ORLANDO, Fla. – They are the next generation. Literally.
Beckham and Ella, both 11 years old, flitted from vendor table to vendor table at the Creation Entertainment Trek to Orlando convention last weekend. Even in their simple Starfleet costumes, they stood out – they were some of the youngest people in the room.
Perhaps most interesting, they weren’t just young “Star Trek” fans. They were new fans. The cousins from Brevard County had only watched their first Trek – the 2009 movies – only recently.
“I mean, we heard about it, and our parents have told us about it and stuff,” Ella said. “And we love ‘Star Wars,’ so we started watching ‘Star Trek.’”
“Our Aunt Chrissy — her whole room is filled with ‘Star Trek,’” Beckham said.
[WRITER’S NOTE: Credit for the lead sentence goes to Aunt Chrissy.]
Creation Entertainment says about 1,600 people attended the convention over the weekend, fans of all ages, races and genders. The convention hosting company also brought in almost two dozen celebrities from across the Star Trek universe.
For Beckham, Trek ignited a new interest in space. Like any Brevard County boy, he had visited Kennedy Space Center, but “Star Trek” gave him a new perspective.
“’Star Trek’ is such a cool series and movies because it’s introducing people to space, and that’s why I love space so much and the galaxies,” he said.
“In ‘Star Trek,’ they portray space so well,” Ella said. “I love how they added a black hole in it, it’s pretty cool, like nobody’s ever been in a black hole and back…but what if it’s a portal, like it takes you somewhere else?”
Beckham described his favorite characters, Captain Kirk and Captain Pike, as “very cool,” while Ella talked up Uhura and Spock’s mother, Amanda.
“I love how they also added female characters, like it’s not just the men always take charge,” she said.
Creation hosts regional Star Trek conventions around the country, but this was the first time the company held a convention in Orlando. While the Central Florida region is home to numerous pop culture conventions, there hasn’t been a Trek-focused con in years.
But Star Trek has always had a symbiotic relationship with its fans. Indeed, the show may not have lasted so long without letter-writing campaigns, conventions, and fan clubs keeping Trek alive, even when parent company Paramount seemed weary of it.
[WATCH: Star Trek actors talk fans, relationships and the future]
The actors who bring Trek’s characters to life act as a conduit for that symbiosis, and while the fan response may be a surprise initially, it is also thrilling.
“It’s incredible because you don’t really know the effect of your work unless you actually meet these people,” said actress Christina Chong, who plays Starship Enterprise security officer La’an Noonien-Singh on “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.” “And you know, we get reviewed, but to know that our stories and our characters have affected fans in deep ways is so fulfilling as an actor, as an artist.”
With the great power of carrying a new generation of the franchise to fans also comes great responsibility. Just ask Chong’s co-star Ethan Peck, the latest actor to tackle the iconic Mr. Spock.
“They’re so passionate, and many are generational,” Peck told News 6. “So maybe their parents watched “Star Trek” with them or introduced them to “Star Trek,” and to hear that is really heartwarming and touching because we’ve been plugged into, especially someone like me who’s playing this legacy character, I’ve been plug into this thing that existed before me and wasn’t created by me, and it’s just that sort of love is transferred directly onto me, which is really, I think, illustrates how accepting and kind of the fandom is.”
Casey Biggs, who played Damar on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” in the 90s, has been doing conventions for years, and is still astounded by the fans who come up to him.
“People will come up with their entire family and then the 10-year-old kids are in ‘Star Trek’ uniforms,” Biggs said. “I think ‘Star Trek’ is one of those things that, 50 years from now, it’ll still be going on like this.”
For that to happen, those kids are essential.
Since 2017, Paramount has produced five Trek projects, but in the United States, they’ve largely only aired on the company’s streaming service, Paramount+.
It’s difficult to know just how well the new shows have performed, or if they are truly drawing new fans, since analytics are not widely available, Peck said.
“I’ve heard it thrown around that there’s not an appetite for Star Trek anymore, that the fandom is aging, that kids aren’t watching it, and you know, I don’t know what to believe because I’m not sure how they’re collecting data and how they are interpreting it,” he said.
But if anecdotal experience is anything to go by, Star Trek conventions show the interest is still there, and not just from adults. For fans like Beckham and Ella, who are just starting out, meeting the stars helps cement their love for the show.
The two gushed about Bonnie Gordon, from the animated series “Star Trek: Prodigy,” whom they met in the hotel’s Starbucks.
“She’s our bestie now,” Beckham joked.
Beckham was excited to meet Peck, and as he shook the actor’s hand, Ella joked, “Don’t pass out, OK?”
Beckham and Ella also told Peck and Chong about their plans to binge all of “Star Trek.”
“Are you going to do it for like a month straight because there are like 1,600 episodes?” Peck asked.
“We’re gonna start at 12 a.m. and then –” Ella said.
“Watch it at like 10 times speed so you can get through it?” Peck quipped.
“200 times speed,” Beckham responded.
Then there were the provisions.
“We’re gonna get a giant bowl of candy,” Ella said.
“Peanut M&Ms, gummy bears, pretzels, and just watch every single episode, every single show,” Beckham said.