Amid chants of “USA! USA!” and with a surprise entrance by Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax on Star Trek: Deep Space 9), Star Trek Las Vegas fans Saturday night recaptured the Guinness World Record for most Star Trek costumes in one location for the USA. They did it with plenty of time and a few Trekkies left to spare.
Team Effort
The world record attempt for Star Trek costumes is like a Trekkie sporting event. Expect a comeback attempt from the UK, where the existing record was set back in October 2012 at Destination Star Trek London with 1063 participants. “We can’t let this title get out of our hands again,” seemed to be the general consensus. But Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013, Creation Entertainment’s Las Vegas convention will go into the books. “A win is still a win. It may not be a very pretty win, but we’ll still a win and we’ll take it. It was a great team effort.”
Convention-goers line up for the Guinness World Record attempt
This year’s group seemed slightly less enthusiastic than the powerhouse 2011 crowd to set the record with 1040 costumed fans. That year, almost every hand in the room was raised in Vulcan salute and every voice was chanting, “Star Trek! Star Trek!” This time, fans for the most part were seated and patiently waiting. Others checked cell phones texts, Tweeted, or compared costumes. Some photographed each other, wandered through the theater greeting friends and sipped cold beverages. But all eyes stayed on the count and the clock.
Fans wait for the costume count
Competition Anxiety
While the overall mood seemed festive, there was definitely an air of tension. The crowd, once a line of several hundred fans standing along the perimeter of the main hallway and up and down and around the corner of another hallway, somehow did not look quite as massive inside the theater. During the first hour, the announcer frequently called out, “Change the number to 200. Change the number to 300. Now we’re at 400.” Every hundred fans to enter brought louder applause and cheering. As the numbers grew, so did the enthusiasm.
But after about 500, the pace seemed to slow. Maybe it was time for a group photo? “Will all the Klingons move to the back of the room for a group photo, please?” As a few housefuls of Klingon families proceeded to the rear of the room, so did about twice as many camera-clad fans. Another group photo was called for anyone dressed as Deep Space Nine characters in observance the 20th anniversary of that series.
A group of Klingons pose for photographers
Tally inches closer…
Finally the count reached 900. But the next announcement was a damper. “Change the number to 915.” Only 15 more? What was happening? Where was that long line which weaved around the Rio convention wing? Eventually, smaller groups of people came trickling into the room. Minutes, which seemed like — well, something longer than minutes — passed. 950… 975… Was time running out? Was Star Trek Las Vegas going to reclaim its’ world record?
“If you have cell phones, now’s the time to phone your friends,” came the announcement. That statement may not have helped the room’s overall sense of confidence but it seemed to boost the total tally. More fans, larger groups starting filing into the theater. The excitement again was brewing. Then came the clincher… the confidence… that sense of success, or as Karl Urban (Bones in ST09 and STID) said it best as he described landing his starring Trek role: That feeling “when you know you’ve knocked the ball out of the park.”
Trekkies photograph Terry Farrell’s surprise entrance
Record broken!
Into the room came Number 1064! After that, a few more fans entered. 1067! Everyone was cheering! The London record was broken! Then, just as the fevered excitement started to lull, suddenly a group of about 15 or 20 more fans entered, followed by a tall Trekkie in a TOS red dress: Terry Farrell would be number 1085. That’s when the doors were closed. The room went electric (or maybe I should say, electronic)! Nearly every fan in the DeForest Kelley Theater jumped up with a camera or cell phone up to digitally capture her surprise appearance. “Five, four, three, two, one” came the final time countdown. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my meager three years of attending Star Trek Las Vegas: Always expect the unexpected and there’s strength in numbers, especially Trekkies with numbers. (Okay, that’s two.)
Wish I was there…
Very Cool!
We need footage of this.
@2: Yep! That, and more DS9 :-)
These fans were smokin crack. STID was not the best film of the series, but it was light years above 3/4’s of the TNG films.
Crack smoking crybabies..
Some of the costumes are very elaborate and I congratulate the fans on their creativity and devotion to the craft of costuming.
I wish we could see pictures of the more creative and elaborate costumes! And the “uniformed” Trekkers who also wore character makeup and hairstyles [exercising creativity as opposed to simply buying and donning a uniform shirt, but congrats to those folk for upping the numbers!]
Hooray for creative Trekfans!
Robman007, I’m not sure they are the ones sounding like “crybabies”. Try the mirror. NEXT!
(It was an awesome con.)
I was there there were more people outside that didn’t make it in or was just not interested I bet we could have easily had another 100 but a win is a win
A real missed opportunity for another Enterprise Rec-Deck scene.
Oh well, Next time.
3. Gary 8.5
We need more footage of Terry! At least one close up!
We’ll get our record back soon Americans … :-)
I was number 800! =D
On a side note, this site has been super slow with news lately. Whats up with that?
It was awesome and my favourite event at the con! I came in around 700 and the excitement was electric! The costumes were amazing! The anticipation, the cheering! I loved only and am proud to have been a part of it.
I’m actually shocked to hear that the atmosphere was anything less than berserk! Because that’s how I’d be behaving if I was there! I’ve never been to a Star Trek convention in my life, and it’s not for the lack of trying. There has never been a convention here in Ireland and I did try to get to the convention last year in London for the 5-Captains get-together, but I couldn’t end up going due to money (the prices for the con were just exceptionally, extraordinarily and worst of all, unfairly expensive).
