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Star Trek: 'You haven't lived until you've seen a dozen Klingons dancing!'
Star Trek is a bit like Marmite - you either love it or you hate it. And if you love it, boy do you love it.
Star Trek is a bit like Marmite - you either love it or you hate it. And if you love it, boy do you love it.Jemma Walton talked to some dedicated Trekkies about Klingons, (Dr) Spock and a charity banquet they are holding this weekend.
Earing fake pointy ears that you've hand-crafted from latex is not the kind of thing that most of us get up to on a regular basis.
But then, the Federation/ Klingon Rapid Response Fleet is no normal group – they are a group of people passionately, sincerely and deeply dedicated to all things Star Trek, and have the Trekkie memorabilia, costumes and latex ear extensions to prove it.
Read also: Frank loves to make Klingon kit
Jemma Walton talked to dedicated Trekkie Frank Rockley about Klingons.
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Charlotte Kebbell, AKA Kehaln, is married to James Kebbell, an admiral within the gang's fleet. The couple met and fell in love when Charlotte bought a Trekkie picture from the stall he used to have on Peterborough Market.
They got chatting, and Star Trek fan James ignited Charlotte's love for the series. She said: "I am a microbiologist, and so I have always been interested in sci-fi, which is all about the science of the future, really. "
She has now organised a charity event for Starship Enterprise fans across the country to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support, after losing her dad to cancer last year when he was just 57.
"I realised cancer touches the lives of so many people and wanted to do something to help Macmillan, who do a fantastic job," she said.
"Star Trek fans are the kindest, most generous people in the world," added Duncan Richards, a member of the group, better known to some as Stanick.
"If you are ever trying to raise money for a good cause, all you need to do is ask them if they will help, and you can rest assured that they'd do their very best to help you, collect money in the street or whatever.
"Mixing socially with people who like Star Trek is a good way of meeting like-minded people, people who are a bit different."
The Federation/ Klingon Rapid Response Team has got about 48 members, with eight in Peterborough, and the rest hailing from as far afield as California, Canada and Las Vegas.
As well as chatting online, the locally-based members meet up for events, like the banquet, to be held in Milton Keynes this weekend.
Lots of people would imagine Trekkies to spend lots of time debating the ins and outs of what happened in one particular episode, but Charlotte (35), of West Pinchbeck, near Spalding, insisted there was much more to the group than that.
Being a member of their group involves complicated skips and leaps of the imagination, not to say a flair for presentation and an eye for detail, as most of the group love nothing more than designing and making their own Star Trekky costumes.
"We could sit around watching Eastenders or something in our spare time," she said. "But that's boring. I am a very creative person, I love writing, and making things, and that is partly what attracts me to this.
"You need imagination and creativity to be able to make the costumes, and to join in with the roleplaying and things that we host on our website."
Those of us unbitten by the Star Trek bug might wonder what all the fuss is about, and we might even think the federation's interests are a little bit, dare we say it, weird.
But Duncan, whose partner is fellow Trekkie and Bretton parish councillor Amy Kavanagh, insists that Star Trek fans are level-headed people who simply appreciate having a little bit of colour in their lives.
“People say things about people who like sci-fi, and when people see us dressed in our uniforms the odd idiot does make the odd comment, like Beam Me Up, Scotty, even though that was never said in any of the shows,” said Duncan (38).
“Or they say ‘Oooh Doctor Spock,’ even though Doctor Spock is the renowned childcare expert from the ’60s, not a character from Star Trek,” added Charlotte, rolling her eyes.
“But the truth is that Trekkies know what’s real life and what’s made up,“ continued Duncan.
“You hear about people sending flowers to a character who has died in a soap like Coronation Street, thinking that character was real. That never happens with Star Trek fans.”
And however much they like dressing up and playing their parts, fans like James and Charlotte know where to draw the line. When they got married, they left their love for all things Star Trek at the door, and refused to have a Trekkie-themed wedding.
“A wedding is too serious to take risks with,” said Charlotte. “Although our vicar was a mad Star Trek fan, and did threaten to come to marry us dressed as a Romulan!”
But why has Star Trek hijacked their imaginations? Why do they love it so much? Surely it’s just another TV show?
Charlotte said: “Star Trek was first shown in the ’60s, at the peak of the Cold War, and it showed Chekhov on the control deck, working alongside Sulu, a Japanese man. It was very forward-thinking, and of course, it showed the first-ever interracial kiss on TV. It was a ground-breaking show.
“It also shows a vision of a planet earth which has no poverty, no conflict, and where everyone is happy, and so people have had to go to outer space to find new problems to solve. What’s not to like about that?
“And it’s always worth remembering that the Vulcan philosophy is Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations, and I think that’s a good motto for anyone to live by, it accepts people and the differences they have.”
As for the banquet, the federation guarantee anyone coming along to have the time of their lives. “You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a dozen Klingons dancing to Star Trekking (Across the Universe),” said James.
“And seeing them do the TimeWarp is something else.”
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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