Monday 6 October 2014

Destination Star Trek 3

This weekend me and my brother went to Destination Star Trek 3 and it was so much better than the first Destination Star Trek (.DST.) a massive improvement over the last time and what the organizers were saying on forums and Trek podcast's was differently true. That they had learnt from the mistakes at the first one and they had made changes for the DST Germany convention. And so the improvements was carried over to the DST3 con. I can not stress enough how much better this was and i had a great day but as with everything there was and is room for improvement. One thing that did strike me was the lack of people there. Now don't get me wrong there was still a lot of people there and i know i went on a Sunday so there will always be less people attending but at times it just felt empty. Even through out the day there was people still coming and getting in line for attendance but not in the numbers i would of expected. But the weather was good so i don't really know what happened. I just hope this does not effect the next convention.  


So lets get the cons out of the way After all there are only a few. The biggest is the easiest to fix. Why would you put The Next Generation (.TNG.) bridge right in front of the entrance so as you walk in to the show floor your have the bridge right and when they had the TNG crew photo there was a massive crowd right by the entrance blocking the way. Not a good thing the bridge set should of been off to the side or near the back. There was enough room in the hall. the set was not as big as i was hoping for. I thought it was going to be full size. But sadly it wasn't. My other complaint was that there was no Ships there with all the TV shows and Movies for Star Trek why can't we get a large studio model on display. I would love to see a studio scale model of the Enterprise or any of the other ships used. The museum was great but it was missing a few ships to make it that little bit more special. Another complaint was that the Klingon area was not done well at all. Last time they made a little effort with a few furs laying around and a throne with a small backdrop but this year was just lacking, they had throne back but that was really it. My final complaint is and to be fair they do say to arrange your photos and talks so you don't have clashes... But i did have a clash at 10:00am with two photos and a paid talk with Karl Urban.This would not of been a problem but the costume photo over ran in the prep so they came out late. They looked great and i think it was or is one of the best photos of the day. But it is annoying that i had missed out on a paid talk (.£15.00.) and can't get a refund as i made the chose to do two things at the same time... that need to be looked at but i don't see away around it. Next time i will be more selective with what talks i go to.   


So lets moves on to the pros like i said above this was a greatly improved convention. with great guess and a lay out that mad great use of the hall. Though the TNG bridge was in a silly place. But the Set was well made and did not start to full to bits like the first bridge at the first DST. There was a good range of paid and free talks going on through out the day. The free talks are a great way to break up the day. if you have a few hours between a photo shoot and a paid talk and you have already eaten then just walking over to a talk take a seat and enjoy. while i was waiting for the TNG full crew photo shoot i went to a talk about the behind the senses of the TNG. This covered make-up and special effects. it was very interesting and it was only a pity i had to miss the end as i had to go get my photo taken. Also Amazon.co.uk were there and they had a fantastic sale for the convention. All the boxsets were on sale while the con was on.And i will not complain with getting Star Trek Enterprise seasons 1-4 and TNG seasons 4 and 5 for £17:00 each. 


What is always fun and something i have only really seen at the DST conventions are the Costumed photo shoots. This is great not only are you getting the photo with the actor but they are in costumed so its like meeting the actual characters.And these two guys were really nice and friendly. They seemed generally happy to be there. I look forward to the next con to see who will be in costume. Another thing that was improved was the museum, so much better and larger than before. They had a lot of TNG stuff there and a few movie costumes and props so this was what i thought was going to be there at the first DST i was a lot more impressed with this.








 


The swag we got was not bad ether. Ok it was not a free goody bag but it was not bad even though we had to pay for it.

  
With a good layout, good guests, good talks and good photos it was a really good day. With the weather being good i can not complain. It has been a while since i have enjoyed myself this much at a con. Saying that the photo below does have a interesting story that goes along with it.... It starts out as a negative but ends with perhaps the best part of the day...


Ok let me set the scene.
As this was a TNG heavy convention after all it has been twenty years since TNG ended. (.20 years dang i feel old i was 14 years old when it finished.) There was a cast reunion and this ended with a crew photo on the bridge of the USS Enterprise NCC - 1701-D. So this was a photo with nine of the cast members and as you can imagen this was not cheap. it cost £245 GBP or $392 USD. So a lot of money. Now this was originally set up to be a morning shoot at 9:15am but this was pushed back to 16:30. This must have happend in the days leading up to the con as i recived my ticket two weeks before the convention. I was not told, i did not revive an email or see a massage on twitter or face book about the change. And at 16:30pm i had a paid ticket to go to a William Shatner talk so there would be a clash. This normily just involves anyone with a clash being moved to the front of the line and missing a few minuets of Shatners talk did not bother me to much after all i have seen him talk a few times and he does repeat the same stories. So to prove i had a clash i pulled out both the crew photo ticket and the talk ticket. Me and my brother showed the tickets to the woman working the line and she moved us to the front of the line with a few other people who had clashes. i put the talk ticket back in my bag and gave my bag to the guy at the table so i could get my photo taken. Gave my ticket to the woman taking the tickets and then sat down had my photo taken and left. it was all very quick and as you can imagine this is all done at high speed. cause of the number of people getting there photos done. After all how often will i get a chance to have this done again. Anyway the point is i gave my ticket over and the lady didn't check. she just took my ticket didn't look at it she just waved me through. So as i left and started to head to the Shatner talk i pulled out my ticket only to find out i had handed over the wrong ticket, i had handed over the ticket for the Shatner talk and put the TNG crew photo in my bag. So i was not going to go back a que again for another photo and nor was my brother and with only one ticket we both couldn't go to the talk. So we did the only thing we could. Ok the second thing. The first would of been to sell it quickly to a random guy at the con and make my money back or for a profit.... 
But that's not how me and my bro roll..... 
So as we were leaving we saw and gave the ticket to a guy in a wheelchair. My brother walked up to him and said "It's our lucky day". At first he didn't believe my brother when he told him he gave the guy the ticket i explained what happened and i don't think he heard me but i told him to go now as they are doing the photos and my brother told him to be quick as well. We told him we didn't need it and the look on the guys face made it worth while. and with that good deed done it felt like the best part of the day. You hear or read stories about people being given something or something amazing happening to someone. But you never think for a minute that it would ever happen to you or more importantly you never think you will be the one doing the giving. 

That was Destination Star Trek 3 a great day out and i am looking forward to the next one. But this is only the start of October. On the 18-19th there is the Winter London Film and Comic Con the on the 24-26th there is the MCM London Expo... i had no idea that October was going to be this hectic.... and expensive.  

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