STID WAS NOT and IS NOT the worst Star Trek film ever. I was upset over the rehashed ending as I felt the story could be told using Khan in a way that didn’t lift scenes and dialogue from a previous Trek film. But there are incredibly beautiful moments, scenes, story bits and amazing visuals (the Enterprise jumping to warp and falling out of warp in Klingon space are just stunning) that keep this from being anywhere near the bottom of the heap. To put it there with the suggestion that this is the concensus of hardcore Trek fans is just disgraceful. I’m a hardcore Trekkie, and haven’t been to these cons (purely out of money and distance reasons) and while STID wasn’t the best Trek film by any means, it was an extremely fun and great Trek film.
Terry appears here in this YouTube of the days costume record..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ALCCxAZuyg
#5 and #14: What are you guys talking about? This article isn’t about STID.
Congratulations to everyone at Las Vegas for regaining the record, from someone who was in London when it was last set. LLAP!
Star Trek.com had reported about a poll amongst the Convention goers that ranked all of the “Star Trek” movies.
In a fact I found unbelievable, these “So called” fans voted and the film that got the worst scores was 2013’s “Star Trek Into Darkness”.
How could this be ???
I know there has been so me anti-JJ backlash from some long time fans but I thought this new film was quite reverent to the Classic Series and it was about “something”.
I left the theatre feeling really satisfied and the movie scored an extremely high score with Moviegoers in general and received lots of positive buzz from film critics.
That’s what #5 and #14 were writing about. I still find these results impossible to believe.
Props to the guy who made a TOS spacesuit straight out of The Tholian Web!
And props to the fans who dressed as Ruk and Sylvia!
I think I see a Sybok in the crowd too. Not sure who the pointy white hat is though.
Worst Trek movie off all time? A tie between “The Final Frontier”, “Insurrection”, and “Nemesis”.
“Star Trek Into Darkness” might have had its problems, but it still is one of the top five (at least for me).
As for these records, I find that they are pointless. We know its going to be beaten next year anyway. What you want to do is set a record that stands for years, or even decades.
It’s not about the numbers, it’s just the fun of being there. :)
Glad to see the maroon monsters from the TOS movie era!
#6
If you want much better pics, check out io9
http://io9.com/the-greatest-star-trek-cosplay-of-the-year-1113856674
Terry Farrell is totally awesome. What a fun lady.
Terry Farrell is amazing. I was just thinking and posting about her the other day. :-)
The article was twice as long as it needed to be.
We may be united via ‘Trek, but we are still in competition! We will get the title back off you America!
Exclamation point!
Hearing Terry call out “#%$@ yeah!” totally made my night.
Viva Las Vegas!
And, STID is one of my favorite ST movies…
Ouch. Fans ranked their favorite Star Trek movies and STID was beaten by Galaxy Quest …
http://nerdreactor.com/2013/08/13/trekkies-rate-galaxy-quest-as-a-better-star-trek-movie-than-into-darkness/
Regards.
#31
Galaxy Quest beats quite a few of the “official” Star Trek movies!
I’m waiting for the total to get to 1701.
yup…actually galaxy quest is a gentle spoof of trek done with much humor n wit great efx and almost a tribute to trek…galaxy quest creators understood trek much better than many of the trek movie creaters
She can “capture” my “world record.”
@20, The pointy white hat is from some Voyager episode where the Doctor was tooling around with his program. (again). I think it was the one where a planet worshiped him as an opera singer. I’m afraid the name of the episode escapes me right now.
NERDS
How cool is that Star Trek Las Vegas Rules!…Many of the fans are right ST:ITD wasn’t that good…it suffers like a dropped pie at a bake sale…all the parts are there and it doesn’t quite look right and the taste is a little off but its just OK. Poor writing and execution do not a good film make. I hope for the fans sake that at some point someone gets it right and we can all share in a well made, well thought out cinematic event.
#38
NERDS?
A bunch of fans having a good time causing no harm to anyone. And you took the time to write something derogatory about them. That says more about you than it does about them.
@35 Sorry but there’s no justification for ranking Galaxy Quest among the Trek films. To do so is…illogical. And just plain stupid.
“Master and Commander: Far End of the World” also beats STID on a list of Trek movies.
Terry leaves DS9 but bring the World’s Record over the top :)
@ 5: Robman007
I completely agree with you 100% , Each of the first six features all orignial cast members together, they each had a good story line.
to me, ST II, and ST VI were the very best films, and ST TMP had the best music score to this date IMO
“Galaxy Quest” is an okay movie. A bit overrated by some fans here, but it is way better than at least half the Trek movies, in particular “Generations”, “The Final Frontier”, “Nemesis” and “Insurrection”.
Wrath of Khan…….the best Star Trek film……??????
GOD HELP US ALL!
where is “Roddenberry’s Vision” in Wrath of Khan????
Im SICK of these so called “fans”, they don’t even know what Star Trek is about.
They say that the new Star Trek films are missing Roddenberry’s vision but at the same time they claiming wrath of khan is the best “star trek” film.
What the hell is wrong with these people?
Wrath of Khan is a sci-fi film with star trek characters nothing more.
No Vision, No Star Trek.
In my opinion it is one of the worst star trek films.
Star Trek into Darkness is LIGHT YEARS better.
It looked awesome fun and next year to celebrate my 30th birthday I hope to go to a convention for the 1st time
As for this list I call it claptrap. I did feel let down by STID, but its way up at number 7 on my list
Trek belongs on TV. My personal favorite is TUC followed by TMP:DE. The rest are the rest.
My personal wish for the next movie would be a plot getting Spock back to his universe.
Damn phone.
That should read “personal favorite MOVIE”.
And yay costumed fans!
What’s shocking is that “Chronicles of Riddick” didn’t make the list to beat STID. Riddick was a much better Trek movie.
Come on, folks. If you forget that STID is supposed to be a Trek movie, it seems like a decent movie. But it was a BAD BAD BAD trek movie. BAD.
And now they’re going back to the same story wizards responsible for that? Maybe the next one can just go straight to bluray.