When sci-fi fans get together it's for trek to other worlds
- Publication: The Miami Herald
- Date: 1982-03-15
- Author: Mike Capuzzo
- Page: 2B
- Language: English
Jacqueline Lichtenberg, a middle-aged fantasy writer, spent most of her week inventing the universe. And on the seventh day, the creator went religiously to a hotel room to watch a 200-year-old doctor operate.
Dr. Who?
"Shhhhhhhhhh'! Lichtenberg said Sunday, raising her hands like a football quarterback begging for silence in Room 102, which was dark except for the flickering pale light from a video screen and the shine of a dozen unflickering eyes that beheld it.
Someone whispered and a head turned to stare. Dr. Who, the BBC-born time-traveler who has whisked from British television to your house in 19 years, is casting his spell.
Lichtenberg and a half-dozen of her disciples took time out from world-making at the first Tropicon — "The South Florida Science Fiction Convention" — in Boca Raton Sunday to watch Dr. Who try fixing his time machine — which is stuck in the shape of a police telephone box — on the planet Logopolis.
A week of fantasy and science fiction in Boca Raton was out of this world for the local Sheraton. The Third International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts filled 130 to 150 of the hotel's 200 rooms Wednesday through Saturday, said Jim Walker, a hotel executive and science fiction fan himself.
"The conference was designed for academics," Walker said. "This convention is for fans who don't want to hear about the papers and all the Ph.Ds."
At least 130 fans plunked down the $10 Tropicon admission free Friday, Saturday and Sunday, convention officials said. Wearing Dr. Who buttons and Star Trek earrings and the dreams of "would-be science fiction writers," they browsed fantasy and science fiction collectibles, bought 64 other-worldly paintings on auction for a combined $1,300 and listened to lectures by once and future giants of the force field. Among them: Fritz Leiber, Fred Pohl, Lichtenberg, Lee Hoffman and Somtow Sucharitkul.
The elderly, white-haired Leiber, acclaimed as one of the greatest living fantasy writers, spoke at a panel on tarot, mysticism and the supernatural. A tall, big-boned man with an imposing, pear-shaped head, Leiber wore a button-down red shirt, olive green pants and huge, ankle-length black Pro Keds sneakers. Nodding asleep during the seminar, he roused to tell his rapt audience that he used the ancient divinations of tarot cards in a few of his stories.
While Leiber and others wrestled with planets beyond the stars, Cindy Jay indulged in a more down-to-earth fantasy: soaking up the sun. The 23-year-old green-eyed blonde — a New York City bank auditor here to work this week — arrived at the hotel Sunday to sun across the pool from the fans of the fantastic.
"What are they doing?" she asked, clad in a green and white swimsuit and lying on a lounge chair. "What are they getting out of it? ... It's pretty crazy."
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- APA 6th ed.: Capuzzo, Mike (1982-03-15). When sci-fi fans get together it's for trek to other worlds. The Miami Herald p. 2B.
- MLA 7th ed.: Capuzzo, Mike. "When sci-fi fans get together it's for trek to other worlds." The Miami Herald [add city] 1982-03-15, 2B. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Capuzzo, Mike. "When sci-fi fans get together it's for trek to other worlds." The Miami Herald, edition, sec., 1982-03-15
- Turabian: Capuzzo, Mike. "When sci-fi fans get together it's for trek to other worlds." The Miami Herald, 1982-03-15, section, 2B edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=When sci-fi fans get together it's for trek to other worlds | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/When_sci-fi_fans_get_together_it%27s_for_trek_to_other_worlds | work=The Miami Herald | pages=2B | date=1982-03-15 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=22 March 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=When sci-fi fans get together it's for trek to other worlds | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/When_sci-fi_fans_get_together_it%27s_for_trek_to_other_worlds | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=22 March 2025}}</ref>
