A Tale of Two Conventions

So, I guess Con season has begun. Saturday morning I dragged myself out of bed and opened a series of browsers and browser windows, all aimed at the San Diego Comic-Con landing page, with one window displaying the atomic clock from Denver.  Sipping water and and rubbing sleep out of my eyes, I refreshed the atomic clock page, counting down to 8:59:59, and then, suddenly, CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK and then…hang time.

As my browser window loading bar pulsed and moved almost imperceptibly forward, my twitter feed roused itself, with friends and strangers wishing folks good luck and crossed fingers. We’re all in this together, everyone wondering, “Will it be easier this year?” and checking to make sure the right credit card was ready, the Member ID was there in the background, the password up to date, everything just ready to get this process done and over so we could get our Saturday back.

20 minutes later, with one page still trying to load the registration page — like it’s on the page, text just needs to show up — and another trying to leave the landing page, I feel this vague sense of mild SDCC panic. Just a little. Like, I will have a press badge but my wife Whitney’s gonna need a ticket, as will so many other people I know, and yes, it’s always hard to get a ticket, but, like, it always works, right? Every year I joke about how we almost didn’t get a ticket, but, I always get a ticket, and everyone I know does get a ticket, RIGHT?

By 10:30am, I am one of those many, many, many people who did everything right but who still could not get a ticket to San Diego Comic-Con this year. The event apparently sold out in about 90 minutes, but I can’t but help think it actually sold out in 10. Who knows?

It will all work out, of course. I will be there, Whit will be there, it’s all going to be fine — it has to, really. Ironically, I was actually kind of assuming I wasn’t going to go this year—last year was beyond frustrating and I spent more time running around (and then some) than actually enjoying the convention. But this year, I actually have additional real work that I will be doing at the show (in addition to the dancing and help I try to provide the guys with anything they need for their coverage) that makes SDCC, like, a real thing that I need to go to.

Now, flash forward a few hours later that Saturday and I find myself attending a different convention, the kind of convention that I haven’t been to in probably 5-6 years. I was in Burbank for a Star Trek convention.  And not just any Star Trek convention: a GRAND SLAM convention, with Patrick Stewart in attendance during the day and then, a full-on Next Generation reunion show that evening.  The whole cast (sans Wesley) was going to be on stage to celebrate 25 years of Star Trek.

Now, I don’t know if you have been to a Star Trek show or some other convention that has, shall we say, a fairly narrow focus and presents an opportunity for a very specific kind of fan to interact with the actors and creators that were responsible for the stories that love. With Comic-Con or even one of the smaller comic book conventions, you have pretty nice variety of the kinds of people that make it. It’s easy, if you haven’t to one of those highly targeted shows, just how isolated “fandom” used to be, back in the day.

In the many years that have passed since my last foray into the world of Trek, there have been a series of events and films and television shows, that, while owing their very existence to the very good work and stories and themes generated by the various Star Trek series, have really catapulted “genre” shows into the mainstream. With the success of these properties, the various Star Trek shows, great as many of them are, they  really are relics of a different time, a time before Netflix, DVRs, streaming services, etc. A time where if you wanted to watch a Star Trek show, you watched it when it was broadcast or, if you were “that guy” (and I was he), you recorded the shows you watched on VHS tapes—or bought the tapes (I did that, too)…which disintegrated over time, the stories and images fading off the tape and, eventually, fading from memory. So, when I saw these actors…well, it had been awhile.

The single biggest thing to happen in Star Trek, of course, is the re-imagination of the franchise in the recent J.J. Abrams’ film. This film, which I saw three times in the theater, took everything that people loved about the iconic original series, and gave an opportunity to bring what made those stories great — the characters and their relationships — to a whole new audience.

All well and good, right? Star Trek is back!

Well, not really. If you are a huge Next Generation fan or a fan of any the post “TOS” television shows (except, I guess, Enterprise), those characters are forever frozen in time. Unless something perversely awful and stupid happens (so, yes, there is a chance, it being Hollywood and all), there will never be a reboot for the Next Generation characters.

