An Out of This World Hobby

 County Employee to Take Stage Again Friday at Comic-Con

It’s not easy to find a good Klingon or Romulan costume – or at least one as authentic as Lynda Woerner would like.

So the County employee makes them herself.

She’ll don her latest creation at Comic-Con Friday night as she performs with her Star Trek Fan Club, called Stranglehold. The original play will explore the adventures of Klingon and other fictional alien cultures created and popularized by Star Trek.

Woerner will play “Commander Ra’erdos,” a Romulan, who, for the uninitiated, is a rival alien species to the Klingons. This will be Woerner’s third year dressing up and acting with the group at Comic-Con, the pop culture extravaganza set to begin Wednesday night at the San Diego Convention Center. Woerner, who works as an Administrative Analyst for HHSA’s Behavioral Health Services, is one of about 50 members of the non-profit Stranglehold. Since the group was founded in 1990, it’s become known as a go-to source for all things Klingon, she said.

“If it’s Klingon-related in San Diego, it’s probably our group,” Woerner said.

The group has been performing at Comic-Con for decades, since before the event got so “big,” she said.

Woerner spent a few months preparing her costume and character alone. She started researching her character online and even re-watched her Star Trek movies and TV episodes with Romulan characters. Some of the more unusual items she needed, like the prosthetic forehead piece weren’t available in stores, so she turned to the Web. Once she assembled all the pieces, Woerner spent a few weeks putting together the actual costume. She worked for the equivalent of “four Star Trek movies” or eight hours, hand-stamping a special pattern onto some of the costume material. And she cut a black wig that she already had into a “more Romulan shape.”

It’s not only the costumes that Woerner and her fellow Star Trek devotees went all out on. The group started writing the script for the play in January. They spent weeks readying props and practicing battle scenes. The presentation will take place in Room 6A (one of the larger rooms) at the Convention Center at 8:30 p.m. Friday. Hundreds of people are expected to watch.

So, how does one land in a group like this? For starters, Woerner has always been interested in science fiction. She’s read Tolkien’s classic fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings, each year for the last two decades. And she was already into costuming when she heard of Stranglehold while attending a Renaissance Fair in Escondido a few years ago. A friend joined the group so she did too, and she quickly bonded with other members.  Her husband is also a member and they meet with the group monthly, alternating between business and workshop-style get-togethers in Mira Mesa and East County. Group members work on perfecting their stagecraft, talking over how to do certain accents and create characters and practicing improvisation skills. The group also performs as pirates and characters from Steampunk, another science fiction and fantasy genre.

A big draw, she said, is the fun of just playing a character. Woerner doesn’t do a lot of ad libbing, but she said some in her group do and are fabulous at it.

“We play with the crowd,” she said.

She’s come a long way since joining four years ago. Back then, Woerner said she would have been too scared to get up on stage in front of all of those people. But the acceptance and encouragement she got from the group have helped her shed her fears.

“I’ve grown and changed a lot,” she said.