DEVOTED FANS TREK ACROSS NATION FOR SCI-FI ADVENTURE; NEARLY 600 ATTEND STAR TREK MEETING WHICH ENDS TODAY

They came from all over the United States, many donning polyester jump suits to replicate their television heroes.

But don't call these die-hard Star Trek fans weird, they're just devoted, says Richard Arnold, research consultant for "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the popular television series spawned by the original Star Trek series of the 1960s.

Arnold was in Cape Girardeau this weekend, along with 400 to 600 "trekkies," for Continuum '91, a three-day Star Trek convention, held at the Holiday Inn.

Joining Arnold as special guests at the convention were John de Lancie, who plays "Q" in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," and Majel Barrett, who played Nurse Chapel in the original Star Trek series and plays Lwaxana Troi in the new show. Barrett also is married to Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek.

Although Arnold works behind the scenes in production of "The Next Generation," he doesn't fit the stereotypical Hollywood movie-industry role.

"Basically, I'm the resident trekkie," he said.

Arnold was working full time at a hotel during the mid-1970s when Roddenberry began working on a possible second Star Trek series.

"They kept calling me up asking questions," he said. "That eventually turned into several days a week so that when they started the new series, I was working nearly full time, consulting."

Arnold was officially hired as a full-time research consultant July 1, 1986. Since that time, he's learned the "ins and outs" of the movie industry. But he's never lost his first love: Star Trek.

"I was a fan from the first episode," Arnold said. "I moved to St. Louis in 1969 and that's where I went to my first science fiction convention. That's how it all started for me."

Arnold said the devotion of Star Trek fans, who are found internationally, is amazing. He said the spectacle is difficult to analyze.

"It's really difficult to answer honestly, because you tend to promote the image of fans to be crazy," he said.

But Arnold said the devotion of a typical, true-blood trekkie is not unlike sports fans who idolize their favorite athletes and teams.

"Why would anybody be so crazed about one thing, to know all the statistics on each player and know all the details of a team?" Arnold said. "Why? Because you like baseball.

"It's the same with Star Trek fans. People think Star Trek fans are crazy because they know all the characters and they know specific episodes from 20 years ago.

"They think they're crazy because baseball's normal and Star Trek's not. But that's relative."

Arnold said that when the original Star Trek ran during the late 1960s, science fiction fans were considered "weird." But, he said "Star Wars" and "E.T.," both successful space-oriented films, helped remove the stigma that's dogged science fiction.

"Science fiction like Star Trek is now accepted," he said. "It deals with heroes. It deals with myth and, of course, the human condition.

"In a very positive way, the show tells us we're still here in the 24th century. It says nice things about ourselves in the 24th century."

Arnold said loyal Star Trek fans are just as devoted to the new series, "The Next Generation," and the five Star Trek movies, as they were to the original series. But, he added, many trekkies initially resisted the new series that featured new, essentially unknown actors.

"The fans were our worst enemies for the first two years because of this kind of misplaced loyalty," Arnold said. "But once they realized that there was a whole new aspect of Star Trek, they've become just as devoted to the new series."

Arnold said that one reason the show has remained popular for such a long time is because it's "intelligently written, lovingly crafted."

He said many of the writers and production people in the new series started as fans of the original series, so that the show's creator, Roddenberry, is surrounded by people who understand his format and his world view.

"It has brought in the added benefit of people who are willing to give 100 percent to the show," Arnold added.

"The Next Generation" crew includes more than 200 people and, with a budget of $1.5 million to $2 million per episode, is one of the most costly shows on television.

But the producers continually maintain contact with the show's audience. Arnold said that more than a dozen of the episodes derived from scripts submitted by fans.

"Some of the most memorable and best episodes have been fan scripts," he added.

Arnold said the Cape Girardeau convention is a carbon-copy of conventions he's attended world-wide.

"The fans are the same around the world," he said. "Star Trek conventions tend to draw what most people would call society's misfits, the nerds, the just-too-bright-for-their-own-good types."

But Arnold said the fans are less a product of a "weird" show, as much as they've adopted the Star Trek philosophy that people shouldn't be judged on their appearance or on racial, sexual or religious grounds.

"The fans know they can come to a convention and be accepted," he said. "You're all equal at a convention, and everyone will have their say heard. Many of these people are happiest at a convention because, for a few days, they're normal, not outcasts."

Arnold said that Star Trek has a wide appeal beyond the devoted fans who attend conventions. He said the use of scientific and medical professionals as consultants gives the show plausibility other science fiction programs might lack.

"Our consultants are taking the technology we have right now to the next step and beyond to try to make realistic projections of the technology that might be available in the 24th century," he said. "The scientists try to project where things are leading."

Arnold said it doesn't appear Star Trek's popularity will wane soon.

"They said the whole thing was dying out in the mid '70s," he said. "But where there were dozens of conventions every year before, there now are hundreds.

"We just see a constant increase. Conventions all over have been selling out. That hasn't happened since the mid '70s. `The Next Generation' has breathed new life into this phenomenal devotion."