Last week a small corner of the City of London was overtaken by Star Trek fans of all species, there to compete for the title of The Ultimate Trekker.

Manpower UK interviewed three hundred applicants, separating the Data from the Lore, whittling down the legion of eager Trekkers until seventy souls stood before the inquisitors, who quizzed them about the intricacies of Gene Roddenberry’s greatest creation.

With thirteen films, included the recently released Star Trek Beyond, five tv shows with a new Captain just assigned to head up a sixth (the forthcoming Star Trek Discovery), an animated series and hundreds of novels and comics there is a deep mythology to the world of Starfleet. Finding one person with the Vulcanesque mind capable of retaining all the facts and figures from the show is no easy feat.

Star Trek Beyond Recruitment Event Complete recall of various obscure registration numbers were asked, full names of characters (everyone knows Kirk’s middle name is Tiberius, but did you know that the full name of the Borg crewmate in Star Trek: Voyager is Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One (or Seven of Nine, grid Nine-Two of Subjunction Twelve)? You do now.

The Star Trek fans dealt with tough questions from film journalist James Dyer, and it was Oxford’s Gary O’Brien (no relation to the Enterprise’s transporter chief) who bested every single question to become the Ultimate Trekker.

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Winner Gary O’Brien

Talking about his win O’Brien said, “Sometimes I’ve wondered if there was any point to knowing this stuff, but now having won this great competition I guess I can say that there was!” He wins an official uniform used in the recent Star Trek Beyond film, and a VIP visit to the Paramount Studio Lot in L.A.

However the real prize comes in the title. Being crowned the Ultimate Trekker is something to aspire to, and having something to aspire to is a theme common to each of the Trek incarnations – it is perhaps its greatest legacy.

Star Trek Beyond cosplayStar Trek Beyond is available now on Digital, 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D™