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Happy actual 50th anniversary day!
Previous post: cast member one-on-ones
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iggyw & I went to something like 18 panels over the course of the con (Khaaaaan). Many of them we only attended portions of; the schedule had three or four tracks that tended to overlap one another either entirely or by 15-30 minutes out of 60, which I suppose was useful for some people but also made it hard to stay for an entire presentation/discussion without feeling like you were missing something equally interesting. And yet there were dead zones at other times. *shrug*
I went to most of the talks I'd wanted to go to. Some of them met or exceeded expectations while others disappointed. An overall critique is that there were way too many white dudes up on stage. I only remember one panel with a female moderator, the leader of the Black Tribbles podcast team. No coincidence that that was a great session. Oh, and one lecture was half husband and half wife. A few other panels—but too few—had women on them. Disappointing, and reflected neither the demographics of the fandom or even of the con attendees nor the people who've worked on the shows (the "Writing for Trek" panel featured zero women, for instance). Likely the Feminist Fandom, Queer Trekkers and Women of Trek panels had greater presenter diversity, but I unfortunately missed them due to what they were scheduled against. Which is itself another kind of slight by the con organizers, putting them up against the big cast panels lots of people wanted to go to.
That said: Six of the panels we attended featured cast members; will write about those separately. The rest included:
FRIDAY
The History and Future of Star Trek novels
With David Mack, Edward Schlesinger, Margaret Clark, Marco Palmieri, Michael Jan Friedman, Glenn Hauman, Kirsten Beyer, Kevin Dilmore
I read the heck out of TOS, TNG & DS9 tie-in novels for about 8 years. It was cool to see at least one of the authors I'd liked (MJF), to hear them talk about their inspirations and personal favorites and to learn what's been happening in the tie-in novel world since I left it. I dunno, I guess I'd been thinking about the novels as being a closed set or having trailed off, but that's clearly not the case. They said the three 24th-century series have merged into a shared universe with consistent timelines so if an event occurs in a Voyager novel, that event also happens in the TNG & DS9 timelines, or a character goes somewhere in a TNG novel, that character can't be anywhere else at the same time in a different book. I was taken aback by what they said they've done to DS9.
Misc. notes:
- Tie-in novelists are like canon lawyers. Must cite sources in manuscripts to prove continuity.
- Kirsten Beyer read all the books when she started writing for Voyager and for tie-in novels because she considered them canon and didn't want to repeat storylines
- All books since the Pocket Books deal are available as e-books DRM-free
- The authors talk to one another, not just to editors. Like a show's writers room. Recent books being in a shared universe and therefore requiring consistent characterization and persistent plot arcs/repercussions makes inter-author communication necessary and also allows one author to set up a plot or relationship or joke for someone else's later book.
- Authors' faves and/or early influences included: Blish's novelizations, Imzadi, The Final Reflection, Yesterday's Son, Destiny, Entropy Effect, Covenant of the Crown, To Reign in Hell, How Much For Just the Planet?
- There have been crossovers (graphic novels?) with X-Men, Green Lantern, Doctor Who, Planet of the Apes…
- Upcoming things to look out for: Legacies series, Enigma Tales (Garak), Control (Section 31)
Fanbros: TNG vs DS9
With DJ Benhameen and Fanbros
We popped our heads into this one but didn't end up staying long. Excellent to see a black moderator, but the whole thing was too bro-y and not substantive enough for me. Just a couple of dudes—or was it four? two on each team—being asked to rate each show based on random criteria and little substantive argumentation, then voting on each variable by an audience that of course already knew its favorites and wasn't going to be swayed.
Galaxy Quests: The Humor of Star Trek and Beyond
With Mark A. Altman, Gabrielle Stanton, Dave Rogers
Eh, not much to say. Panelists said they owed the humor in TOS largely to Gene L. Coon; that Star Trek's humor is great because it's character-based and because it establishes character; it's a tool, not a throwaway.
Thriving on Limitations: Behind the Scenes of The Wrath of Khan
With John and Maria Jose Tenuto
Husband-and-wife historian team delivered a talk while showing rare photographs from the filming of the movie. Neat. Some anecdotes I'd heard before, many I hadn't. Nick Meyer wearing dust mask and goggles to breathe in the small soundstage they set up as Ceti Alpha V. Costume design based on a naval movie. Ricardo Montalban cracking up over a rolling doll with his Fantasy Island character's face on it. Examples of creativity and sometimes silliness driven by the tight budget, like film crew members holding by the feet the actors playing the characters Khan had killed and strung up on Regula 1 station. Demonstrating that Chekov hadn't been left by the shipping containers when the others went out into the Genesis cave to eat fruit, he just wasn't seen in the final shots. Establishing the identities of the actors who played Khan's followers. Etc.
The First Convention and How It Helped Resurrect Star Trek
With Stuart Hellinger, Elyse Rosenstein, Joyce Yasner, Devra Langsam, Linda Deneroff
Man, I was really interested in this and was sad to have to miss most of the middle because that's when my DS9 group photo was scheduled.iggyw took some notes while I was gone & I hope to see them at some point. Weirdly, though, despite there being four women and only one dude ("the token male," they joked), as was appropriate, the dude did a lot of the talking as far as I saw. He's also listed first in the program, although I'm not sure how the order was chosen.
