated, was being renovated. Amongst other things, the door was unvarnished, and had the room number written on it in pencil, and the bath contained three free gifts - two very dead flies and a live spider!

[...]

I went back downstairs to rejoin my two friends and travelling companions, Jo and Jim, and we wandered outside to the beach. We walked over to the sea along the beach, pottered a bit, and then returned. We were chatting to people in the hotel to lobby when John de Lancie came in, having just been for a run.

[...]

We eventually finished our meal and went back to the hotel, discussing our rooms - "You mean you have wallpaper?! We don't even have a wall!" etc. and yes, we were exaggerating, but only a bit! - and I went to bed. Now, I have a back problem. It's not normally a problem these days, but it prefers a firm bed: I seemed to have been given the equivalent of a hammock! As it was now 1am, I decided that I would sleep on the floor rather than bother reception.

[...]

We then went over to the main hall for the opening ceremony. True to form for cons, it was. running late, so we al sat on the floor to wait, and sent out deputations for drinks I would at this point like to give a special mention to the hotel bars: the staff were very friendly, but the prices... Jo doesn't drink alcohol, tea or coffee, so she asked the price of a glass of milk, which turned out to be £1.00 for a pint! A can of Pepsi was 50p, and a bottle of the same was 70p!

We found a way round this by buying in cans of Coke etc. from the shop round the corner, and asking the bar staff for a glass of ice, which they kindly supplied free of charge.

After waiting for about half an hour, we were let into the hall for the ceremony, which started with a light-show that contained pictures of Spock, Kirk, Picard and Riker, amongst other things, and which was very cleverly done. The committee had arranged for there to be a large screen at the side of the stage, so when the ceremony itself started, the people at the back could get a decent picture of what was going on. An announcement was made that they'd had 870 pre-con registrations: Mark was an extremely popular guest, and people were hoping to see Patrick Stewart. Alas, Patrick couldn't come: he was stuck at work in the States. The final guest list was Mark Lenard, John de Lancie, Guy Vardaman (who at the time was "somewhere between London and Blackpool"), Diane Duane and Peter Morwood (both Trek authors), Bo Maxwell (talks about Space Programme), Meg Davis (folk singer) and Les Barker (comedian).

After the opening ceremony, Mark read us a short piece about what Trek could mean to someone, and the the Cabaret started. The three of us left, and went to the chippy with one of Jim's room-mates, Tom from Glasgow. We sat and chatted, and swapped jokes (e.g, Why is Uhura brown? William Shatner! and What sound do Vulcan chickens make? Spock, spock, spock!) until we suddenly discovered it was nearly midnight. We went back to the hotel, and Jo and I chatted to Miri until 1am, before we settled down to sleep.

Saturday We got up at a most uncivilised hour, i.e. 7am, and met up again at breakfast, then made for the Dealers' Room. The fact that we were obliged to wait outside it for half an hour didn't bother us; we merely spent the time chatting, and met two American fans, Jeff and Ed, who are stationed over here at the moment.

The half-hour was given over to the stewards, as they weren't likely to get much time in there later: this struck me as an excellent idea. The room also seemed less crowded than it usually tends to be; the stewards limited the number of people in there at any one time. At 9.30 the rest of us were let in, and the usual thing happened -- we all spent Lots of Money. After we'd been around all the tables, we parked our booty up in our rooms and went to the hall for Guy's first talk. It took twenty minutes He showed us a videotape -- literally! He waved it at us in the box; he couldn't show it to us properly at that stage because of the power problems - and then the third-season slideshow, which I'd seen before, but enjoyed just as much second time around. Guy is a very good speaker, and very funny.

After Guy's talk, it was Mark's turn, and he came on stage to tumultuous applause and what looked like every flash-bulb in the room firing off at once, did a most enjoyable talk, and then made way for the auction. This, like the Dealers' room, was very welorganised, and had two 'overflows' scheduled in the programme in case they were needed. The committee got Dave Holmes to be the auctioneer, and he was as funny as ever. After the action, John came on: he was very good, too. Once John had finished, we all zoomed over to the motel lounge for the autograph session.

I had a photo of myself taken with Mark, Guy and John, but (please put your fingers in your ears...NOW) AAAAAAARGH! - none of the three have come out, so I'm not very happy! We hung around the lounge once we'd got our autographs, as the adult and charity auctions were directly after the session, and Jo and I made a detour to the loo. I mention this only to express my disgust at the state of the room that they were in: a filthy skylight, and lots of dead flies on the floor. (The hotel seemed to be inordinately fond of dead flies.)

