Stars Gamble On Vegas Con

The matriarch of Star Trek and several other actors appeared in Las Vegas this Saturday at a convention, covering subjects from politics to prosthetics during their talks. StarTrek.com reported on the event.

• Majel Barrett Roddenberry, who played Christine Chapel and Lwaxana Troi on two of her late husband's shows, talked about how Gene Roddenberry's career in police work had helped his early writing career - the subject of the recent DVD release Roddenberry On Patrol. Being able to issue speeding tickets and carrying a gun, she said, helped him command the attention of agents and executives.

• Voyager's Captain Janeway, Kate Mulgrew, was quite vocal about her political beliefs, voicing her support for presidential candidate John Kerry (which attendees reported to TrekToday earned her some cheers and some boos among audience members). Mulgrew described being with her husband, Ohio Democrat Tim Hagan, as "the happiest five years of my life, with the best person I've ever met." She also discussed her son's desire to become an actor and her work to raise funds on behalf of Alzheimer's disease patients, of which her mother is one.

• Mulgrew's co-star Ethan Phillips estimated that he had spent 3,200 hours in the makeup chair to play Neelix - just over 133 days. He auctioned off one of the rubber Neelix masks from the show, raising $950 for a non-profit theatre company where he will appear in an upcoming production of Macbeth to be directed by Deep Space Nine's Quark, Armin Shimerman.

• Another former Ferengi, Max Grodénchik (Rom), and his onscreen wife Chase Masterson (Leeta) explained that their characters had been paired up on Deep Space Nine because, in Masterson's words, Leeta and Bashir "were really too Barbie and Ken" as a couple. The producers wanted the attractive Bashir to be single because they thought it would appeal to the female audience. Grodénchik offered his opinion that Bashir was too skinny, anyway.

• Borg Queen Alice Krige called the Borg Invasion 4-D ride in Las Vegas "one of the hardest things I've ever done", having done her work alone in front of a blue screen. She noted that the Borg Queen might have preferred Data to Picard, but rather than choosing between Patrick Stewart or Brent Spiner, "I'd have them both!"

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