USS Animus • Travelling Trekkies

Following the global cancellation of in-person conventions due to Covid-19 restrictions, I was drawn into a large-scale digital gathering that had already begun forming across Human social networks. The event referred to itself as *Concellation 2020*, a convention that was, in its own framing, always cancelled.

It began as a reaction to the absence of physical conventions, but quickly evolved into something far more unusual. Rather than attempting to replicate a real-world convention schedule, participants collectively constructed an ongoing parody of one. Entire programming blocks were announced, immediately revised, relocated, or rendered impossible within minutes of their creation.

Examples included panels being relocated from “Main Stage” to “The Food Court” due to unspecified spatial anomalies, or scheduled events such as the “Vorgon Poetry Circle” being formally reassigned because the Auditorium had been declared “temporarily non-existent for administrative reasons.”

Despite this apparent lack of structure, the event remained highly active. Participation was continuous, with announcements, improvisations, and reinterpretations of convention programming occurring across multiple time zones. The result was not a schedule, but a shared narrative being rewritten in real time.

I attended alongside the Executive Officer of the USS Blackhawks, the late Admiral Larry D. French Sr. Our involvement consisted of observing panels, engaging in informal discussion threads, and participating in inter-fleet conversations with other attendees representing various Starfleet International vessels and associated fandom groups.

What became clear over time was that Concellation was not attempting to replace a lost convention season. Instead, it had become a collective response to that loss—an environment where the concept of “cancellation” itself was continuously reinterpreted as part of the experience.

From an operational standpoint, nothing about the event was stable. From a social standpoint, that instability appeared to be the entire point.

The Travelling Trekkies archive records Concellation as a self-sustaining cultural anomaly: a convention built entirely from absence, contradiction, and ongoing revision. It demonstrates that even when physical structure is removed, Human communities will reconstruct it in abstract form, often without agreeing on the rules.

I am still not certain whether this represents resilience or just very committed improvisation.

End log.
Lt. Commander MistHrey ses-Var
USS Animus NCC-74293