Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Jan 11/99) - As Jean-Luc Picard and Worf blast across the big screen at warp speed, Iqaluit's Stephen Lowe sits mesmerized in the very front row of the Astro Theatre.

It's the moment he's been craving and waiting for since last year -- the release of the newest Star Trek flick, Insurrection.

But rest easy, he's a Trekker, not a Trekkie, and the distinction is an important one. Trekkies, the original fan-club members of Star Trek, became a little too obsessed somewhere over the years, prompting a smaller and more reasonable faction to break away from the mother ship. They call themselves Trekkers.

Lowe, despite his impressive knowledge of Star Trek trivia and collection of trinkets, magazines and autographed photos, counts himself as a Trekker. This means that the lifelong fan of the 33-year-old, almost cult-like Star Trek mania hasn't just been sitting at home dreaming of Klingons and the Borg, waiting for the newest film or the next episode of Deep Space Nine to air. No sir.

Lowe has been busy living out the morals and ethics of the Star Trek world right here in Iqaluit. It all started when a group of Trekkers decided to form their own local club.

"We had hoped that we would start a club that would promote the value systems Star Trek had, those being the equality of men and women, all peoples being equal and working together, the necessity for education and volunteership, helping people," said Lowe.

Dubbed the USS Umiaq -- umiaq meaning boat or ship in Inuktitut -- the club got off the ground in 1993 but crashed a year later when the five members dwindled to just one and Lowe found himself to be the only one still in full Star Trek costume in town.

"For about two or three years when I got the opportunity to do volunteer work under the banner of Star Trek, such as appearing at the Christmas get-together after the parade, I would sport the uniform," said Lowe.

And sure, it may seem a little strange to ordinary folks not bitten by the Roddenberry bug, but to fellow fan Kim Ross, it's just par for the course.

Also a lifelong watcher of characters like Kirk, Spock and Seven, Ross says she takes particular interest in the Klingons.

"Klingons are my favourite race on the show and I found their Web site... I ordered two language tapes and I have the Klingon dictionary," says Ross, who also counts herself as a Trekker.

Serious about emphasizing that her interest is just a hobby, Ross looks forward to learning to speak Klingon so she can attend conventions in the south.

"They have Klingon camps and it's just people who enjoy learning about it. You come and you take part in mock battles and there's banquets done in full Klingon dress. If you know the language, there are people who will only speak that to you," says Ross, who adds that she's following with interest the massive project some fans have undertaken of translating the Bible into the Klingon language.

But why Kim? Why take up Klingonese as a hobby instead of soccer or knitting?

"When I was younger it was so different than anything else that was on TV. Now, it's because people look at Star Trek and maybe in another 100 years, this is where we'll be in technology," says Ross.

So be it. If there are serious-minded fans of Star Trek aspiring to eliminate poverty and racial harmony in Nunavut, there's only one appropriate comment to make -- live long and prosper.