Actors Team Up At Grand Slam

Pairs of Star Trek actors who previously worked together onscreen and legendary original series figures appeared on the second day of Grand Slam XIII last weekend, remembering good times with the franchise and expressing regret about the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise.

"I went to the set last Tuesday, which was the last day of shooting...and by the last day of shooting, I mean the last day. There will be no more Star Trek sets, ever," said Majel Barrett Roddenberry, reported StarTrek.com. The widow of franchise creator Gene Roddenberry, who played Christine Chapel on the original series and Lwaxana Troi on The Next Generation, said that she was feeling morose, but expected that Paramount would bring the show back in several years: "They'll go back, they'll rearrange it, get some new ideas and new stories in." But in the meantime, she added, "Let this thing have a rest. It needs a rest. We got reruns! They ain't taking everything away!"

The Roddenberrys' son, Eugene Roddenberry Jr., appeared as well, speaking about his Trek Nation documentary and showing a piece of an interview in which Star Wars creator George Lucas spoke about the influence Roddenberry Sr. had on him. "Not until I worked on Earth: Final Conflict did I understand the impact that Star Trek had on people," said Roddenberry Jr.

Rene Auberjonois and Connor Trinneer, who appeared together in the Enterprise episode "Oasis", appeared onstage together and amused the audience as Auberjonois, who played Odo on Deep Space Nine, joked to "Trip Tucker" that he had seen a script very like his Enterprise script on DS9. Grace Lee Whitney and Robert Walker Jr. appeared onstage together as well, recalling their joint appearance as Yeoman Rand and Charlie Evans in the original series episode "Charlie X", "You know, I was the first woman you ever saw!" teased Whitney. She said she loved appearing on the first season of the original series, saying, "We were sassy and funny — the sense of humor in the first year was unmatched. We laughed a lot."

Two stars of the independent film Spectres, Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) and Tucker Smallwood (Xindi Primate), talked about the supernatural movie which also stars Linda Park (Hoshi Sato). But Sirtis refused to say anything more than necessary about her guest apeparance in the finale of Enterprise, insisting, "You'll hear all about it. If I'm in it. Which I'm not saying I am. Just watch the last episode. O.K.?"

When William Shatner came onstage and saw the size of the crowd, he joked, "If this many people watch Enterprise, then they wouldn't have canceled it!" He told humorous stories about filming Miss Congeniality 2 and about kissing Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, declaring, "40 years ago, Nichelle was the prettiest thing you ever saw...and so was I." The Kirk actor held a brief auction to benefit his horse-riding program for disabled children and discussed his Starfleet Academy pitch, which Paramount rejected for a series but Pocket Books picked up as a fiction series.

Over the course of the weekend fans also had the opportunity to see writer Ronald D. Moore, producer Bob Justman and actors Alfre Woodard (Lily Sloane), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher) and Jolene Blalock (T'Pol), who burst into tears at her first convention appearance and said, "I am sorry. I'm just not used to being so emotional!" Coverage is at StarTrek.com. Previous Grand Slam XIII coverage is here and here.

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