Sorry, my phone camera is abysmal.
Anyway, notes. Most of them are not from the dude but from the woman on the left, whose name of course I didn't match up to the panelists list:
- "We were the first major media con."
- "We had planned for 800 people and got 3,000."
- "Now we have this." *indicates Javits Center* It's kept Trek alive. Movies, series.
- "It's hard to imagine now how isolated fans were 50 years ago."
- "You had to be hooked into a group to find fanzines."
- "If you wanted a phaser, you made your own phaser."
- [On the days before VCRs and syndication:] "I didn't get to see the salt monster for 5 years."
- The two head women had the idea for the con while hanging out trying to match up their TOS film scraps.
- There had been small SF fan cons, many of them resistant to including TV fandoms.
- Good and bad: "It's no longer a proud and lonely thing to be a fan." Mainstream.
The Evolution of Star Trek's Fandom
Ryan Britt, Cici James, Telka Vassie, Josué Cardona, Dr. Ali Mattu
I wrote down absolutely nothing from this panel. It didn't have much to offer, despite its interesting description. Possibly suffered by coming after the first-convention panel. When we walked in, the panelists were being asked to share their "how you came into this fandom" stories. Most of them seemed to be in their 30s and I didn't know who any of them were or why they'd been chosen to represent the fandom. At least they were of diverse genders and ethnicities?
Oh, wait, no, these notes are from there:
- With Discovery, Star Trek is coming back to where it belongs: television.
- Odd that some Trek fans subdivide and spill vitriol over one another when the show's core values are IDIC and tolerance.
We also tried the Star Trek Spelling Bee but discovered that only a handful of people were sitting in the audience, so we ducked right back out.
SATURDAY
Growing Up Trek
With Adam and Julie Nimoy and Rod Roddenberry
We came in late and might have missed a more interesting part. Just nice to "meet" Leonard Nimoy's and Gene Roddenberry's kids, hear a little about their perspectives on their parents and Nimoy's relationship with Roddenberry and Majel Barrett's relationship with Roddenberry and how they see the franchise and their places in it. Adam and Rod seemed to do most of the talking/get most of the questions, and people, including the moderator, seemed to keep forgetting that they had mothers as well as fathers, even right after Rod would say something about Majel.
Writing for Star Trek
With David Gerrold, David Mack, Michael Jan Friedman, Glenn Hauman
Possibly the biggest letdown of the panels for me. I'd been looking forward to it, but by this time in the program I was tired of hearing Gerrold, Mack and MJF talk, and the session just felt like a circle jerk. Not much insight into the unique requirements or satisfactions of writing in the Trek universe. Bailed after maybe 15 minutes.
Notes, all from Gerrold:
- Story about being handed a writers-directors guide when hired for Trek and instead of tossing it aside, taking note of details, like how Scotty prefers spending time with technical journals over other people. Then when he wrote The Trouble With Tribbles, he put right in the script, "That'll give me more time for my technical journals." Illuminated character and relationship with Kirk. Showrunners pleased it was right on target for characterization.
- We didn't have a writers room back then. Think it works against writers. Too echo chambery. Good ideas often come from outside, show you how you can push the format.
- Dorothy Fontana was first reader of submitted scripts, looked for consistency, tossed many out. Gene Coon was second reader, exec, decided whether to buy.
Meet Writer-Producers from Star Trek: Discovery
With Nicholas Meyer and Kirsten Beyer
Wait, no, this might have been the biggest letdown. Why hold an hour-long panel in the main auditorium about the new series if you're not going to say anything notable about the new series? Super frustrating, low on content, with bonus eye-rolling information control and baffling discord between Meyer and the moderator. The introducers lectured the audience about the importance of not taking any photos or videos during a Very Special Intro Video, because don't you want to follow the rules so you can have another Very Special Intro Video next time and not ruin everybody's fun? Then it turned out to be just a trailer with some "exclusive" interview clips with Bryan Fuller and one shot that hadn't already been aired, of some prosthetics on mannequins for an undisclosed alien species.
I don't know a lot about the new show. I don't know a lot about how "the fandom" feels about the new show. Meyer & the moderator indicated that there's been a lot of cynicism, and much of the panel accordingly came across as defensive. Despite my disappointment in the Reboot series, I recognize that JJ Abrams is not involved in this offshoot (although the inclusion of Orci & Kurtzman doesn't inspire confidence) and find myself sharing the opinion of those like the panelists who say that, look, the showrunners love Star Trek—Bryan Fuller is a huge fan who's written episodes before and posed in uniform with cast and crew members, Nick Meyer was responsible for Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country and part of The Voyage Home, Kirsten Beyer wrote for Voyager and writes and edits tie-in novels, they've got the guy who wrote "Darmok" (Joe Menosky) and the director of Cube and Splice (Vincenzo Natali)—so why not give them the benefit of the doubt? We feel the way you do about Star Trek, said Beyer.
