Unalaska’s first Star Trek convention brings island’s Trekkies together

Trivia, video clips and Funko Pops abounded at Unalaska’s very first Star Trek convention, held on April 5. The event was organized on something of a whim by the team at the Museum of the Aleutians.

Joselle Hale is the museum’s newest full-time employee and a self-proclaimed lover of all things Spock. They said they got into Star Trek during the pandemic.

“My uncle made fun of me all the time because I didn’t watch either Star Trek or Star Wars and they were going to take my geek card,” Hale said. “So I finally said, ‘You know what? You’re right. I’ve got to sit down and watch it.’ I’ve loved it ever since.”

Hale said it was a nice surprise to see how many Unalaskans turned out for the convention, which took place in the public library.

“I’m very pleased with the turnout and how engaged everybody has been,” they said. “We were kind of expecting it to maybe be just us for a while. But it’s been a pretty good turnout, and I’m really happy about that.”

Megan Dean, the museum’s store and office manager, took on the lion’s share of organizing. She said the idea for a Star Trek convention was first raised in 2019, then “2020 happened.” The convention went on the back burner after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most in-person gatherings, until popping up in conversation again this year. It took only a few weeks to put everything together, including a trivia game.

Museum Director Ginny Hatfield pretty much swept the trivia game, with some help from her team: the Vulcans. She said she first fell in love with the Star Trek franchise after seeing the original Motion Picture, which came out in 1979.

“I’m a little bit too young to have caught the original series,” Hatfield said. “It went off the air right when I was born. So it took a minute for me to catch up. But that is the series that I watched and became a fan of, and Spock was always my hero — my favorite.”

Event organizers are already bouncing ideas for what the island’s next convention might look like. Hatfield said she’d like to invite actor LeVar Burton, who played Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation, to come out to a future convention.