I went to the Star Trek Convention last week - it was my first time there and I had a blast. Overall a great experience and it’s safe to say I have some new friends that I’m looking forward to seeing again next year. At the same time, I found all of the cash-only photos and signatures with the actors to be pretty sad/disappointing in a lot of ways.
I wrote an article about my experience, curious to hear what people think about it.
I went to Destination Star Trek in London in 2021. Overall it was a fun enough experience - saw a few interesting talks, met a few of the cast. Even though I ended up spending money I probably wouldn’t have spent in a cooler-headed moment, my memories of the day itself were fairly positive as a one-off experience.
But it ended up leaving a nasty aftertaste for me. Most of the Discovery cast were there and they were promoting season 4 pretty hard (which was due to premiere the following week), but then a couple of days later CBS pulled Discovery from Netflix and announced it would now solely air on Paramount+, a service which was yet to launch in the UK at that time… I don’t blame the Disco cast (whose social media reaction suggests they were as surprised as the rest of us) but it did make me feel like the franchise collectively had cashed in on UK fans’ enthusiasm and then told us to fuck off.
I have a who is a screen actor and they often work for very little pay. Even a recurring character on a hit TV show might not even be making enough to afford health insurance.
This friend recently landed a small but important role in a movie that gained somewhat of a “cult” status after its release. The money he makes from selfies and autographs at conventions is sometimes the only money he earns that month. I can see why it disappoints fans, but I can also understand these actors who are just trying to stay afloat. Especially the Trek actors who often don’t seem to get much other work.
That’s totally fair but in this case all the actors signing autographs are multi-millionaires. Totally different I agree if it’s a much smaller actor but the Star Trek Convention definitely didn’t provide a platform for smaller actors, only the big ones.
Thanks and good feedback, probably something I guess is just a reality these days. For me it feels like, without the fans the actors wouldn’t have jobs so why not give out autographs and photos for free supporting the people who support you?
I’ve never been to a con, and likely never will, but it’s a lot of work for an actor to be there. They take time out of their lives, have to be charming, and operate the assembly line of autographs on a multi day event. I’m not sure there’s a clearly correct answer, but them being there is a real job with real work. Having them do it all gratis is a big ask.
The actors are giving days of their lives to come to the cons and need to be compensated for it.
While I would find it creepy to pay for the time, I also see it as a sign of respect on fans’ part and as a way to make sure that the whole process is run safely and respectfully. But then, even in the old, old days of Trek conventions before paid availability, I felt uncomfortable to approach the actors and other panelists in the very limited time that they were out on the floor.
If not for the paid signings and photo ops, there would be fewer stars at these events. The old 80s and 90s cons had at most one or two actors and a producer, designer or writer. The price for admissions would be higher and there likely would be less availability for photos and autographs, and it would be poorly managed.
I’ve been to both political conventions and amateur sports events with photo ops and signings. In one case, the politician had a photographer who literally followed up with an ‘opportunity’ to buy the photo. (I’d rather use my own camera.) The sports star was mobbed and just took and signed pieces of paper and handed them back without interacting. Neither was a good experience for me.
Glad you had fun at the con.
The autographs used to be free, in the early days. That changed in the last 25 years.
I haven’t been to a Star Trek event but having the handlers act abrasive would certainly irritate me as well and it doesn’t matter if I was paying for a photo op or getting it free. I imagine it’s probably a local security group they are contracting so the staff are probably more used to being bar bouncers but someone should give them a speech on the proper way to engage during these types of events.
People pay money to get a pic with a celebrity? LoL.
