Trekkies work tirelessly for months preparing their costumes for the annual costume contest at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention. Last Saturday night, contestants walked across the main stage in front of hundreds of fans. Some of the most creative costumes from around the world came to battle for the Grand Prize: a $1,000 Creation gift certificate and the admiration of everyone at the con.
In the end, the judges had the tough job of recognizing a few contestants as the “best of the best.” This year’s panel of judges featured four special celebrity guests: Discovery‘s Mary Chieffo (L’Rell), Star Trek (2009) head creature designer Neville Page, make-up and costume designer extraordinaire Michael Westmore (TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT), and of course, Jadzia Dax herself, Terry Farrell.
Celebrity judges having a blast on stage before contestants come out
Grand Prize goes to House Duras
Juliane Dowell and Alison Mingle won Grand Prize for their portrayal of the Duras Sisters Lursa and B’Etor, the conniving Klingon duo. Juliane and Alison became friends in college and are always on the lookout for any pair they can cosplay. Juliane chose this costume because she knew it would help her develop her skills: “These were the first really serious costumes I’ve made and I chose them knowing I’d have to learn a lot in the process. I learned how to sew, how to use worbla, how to make life casts, how to make appliances, how to use resin, and more!” Interestingly, making the costume was not the hardest part. According to Juliane, “Wearing the costumes is harder than any single step of creating them. They are heavy, hot, tight, and restricting, and they really take a lot out of us every time we wear them.”
Lursa and B’Etor brought glory to House Duras by winning Grand Prize! [Photo: Nancy Garrett]
1st Runner-up: The Antedeans
Kelly Williams and Seth Hudson won 1st Runner-Up for their Antedean costumes. Antedeans are fish-like aliens first seen in the season 2 Next Generation episode “Manhunt.” Kelly felt the hardest part was making the mask: “This was my first latex mask attempt. I had to do this because no other `on-the-market’ monster mask came close to this design.” Kelly started with clay modeling, plaster mold, and then latex. Predominantly, Kelly enjoys masked cosplays. “I enjoy being incognito. I like masked creatures. All of my cosplays are masked. I also like the 50’s B movie aspect of this particular alien. Ridiculous looking but in an awesome way.”
A pair of Antedeans took 1st Runner-Up [photo: Jerry Toppins]
2nd Runner-Up: The Family Borg
2nd Runner-Up was awarded to Eric Allan Hall and his family. Eric, well known for his intricate Borg costume, decided to do a Borg Collective costume entry with his four children this year. While Eric worked hard on the costumes, he can’t claim full credit for the idea:
“I did not force or even suggest that my kids become Borg with me. After years of having seen me do it by myself, my daughter, Cleo (11), asked me if I would make a Borg costume that she could wear to Las Vegas to enter the costume contest with me. Soon after, her brother Allan (10) wanted one, followed by Spencer (7), and then Phoenix (4). The kids had a blast walking the floor in them and posing with other fans. Entering and placing in the costume contest was just icing on the cake for them.”
This Borg family was just back from the Argolis Cluster in time to take 2nd Runner-Up
3rd Runner-Up: Thank You, Mr. Homn
Debbi and Rich Reinke won 3rd Runner-Up for their Lwaxana Troi and Mr. Homn costumes. The couple had met Denise Crosby at a convention, and, wanting to do something special for The Next Generation‘s 30th Anniversary, asked what she thought they should cosplay. Denise suggested Lwaxana Troi and Mr. Homn! They started working on their costumes in December of 2016, toiling away through evenings and weekends and finally finishing at 10:30am on the day of the contest! The creative couple are already taking suggestions for costumes for next year.
Lwaxana and Mr. Homn make the perfect couples cosplay. They took 3rd Runner-Up.
More Cosplay Fun
Rob and Tawnya Zerr, attending their first convention, recreated the nightmarish scene from the seventh season TNG episode “Phantasms”. You know the scene. The one where Data cuts into a Deanna Troi cellular peptide cake… with mint frosting!
With mint frosting!
As the costume contest ended the hallways flooded with fans eager to take pictures of all of the participants. Trekkies asked the contestants dozens of questions about how they made their costumes. Everyone seemed to enjoy celebrating creativity. The costume contest at Star Trek Las Vegas continues to be one of the most enjoyed events of the convention!
[foogallery id=”50086″]
Cosplay, baby!
The contestants weren’t the only ones dressed up during this year’s STLV. Check out some of our favorite cosplays roaming the floor last weekend!
Greg Rozier posted this photo of himself on his twitter account. Bonus points if you can ID this behind-the-scenes Trek vet!
