Treks of the Trade : With help of a costume, yellow contact lenses and the right attitude, Bill Evans of Anaheim becomes a sort of Data bank.

“Get a life!”

The first place where most folks heard that now ubiquitous phrase was on a “Saturday Night Live” episode a few years back, climaxing a skit in which a harried William Shatner at a “Star Trek” convention has finally fielded more fawning trivia questions from fans--Trekkies--than he can stand. Then came those damning words, “Get a life !”

This wasn’t Trekkies’ parents talking, not work-mate infidels, but the very voice of Capt. Kirk--God to Trekkies--who each week had offered to “boldly go where no man has gone before.” And now this voice was boldly telling them where to get off. Short of Mr. Spock flicking ear wax at them, it may have been the biggest blow, even delivered in jest, that an avid Trek fan could endure.

So welcome to Trekkies, the next generation.

The first thing one learns in talking to a “Trek” fanatic now is that they’re Trekkers not Trekkies, for all the difference that makes. The second thing they point out, before the subject is even raised, is that they have lives.

“The image most people have of us is ‘Get a life, get a job.’ We are trying to change the image of “Trek” fandom to one of being responsible citizens,” says Catherine Christy, who may find it doesn’t help in that regard to be carrying around the title “Commanding Officer of the USS Roddenberry of the International Federation of Trekkers.”

The organization, which boasts some 4,000 members globally, was founded in 1984, and its members include doctors, pilots, law enforcement officers and other folks who might snap at ANY MOMENT! Aiiieeee!!!

Sorry, I meant to say that these folks are the solid bulwark of our society, and we can rest assured that IFT members are providing such crucial societal functions as preparing “Star Trek” floats for the Rose Parade, going on field trips to the JPL, and providing security at “Trek” conventions, such as the one coming to the Anaheim Convention Center this weekend. OK, they also do laudable charity fund-raisers, blood drives (Vulcans have green blood, incidentally) and disaster cleanups.

One of the founders of the IFT was the late “Star Trek” originator and producer Gene Roddenberry. According to Christy, “We came together under Gene Roddenberry’s dream to build a more stable, harmonious society.”

She put me in touch with Anaheim Trekker Bill Evans, a fellow so stable that I didn’t even notice until he pointed it out that he was wearing yellow contact lenses with pinpoint pupils.

Evans likes to attend “Trek” conventions dressed as Lt. Cmdr. Data, the android member of the second-generation Enterprise crew. That entails donning the lenses--obtained for a few hundred dollars from the Los Angeles optometrist who makes them for the series--putting on his homemade Enterprise uniform, slicking back his hair, applying gold makeup to his face, hands and neck, and generally comporting himself in an android-like manner.

Evans doesn’t consider himself to be an especially hard-core Trekker.

In a soft, barely modulated voice, not unlike Data actor Brent Spiner’s, Evans said: “I’ve seen some people who act like those in the (‘Saturday Night Live’) skit. They live and breathe ‘Star Trek.’ I don’t think I’m that way. I have fun getting into the costume, but next Monday when it’s back to work, I’m Bill Evans. It was fun for the weekend, but then its over.”

Evans, 26, has some experience at getting into costumes. Taught to sew by an aunt and grandmother, he started out making Muppets costumes, graduating to a full-fledged Spiderman outfit by the time he was in junior high. He keeps a photo book of his get-ups, which in recent years have included a Ninja Turtle, Superman, the Flash, Batman and a Renaissance Batman with buckskin cape and trappings and a bat-shaped shield.

“Everybody started calling me Batman at my job at the time, and they thought I couldn’t live without Batman, which isn’t true, but I made that Batman costume to wear to the Renaissance Faire so I could be him there. I got a lot of good comments, but also a few from these history sticklers who were saying, ‘That’s not period,’ or ‘That doesn’t belong here,’ Evans said.

He decided to become Data because friends said he looked like him. The character was one of his favorites on the program, though he says all the two have in common is a love of computers. He doesn’t feel much like an android.

He said: “I do try to stay in character at the conventions because it’s fun to play-act and get into it. You feel freer getting to run around pretending you’re somebody else. With Data, he goes around observing things and acting like a robot. It’s something I have to concentrate to do.

“I personally think Data has more emotions than what he thinks he does. There have been episodes where he comments, ‘I have no emotions. I am unable to feel.’ But I don’t think that’s true. I think he can feel, he just doesn’t admit it.”

Unlike the TV Data, who is the only such android in the universe, Evans sometimes finds himself running into two or three more Datas at “Trek” conventions. “I’ve been told that I’m still the best, though,” he said. One person who he said complimented his work was Michael Westmore, who does Data’s makeup on the TV series.

All in all, Evans finds being Data is easier than some of his other roles. He and some friends recently went to a Batman convention at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, dressed as Batman, Robin and the Joker. “It was supposed to be a pretty big convention, but we were the only ones who were dressed up. This was just after the riots in L.A., which made me really nervous to be out there in this costume,” he said.

The real high-risk crime-fighting job, evidently, is being a Ninja Turtle.

“The littler kids love him; they’re so surprised the Turtle would take time out of his schedule to come to their birthday party. But older kids, like 12 or 14, mostly seem to want to beat up Ninja Turtles. A few weeks ago I went to this little kids party in a park in Glendora, and when I was leaving I passed a playground and there were some children who weren’t so nice. It’s difficult in a Turtle costume because with that head on you can only see straight in front of you. And these kids like to get behind you and push and kick you and then act like they didn’t do anything. I got out of there as fast as I could,” he said.

It’s little wonder that he prefers the world of “Star Trek.”

“It’s a visionary program, a dream people would like to keep alive,” he said. “It gives us hope for the future. In the world of ‘Star Trek,’ there are no racial tensions. They’re against fighting. I think that’s what people are looking for: peace among people. With the things happening in the world that aren’t so good, they want to hold onto this idea of the future and hope it’s something that comes about. I don’t know if we’ll have star ships in my future, but I hope things will get better.”