Loving the Alien

(Article reproduced with kind permission of The LIST - the Glasgow and Edinburgh Events Guide Magazine.)

Being a Star Trek fan is a serious business, as Kathleen Morgan discovered when she met a real life Klingon.

It is amazing what donning a large, rubber forehead and an attitude can do. For one of Scotland's most avid Star Trek fans, there is nothing better than forgetting all your earthly worries and dressing up as a member of the warrior race, the Klingons.

Adopting the costume and mentality of a Klingon is more than a hobby for 22-year-old Lee Close it is a way of life. He is one of thousands of Trekkies worldwide who attend Star Trek conventions, dressed as characters from the cult television series famed for going where no other dares go.

'The Klingons belong to a warrior society which holds great honour in the ability to fight and command,' explains the ex-Navy man who discovered Star Trek at the age of six. 'The ultimate glory for a Klingon is to die in battle with your hands round your enemy's neck.'

Close is a founding member of Klingon fan club Khemorex Klinzhai, a splinter society of the original Klingon Assault Group which invaded the UK in the late 1980s. As fleet commander of the club, he oversees some of Khemorex Klinzhai's six ships and edits its newsletter The Renegade from his home in Fauldhouse, near Bathgate. He admits to feeling liberated when dressed as a Klingon it sure beats pulling on a luminous, nylon Star Fleet jersey and a pair of Captain Kirk Tucka boots.

'As a Star Fleet captain you have one hand tied behind your back as a Klingon, you have two hands and one of them has an axe in it,' enthuses Close. 'As a race, Klingons are far superior to others. They have extra muscles and organs, You don't want to be hurt by a Klingon.

I'm just an average guy off the street, but there is a big personality change when you become a Klingon. It's a great stress reliever. You run about conventions threatening folk and stabbing them with fake knives. Folk like being threatened by us. At conventions, Star Fleet officers will actually step out of our way.' Close is a perfectly respectable looking father of two. He calls himself a second generation Trekkie, but is working on the third at two months old, his youngest daughter is already a fully signed-up Klingon.

To discover more about the Klingons or to join Khemorex Klinzhai, contact Lee Close at 101 Barton Terrace, Fauldhouse, West Lothian, EH47 9LL.

See also the Klingon Language Institute.