Mr. Spock and his special helmet
Captain on the beach!
Parenting done right.
The books may not be canon, but it doesn’t mean you can’t cosplay your own character, Master Chief Petty Officer Rideout!
A couple of the first Discovery cosplayers in history!
[foogallery id=”50065″]
More Star Trek Las Vegas Coverage
Brannon Braga On How Kirk Should Have Died, ‘Star Trek: Enterprise’ Regrets And More
Trek vets talk about Star Trek: Discovery
What We Left Behind Team Gives Details On DS9 Doc
Karl Urban talks Star Trek 4, Beyond, Judge Dredd and more
Marina Sirtis Says Paramount Threatened To Replace Her With Jeri Ryan In Star Trek Nemesis
Star Trek Film Academy At Original Series Set Tour Announcement
Patrick Stewart Talks About Gene Roddenberry Opposing His Casting As Picard And More
Denise Crosby talks about her plan for ‘Trekkies 3’
Full videos from ‘Discovery’ actors and writers panels
Star Trek Online announces LeVar Burton to reprise his role as Geordi LaForge for game
Panel: Details and covers for first ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ novel and comic revealed
Interview: Sam Vartholomeos and Wilson Cruz
Interview: Mary Chieffo And Kenneth Mitchell
Panel: Writers Talk Technobabble, Timelines And How ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Is Telling Our War Story
Wow, this is some sort of really, really sad goodbye… The House of Duras is going to be deprived of ther hair, their honor and their canonicity in less than 50 days from now. Klingons, according to retcon abrogation, can no longer grown hair due to their physicality aka backhead sensors… So, count the days until these sort of Klingons shall be ancient television history…
It’s not they can’t grow hair. It’s just it became fashionable to shave – presumably because some self-appointed Klingon lifestyle coach came with a contrived idea that shaving makes Klingon senses sharper.
The trend will likely disappear once half the Klingon Defense Force goes down with a nasty case of backhead sensor catarrh. Klingons realize that hair actually have a point, the said lifestyle coach will be impaled on a High Council Building pinnacle, and once again it will be life as usual in the esteemed Klingon Empire.
I imagine TOS fans saying something similar after watching Star Trek: TMP.
There are still fans dressing up as TOS Klingons. No one is going to forbid fans from dressing up as TNG-era Klingons if they like the look.
@ smike… *rolling my eyes at your comment*
Imagine a Klingon or a Vulcan would land randomly on any place or any time-era on earth. What would they encounter? They land in 1970 and would find men with long hairs and moustaches, in the 1990s shaved men without body-hairs and in our time a lot of bearded and tatooed men. Or they would meet Africans, Asians, Indians, or Enlishmen in the vitorian era. Or landing far way back in time and encounter cavemen. They might think they had encountered different species. Humans have used totally different styles, so why should all klingons look the same or not change their appearances? Place men from the 1970s, 1990s and 2010s together and you can immediately see from which era they are. And this is just a small span.
First, unless I remember incorrectly, the House of Duras wasn’t exactly the most honorable to begin with. Second, there’s nothing from the Discovery marketing to suggest that they will ditch the Klingon honor part. We have no idea if the House of Duras will be featured on Discovery so its status within Star Trek canon is unchanged.
If you don’t like the new Klingon look, don’t watch Discovery and stick to your copies of the old shows and movies (except TOS of course).
See that top pic? Now THOSE are ‘Klingons’! ;)
I guess I’m not the only one who’s come to think that all those delta shield-patterned fabrics, starting with the JJverse uniforms and now obviously as part of the DSC-uniforms, are really just a form of “copy protection”, preventing fans from crafting “too” exact replicas of those costumes.
Those two cosplayers who chose to use the plain gold fabric did it right, IMO. From a distance they sure look a lot more like the actual DISCO-uniforms than those on which they have painstakingly tried to replicate the look by using Starfleet-delta-shaped sequins.
Unless fans start selling their costume replicas I don’t think CBS will go after them for being too authentic. But it does make it more difficult to create an exact replica which may boost sales of licensed costumes.
Yeah, that’s what I meant to say. Hence the quotation marks. I didn’t mean to imply that this was actually about copyright claims, unlicensed manufacturing, potential infringement lawsuits or whatever, but rather about marketing. A subtle strategem for the purpose of – as you mentioned – boosting costume sales.
Ha! In what world are those Duras sisters better costumes than those flawless Antedean outfits!? Oh right, the Duras sisters are showing some tittymeat so of course they win.
So glad to see my twin girls with their momma on here :) Parenting done right indeed!