The Ottawa Citizen

There once was a day not so long ago, in a galaxy much like this one, when wearing a cape in public while debating the physics of time travel would earn you the label of sci-fi loser geek.

No more. Science fiction, its courtly cousin fantasy fiction and their dizzying array of sub-genre offshoots have become mainstream entertainment staples. Think Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and other fanciful money machines.

Conventions attracting hordes of detail-obsessed fans of kickboxing vampire slayers, animated samurai and, yes, Starfleet commanders are multiplying faster than Tribbles.

"We have seen an explosion in both the popularity of TV science fiction and the fandoms (hard-core followings) that go along with it," says Peter Jarvis, chair of Torcon 3, also known as the 61st World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, on now in Toronto.

About 4,000 people from 30 countries have commandeered a cavernous convention complex and a nearby hotel for five days of panel discussions, readings, a "masquerade" costume competition and the Hugo Awards for sci-fi achievement.

This is a grand old literary gathering expanded to put all genres under one tent. It has, to some extent, been eclipsed by specialty conventions, or cons. The Trekkies started doing their own thing in the 1970s and today there are cons for disciples of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Japanese animation, fantasy costumers and virtually everything else.

At a session Friday titled Fannish Ghetto, veteran convention organizers talked about how to keep the various communities, basking in the glow of new-found public acceptance, from turning on one another.

They recalled the bad old days when they risked pitying stares on the bus unless they hid sci-fi novels behind the cover of another book.

Now, though, fandom seems to be splintering under the weight of its success. Those who don’t bypass WorldCon in favour of a specialized convention often spend the five days sticking close to their own kind.

A minority openly deride fans of other genres. For example, some in the once-supreme literature realm mock the younger and more numerous "media" (TV and movie) fans in terms once used to damn the entire community.

"Every interest has a defender of the faith and they want to keep it pure," says panellist Lloyd Penney, a Toronto-based Star Trek fan and veteran sci-fi convention organizer.

"It’s a negative side of fandom that I’ve tried to overcome by being inclusive rather than exclusive. Maybe it’s souring me a bit on the whole thing and I don’t want that to happen."