UFP Fan Club Report of the Terra Nova One Convention

South Australia’s first, official Star Trek Convention was held on Saturday April 23rd 2005 at the Holiday Inn on Hindley in Hindley Street Adelaide, under the Terra Nova Event Banner.

Guest Actors in attendance were Casey Biggs "Damar" from Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Connor Trinneer "Trip Tucker" from Star Trek Enterprise.

This event was the brainchild of UFP fan club President (2004/2005) in South Australia, Stuart Blair. He approached the biggest “Pop Culture” Promoter's in the Southern Hemisphere Bill and Adele from Armageddon New Zealand and said if he would bring the Actors to Adelaide the fans would respond.

Bill agreed and together we went about putting on a show for the fans by the fans.

The show opened with a couple of high profile Guest Speakers, the first being one of Adelaide’s leading Radio and TV personality’s, Mr Peter Goers followed by the South Australian State Premier, the Hon Mike Rann MP.

Mr Rann spoke of his support for the UFP fan club and that of events like this and let slip some news about his very recent meeting with Paramount Pictures and the Next Star Trek movie!

Both speakers were widely received and the atmosphere was electric in anticipation of what was about to come. A massive, parochial crowd was in fine form and gave our guest’s continuous cheers and applause throughout the day as the Actors participated in their own Question and Answer sessions and then coming together on stage for a joint panel of discussion.

Standing ovation's were the order of the day, the crowd could not get enough of these two great Actors and the Actors responded to this by remaining on stage for most of the day, they even conducted the memorabilia auction in true ‘Christies style’. (famous auction house)

Casey Biggs had the Crowd on the edge of their seats with every word and the large and very vocal audience absorbed Casey’s enthusiasm.
Casey left to a standing ovation and cheers of “More” and the Actor didn’t disappoint, he posed for photos with fans and waved as he left the Auditorium.

Up next was the Satellite phone link with Walter Koenig “Pavel Chekov” of Star Trek the Original Series.
Walter was a featured guest for the show but a sudden illness kept him under “Doctors orders” to stay at home for a full recovery.

Immediately after lunch the eager crowd moved from the large Dealer expo back in to the Auditorium.

The tune of Enterprise began and the crowd rose as Connor Trinneer entered and made his way to the stage, the Cheering continued as if it was never going to end and as with Casey Biggs, the cameras flashed and the clapping got louder, so loud it resembled a rock concert, and then the crowd began to listen…

Connor relayed personal experiences with fellow cast members and spoke about other roles he had played and what he had thought about his character and Enterprise.

Connor was very open and very approachable and this fine gentleman in true style, entertained them all.

Both Actors then sat down at the Autograph table and began to autograph memorabilia for the entire audience as well as pose for fan photos, nobody went home empty handed, no matter where you looked all you could see and hear were smiles and the cheers of a very satisfied audience. The atmosphere was one not to forget.

The show was a roaring success which saw much praise from the crowd being directed at The United Federation of Planets Fan Club members (who were all volunteers ) at the show, for making it the best show they had been to in a long time.

With 50 attending members at each monthly meeting, the UFP Fan Club has members not only in Adelaide but from three other States in Australia.
The club also boasts support from one of America’s Largest Star Trek fan clubs The USS Intrepid Based in Detroit.

Club President (2004/2005) and Event co-ordinator Stuart Blair says, “The Fans respond to Fan run events, They know the event will be on more personal level and their expectations will be catered for”.