Article: Las Vegas Star Trek Convention Day 4
5 min readThe final day of Creation’s Las Vegas Star Trek convention saw the reunion of six Star Trek: Enterprise actors as well as some clowning around from Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Sir Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard) and Brent Spiner (Data).
Sunday, August 8th opened with a reunion of actors Connor Trinneer (Trip Tucker), Dominick Keating (Malcolm Reed), John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox), Anthony Montgomery (Travis Mayweather), Stephen Culp (Hayes) and Matt Winston (Daniels) from Star Trek: Enterprise. Keating immediately cracked a joke when Enterprise‘s premature cancellation was referenced, quipping that, “John Billingsley wanted too much money.” Trinneer followed up, adding, “Of course, if your character gets killed, you don’t care [about the cancellation]!”
The panel was asked about leading man Scott Bakula (Captain Archer), prompting Winston to joke, “He’s so dreamy! It was always me and Scott Bakula in the future, sweaty, lost and alone.” On a more serious note, the frequent Enterprise guest star said of Bakula, “He made me feel so at home. Scott was wonderful.” When asked about his father, legendary character artist Stan Winston, Winston noted that his family had founded the Stan Winston School for those wishing to study character arts and effects.
Montgomery spoke to his character’s upbeat personality. “I tried to keep a youthful exuberance about everything,” the actor said. When the audience expressed enthusiasm for the idea of going up in space on a shuttle flight, Montgomery asked, “Would you actually want to go into space? Think about how many things went wrong on our ship!”
Trinneer fielded a question about the relationship between his character and the Vulcan T’Pol (Jolene Blalock), prompting him to say, “It seemed to me for a long time it was one-sided. I finally said, you guys took Trip’s spine and stomped on it. I said she has to kiss him and he has to walk away. And they did it.”
Culp had a difficult time at first determining how his character fit into the scope of the show. “It was sketchy at first,” he said. “The second episode I did, “The Shipment,” it was like, why am I here? [Hayes was] a man of few words, a man of action. When Malcolm and Hayes fight, it’s like, ‘Why don’t you let me do my job?'”
Keating spoke about his latest guest role, saying, “I’m shooting Sons of Anarchy at the moment. I’m wearing a lot of leather!” while Billingsley commented on his appearances on the HBO drama True Blood last season, saying, “I spent most of second season without clothes on! I shagged anything in sight, including a pine tree. I hope they bring me back!”
Recently knighted Sir Patrick Stewart took the stage in the afternoon, auctioning off a jacket he received during the filming of the third X-Men movie, X Men: The Last Stand, with the proceeds going to Huddersfield Town Football Club’s Academy, of which Stewart is the president. The jacket went for a whopping $10,000 after an enthusiastic fan called out a bid while Stewart was describing how he customized the blue jacket with white tape to make it the color of the Huddersfield Town “Terriers.”
Stewart, who stated he’s been “doing a lot of theater,” said his version of “Macbeth” will be airing in early October on PBS. Stewart said of the play, “It’s scary and unpleasant at times, but you’ve got to be brave. He went on to joke, adding “After all, you’ve seen Michael Dorn‘s work.” Stewart also shared that he plans to reprise his role in “A Christmas Carol” one more time, noting that, “My life ambition has been to do one performance of ‘A Christmas Carol’ in the East Room of The White House.”
Brent Spiner interrupted the proceedings, stepping up to the mike and referring to his former co-star as “Lord Stewart” before asking him about “funny dots” on his head in reference to a dermatological procedure Stewart recently underwent.
When Spiner took the stage, a fan asked him about the possibility of seeing Data in an upcoming Star Trek film. “It’s really not up to me,” Spiner replied. “I don’t think I’ll be playing Data again. I thought about it, and then I took a look at myself. Data with white hair?”
Spiner hinted at projects he has in development, including a novel, a pilot he recently shot, a feature film in the works and a nightclub act he recently completed. And, “I’m going to be knighted by the Queen and I’ll be in the next Star Trek movie!” he teased. He went on more seriously, “Star Trek was a great gift that was given to me that I was allowed to be a part of, and I’m just happy about that. I think Star Trek is the biggest thing that ever happened in entertainment in America. It goes on and on. One never imagines you’ll be a part of something that’s essentially American history.”
When Stewart joined Spiner on stage, the two took plenty of cracks at each other. “Isn’t it true that the other guys on Star Trek used to call you Spiner the Whiner?” Stewart asked, while Spiner queried whether Stewart’s knighthood for “Services to Drama” was not in fact for being a “Drama Queen”?
Michael Dorn (Worf) closed out the convention, telling fans he’s started a small production company in order to make small movies. He would like to direct former TNG co-star Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi) as Maria Callas, but has concerns. “I’m not really sure about directing Marina because we’re best friends,” Dorn said. “We talked to each other like brother and sister. So I’m not sure how that will translate to director-actor.”
Dorn recently revisited his work on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which gave him an even greater appreciation for his character. “This is a guy who was on a mission to get information that was going to save millions of lives,” he said of Worf in the episode “Change of Heart.” “Jadzia [Dax, Terry Farrell] is hurt and he has to leave her. And he’s like, ‘Forget this, I’m going back to get my old lady.’ And that’s what I like about the guy: he’s unpredictable. I like the guy, I really like the guy.”
Dorn praised the development of Worf from his days on TNG to his stint on DS9. “I liked the evolution of the character,” he said. “I don’t necessarily think he’s a tragic character. I think he had a rough life. If anything, I wish that they hadn’t killed Jadzia. I don’t question much, but I do question that.” Dorn wasn’t pleased that he didn’t avenge his on-screen wife. “When this guy killed Jadzia, the Klingon thing is to hunt the guy down and kill him!” he noted. “In the last episode, [Worf] should have gone over and just slashed him up.”
And what would he have wanted next for his character, after eleven seasons on TNG and DS9? “I wanted him to take over the Klingon Empire,” Dorn said.
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