I sat in for a few discussions with the Next Generation actors, and you would not believe how many questions the actors got about this situation. “If there was a new movie for TNG like they did for TOS, who do you think would play you?” “If they introduced TNG into the new movies somehow, would you come back as Picard?” “Are you upset that…” “Are you frustrated with…”

The fans in Burbank, as far as I can tell, did not want to let go of the hope that they would someday see their favorite characters come back to life in a future story. And the more they wanted it, the more upset they got and the more passionate they became when they were finally able to talk to one of the actors about this impossible situation.

Comic book conventions are really interesting because, for the most part, the community is there to celebrate the characters and stories on their own merit, without being hampered down by the trappings of mortal beings actually having to be those characters. At least, that’s how comic book conventions used to be. Now, as you well know, comics are just one aspect of the event— a big aspect but people who complain about how SDCC is no longer about comics probably haven’t gone — and movies and television are a much larger part of the convention experience. The nice thing about this is that there is a sense of celebrating the new and welcoming different shows and movies into the fold.

I feel like we are at this strange time of fandom. I mean, 25 years of Star Trek: The Next Generation? That’s a long time. I know Comic-Con has been around for a long time, but you have to wonder–what will it be like in 20 years? One can’t help but think it will have to split up into several different shows over a long period of time (kind of like SxSW splits over interactive, music and film), as fans come to celebrate not just different forms of story, but different generations of story as well.

I will be honest: the Star Trek convention was, at times, really uncomfortable for me. Like, it’s one thing to see the actors when their show is still airing, or the movies are still fairly recent, but 25 years is a long time and just kind of underscores that realities of being a working actor. I was not uncomfortable about them coming back to have a reunion for a show long since ended, it was more about being reminded that life goes on, that all of those actors are still hustling for acting work today with decidedly mixed results. It’s so cool that the actors show up to meet their fans, but it just kind of underscored how little they have been up to in the years since their amazing success. I mean, it’s cool, I think both parties get a lot of out of it, but I just felt like I was in this fandom bubble where time had stopped, where the conversations had stopped, where the stories had just…died.

It’s easy to be snarky about Star Trek. It was impossible not to make Galaxy Quest comparisons during the evening. But being around these fans, the Original Old School “OG” of fandom, with the actors getting a chance to be stars again, as tempting as it was to dismiss it, I can’t help but feel it brought my experience with SDCC that morning into a bit of context. Yes, SDCC is annoying, yes, it’s overcrowded, but at the end of the day, we got what we asked for, right? This is the present day, when there are so many different kinds of films and shows and books and comics happening right now that to bring them under one roof, well, it’s going to be crazy. It’s the much-promised future of 500 channels on your TV becoming real under one roof, in real time.

So, I guess we are at the crossroads, where there is so much content out there, and so many different kinds of audiences that, we’ll probably see a few things happen over the next few years. First, we’ll see the large shows…probably just continue to maintain their present size, expanding with the space, but, as more and more shows and movies come out, each with their requisite hordes of fans, there will always be that demand to go to these mega shows where fans of all kinds can hang out with each other and enjoy general fandomania together.

On the other hand, we’ll probably see the more focused shows just get more and more…focused. I really can’t see the kinds of stage discussions and interviews like the ones I saw at the Star Trek convention happen at the bigger shows. I don’t think the general fan community cares about these older shows, and I don’t think, honestly, that the stars of those shows really want to deal with the hassle of the big crowds of people, most of which who are not there to see them. I suppose this is fine, I guess I was just worried how insular the Star Trek scene seemed to be…but who’s to say that is a bad thing?

Obviously, both shows are going to survive for awhile, and I kind of hope that the fact that SDCC sold out so quickly encourages people to try those smaller shows in different towns. San Diego is expensive; one could probably go to two, maybe three other shows (depending on where you live) with the money spent flying to and staying in San Diego. As awkward as the Star Trek con was for me at times, it did make me appreciate just how important that TV show was, not only to television and movies, but to me, personally—I rarely witness the kind of in-depth, sometimes emotional exchanges I saw in Burbank during the manic, press-aware, marketing-drenched galas I see in San Diego.

See ya this summer!

 

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Mike Romo is an actor in LA who is really looking forward to worrying about some of the actor-centric problems he described in this article.