Star Trek Chicago

Article by Paulie

Back in early May, I received an email from Creation Entertainment. I had signed up with them for information on both Star Trek and Supernatural conventions. The email I received was about an annual Star Trek convention held in Chicago. My aunt and uncle had told me a few days earlier to take the summer off, because I’ve been so hard at work in school lately, and do whatever I wanted – go to conventions all summer, take trips…again, whatever I wanted. And that email provided me with an opportunity to do both of those things. So I booked a plane ticket, a hotel room, and bought a ticket to the convention, as well as extra photo ops and autograph tickets.

 

I left Boston’s Logan International Airport during the afternoon of June 11^th, and after a 45 minute delay due to inclement weather at my destination, I was finally in the air and on my way. Thankfully, the flight went smoothly, because there was some fuss over securing a room for me that first night in Chicago. After resting in my room a bit and having dinner, I lined up outside the primary vendors hall for my Silver weekend pass, which guaranteed me a handful of autographs from the attendees and a moderately close seat to the stage – but not close enough for decent iPhone pictures. I had also bought a handful of photo ops, including one with Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating, who stepped in for Karl Urban earlier in the week when his filming schedule (for Star Trek Beyond) interfered with the convention schedule.

 

I didn’t get much sleep that night, or at all during my time in Chicago, so I was awake bright and early at 5am, watching “Married With Children” reruns, a show that you may not be aware, was set in Chicago. In the next three hours, I would slowly get ready for my day, and the weekend at large.

 

Shortly after 8am, I would walk to the elevators to go to the lobby. One of the elevators opened, who should I see but Terry Farrell, one of the attendees for the weekend. Speechless for a moment, I knew right then that I would have a great weekend, despite how it started. Terry broke the ice by cracking a joke about how it was a good thing she had decided to brush her teeth before going to the in-house Starbucks. When the elevator opened on the lobby, Terry met with Dominic Keating who was also on his way to Starbucks, and who I would also see in the restaurant for breakfast shortly thereafter. They went in one direction and I went in the other.

 

After partaking of the breakfast buffet, I made my way back to the vendors hall, and would discover that there were actually three halls, all in the vicinity of the ballroom where the stars would take the stage, to talk and take questions. I stopped first at Chase Masterson’s table. When she looked up from organizing her photos, CDs and drinking her coffee, she said to me “I remember your face, but not your name.” And so I reminded her that we had first met 18 months ago at Long Island Who.

 

I spoke briefly with another vendor, and in the process, I literally bumped into Armin Shimerman, elbowing the bag he was carrying. I made my way to his table to introduce myself and apologize, and asked if he would be interested in doing an interview for the Blue Report, which he seemed enthusiastic about. After that, I decided to find my seat in the ballroom.

 

Chase Masterson would appear onstage first, to open Star Trek Chicago. She spoke about an anti-bullying campaign she started, sang a bit for the audience, and described Leeta’s relationship with Bashir as being like Barbie and Ken while the relationship between Leeta and Rom was more like Ricky and Lucy. That warm-up of the audience led right into Garrett Wang being onstage. He would start out telling the audience about his first Creation convention experience, in Minneapolis in the middle of winter. Abd even though his humor wasn’t showcased on “Voyager”, it was while he was onstage, and all weekend. He said that he was the first “Voyager” cast member to appear at any conventions, an he would do more than a dozen before any of his castmates.

 

After an intermission, Terry Farrell appeared onstage, and I took the opportunity to prompt her to talk about working with William O. Campbell, Michael Ansara and John Colicos on “Blood Oath”. She told the audience that she felt like a starlet from the golden age of Hollywood, because that’s how those establish actors had treated her on set. Armin Shimerman joined her on stage, to help her remove the boots that she wore in the episode “Trials And Tribble-Ations”, because another fan had bought them at an auction and wanted to see if they still fit her. Armin would then tell the audience about – among other things – the chance he had to work on “Deep Space Nine” and “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” at the same time, and then how he was reunited with Rene Auberjonois in “Boston Legal”. He ended his time onstage getting into character as Claudius from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”.

 

I got a photo taken with Terry Farrell, and went back to the ballroom to see Ethan Phillips onstage. I asked him about working with Morgan Freeman in “Lean On Me” in the 80’s. He said that they recently met again in Los Angeles and that Morgan Freeman recognized him. I would end the first day of the convention by getting Terry Farrell’s autograph and the aforementioned photo op with Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating. The rest of the night was reserved for a party thrown for Gold weekend pass holders.

 

I would start off that Saturday by having a photo op with Robert Picardo, which I talked him into doing something specific for shortly before the session started. After that, I made a few more friends, browsed the vendors halls, and went to the ballroom to see Chicago’s own Walter Koenig kick off Day Two onstage. After listening to Walter talk about his career, I did some shopping, and went back to the ballroom when Tim Russ took the stage. I had the opportunity to ask him to talk about working with fellow convention attendee George Takei and the late great Grace Lee Whitney. A tribute to Leonard Nimoy followed Tim, as did John Billingsley, who I asked about working with Kellie Waymire on “Enterprise”. Apparently they had been good friends before she was on the show, and he had nothing but good things to say about her, including how saddened he was by her untimely death.

 

Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating would take the stage next, and I prompted Connor to talk about “Michael the Wraith” in “Stargate: Atlantis.” After that, I made a few friends, got autographs from both John Billingsley and Tim Russ, followed by a dinner, complete with the Tribute To Spock cocktail, and then went to a concert put on by Tim Russ.

 

The next morning, I found George Takei and his husband Brad outside the in-house restaurant, and asked if he’d mind having a picture taken with my phone. He was in a hurry to do something, but was gracious enough to oblige. Robert Picardo kicked off Day Three onstage, and I asked if he still saw Fred Savage from his time on “The Wonder Years”, and apparently Picardo auditioned for something Savage directed recently, but didn’t get the part. I then asked Denise Crosby about working with the late, great Leonard Nimoy in the “Next Generation” story “Unification”. Nicole DeBoer would follow Denise onstage before the intermission.

 

After intermission, Linda Park took the stage, and with a little prompting, she would more or less admit to having had a crush on Scott Bakula during his time on “Quantum Leap”, but didn’t go into whether or not it affected working with him during her first day of filming for “Enterprise”. I also wished her a happy early birthday, which seemed to unnerve her a bit, but she assured me that it didn’t when I went for a photo op with her later.

 

George Takei and Colm Meaney wrapped up the weekend onstage, and I took the opportunity to ask Colm about working on the movie “Con Air.” After that, I got autographs from Colm Meaney, Nicole DeBoer and Linda Park, to finish my first Star Trek convention. But that wasn’t the end of the fun for me…

 

As some of you may know, a longtime OTF member, Lieutenant Diane Dragonsayer lives in the area, and about 15 minutes from the hotel I was staying at, the Westin O’Hare. Having been friends online for the last 18 years, we met face-to-face for the first time, and sat outside talking for an hour. We got along so well that a Klingon cosplayer I’d met that afternoon told us to “get a room” And we did. Sort of. We spent the next three hours in the restaurant, talking well after midnight.

 

That wrapped up my convention experience. I would go home the following afternoon, having developed my first case of “con crud”. But if I had to get a cold, 1000 miles away from home, at my first Star Trek convention, the next 10 days was well worth it. Before the weekend was out, I had decided to go back next year, which already has at least eight celebrities named to appear, including half of the cast of "Star Trek: The Next Generation".