First of all, the best thing about the Con was all the great people -- no, friends -- I met. First there was Madzilla from here at LJ. She made great LJ badges for us, with our screen-names and avatars. She came all the way from England for the Con, and I’m so glad she did.
Another friend from LJ was Sharpslass. Her input helped me decide to go to the Con, for which I’m eternally grateful.
UFP0275, sorry I didn’t get to see you more. Maybe next time!
Just need to quickly mention a few more people, because you guys really made the diff between a good time and a great time. Rick and George, Jim, Karen, Bones, and especially Chet and Nick. (More about them later.) You made me feel like I was at a party of good friends. Thanks!
OK, on to the report!
Tuesday, August 5
After pre-registration, the first event was the Chocolate Party on Tuesday night. It was an inauspicious way to begin, to say the least. Actually, it was a disgrace. The room looked pitiful. No décor, nothing to make it feel or look special. None of the glamour of a low-level corporate holiday party. Just a plain, drab, small room. The food was set on one table directly inside the door, so people bunched up as soon as they entered, instead of being spread out at stations around the room.
The chocolate offerings were hersheys-like syrup for dipping pound cake, pineapple and melon; spongy mousse and some other rather un-exciting offerings. No chocolate fountain, no truffles, no dipped strawberries, nothing interesting. At the bar, there was no Godiva or the like to create chocolate martinis, which would have been creative. And the “entertainment” was rudimentary -- one guy doing what felt like an off-the-cuff trivia contest. If it had cost 20 bucks, it might have been OK. For the price of $80, it was an insulting rip-off.
Nonetheless, I ended up meeting some fellow fans and having enjoyable conversations – no thanks to Creation. It was about the same experience as if they had just set aside an unused room for us as a gathering place. Not the best of beginnings.
Wednesday, August 6
There was a Hollywood Lunch with De Lancie, Crosby and others which I didn’t attend. For a more complete report, check out TrekMovie.com or other sites.
Susan Gibney (Dr. Leah Brahms from TNG), Barbara March (Lursa, the Klingon sister from TNG and DS9 and Generations) spoke. They were both warm and engaging.
Robin Curtis (Lt. Saavik in III and IV; Tallera in The Gambit in TNG). A little ditsy, but she told a great story about getting divorced from her husband in Hollywood, moving back to where she’d grown up in upstate NY, and buying a house that needed a lot of work. She ended up falling in love with her plumber and marrying him! Even better, she’d gotten out of show business when she had kids and now needed to get back to work. So, she became a real-estate agent! Yes, sir, that’s the true American dream: The poor young actress from Hollywood manages to leave Tinseltown, move to upstate NY, marry a plumber and finally achieve her dream and become a real estate agent! Actually, I love this story -- it’s so Overboard.
I missed a few speakers, then heard Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar). Many people asked her about her decision to leave – she must get sick of that. She spoke of being the only actress to be killed off twice, and, in response to a question about the new movie, suggested that it would be a bit much to resurrect her three times.
Carel Struycken – who? – Lwaxana Troi’s Mr. Homn, of course. Did you know that he played Lurch on the Adams Family? I didn’t. He was very funny, even without makeup.
John De Lancie (Q) was next – urbane, witty and entertaining. He mentioned how gratifying it is to be a god.
I skipped the Celebrity Bingo Champagne Bash, and feel this was probably a good call, given the lameness of the Chocolate Party. Did anyone else go and feel differently?
Thurday, August 7
I didn’t take any photos of the dealers’ room; you folks know what it’s like. I wasn’t really looking to buy a lot of stuff, but I did promise to bring home something for my daughter Sarah, eleven, who was bummed that she couldn’t come. I got her a few tribbles and a transporter/disappearing mug. I bought a couple of photos. But I also got some beautiful jewelry – not Star Trek or SF in any way. Look at this cool necklace:
The most interesting thing in the dealers’ room this time, I think, is a few things that are not yet available. Coming next year is a R/C (radio-controlled) fly-able Enterprise from Tyco/Mattel. The cheap version only goes around in circles, but the $70 version is fully-controllable with an extremely-cool touch-screen control which is a TOS communicator. Here, check this out:
Also coming up soon, in spring of ’09, I think, is a Scene-It? Star Trek DVD game and a Star Trek hand-held 20Q (like the Harry Potter one). Those are things that Sarah – and I! – would definitely like!
