William Shatner has been going to conventions for years as a speaker and has been studying why he feels that fans go to them as well. He originally explored the idea in a book and more recently in a documentary. Only, the times they are a changing and his views on why conventions themselves have changed as well.

I wrote a book called ‘Get a Life’ years ago, where I felt I’d done my due diligence and figured out why it is that people come to these conventions and it’s to see each other. That was my final conclusion. Then I did a film documentary and some deeper research. And it was therein that I discovered that this pop culture goes deeper than we’d imagined.

There is a mythological component, especially with science fiction. It’s people looking for answers – and science fiction offers to explain the inexplicable, the same as religion tends to do. Although ninety-nine percent of the people that come to these conventions don’t realize it, they’re going through the rituals that religion and mythology provide.”

Of course, as I mentioned above, that times are changing. The conventions for fandoms have evolved from get togethers into true spectacles of pop culture.

“It’s metastasized, I guess is the word. It’s become a huge, huge business. There used to be one or two conventions a year. Now I have to be careful and pick and choose where I go.”

Aside from the sprawling SDCC which is the current pinnacle of conventions in our favorite genres there really are quite a few to choose from out there. From single universes such as ‘Star Trek‘ and ‘Star Wars’ to every genre under the sun combined – there is a convention for anything these days.

Before the interview came to a close, Shatner did have a couple more words on his good friend Leonard Nimoy:

“I loved him. He was a wonderful man. And we’re all so much the less with his passing. Two other people connected to Star Trek have also passed away recently: Maurice Hurley, who produced and wrote the first two seasons of Next Generation, and Harve Bennett, who produced four or five of the Star Trek movies I was in. We’ve lost a lot of wonderful people of late. It makes you consider your own mortality.”

It really has been a couple years of loss for ‘Star Trek’ fans as of late.

Why do you think on Shatner’s explanation on conventions? Do you feel that they are the Church of the science fiction loving community? Share your thoughts below!

Source: Trek Today