Escape Velocity 2019 featured Dominique Tipper of the Expanse as GoH and a large scale replica of the Enterprise from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
MOSF Escape Velocity 2019
Escape Velocity 2019, May 24 – 26
Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center
201 Waterfront Street, National Harbor, MD 20745
While Amazing Stories editor Steve Davidson was holding down a booth at Balticon, the Capital Region’s largest sci-fi convention, I was an hour away at the Museum of Science Fiction’s annual convention: Escape Velocity 2019.
Escape Velocity is a different sort of con than anything else in sci-fi. Visually it looks like a media con, with lots of large-scale movie props and cosplayers, but behind the closed panel doors, there’s a serious attempt to create a fusion of pop-sci-fi culture, accessible science, resources for educators, and even a few policy wonks talking about the future of space conflict.
Escape Velocity’s theme is “From Imagination to Reality” and nothing better fulfilled that promise than the massive ST-TMP Enterprise replica commissioned and donated to the museum by Kurt Kuhn and built by master modeler Dan Grumeretz. Seriously, nothing quite prepares you for the stunning presence this detail-perfect model crates, especially when it goes through the entire startup sequence on the hour. Strong men wept. I kid you not.
