DST cancellation may be the end for Europe Star Trek events

London’s Destination Star Trek cancellation might be the beginning of the end for future Europe Star Trek events.

The recent cancellation of the London Destination Star Trek event caused a furor among fans who’d been looking forward to seeing their favorite actors, getting autographs and photographs, and sitting on the panels. Tickets had been bought, plans had been made, and then Destination Star Trek issued an anemic statement via Twitter that said it had decided to run just one big event in Europe this year.

As it turns out, according to Jill Ubdegrove [via Trekcentral], Marketing Director for Showmasters/Massive Events, Destination Star Trek London was cancelled against Massive Events wishes, and they fought to change CBS’ [Paramount] mind. Ubdegrove states she has been in every production meeting held by CBS so she knows everything one wants to know about these events and how they are handled, and after the cancellation, she couldn’t stay quiet any longer.

Destination Star Trek London was cancelled in late May of 2022.

Ubdegrove said she learned that Viacom, which was Paramount’s previous name, did not want to do big events in Eurpore anymore. They just wanted to do small gatherings for promotional purposes going forward, but the news gets worse.

"“Then in early May I was aware more conversations took place, and then in late May I heard that Viacom had sent their answer. London is cancelled, but the German event can happen. Talking to Jason and Mark they told me that VIACOM just did not want to do big events in Europe anymore. They had decided that they wanted to just do the odd small gatherings for promotional purposes going forward, and the idea of any official celebrations where fans can get together are over.”"

Ubdegrove went on to say that Massive Events was instructed to not put out their own statement about the cancellation. It would have to post the pre-written statement from Viacom, but she decided to risk her job to post the truth about the situation. You can read her full statement at Trekcentral, but it has also been posted in several online forums. [You should read it as it goes into great detail about what happened behind-the-scenes.]

"All that effort to survive lockdown to now deal with this cancellation, to all the fans this effects and there is also the guests that have been booked in good faith, VIACOM has called the shots on cancelling DST London and it’s important to note that Viacom do this with nothing to lose financially at all, it’s just Massive events that lose their money and fans are left disappointed."

Though we don’t know for sure if future events will be cancelled in Europe, it does certainly sound like things are headed in that direction.