| October 8, 2026 |1 comments so far
In 1982 a convention in Houston, Texas was set to reunite the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series, but the “Ultimate Fantasy” event turned into an epic disaster, and the subject of an upcoming documentary, The Con of Wrath: The Craziest Convention Ever!The project has been a long-time dream of Star Trek author and host Larry “Dr. Trek” Nemecek, and today at a panel at New York Comic Con, The Nacelle Company – producers ofThe Center Seat Star Trek docuseries – announced they will be producingThe Con of Wrath as a feature-length documentary with Nemecek.
The Con of Wrath
At NYCC today, Nemecek and Nacelle CEO Brian Volk-Weiss announced they’ve started production on The Con of Wrath, promising a documentary that tells the true story of “a disastrous arena show” which was organized by fans in 1982, as part of HoustonCon. The Ultimate Fantasy show has been likened to 2017’s infamous Fyre Festival, in terms of organizational chaos. As described in today’s announcement:
Coinciding with HoustonCon in 1982, promoters promised fans an event like no other that was set to feature appearances by William Shatner, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, DeForest Kelley, Kirstie Alley, James Doohan, Mark Lenard and more. There was a frequently-broken rotating delta-shaped stage featuring most of the cast ofThe Wrath of Khan, a performance by the actors of a one-act play written by Walter Koenig, a spectacular laser light show that started an airborne fire, a banquet-with-the-stars, and more. The ambitious event aimed high, but even at peak attendance, the 16,000-seat Summit Arena drew a crowd of just 1,200. So what went wrong? How did this spectacular event turn into an epic disaster? The Con of Wrath explores the highs, lows, and everything in-between that led to this infamous weekend, continuing the celebration of Star Trek’s 60th anniversary year.
Nichelle Nichols, Harve Bennett, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, Laura Banks, and James Doohan at “Ultimate Fantasy” con in Houston, TX 1982 (Photo: Larry Nemecek)
This has been a dream project for Nemecek, who attended the event back in 1982, and first announced he was developing a documentary back in 2011. According to Nacelle, the doc will give audiences the most complete picture of what exactly went wrong. “When I first heard about this con years ago, I assumed it was just an overblown piece of Star Trek lore that had been embellished over time,” said Nacelle CEO Brian Volk-Weiss in a statement. “This documentary proves it was actually much crazier than I could have ever imagined.”
“It’s actually a universal ‘riches to rags to riches’ story,” says director Larry Nemecek. “And I was there! We’ve had big fan conventions, even big convention failures—but never anything like it, before or since. And when I realized so many ‘survivors’ were still here and eager to tell their story… not just our Star Trek legends but fans, vendors and the Houston crew … well, I knew we had to preserve their saga. Each in their own circles reacted to the fiasco to salvage it, and gave us so many crazy side stories too. And we also ask: would it happen the same way today?”
New poster for The Con of Wrath
The Con of Wrath: The Craziest Convention Ever! is directed by Larry Nemecek, who also serves as Executive Producer alongside Brian Volk-Weiss, Bailee Rackie, and Davina Dobrovech.
More from NYCC to come
New York Comic Con is just getting started. There is more from the Nacelle panel to report, plus tonight’s red carpet premiere of Sixty-Year Mission Star Trek documentary, the Star Trek Universe panel on Saturday and more.