We missed the fancy-dress because we were in the auction, but from what I saw of the contestants later, the standard was as high as ever. The charity auction went very well, and raised £1256.47, which included bids of £300, £100 and £80 for threes cripts, and £120 for a chunk of the Berlin Wall. This chunk was brought by a West German called (I think) Joachim, who had obtained it from the East side of the wall, having removed it with the help of an East German border guard - I for one was very impressed by his story: he told us that 98 people were shot trying to get into the West, and that the breaking down of the Wall was a monument to them.

[...]

Sunday

We started the day by inventing 'toast origami' with the toast from breakfast - it was warm, so it bent - don't ask! Next, we went to watch 'Deja Q', which was a brilliant episode, and after that it was back to the Dealers' Room to spend more money that none of us had. After that, there was the second half of the auction, then John's second talk. Next came thirty seconds of 'Sarek' -- a beam-up, then beam-down sequence, with no sound, followed by Mark's second talk. We also saw his 'audition tape' which he shows to people when he's trying to get a part: that was extremely interesting. After Mark, it was Bo Maxwell's turn; he did a talk about man in space etc. I missed some of it, because I was selling IDIC raffle tickets, but I caught the second half, and it was very interesting. He said that the Americans are hoping to send a probe to Mars in 1994 - the Russians want to send one in 2001 - and that there will hopefully be men on Mars within about fifty years.

He also said that scientists are thinking about the possibility of terraforming Mars, although with the current level of technology this will take many thousands of years, Someone asked him whether this was morally acceptable, and he said that there were two schools of thought on this, one of which says that if any life whatsoever were found on Mars (including bacteria etc.) then it should be left alone.

[...]

Monday

I went to the main hall to get a good seat, and found myself sitting in the middle of the hall, alone but for the tech crew, with the STV music playing at a very loud volume - gorgeous! The music's the best bit of that film! After a while, the music stopped, and I had the first ten minutes of the TNG bloopers to myself, before people started coming in for the closing ceremony. The bloopers are great fun: they are interspersed with shots from original Trek, such as Kirk apparently saying "sorry" to Picard, followed by the latter grinning widely! After the bloopers, 'Deja R' was shown again, then came the closing ceremony.

[...]

After Guy's talk, which was directly after the ceremony, we all trooped out of the hall, and those who were leaving went to pack. We were staying until Tuesday, which we christened 'tribble-poo' (You had to be there!) and watched some old films on BBC2. We then amused ourselves in true Trekker fashion by throwing a rolled-up brown paper bag at each other for an hour and proving my point that I can't aim for toffee! We then went and played table-tennis with Gavin, who was also staying, and then went to bed.

Tuesday

We wore our uniforms down to breakfast, to the great interest of all the little old ladies now in the hotel, and then went to finish packing, after which we went into town to make sure that there was enough money in our various bank-accounts to cover all the cheques that we'd written! We then checked out of the hotel, and (boo, hoo) went home. P.C.D. here we come!

As a parting comment, I'd just like to compliment the Frontiers '90 committee for arranging such an excellent con at such short notice: if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have had a con this May.

I was eagerly looking forward to this con and I was not disappointed...

[...]

The opening ceremony began only a little late. The main hall was able to seat 2000 people, so there was plenty of room. The bars were well sited, even one in the main hall. The opening ceremony began to the music and images of ST. The guests, Mark and John, arrived on stage to huge applause. Alison of Ops apologised for 'Guy's absence as he was stuck in traffic. I don't know what happened to the time but after a few drinks and TV episodes it was 2am.

[...]

Saturday:

Morning arrived to sea fog outside my window. Having got to breakfast for 7.30am I was surprised at the number of people already awake. Come 9am the dealers room was still not open; when ti did, I believe it was the only con in the recent past to have had queues to enter it. I probed for the goodies on what was available before deciding what to buy tomorrow.

[...]

A lunch break occurred before Mark Lenard appeared for his guest spot. He was the first ST guest that I met back at Aucon 81. It was nice to see him again. He had a couple of jokes about Klingons, Ronald Reagan and Gary Hart. He told us he had just finished a recent TNG episode called Sarek; he is 202 years old with another wife. He demonstrated with 4 members of the audience some ST props, a pair of Romulan boots, a couple of face pieces and a pair of Vulcan ears.

The auction followed with a huge list of 200 items, done with wit by Dave, especially with the Spock bendy doll. You can pick up real bargains here; as it continued on Sunday.

John de Lancie was next to capture the hall gathering as he strolled onto the stage, an immensely tall individual of 6ft inches. There were plenty of questions regarding the character of Q, on how he played the part, future episodes and the costumes he wore. He mentioned Corbin Bernsen of LA Law is in one Q episode but he would have preferred John Lithgow in the part. He felt it was audience grabbing.

The character of Q has a huge following and any more than 1 or 2 episodes per season would dampen the impact of Q's presence.

