Star Trek London - All 5 captains to be there!

[Rarewolf]

I can't see any way this event will go ahead. People should prepare themselves for the mother of all excuses.

I think that's just wishful thinking on your part. I can't see any way the event won't go ahead. (Excluding natural/unnatural disaster)

If it's going to make them money, even if it short changes people, what possible reason would they have to cancel it?

He's again come out with the abject rubbish that he's sold loads of tickets and that the event will be a sell out. Hardly anyone even posts on the DSTL forum anymore FFS, and no more than about 800 people have turned up to a UK Trek con in decades.

I've certainly known more respectable organisers say numbers are limited to encourage those who've not booked yet to make up their minds quickly, and the claim of rare or first time guests could be read as don't expect any more main cast, but I really can't see numbers being that low.

I'm more concerned about their Doctor Who event, but if/when that's cancelled don't proclaim its a domino effect that will effect everything else.

 

[Admiral Bear]

If it's going to make them money

That's just it. I see very little enthusiasm for this event. I've seen nothing to suggest the tickets are selling in any great number. Most of the small number of posts on the DSTL forum over the last week have been complaints, with both Shamasters and Media 10 saying nothing to address concerns. You'll have noticed that overnight, Joiner's had another mental breakdown on the DSTL forum.

Having read the comments over on Gallifrey Base about Lords of Time, along with those about Joiner's general competence and attitude towards customer service, you're right to have reservations about the event happening.

 

[Q_Incarnate]

That's just it. I see very little enthusiasm for this event. I've seen nothing to suggest the tickets are selling in any great number.


Well thats because you arent part of the un-official group which currently has 400 members and is growing at a rate of about 120 per month. We have chosen to keep the group small instead of advertising it because we are all getting to know each other well and want ot actually meet up at DSTL. In that group there have been points raised (some of which you have covered) but there is also a huge buzz about the show which an awful lot of people are attending. Not forgetting the partners of those members who dont need to join the group as well as other family members I'd be surprised if the group as whole hasnt brought at least 800 - 1000 tickets between us.

In the group we have set up a flow of information through a few of us rather than the whole group bombarding SM with questions which is much more effective. we've also arranged:

1: A travel information page
2: A ticket breakdown spreadsheet with costings so people can track what they spend.
3: A costume group where people can get info on where to buy, make and get resources for making costumes.
4: A hotel page to detail who is staying where so you can get to know people in your hotel.... believe me, we have taken nearly every room in all the docklands hotels
5: We have designed, manafactured and sold our very own unique DSTL pin badge so we can recognise other group members from the other guests at the show.

So just because YOU havent seen many people talk about DSTl doesnt mean it isnt a popular subject. Have you ever thought its because people dont wnat your negativity about? This will be my first Con and yes I have had concerns, but picking at every little thing just makes you look like a whiner instead of someone who wants to enjoy the show. Its no wonder people dont give you time when you are willing so badly for it to fail.

 

[Admiral Bear]

Joiner's rampant paranoia and deceit is quite frightening. Posts now getting deleted from the Lords of Time thread at Shamasters Central, with the mods now making tacit admissions that Shamasters hadn't been working on the event for 6 months as the company had originally said.

The guys are working hard on this event. They've put out a number of offers and are Chasing them. As soon as they have guests they will be Announcing them. At present they just do not have a lot to announce.

I understand people are getting Concerned as far as I'm aware but the show is 100% going ahead. I have been organising the crew for it, fingers crossed we'll hear more in the next week or so.

Now doesn't that just fill you with confidence.

 

[Alienesse]

Well thats because you arent part of the un-official group which currently has 400 members and is growing at a rate of about 120 per month.

Where is this group exactly? I'd like to join.

 

[Admiral Bear]

Where is this group exactly? I'd like to join.

If I were you, I wouldn't waste your energy and time. It's nothing more than the same person posting "X weeks to go. . .yipee" once a week. To be fair, I think it might actually have more posts than the official DSTL FB page. Kinda says a lot about the non existent organisation and official communication surrounding this event.

 

[Merlanthe]

I was going to post on here to say that im attending on the friday is any one else here going but the only person who seems to post on here with any regularity appears to be a very cynical teddy bear :S

 

[Alienesse]

Yes, I'll be going on all three days. I decided to get a silver ticket in spite of Admiral Bear's warnings that this event will eventually go to hell.

 

[Admiral Bear]

I was going to post on here to say that im attending on the friday is any one else here going but the only person who seems to post on here with any regularity appears to be a very cynical teddy bear :S

It pays to be cynical when you're dealing with this lot. Joiner has a proven habitual problem with telling the truth. He's just had another incomprehensible gibberish mental breakdown on his forum. I can just about make out that he's claiming to have sold 8500 tickets for this event. He makes no claim that these sales are to 8500 people. Remember that a few months ago, he was allegedly making false claims about how much money one of his competitors lost on an event. He has clear problems with figures and telling the truth.

