Star Trek Convention 2013: Part Two

Read Part One if you haven’t already!

So just days before the convention, we learned that Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway from Voyager), who was supposed to be the headliner for the weekend, would not be making it to the convention. A few weeks before that, we learned that Robert Picardo (The Doctor on Voyager) would not be attending either. Luckily Chase Masterson stepped in with a couple weeks left to spare, and then with just days left until the convention, fortunately they were able to get Tim Russ (Tuvok from Voyager) to fill in!

Tim Russ isn’t quite Vulcan himself, but he is pretty straight-laced and calm in his manner. He did go into “Tuvok mode” at one point, and it was like he flipped a switch in his mind. It was amazing how he could turn it on and off as he did. It also sounded like he knew how to have a good time with his fellow cast-mates. I was grateful that he came to fill in a void in the lineup and enjoyed hearing him.

trekcon-ferengiNext were Max Grodenchik and Aron Eisenberg, appearing in full makeup as their characters Rom and Nog from Deep Space Nine. Pictured here with them is Armin Shimmerman, who played Quark but did not appear in his makeup, and spoke later on his own. Max and Aron were doing a skit, which quite frankly, wasn’t that great on its own (especially since they were reading from their scripts!) but the derailing of it was quite hilarious! They just let it go and started cracking their own jokes, and my face literally hurt from all the laughter.

trekcon-ferengiloveHere “Nog” taught a convention audience member the “Ferengi Love Dance,” which you can see Nog do in the season six Deep Space Nine episode “You Are Cordially Invited.”

trekcon-deniseNext was Denise Crosby, who briefly played the role of Tasha Yar on The Next Generation (by briefly I mean, less than a season. Spoiler for anyone who hasn’t watched The Next Generation: she gets killed). I’d be lying if I said I was a Tasha fan, because I’m not. But it was interesting to hear Denise talk, especially about what she was able to do later on with The Next Generation.

trekcon-arminThen we got to see Armin Shimmerman again, though this time it was him taking questions instead of crashing Max and Aron’s skit. He was extremely gracious to the fans, which again, I just really appreciate. Even though the Ferengi on Deep Space Nine (or in general) drive me crazy, and even though Quark is included in that, Armin shared something about his character that I thought was neat. He talked to one of the writers of the show about the finale episode, and about how so many characters got to hook up with someone else and/or get to go on to a new chapter of their lives, and he was like, “So what happens with Quark?” The writer shared with him, “Quark is the heart of Deep Space Nine.” And when I thought about it, it was true. It’s quirky and not very Star Fleet like, like Quark, and also, he really helped the morale of the station through hard times just with his bar. It was a neat perspective.

trekcon-g&t1Terry Ferrell was scheduled to come out again, but we also got treated to Garrett Wang again, and the two of them together were so funny! Here, Garrett is teaching Terry how to do a George Takei “Oh my!” impersonation.

trekcon-g&t2There were hugs…

trekcon-g&t3High fives…

trekcon-g&t4And general silliness. Somewhere in all this, Terry also admitted she has never watched Voyager (the show Garrett was on). Whoops.

trekcon-rene&nanaAnd last we had Rene Auberjonois and Nana Visitor, who played Odo and Kira Nerys on Deep Space Nine, respectively. It was fun to see them together; you can tell that they enjoyed working together. And Kira is so hot-headed and high-strung on the show, but Nana seemed much more sweet and mellow, so that was nice to see the difference between her and her character.

Beyond the convention… 

I have had such a busy September! In addition to this convention I also attended a writing conference, went on a mini-vacation, and celebrated my birthday! At the writing conference the keynote speaker was Jay Asher, author of the YA bestseller Thirteen Reasons Why, which I am reading now, thanks to the co-worker who told me about the conference buying the book while we were there and then loaning it to me.  It took Jay many years to sell his first book, and even now as a published author he still has not released much, as he is a self-proclaimed slow writer, and I found it oddly encouraging. This in conjunction with what he said about, “Just because you enjoy reading it, it doesn’t mean that is what you should be writing,” made me realize I don’t have to try to break into the writing industry with an epic six book YA dystopia series like I think I need to.