In fact 1/4 of the stories sent to the TNG office by fans are about Q. The name Q came from Gene's idea of Q, question?

At 7pm in the motel lounge was the place to be for the charity/adult auction. This was real fun conducted by Alison, Dave and Guy. An autographed script of Sarek went for £300, plenty of B&W photos and a piece of the Berlin Wal welnt for £120 to my friend John. Jokes about the North Wing and the poll tax were extremely funny. Due to a slight over-run I missed part of the Fancy Dress but got some behind the scenes ones instead, The cloaked Klingon Bird of Prey, Indiana Jones and mum, Harper of Pern and the Xelation Delegation were outstanding.

Whilst the judges were deciding we had a ST singalong story by members of the committee on Stage. At this point I was able to talk to John de Lancie and Mark Lenard as they waited in the wings. The Cowboys and Indians party/disco began throughout the hotel. Video 1 was full to capacity and it was hot. I didn't get in there till midnight and stayed till 4am, I think.

Sunday:

After only a few hours sleep, I got down to breakfast. The dealers room was as busy as ever; it was then I spent a small fortune in five minutes on technical and TNG items. The main auction continued prior to John's 2nd guest spot. He was quite surprised being mentioned as a sex symbol in Deja Q and explained how he overcame his dyslexia by memorising lines to become an actor. His wife was an actress on a daytime soap in America as well.

The Business Meeting was quite unusual as it took the full one and a half hours with bids for May 1992 and problems with Frontiers.

Mark Lenard's 2nd guest spot was just as amusing as the first. We saw a compilation of his work on video both past and present and 30 secs of Sarek but no sound for the TNG episode. He regularly visits England and would be staying for a week or two longer after the con.

He said Gene put his foot down to the idea of Paramount doing a Starfleet Academy type film with Michael J Fox as the youthful Kirk, otherwise they could end up in court in the next 10 years.

With an hour left before the dealers room was to close, I got some last minute items before getting Mark Lenard's and John de Lancie's autographs. The convention porgramme was so full I missed Bo Maxwell's talk, both Diane and Peter Morwood's get-together, and part of Guy's 2nd guest talk. More food and drink was consumed before myself, John and Mike spent the rest of the evening talking and watching videos. It was 4 am when I was packing and my room mate never made it to bed that night.

Monday

[...]

As the gathering broke up, I stayed for Guy's 3rd guest spot, which included a superb video of the special effects of TNG and the graceful pictures of the Enterprise. His talk was ever so interesting despite the booming loudspeakers.

I know a lot of people had complaints about the accommodation at the Norbreck Castle Hotel, but I hope this wasn't the lasting impression they went away with at the end of the Frontiers convention - it wasn't [the case] for me.

The convention atmosphere was excellent, the programme crammed and the guest speakers lively 'and entertaining - Mark Lenard was as splendid and as ambassadorial as ever; no-one would have known, witnessing John de Lancie's performances on stage, that he was fighting a fever of 101 for most of the weekend; and Guy Vardaman... what can I say about Guy that won't embarrass him? On the other hand, why should I spare his blushes when he delights in embarrassing me? All right, I'll just say that he's a deservedly popular guest and his inside knowledge of all things Star Trek is invaluable.

Other things I liked about Frontiers were the large video screen in the main hall, the bulletins that were issued every morning, breakfast - and where else could I have walked along the seafront with a Vulcan ambassador kicking a pebble with single-minded determination?"

Personally I found [the filk concert] possibly the best event of the whole con. There were several performers involved: the 4/5 piece band - composed of a large proportion of the tech crew, Meg Davies, who was wonderful, Phil Alcock, among many others. I hadn't previously experienced this side of fandom before and was overwhelmed with the amount of talent exhibited. The only non-excellent thing of the whole event was the attendance. Unfortunately many people had gone to change or prepare for the fancy dress disco afterwards so not many people were at the filk concert.

I found this a crying shame as it was such an enjoyable item and so many people weren't there to be enthralled by it. I can only hope that next time such an event is timetabled that it will be of such a high standard and more people will give it a try.

I had been there (my very first con) but had no way of knowing how it compared to other cons. I loved every minute of it! It was great to meet other fans (and I thought I was the only one!), have the chance to meet Mark Lenard, see Trek V, and spend too much money in the Dealer's Room. What a Dealers room! It was like all my birthdays (I'm 34) rolled into one!

I saw TNG for the first time in the hot, sweaty and overcrowded video room at Frontiers. I enjoyed it and will probably watch it when it is finally shown on television, but, to me, the original series will always be so special. I can't remember life without Kirk and Spock.

They are almost family and I love them dearly. Anyone reading this will probably think me totally mad but who's sane anyway! and who wants to be when Trek is so much FUN!