Furious Star Trek fans are boldly going nowhere – after their eagerly awaited annual convention was suddenly destroyed.
Thousands of Trekkies, some from abroad, planned to beam down to London to meet stars including William Shatner, 91, who played the USS Enterprise’s Captain Kirk.
Back to the Future actor Christopher Lloyd, 83, a Klingon commander in Star Trek III, was also due to be at the Destination Star Trek event.
Star Trek: Voyager actors Jeri Ryan and Ethan Phillips and British actress Marina Sirtis, who appeared in TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, were also lined up for the three-day convention at London’s ExCel centre from September 30.
Many fans are demanding refunds for the event where tickets ranged from £30 to £3,000 and which included “exclusive” packages allowing fans to meet and be photographed with their heroes.
The TV series, which began in 1966, has spawned a string of movie and TV spin offs. At conventions, fans dress as characters, meet the stars and have even adopted their own language, Vulcan, in honour of Spock.
Now the organisers – UK promoter Showmasters – have cancelled the event and say there will be just one official Star Trek convention in Europe this year, in Germany. One fan pointed to Spock’s famous declaration: “Insufficient facts always invite danger”.
It says ticket holders will be able to “enjoy a tribute to Star Trek” at the London Film and Comic Convention in July where many of the Destination Star Trek guests will attend.
Disappointed fans say they are struggling to get refunds and have complained that Showmasters’ own terms and conditions state they will be given if an event is cancelled.
Jack Trestrail, editor of the fans’ website Trek Central, said: “There’s a lot of anger directed at Destination Star Trek over this. If you pay for something and don’t get it, you want your money back, you don’t want vouchers for another event. Some people are rightly complaining they have spent all this money on hotels and flying in from the States and Europe and yet they can’t get a refund.”
It follows criticism over last year’s event, which went ahead even though some stars bailed over the pandemic.
Then some fans claimed they should have been offered a refund. One said: “So, for a second year Showmasters are holding on to customers’ money and refusing refunds.”
After a wave of complaints, Showmasters offered to refund ticket holders or give them a voucher.
It said it was “truly sorry” but the cancellation was out of its control, adding: “We desperately tried to find ways to make this work but it became impossible.”
Showmasters was contracted to run the event by Paramount, which owns the Star Trek brand.
Paramount said: “Given the unpredictable challenges of in-person events at this time, we wanted to focus all of our resources towards delivering one strong show for European fans.”
