ATLANTA — If you ever want to see just how creative and outrageous fandom can be, make the trek sometime to the Deep South where, every Labor Day weekend, an experience called Dragon*Con embraces every conceivable corner of genre fandom, and brings out the most exuberant, unbridled expression of that fandom you'll see just about anywhere. Whether your thing is being Klingon, Borg or Starfleet, or whether it's Jedi, Hobbit, wizard, superhero, anime character, pirate, zombie, Spartan, faerie or furry, you have a place at this convention.

Dragon*Con — a strictly volunteer-run affair — has grown over its 20 years from a small gaming convention with 1,400 attendees, to a mega-multi-genre function boasting well over 30,000 memberships. Little wonder this event fills up three large hotels in downtown Atlanta and the crowds are shoulder-to-shoulder (or wing-to-wing, or antenna-to-antenna, as the case may be). Aside from being one of the most colorful gatherings in the country in terms of costumes and programming, it also has the reputation of being one of if not the biggest party convention on the map.

In terms of panels, the convention brings together about three dozen programming tracks, each individually organized and operated, with topics ranging from "Star Wars" to Tolkien to the "Whedonverse," from Science and Space to Robotics, from several genres of literature to Writing workshops, from Gaming to Costuming to Filksinging. There were live performances by various bands in the ballrooms (such as the Cemetery Surfers, singing "Please Be My Zombie Bride"), and smaller offbeat musical groups in the concourse. Plus there was a huge art show and a film festival, not to mention sizable autograph and dealers' rooms.

One of the most popular tracks at Dragon*Con is also its most stalwart, hitting the 15-year mark in 2007. That is "TrekTrak," which from the beginning has been run by local fan club organizer Eric L. Watts. TrekTrak has always attracted major celebrities from the Trek universe to help fill its four full days of programming, but Watts also recruits fans and experts from throughout the region, to maintain the local flavor of the event.

This year there was a special emphasis on Star Trek: The Next Generation to celebrate the 20th anniversary of that seminal series. To that end, TrekTrak's most special guests of the weekend were Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden and John de Lancie, who each made multiple appearances over the four days.

In addition, Nichelle Nichols was in attendance to present the world premiere of her independent film "Lady Magdalene's" there at the Atlanta Hyatt, and also to serve as Grand Marshal of the Dragon*Con parade through downtown Atlanta.

Other special guests at TrekTrak and Dragon*Con in general included BarBara Luna ("Marlena Moreau"), Mark A. Sheppard ("Leucon"), Lori Petty ("Noss"), Ron Glass ("Loken") and Atlanta native Ken Feinberg (Alien Captain in "Horizon"), along with Star Trek novelists Peter David, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Ann C. Crispin, Josepha Sherman and several other authors. (Robert Picardo was scheduled to appear, but didn't make it because he got work on CSI: NY — according to his official and fan websites, it is a Halloween episode titled "Boo" directed by his old friend Joe Dante.)

The panels and other organized activities were the cornerstone of the event, but anyone who takes part will tell you that it's the fans who make the convention. Like Jess, a 23-year-old woman from New York at D*C for the first time, who delighted in "the wonderful conversations I've had with people ... You can talk about their costumes, you can talk about their interests and, the next thing you know, you have something in common and you make really fast friends."

Or Katie, who at age 6 is already a Dragon*Con veteran because, "I get to see all these people and I get to see some of my favorite people from some of my favorite shows."

Sometimes their purpose is more than to have fun. Lynn, 50, of Marietta, Georgia, has frequently come dressed as "Rosie the Riveter" or some other World War II-period costume, to "revitalize the memories of this important time in American history."

Those were some of the female attendees. As for the males, a typical point of view was expressed by a group of D*C veterans — Eric, Derek, Eric and Kevin, ranging in age from 19 to 50 — dressed in "Alien"-style army fatigues who said they attend the con every year because of: "The eye candy ... the women!"

We're right there with you, gentlemen.

Seriously, anyone who still buys into the stereotype of sci-fi fandom being no more than a bunch of pimply nerds and 30-year-old virgins should stand in the lobby at Dragon*Con for five minutes and see how far their eyes bulge out of their heads.

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Page 2: The pageantry, the parties...
Page 3: Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, etc.
Page 4: John de Lancie, BarBara Luna, Nichelle Nichols, etc.
Page 5: Fan and author panels