Star Trekking for September 29, 2020
IDIC, Coffee, and a Mind Meld with the Thrifty Trekkie
Welcome to Star Trekking, my weekly attempt to share points of interest and random intersections in the final frontier.
The ongoing thesis of this newsletter is that, whether you’re actively looking for it or not, Star Trek is everywhere.
This week, it arrived via Facebook Messenger.
I received a note from someone I haven’t talked to or seen since (gulp) 1992. He’s a delightful person with a fantastic laugh and it brought me a lot of joy just thinking of him.
After a couple of messages back and forth he sent this.
Wait!!! I just looked at one of your posts. You are a Star Trek Fan??? I wear an IDIC pin on the lapel of my coat for EVERY workshop I give. I even gave a pin to all the people at aha a couple of years ago.
Needless to say, I decided right then that I was a fool for not having my own IDIC pin.
Navigating over to Fansets now…
Meanwhile, happy National Coffee Day.
My friend Eric sent me this note:
I don’t drink Earl Grey but after buying this glass jar for my tea I may have to. It’s just right there at the bottom of the jar.
Some days you’re minding your own business when you suddenly stumble across a video of someone playing the Voyager theme on a Vulcan lyre.
In this time of Trek abundance, it’s good to remember the lean years.
You know I love Trek art.
I hope we get more of this on Strange New Worlds.
Thirsty?
I think many of us can relate to this.
And to this.
MIND MELD
With Kellan.
In which we get to know a Trek fan just a little bit better.
First, please tell us about yourself.
I’m Kellan, The Thrifty Trekkie! I handle patient admitting for our local emergency room. Aside from cosplay, I love to bake, write, and do paper crafts. I love to stay busy, and I take great joy in expressing myself through fandom and using that to connect to and inspire others.
What are some of your first Star Trek memories?
My first exposure to Star Trek was the 2009 movie, which I saw in theaters with some friends to celebrate a birthday. From there, I wanted to watch The Original Series to get a better understanding of the story. I fell in love and kept watching through the rest of the series in the order they aired. I think right now is a great time to be a Trek fan.
How did you get into costuming?
I began costuming in anticipation of Star Trek Las Vegas 2014 - it was my very first convention and I wanted to get the full experience. I was your typical broke college student at the time, so I was cautious about my costume choices. When I looked around online, it was hard to find anything affordable and unique - there were lots of standard uniforms and many of them were way outside of my budget. In the end, I brought only two costumes with me - one I commissioned a family friend to make, and one I made myself. I had no sewing experience at the time, so I worked with secondhand clothes and ended up having a great time with it. As the years have gone on, I've moved away from ordering costumes. I prefer making my own and learning new skills with each project.
What are some of your favorite thrifty Trek creations?
I am proud of so many of my creations. Each time I make one, I learn something new or improve on a skill I picked up awhile ago. At the moment, I am nearly finished with my Ensign Tendi costume from Lower Decks, and I am really optimistic about the outcome. It relies on a few methods I picked up in the past and I think I'm confident enough with those now to blend them together and really elevate the finished look.
Online, I think I am best known for my Kira costumes. I've got a few of those, and she is an incredibly powerful character for me to embody.
In addition to costumes I've had a nice time working on props. These are a great way to practice some crafting skills on the side, use up scraps, and then add a unique final touch to a cosplay. They are also nice to have at conventions, either to use as a prop in your pictures or to have signed! You can make PADDs out of almost any electronic case, and you can find these very cheaply at the thrift store as soon as the technology is out of date. With a bit of paint and paper you can make something really amazing.
What advice would you give to folks wanting to create their own costume pieces on the cheap?
If you're a beginning cosplayer, I really encourage you to choose your favorite character or episode and start from there. Bringing to life something you love will also bring that spark and energy the costume really needs to pop. Don't start with a generic uniform - become someone specific that you admire or connect to. The love that goes into your costume projects should be evident - I don't like seeing people approach costume making as a chore or a contest. It might be a challenge, but it should be an exciting one, not a stressful one. You don't have to look anything like the original actor, either. You just need to bring that love forward and embody it. That's my top tip for being effective as a cosplayer. Even now, I don't pick characters that I don't feel some connection to, because I know the end result will not have the passion, and I just won't enjoy wearing it.
Tell us about a Star Trek-related rabbit hole you fell deep into.
Oh, the Trill. I found them fascinating and just couldn't find all the details I wanted on screen. I had to know more about their culture, the way they shape their identities through the Joining process, and especially the way they relate to gender and attraction. So far, I've spent a little over three years filling in the gaps from what little we learn from Canon, and it has led me to both real-world research and fascinating deep dives into other Trek species, so I could really flesh out their culture and biology. As always, working with an alien species can give allegorical insight into our own culture and current events. This has been a joy for me to work on, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Discovery might further expand on this race I've come to love so much.
Thanks, Kellan!
You can follow Kellan on Twitter: @ThriftyTrekkie.
The future is here today.
I will be watching Star Trek 5 soon…
DIRECTIVES
Marketing tip: “Be the one who masterminds the group effort.” A video about using Tribbles to move product.
Yes, I ordered an IDIC pin from FanSets.
Celebrate national coffee day with a Star Trek mug. I like this Beyond-influenced one. This is the one I own. This may be the best use of a Juan Ortiz poster.
Want your own Ressikan flute?
That’s all for this week. Thank you for reading. Please share with other Trek folks and let me know what random Trek references you come across during your week. I’d love to share them here.
Grok you later.
LLAP,