Thursday morning I ventured out to explore some of the other hotels and the strip, which I won’t bore you with. I returned for Max Grodenchik (DS9’s Rom), who was a riot. Continuing the comedy was the amazing duo of Brent Spiner and Marina Sirtis (Data and Troi). What a vaudeville act those two are! They could definitely take that show on the road. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t tape anything – I got intimidated by all those warnings about it.
Majel and Eugene Roddenberry were up next, and what I loved here was the sub-text. Majel is getting on there, but she’s still a sharp, powerful woman – a Grande Damme. Gene was talking about all his projects first, with his partner, then they brought out Majel. The family dynamics here were extraordinary – no, actually, they were absolutely ordinary, in that they were so typical and easy to relate to. Gene was trying to “handle” Majel for all he was worth, and you could tell he thought she was ready for the Alzheimer’s ward. She thought he was a young punk for trying to manipulate her, and wasn’t having any of it. She was proud to show she was a strong as ever. For instance, after Gene had gone through all the Star Trek-related projects he’s spinning as hard as he can, someone asked Majel if she thought there would ever be a new Star Trek series on TV. “No,” she replied bluntly. “Star Trek is dead.” (She meant as a television series.) You could see Gene turn pale and he leapt in to back-pedal that answer as fast as he could. Here he was, trying to weave some Star-Trek enterprise for himself (sorry!), and she’s there pulling the rug out from under him. Now, I don’t know anything, obviously, about how Majel’s health, how she’s doing and whose view of her mental acuity is closer to the truth, but it was fascinating to watch.
Garrett Wang (ENT’s Harry Kim) was next. He spoke about Asian stereotyping and how liberating it was to play the bad guy in that online Star Trek thing that I haven’t seen yet, something about The Gods...? Someone help me here!
I really wanted to go see Mike and Denise Okuda, the amazing graphic designers whose interviews on the DVDs I gobble up. Unfortunately, they were on opposite Max, who I’d wanted to see, too. What kind of fun job must that be, huh? I watch those interviews and daydream about my alternate-reality life, where I’ve become either a graphic designer for Star Trek, working for Industrial Light and Magic, etc. I know, I know – it’s not all fun, it’s got to be incredibly high-pressure, long hours and extremely hard work, but still – at the end of the day, how cool must it be?
Thursday night was my night for the Star Trek Experience party. That was fantastic. I’d never been to the Experience before, and it’s such a shame it’s closing. I can’t believe the timing of its closing, too – right before the movie? If JJ Abrams succeeds in revitalizing ST (let’s not get into that discussion, shall we?), then there could be a resurgence of interest. You’d think they’d at least wait to see what kind of uptick the movie produces before closing it. Dominic Keating & Connor Trinneer (Trip and Malcolm from ENT) did a Brit-style comedy routine downstairs, and Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) sang beautifully upstairs.
Here are a few pix.
Friday, August 8
My first up was with Jolene Blalock (ENT’s T’Pol). You know, you see her on the TV and think, (Pauline Poundstone voice here), my, she’s attractive, but you figure, what with the makeup and the lighting, she probably doesn’t really look like that. Well, let me tell you – she is so gorgeous I was amazed. And, here, let me ‘fess up to my own sexism and cattishness: I was totally surprised at how intelligent and well-spoken she was. (You know how it’s so prejudicial when white people say that someone who’s black is “well-spoken,” like it’s a big surprise? Well, I guess I need to be slapped down here, too.) She was warm and witty and struck me as very intelligent, and I’m a bit of a snob about that. So, bad on me for being surprised. The photos I got of her don’t do her justice.
At that point, I figured I’d taken so many photos that I wanted to switch memory cards. I rarely have to do that. I usually take a day’s worth of photos and download them immediately to my computer and wipe the card clean. So I don’t change cards very often. Well, I couldn’t get the new card in. It seems like it would be simple, but I just couldn’t do it. I figured I must be doing something incredibly stupid, so I went up to the room and downloaded the manual for my camera. The instructions read, “open door, insert card, push, close door.” I kept trying but it wouldn’t go in all the way. I felt like an idiot. The next day was my big DS9 day, and I wanted to have plenty of memory. (In fact, I had run over to a Kinko’s next door [where I met “Bones” Rodriguez, writer of “Captain Kirk’s Guide to Women” and nice guy] to buy a new 8-gig card just for this purpose.)
