Star Trek Convention, Day Five: Two Spocks

I hurried down to the room where the charity breakfast was going to be held on Sunday morning because I knew there'd be a line. There's always a line. Debbie joined me a few minutes later.

We got our places close to the stage so that our photos would be better when they went onto the little stage. Debbie got into a slight argument with a guy at our table who said he reserved her seat without marking it in any way, and then withdrew his argument when he found out his wife had also reserved a seat for him. He never apologized, the idiot, even though she was so amenable as to offer him the seat.

We got our breakfast, and I went along the charity auction items and bid on a few. (I ended up winning three at the minimum bid.) Then Robert Picardo, Robert Duncan McNeill, and the new Spock, Zachary Quinto, came into the room. Ethan Phillips had had a family emergency.

Each went out to visit with each table for about two minutes each. We first saw Bob Picardo. He said he was filming another Stargate: Atlantis soon. "I promise I won't be as much of a dick this time." He is so funny. In answer to Sean's question (Sean is a real fan out of Vancouver), Mr. Picardo answered that he went blind without glasses or contacts the first year. Then, tired of seeing only outlines, put in contacts starting the next year. "I finally put them in so that I could see Seven of Nine rather than just her outline. Wowza!"

In between celebrity visits, Sean showed us celebrities he had met on his camera, including Tricia Helfer, who had been hired to hype some local wine. He found her in a local restaurant eating dinner (a friend who worked at the restaurant had called him), and brought out a photo for her to sign. She said she wondered if he was just roaming the streets of Vancouver with that photo.

The woman next to me, British accent and all, was from southern England. She noticed that I was making notes and if I needed funny stories she could tell me some. Except that the stories, from the convention, involved people fainting in her aisle or falling when she jerked the chair out from under them, or the woman in her late '60's who was wearing a short miniskirt at the convention who didn't have any "knickers" on. All rather sad.

Zachary Quinto came by next. He is currently filming the ninth episode of the third season of Heroes and seemed quite enthusiastic about it. Of course, he wanted to know if we were all looking foward to the new movie, which we are. He sought the role, and read twice for it. "I was the only one up," he said matter-of-factly. "I think it (the movie) will really be good."

Robbie McNeill came by, shook everybody's hand, introduced his son (Carter) to us, and tried to figure out if he recognized anybody. He said to me, "Where do I know you," and I told him that I had been in his original fan club so many years ago. When he started talking about his work on "Chuck," I told him that he had talked about it last year in Sacramento. "That's where I know you!" he said.

During the break after the charity breakfast, we sat with two people at a table, enjoying another muffin from the buffet and in front of a massive photo op line for Kate Mulgrew. We mused whether part of the line was Scott Bakula. "I don't think so," said one of the women, showing us her little Janeway lavalliere. "I think he's stuck up." I wondered how she thought that since Scott hadn't made many public appearances, but there was no telling. The other woman was a little older, from Australia, and was out of her mind with joy that she ws going to meet Scott because she had a photo op ticket with him. Someone from Creation announced the formation of a new line, just for Scott, and only Debbie heard it. She told the Aussie, and she ran over to be among the first in line.

I went out to the restroom after that, and found the Bakula photo op line to be almost past the convention center itself. Wow.

Michael Dorn came on stage and seemed jovial and relaxed. He's mostly writing now. "I wrote a little sitcom, and a pilot for a series about flying. And I wrote a movie about Maria Callas that I hope Marina will star in. I can tell her what to do for the rest of my time," he laughed.

He went on and on about his great time with the Next Gen actors. When someone asked him about Deep Space Nine, he said, "Great people, great actors, but they were so serious. Sort of like going from Coney Island to ..." and then he broke into a little Catholic chant.

"Terry was the closest to the Klingon relationship, what it should be. She was as big and brawny as Worf. Ezri, Nicole was this little girl. But boy she could kiss. There was one scene where I grabbed her, and then she grabbed me and kissed me back. Cut! And I stood there a second. Hmmm. That was pretty good..."

He told us he was grateful that we all took the time to come out and that we still support the actors in what they do.

The room warmed up for Scott Bakula. The seats weren't packed, but when we left five minutes before he stopped speaking, we noticed a good hundred people standing in the back, in the side aisles, all watching him. We would have left sooner, in fact that was the plan, but he was so interesting to listen to.

Scott's talk was a mixture of reminiscences, chatting with the fans, and refusing to talk much about Quantum Leap ("because this is a Star Trek convention") and then still talking about it a little. Oh, and singing. He told us he's taking voice lessons weekly, and when someone would ask him about a singing role he's been in, he'd sing a little from it.

He's been very busy, mostly on stage. "I just finished a Stephen Soderberg film starring Matt Damon. And I have a new TNT show shooting tomorrow, a pilot, with Ray Romano and Andre Braugher. If Ray and Andre can pull their weight," he said wryly, "it might go on the air."

He finally answered a question about Quantum Leap: "My costar was really troublesome. I never got to do anything different. I had a lot of days off." All of those are jokes and exactly the opposite of what happened.