TNG Stars, Fans Enjoy DragonCon

Star Trek: The Next Generation's 20th anniversary was celebrated in style at DragonCon's TrekTrak, where several guests discussed topics from Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher)'s year-long hiatus from the series to whether Data should be the final Cylon on Battlestar Galactica.

StarTrek.com has extensive coverage of Star Trek at DragonCon, which held a Klingon beauty contest and a screening of Nichelle Nichols (Uhura)'s new film Lady Magdalene's as well as numerous panels with fans and celebrities alike to describe the impact of Star Trek on television and audiences.

"The one thing that I have to say I felt was awesome about Star Trekwas, I really did like the philosophy of the Prime Directive," said McFadden. "Actually maybe if we had a little more of that happening we wouldn't be in Iraq." A onetime choreographer as well as a dancer, McFadden joked with Brent Spiner (Data) that she would appear on Dancing With the Stars if he would be her partner.

Jonathan Frakes revealed that Riker kept a beard from the second season forward because when the cast returned to work after a writers' strike, Gene Roddenberry said, "Frakes, I like the beard. It looks...nautical." He laughed uproariously at being told that he is an icon in the "bear" community - gay men attracted to "burly hairy" men - and said that while he knows Enterprise finale "These Are the Voyages..." was not a hit with fans, he loved working with Marina Sirtis on it and he believed she would be as interested as he was in a Titan television series.

"So 'The Riker and Troi Show.' You know, B-4 is still alive!" said Spiner, who said he suggested that Data be destroyed in Nemesis because his own aging was making the android Data look older. Asked what elements he contributed as a writer, Spiner joked, "I contributed specific elephants to the movie, actually" but later admitted that it was mostly action sequences.

Ron Moore's revival of Battlestar Galactica took some ribbing from Star Trek stars, as Spiner kept calling the series Battleship Galactica and Frakes joking that Lorne Greene - star of the original Battlestar Galactica - "still looks great." He feigned ignorance at first of another Star Trek movie, then later said, "J.J. Abrams, who does Lost which is one of my favorite shows on television, is a fabulous storyteller, and the franchise is probably in very good hands...and I gather he's a fan."

The full five pages of coverage at StarTrek.com begin here.

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