There are still people who haven't received their £45 and other photoshoots from LFCC despite Shamasters saying over a week ago that all the photos have been sent out. Shamasters can't even organise something as simple as photoshoots.

I, and quite a few people, firmly believe that no one who has bought a silver/gold/platinum ticket will get anything like value for money. There's little prospect of much of what has been promised in the packages for these tickets coming to fruition. Anyone who asks questions is ignored or has their posts removed and their account banned.

And have you tried contacting Media 10 on the DSTL Twitter page lately? No posts for nearly 2 weeks. Looks like the feed has been blocked in some way. And there's been nothing from them of any substance on the official FB page for nearly a month.

 

[Merlanthe]

Yes he does seem very pessimistic and a lot of what he says is confusing and downright contradictory to what i have found. Despite his claims that the website has little information and the forum is mostly negative i found the website to be very informative and helpful and the forum to be full of people positively discussing and eagerly anticitpating the convention with only a couple of people grouching.

A silver pass means you gets lotsa freebies and stuff right? I hope you enjoy the convention even though i can only attend the friday i plan to thoroughly enjoy myself as much as possible on that day

Also the unofficial group with 400 members is on FB under the title star trek london 2012 there is a second FB group with bout 100 members thats just for people going in costume to swap advice and feedback on each other gear.

 

[tubular_trekkie]

Yes he does seem very pessimistic and a lot of what he says is confusing and downright contradictory to what i have found. Despite his claims that the website has little information and the forum is mostly negative i found the website to be very informative and helpful and the forum to be full of people positively discussing and eagerly anticitpating the convention with only a couple of people grouching.

A silver pass means you gets lotsa freebies and stuff right? I hope you enjoy the convention even though i can only attend the friday i plan to thoroughly enjoy myself as much as possible on that day

Also the unofficial group with 400 members is on FB under the title star trek london 2012 there is a second FB group with bout 100 members thats just for people going in costume to swap advice and feedback on each other gear.

Whilst I'm glad that some folks are still interested in and excited by this event, personally I'm not convinced. I think Admiral Bear makes some good points, however cynical the tone might be.

Have you read any of Jason Joiner's posts on the Showmasters forums? Their general content and the attitude they display is NOT reassuring in the slightest. Unprofessional, immature, whiney and petty are words that all spring to mind; he's usually blaming his potential customers for creating 'drama' and stirring up trouble.

Now this may or may not be the case of course (I don't think so, they're merely asking pertinent questions), but this is NOT the way to run a business IMO. The customer is always right - even when they're wrong. The problems don’t stop there though. There's not enough helpful customer service, not enough correct information (as opposed to vague guesses and poorly thought out answers), and far too much "stop asking us and just trust it works out" coming from Showmasters. This isn't very good considering the prices of some of the ticket packages. But maybe I'm just too negative?

 

[Merlanthe]

Whilst I'm glad that some folks are still interested in and excited by this event, personally I'm not convinced. I think Admiral Bear makes some good points, however cynical the tone might be.

Have you read any of Jason Joiner's posts on the Showmasters forums? Their general content and the attitude they display is NOT reassuring in the slightest. Unprofessional, immature, whiney and petty are words that all spring to mind; he's usually blaming his potential customers for creating 'drama' and stirring up trouble.

Now this may or may not be the case of course (I don't think so, they're merely asking pertinent questions), but this is NOT the way to run a business IMO. The customer is always right - even when they're wrong. The problems don’t stop there though. There's not enough helpful customer service, not enough correct information (as opposed to vague guesses and poorly thought out answers), and far too much "stop asking us and just trust it works out" coming from Showmasters. This isn't very good considering the prices of some of the ticket packages. But maybe I'm just too negative?

I have been reading the forum but i dont know which poster is meant to be jason joiner. There are two mods there but neither has sounded immature, whiney or petty. If they have then it must have been in different threads to the ones i have read.

I have only seen one mod post where someone got referred to as creating drama and stirring up trouble and that seemed to be specifically aimed at a single individual who had been repeatedly posting the same lengthy worry about the possibility of what a ticket entitles you to being changed or that people with inferior tickets being able to upgrade their package and gain the same benefits for less money as those with superior tickets.

Quite honestly all i want out of this convention is the opportunity to attend and try to get 6 autographs from 6 actors in 7 hours. None of the talks or parties that has to be paid extra for really interests me and only one of the autographs i want is from a captain/main character the others are from supporting cast.

