Star Trek con part 1: cast member one-on-ones

As I may have mentioned about fifty times, this weekend I went with iggyw to a 50th anniversary Star Trek convention in New York! Various cast members from all the series and movies attended, plus writers, directors, tie-in novel authors and editors, the organizers of the first Trek con back in the '70s, ancillary media producers such as podcasters and bloggers, people who've reconstructed sets and props, several thousand "ordinary" fans like us, NASA employees, vendors, etc.

My first con was actually the 25th Star Trek anniversary when I was 10 years old; Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner came to Long Island to do their shtick. My mom won the tickets on a radio show and she and my dad bought me a little TNG comm badge when we got there. So coming back for the 50th felt all the more meaningful. And poignant, of course, with the loss of Nimoy. I'm forever grateful to have had the opportunity to hear him speak at length in 2011 at a temple in Maryland.

(A few people spoke about Anton Yelchin, too, from the heart. But there was no official programming to memorialize him, whereas there were at least three events in Nimoy's honor. Strange and sad.)

For me, the main reason to go to an "official"/top-down con, with all the costs and crowds and tacky commercialism, is to meet celebrities and watch them interact with one another. I am very happy with how things turned out on that front. Details below!

A future post will cover the many panels we tried out, plus the excellent cosplay, dinner with coffeeandink, and other miscellany. Just crunched for time this week with work stuff.

( One-on-one interactions )

( DS9 cast photo )

Next post: cast panels (DS9, TNG, VOY, TOS-sort-of) non-cast panels, cosplay contest, etc.