I was desperate. I went back down to the main floor. What should I do? Should I just look for someone with a digital SLR and stop them and ask for help? Suddenly, I got an inspiration. The young, cute, geek guys at the R/C Enterprise, Scene-It and 20Q booth would know! I went to the dealer’s room and begged them to help me. They couldn’t have been nicer. They figured out that when my card was inserted, it needed a final, gentle little push at the end to click it in. I thanked them profusely and returned to my seat.
I turned on the camera. Card Error! Card Error! Oh, no! Without a memory card, the camera is just a paperweight. I ran back to them. One of them (sorry, guys, I don’t remember who), peered inside and told me I had a bent pin. I must have bent it when I was trying to jam it in. I went into full panic mode. They reassured me that it was easy to fix if you had a good light, a tweezers, sharp eyes and a steady hand. I assured them that I had none of those things. They advised me to ask the concierge to find a camera repair shop for me.
I ran to the front desk. The concierge found a shop, but they were closing in fifteen minutes. Oh, no! I ran for a cab and stared at the minute hand on my watch. We got there with maybe two minutes to spare. The guy fixed the bent pin and didn’t even charge me. The cab guy waited for me, even though I think he was at the end of his shift. Problem solved. I swear, if I had had a non-working camera for Saturday, DS9 day, I would have been an extremely unhappy camper. I am so grateful to everyone, but especially Nick and Chet, my heroes, the cute young geek guys at the dealers’ room.
Whew! Was I relieved!
Saturday was my big day. I had an 11:00 photo op with Siddig, a 12:00 lunch with five DS9 actors, a 2:00 autograph (Siddig again, ‘natch), and all the DS9 guys to speak from 3:00 on.
The photo op – they should have had a stool for me to stand on! Let’s just say, Siddig photographs well. Me..., well, not so much. I guess there’s a reason he’s an actor and I’m not. ;)
Oh, the lunch was fantastic -- maybe the highlight of the Con. They were all so personable, so approachable, and actually seemed like they were enjoying themselves. I had been joking that the lunch would be like a Disney Character Breakfast for grownups -- you know, where Mickey & Co. come to each table and wave – except that Mickey doesn’t have to say anything, and these poor guys would have to actually talk and pretend they were interested. But you know what? It wasn't like that at all.
Auberjonois told about being away from home for three months doing a play, and coming back to a list of chores that his wife had saved up for him --- doesn’t he have People for that? – and meeting his newest grandchild who'd just been born. He said he was exhausted from bathing them and playing with them the night before.
Combs engaged us each in conversation about the most trivial things, but was warm and seemingly focused on the moment. Max was a riot -- a New York boy heart and soul. And Sid was energetic, really funny, looser than I would have thought and just a delight. I am so much kicking myself over not recording it, because I have the memory retention of a sieve. Maybe Sharpslass will help me remember more details.
After lunch and the autograph at 2:00, I went into full photog-mode. Maybe one-third of all the pictures I took are posted here:
I took so many Siddig shots that even after I tried to cull them out, I still had 40, so I split them into two sets. The ones I thought were best are in the main set, Siddig at the ST Con, and the others I put in one called, “For extreme Siddig fans.” Feel free to check them all out if you want, but be sure you have food, drink and emergency supplies before you do. (If you feel so inclined, you could be more brutal than I was able to be, and tell me which ones I should trash.)
Saturday evening was the Las Vegas Symphony playing Star Trek orchestral pieces from all the different movies and series. It was interesting to hear them all back-to-back and see how each different composer approached the theme. A very classy to end, for me.
It was the end, because I had to leave at 11:00 Sunday morning, the next and last day. I missed all the VOY and Spock stuff, but, what can you do? How was it?
So, that’s my Con report. Great fun. I’m already signed up for next year – with Sarah. Hope to see you there!
Addedendum: My flight, which was supposed to take off at 1:40 and arrive at JFK/NYC at 10 pm was delayed and delayed. I ended up getting home at 3 am. I could have easily done the last day after all, and still got home at the same time – or earlier! *sigh*