Since my wants/expectations are quite simple to begin with i doubt i will suffer much if any disappointment with how the convention is run.

 

[Admiral Bear]

Even if there was an ounce of truth in the 8500 figure which Joiner has made up, neither he nor any other organiser can, on a logistical level, adequately service the expectations and requirements of anything like that many people. Even if you spread that number across the 3 days, it would really be pushing it, even for a competent organiser. But of course, a lot of the people who go (however many that actually might turn out to be) will be there all 3 days thus putting extra strain on the system.

 

[Merlanthe]

Out of interest, and since im terrible at predicting which actors are most popular/likely to have huge queues, which of the following 6 actors do you guys think is likely to majorly busy and which ones would you expect to be less busy?

Avery Brookes
Marc Alaimo
Casey Biggs
Jeffrey Coombs
Robert O'Rielly
JG Hertzler

Obviously Brookes will be mega busy but i dont know about the others. I think someone mentioned Marc Alaimo not going to many uk conventions and Robert O'Rielly and Jeffrey Coombs have appeared on more than one trek show :S

 

[tubular_trekkie]

Whilst I'm glad that some folks are still interested in and excited by this event, personally I'm not convinced. I think Admiral Bear makes some good points, however cynical the tone might be.

Have you read any of Jason Joiner's posts on the Showmasters forums? Their general content and the attitude they display is NOT reassuring in the slightest. Unprofessional, immature, whiney and petty are words that all spring to mind; he's usually blaming his potential customers for creating 'drama' and stirring up trouble.

Now this may or may not be the case of course (I don't think so, they're merely asking pertinent questions), but this is NOT the way to run a business IMO. The customer is always right - even when they're wrong. The problems don’t stop there though. There's not enough helpful customer service, not enough correct information (as opposed to vague guesses and poorly thought out answers), and far too much "stop asking us and just trust it works out" coming from Showmasters. This isn't very good considering the prices of some of the ticket packages. But maybe I'm just too negative?

I have been reading the forum but i dont know which poster is meant to be jason joiner. There are two mods there but neither has sounded immature, whiney or petty. If they have then it must have been in different threads to the ones i have read.

I have only seen one mod post where someone got referred to as creating drama and stirring up trouble and that seemed to be specifically aimed at a single individual who had been repeatedly posting the same lengthy worry about the possibility of what a ticket entitles you to being changed or that people with inferior tickets being able to upgrade their package and gain the same benefits for less money as those with superior tickets.

Quite honestly all i want out of this convention is the opportunity to attend and try to get 6 autographs from 6 actors in 7 hours. None of the talks or parties that has to be paid extra for really interests me and only one of the autographs i want is from a captain/main character the others are from supporting cast.

Since my wants/expectations are quite simple to begin with i doubt i will suffer much if any disappointment with how the convention is run.

The posts made by Jason Joiner are signed off as 'jason'. They're generally poorly written - I believe the chap may be dyslexic which would go someway to explaining their garbled nature - so not entirely his fault of course, and are indeed overly defensive and whiney IMO.

There appears to have been some misunderstanding with regard to which ticket holders would be allowed into the Opening Ceremony/Captain's Talk. Someone was told by Media 10 that only ticket package holders would see all 5 captains together as the talk would not be sold separately to standard ticket holders. This clearly contradicted what had previously been stated on the forums. Now I can't see why someone would want to make this up and it appeared to be a genuine and serious concern. After all if standard ticket holders didn't have the option to buy a ticket to the main event what would be the point of all the advertising concerning the 5 captains?

I understand you may not be bothered about these issues, but others clearly were and rightly so. All Jason/Showmasters needed to say was: "Sorry for giving out the wrong information. We understand your concerns - please be assured that standard ticket holders will be able to buy tickets for the Opening Ceremony etc." That's all that was needed, not a pointless attack on legitimate grumbles. People have a right to complain about things that involve monetary transactions without being branded troublemakers.

 

[Admiral Bear]

Out of interest, and since im terrible at predicting which actors are most popular/likely to have huge queues, which of the following 6 actors do you guys think is likely to majorly busy and which ones would you expect to be less busy?

Avery Brookes
Marc Alaimo
Casey Biggs
Jeffrey Coombs
Robert O'Rielly
JG Hertzler

Obviously Brookes will be mega busy but i dont know about the others. I think someone mentioned Marc Alaimo not going to many uk conventions and Robert O'Rielly and Jeffrey Coombs have appeared on more than one trek show :S

Based purely on the last time he was here, I wouldn't expect Avery to be overly busy, although depends if there are any special 5 Captains prints on offer.