I’ve been highly considering participating in NaNoWriMo this year for the first time, and so it’s making me consider which story idea (out of the many that I have) I want to focus on for that, because I’m thinking I might want to push aside this huge dystopia series idea I have right now. (Also, this is only representative of one agent in the YA market, but he’s getting tired of dystopia and is not looking for that at all when he reads queries from new authors, so I wonder if the tide will be changing in that genre soon.) I’ve got a month to figure it out.

Other pictures from this month…

biltmoreMy husband and I went to Asheville, NC, and visited the Biltmore, and it was really neat. I’d definitely recommend it if you have the chance to go. Then the day after my birthday, my friend took me to the zoo where we checked out the new…

kangaroo exhibit! And if they came to the path, you could pet them, so we got to pet this guy right here! All the others were lazily lounging in the grass. I was sad I didn’t get to see them to hop around, but was so happy this guy let us pet him. His fur was soft! I definitely want to go back and do it again! And I also got a lot of books for my birthday…

IMG_0854It’ll be a while before I get all these read. I also seriously need a new bookcase. Maybe for Christmas…

Phew! That was a lot! What have you guys been up to? I’m still trying to catch up on blog posts!

9 Responses to Star Trek Convention 2013: Part Two

  1. I am squirming and giggling with GLEE reading about Tim Russ and the Ferengi dudes from DS9! It was so great of Tim Russ to come and fill the gap; I would have been disappointed to learn that Kate Mulgrew wouldn’t be making it, but I liked Tuvok even more than Janeway, so that’s a great replacement! ^_^

    Oh my gosh. I feel kind of horrible saying this, but I was definitely NOT a fan of Tasha on TNG and I kept saying things like “when is she going to get killed off already?” because I’d heard that she wasn’t on the show in the later seasons. O_O Interesting that she was a guest speaker here, though.

    I can’t believe you don’t like Quark much (at least, that’s the impression I’m getting here). He’s one of my favorite characters on DS9, it’s true… he IS the heart of that space station!

    GAH! Terry Farrell has just lost a few points in my book for having never watched Voyager! That makes me sad. 🙁

    Yay for Rene Auberjonois! I love Odo. ^_^ And it is so weird seeing Nana Visitor with BLONDE HAIR! Whoa.

    Awww, you got to pet a kangaroo! How cute! ^_^ Sounds like you had a great September. 🙂

    • I was glad Tim Russ came. It would have been cool to see Kate Mulgrew and it was frustrating that she bailed so late, but for me more on the matter of principle than anything, because, like you, I like Tuvok and other characters on Voyager more than her. I forgot to mention this in my post, but there were actually a few rows of reserved seating that remained empty throughout the weekend, and we speculated it might have been all the Kate Mulgrew fans who were upset she wasn’t coming and stayed home instead.

      Quark is a character I like sometimes… I do enjoy his interactions with the other characters for the most part, but when he and the other Ferengi get together they all drive me crazy! They have so many episodes that are just so silly, and not in a good, fun way. But that being said, I do think Quark ultimately had a pretty good arc on the show, and Nog had a fantastic arc. You’ll understand that in season seven. 🙂

      I think Nana’s hair was actually white, but in the lighting in the picture it does look kind of blonde. Regardless, I thought it looked good on her. She has aged gracefully!

  2. KANGAROO! It sounds like you had an absolute blast at the convention and what you have done beyond the convention 🙂 Oh, and NaNoWriMo! I want to try to participate… Just for fun 🙂 So you’ll have a buddy! (A buddy that has never wrote a page of a fictional story in her life, BUT WHATEVER!)

    • Yay kangaroo!

      If you’re using NaNoWriMo to start trying out writing, you are one brave school! Kudos to you! Paola from A Novel Idea (novelideareviews.com) says she’s forming some kind of bloggers NaNoWriMo support group, so when I find out more I’ll let you know!

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