There was a time before Star Trek became big business when fans would get together at conventions for the sheer joy of celebrating the show they loved. The dealer's room wasn't a sea of the same licensed merchandise on table after table and the actors didn't charge $25 a pop for an autograph. Instead, it was a world of imagination where fans would offer up their own creations, ranging from costumes to fan fiction and home made tribbles. Thousands gathered to hear the actors, behind the scenes personnel or professionals who were fans speak; 16mm prints of episodes were screened to packed rooms, where the fans would recite the lines with the characters and react with sheer joy at key moments.
The Star Trek convention scene kicked off in 1972 with a new show being mounted each year. It was an era of the fan and really served as the fuel for the Star Trek explosion that would ultimately result in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and everything that followed.
Hitting YouTube is footage from the 1973 convention that has been edited together, resulting in a genuine time capsule of the era. In a sense, you had to be there to believe the power and the frenzy of it all and now you can kind of see it for yourself.