Marc Alaimo is a tricky one to predict. I have met him in the UK before, but he's mega rare, and people may also want him for non-Trek. For instance he was in Total Recall with Schwarzenegger. But then, as is the case with Avery, he's mainly a Niner (he was briefly in TNG) which was never the most popular of Trek shows, even if it was the best.

Casey and Jeff, as above really. Casey hasn't been over here for some years, but was very regular between 2001 and 2004 when I met him numerous times and we got to know each other. Jeff is moderately difficult to get here in person, but I wouldn't expect him to be busy.

Bob and JG have signed their lives away in the UK in the last 10 years, but are still usually always popular. If you've never met them before, they're a couple of characters to say the least.

I wouldn't expect any of the dealers room guests to be doing more than moderate trade.

 

[Merlanthe]

The posts made by Jason Joiner are signed off as 'jason'. They're generally poorly written - I believe the chap may be dyslexic which would go someway to explaining their garbled nature - so not entirely his fault of course, and are indeed overly defensive and whiney IMO.

I think i know who you mean now the person who has showmasters as their forum title. Yes i do believe he is dyslexic its been mentioned by other forum users a few times and cited by them as a reason for misunderstandings as everytime he posts it has horrible grammer and such and does not always make much sense but then a mod will edit it and its meaning becomes clear. Whether his posts sound whiney and immature is obviously dependant upon personal interpretation. You think he sounds whiney and immature whilst i dont and clearly we will have to agree to disagree about that.

There appears to have been some misunderstanding with regard to which ticket holders would be allowed into the Opening Ceremony/Captain's Talk. Someone was told by Media 10 that only ticket package holders would see all 5 captains together as the talk would not be sold separately to standard ticket holders. This clearly contradicted what had previously been stated on the forums. Now I can't see why someone would want to make this up and it appeared to be a genuine and serious concern. After all if standard ticket holders didn't have the option to buy a ticket to the main event what would be the point of all the advertising concerning the 5 captains

I understand you may not be bothered about these issues, but others clearly were and rightly so. All Jason/Showmasters needed to say was: "Sorry for giving out the wrong information. We understand your concerns - please be assured that standard ticket holders will be able to buy tickets for the Opening Ceremony etc." That's all that was needed, not a pointless attack on legitimate grumbles. People have a right to complain about things that involve monetary transactions without being branded troublemakers.

I did not say that it was wrong for people to voice legitimate complaints. If you interpreted my words that way then im sorry but it wasnt my intention to imply such.

It is however true that i have only read one post where someone was refered to as creating drama and stirring up trouble and whilst they may have been posting a legitimate complaint a fair portion of their lengthy post seemed to be just them venting their anger and nearly causing a serious argument with another poster so the comment about drama and trouble was not being flung about without reason or provocation.

My comments about what i want form the convention was merely an attempt to convey the idea that having low expectations to begin with means i wont suffer as much if any disappointment compared to those who have high expectations/lotsa money invested in the convention. Personally when it comes to the platinum/VIP packages i dont understand why any one would charge/pay such a high amount for a 3 day convention? The silver and gold passes seems reasonable and value for money but the others? It seems more like exploitation of fans and i dont see how any convention experience could live up to such a high entry price but if their willing to be exploited

Oh and thank you for all of the info about how busy or not busy the guests might be cynical bear
I really am terrible at predicting such things so your input is appreciated. As you could probably guess from the list its mainly Ds9 people im interested in though I do love the other actors especially Patrick Stewart. Im quite thankful that i already met Nana and Rene at that peterborough covnention so i dont have to worry about their autographs though i wouldnt mind an opportunity to meet them again they were both so nice

 

[Admiral Bear]

It is however true that i have only read one post where someone was refered to as creating drama and stirring up trouble and whilst they may have been posting a legitimate complaint a fair portion of their lengthy post seemed to be just them venting their anger and nearly causing a serious argument with another poster so the comment about drama and trouble was not being flung about without reason or provocation.

Of course it was flung about without any reason or provocation, although I suppose that depends on your definition of provocation. As far as Joiner's concerned, asking a perfectly legitimate, albeit "difficult" question which you just know he doesn't want to/won't answer, mainly because he's a filthy, disreputable toerag, is deemed to be provocation.

If people were given answers to their questions on that poxy forum instead of being ignored or abused and called names, they wouldn't have to post lengthy diatribes that end up sticking a pin in Joiner's huge overblown ego.

And that's Mr Cynical Bear to you.

 

[Admiral Bear]

It's all kicking off again over when the tickets for the Captains talk will allegedly be put on sale.

Piss up, brewery, couldn't organise.

 

[USS Intrepid]

Wife and I are thinking of going for the Saturday and Sunday. Still kinda on the fence but since we haven't been to a convention in years it could be fun.