I went to a convention in San Jose (Calif.) and boy was it great. The last time I went to one was way back in '91. This was awesome.

Speakers included Gates McFadden, Majel Roddenberry, and Dominic Keating. (Lt. Reed of Enterprise.) Signing autographs were Grace Lee Whitney, Joanne Linville, (the Romulan Commander from TOS "The Enterprise Incident") France Nuyen, (Elaan from TOS "Elaan of Troiyus") Celeste Yarnall, (Yeoman Martha Landon, Chekov's squeeze from TOS "The Apple") Barbara Luna, (Marlena Moreau from TOS "Mirror Mirror") and Carol Seymour. (Subcommander Taris in TNG "Contagion," Commander Toreth in TNG "Face of the Enemy," Mirasta Yale in TNG "First Contact," and the holo-novel character Mrs. Templeton in VGR "Cathexis" and "Persistence of Vision.") The event was hosted by Richard Arnold, one of the senior research consultants during the run of TNG.

Wow!

I shook hands and took photos with Majel Roddenberry, Grace Lee Whitney, (from whom I also got an autographed picture which I will scan tomorrow and post) Joanne Linville, and Celeste Yarnall. I chatted a bit with Gates McFadden from the audience while she was taking questions. I asked her if we might in the future see a re-visitation of the romance between Crusher and Picard, which she seemed very open about!

Keating was very energetic and flamboyant on stage. He was hilarious! He poked fun at Scott Bakula and Jolene Blalock (sp?) and at one point took out his cell phone and called up Anthony Montgomery (Ensign Mayweather) so the audience could give him a shout. He talked about upcoming episodes (in no great detail) and said that he has his own decontamination scene (!) coming up. "With Hoshi AND T'pol! A threesome!" he said. He also said that we would be seeing Reed get to blow more stuff up in coming weeks. He answered questions about how the audition for the show went, and about how fun it is to play the tactical officer on the show. He also mentioned that as far as he knows, Reed will indeed become the first gay character on Enterprise. Another big wow.

Gates McFadden talked about how great it was to do the Next Generation, particularly how good it had been working with Patrick Stewart, and how she had had so much fun directing that one episode. (D'oh! Can't remember the name!) She mentioned that shooting on STX would begin the 17th. She announced that she was very happy with the script as far as Beverly's part was concerned, saying that she hoped we would see a bit more involvement on her part than in Insurrection.

Majel delivered a very moving speech about Gene's vision and cited several examples of how the force of Star Trek had made an impact in the world of science and technology. When asked by an audience member how she thought Gene would feel about the attacks of September 11th, she said she was sure he would remain ever the optimist, confident that humanity would pull through. I asked her how she thought Gene would feel about the previous few years of Trek (Voyager, DS9, and now Enterprise) and she replyed "It it the way he would do it? No. But would he like it? Yes. He would have done it differently, but it's certainly in his spirit." She mentioned specifically that she was herself a big fan of ENT.

All in all it was quite a memorable day.

Here are some low-resolution digital photos I took. When I get the 'real' film I took developed, i'll scan those and post them as well.

http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/monkeyofmim/majelspeaking.jpg
Majel speaking onstage.

http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/monkeyofmim/meandmajel.jpg\
A shot of me and Majel at the table where she was signing autographs.

http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/monkeyofmim/mcfaddenspeaking1.jpg
Gates McFadden speaking

http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/monkeyofmim/meandcelesteyarnell.jpg
Me and Celeste Yarnall.

http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/monkeyofmim/mcfaddenspeaking2.jpg
Another shot of McFadden talking.

http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/monkeyofmim/keatingspeaking.jpg
Dominic Keating onstage.

http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/monkeyofmim/joannelinville.jpg
Joanne Linville.

http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/monkeyofmim/graceleewhitney.jpg
Grace Lee Whitney.

http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/monkeyofmim/friends.jpg
These are just two friends I went with.

Well, hope you guys are floored! More coming.
-MMoM

[ November 10, 2001: Message edited by: The Mighty Monkey of Mim ]

But, hey, you had a good time, and that's what counts, doesn't it? Cons are always fun, but I've wound up just a "day" visitor to most in recent years, mostly just to catch up with some writer friends and bug Mojo (who had this cool eye-slide thingy at Shore Leave this summer) a bit.

Wait a bit and i'll figure out what's wrong.

But Snay, you're in for one heck of a disappointment. I'm a mere high school student. Hardly a worthy opponent, eh?

http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/monkeyofmim

-MMoM

[ November 10, 2001: Message edited by: The Mighty Monkey of Mim ]

Ent $$$

[ November 12, 2001: Message edited by: The_Tom ]

MIM: Hey, wanna go to a Star Trek Convention with me?

Girl: Sure.

(Of course, he may have promised not to refer to 'Star Wars' as 'Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope: Special Edition' in public anymore ...)

[ November 12, 2001: Message edited by: Malnurtured Snay ]

Churchill: "Stop trying to take over the world."