Of course, this did come after Meyer, responding to a confrontational audience question about not screwing things up, said in exactly the withering way you'd imagine, "Fans do not know what is best for them."
Also, while they compared CBS's use of Discovery to launch its Access platform to UPN's use of Voyager to launch its new network, no one challenged them on the decision to put Star Trek, a show about equality and justice, on a paid platform.
Later, they made a Big Deal about a New Revelation that was just an announcement that Beyer has been given a fancier title and will be overseeing a new novel and some comics related to Discovery. Maybe that was exciting for somebody else?
Official article from StarTrek.com if you're interested.
Black Tribbles: Star Trek Into Blackness
With Len Webb aka BatTribble, Kennedy Allen aka Storm Tribble, Erik Darden aka Master Tribble, Randy Green aka SuperTribble, Jason Richardson aka Spider-Tribble
All black panelists! Female moderator! Presentation neither boring nor bro-y! Thoroughly entertaining talk that touched on significant black characters throughout the history of the franchise and what they meant for fans, especially fans of color, and for the progression of social justice in the wider culture. Impossible to replicate the experience here (pun intended), but the presenters had great rapport and energy and I definitely want to check out their geek podcast at http://www.blacktribbles.com/.
Notes:
- Familiar story about young Whoopi Goldberg going out of her mind seeing a black woman on TV (Nichelle Nichols) as someone other than a maid
- Data got more [tail] than Geordi
- Worf and intersectionality
- Sisko and positive black male familial interactions
- Sisko being a badass who chased off Q after one episode
- Tuvok as the James Baldwin of Star Trek
ST IV table read
With Terry Farrell, Ethan Phillips, Bobak "Mohawk Guy" Ferdowsi, Mary Stuart Masterson, Damian Young, Brian Haley, John Kim, Anna George, Katarina Morhacova, Robert Clohessy
The Javits Center being in the middle of nowhere midtown west, you're stuck for food unless you like $10 sandwiches that come in those little plastic triangles or want to go for a bit of a walk. By dinnertime on day two, we were ready for such a walk. Good thing, too, because it was as we stood in the atrium deciding where to go that we had our Django sighting.
Anyway, grabbing Chinese takeout meant that we missed most of the Star Trek IV stage reading. Terry Farrell and Ethan Phillips weren't announced until the last minute, and I didn't know any of the other performers besides Mary Stuart Masterson, so it didn't seem like much of a gamble. We caught the last 5 or 10 minutes and didn't regret our choice. If the readers had all been cast members doing parts besides their own characters, it would have been much more fun (and much less flat-sounding). Still, it was fun to see at least that little bit. Farrell read the part of the Federation President chastising Kirk, and there was one funny moment when she said, "Silence!" only there hadn't been anything to silence, so then the audience made a lot of noise so she could say it again.
And then there was the cosplay contest, but there's only one panel left to describe and there's not much to say, so let's do that first and then get back to the awesome costumes.
SUNDAY
Trek Talks: NASA
With Kjell Lindgren (astronaut), Michelle Thaller (assistant director for science communication at the Goddard Spaceflight Center), Dave Lavery (program executive for solar system exploration), Jeffrey Sheehy (senior technical officer of the Space Technology Mission Directorate) and moderator Robert Picardo
We only caught the last 15 minutes or so of this panel but what we heard was nifty. Overviews of some current projects on the ISS, Mars travel, propulsion systems, etc. Joyous talk from Thaller about what makes Star Trek wonderful and how it intersects with her life as a scientist. Funny anecdote from Lindgren about coming back into gravity after 100+ days in orbit, unable to hold himself up even on all fours. Relayed Scott Kelly's description of landing the space shuttle as being like driving a Cadillac on a freshly paved road and landing a Soyuz capsule as being like driving a Cold War-era Soviet economy car off a cliff while it's on fire. Picardo did a nice job moderating. Someone said he's on the board of the Planetary Society—yep, Google just confirmed—which helps explain why his questions were so informed and on point.
So, yes, the Cosplay contest!
Judges: Anna Marquardt, Charlie Beckerman, Terry Farrell
There were tons of attendees in costume throughout the weekend: seas of uniforms from all series and movies, both standard and dress, commercial and hand-sewn; Andorians, Klingons, Cardassians, Trill, Ferengi, Vulcans and Romulans; half a dozen Khans of many genders, Data, Gary Seven with his cat, Harry Mudd, a couple of Romulan Commanders, Gaila, Lal, Sybok, several Saaviks, anthropomorphized Enterprises. Niche costumes, too: Data and Geordi as Holmes and Watson, holodeck tux Garak (her makeup was so good) (@vulcannnic), Christine Chapel from a messed-up part of an animated series episode where one uniform sleeve was red instead of blue (pic here). Some mashups, like the Tenth Doctor as a Trill. And some randos in Ghostbuster and Stormtrooper costumes.
So naturally we were looking forward to Saturday night's cosplay contest—and were surprised when only about a dozen contestants walked the runway.
Don't get me wrong, there were some stunning cosplayers up there. A Desi Beverly Crusher in a teal-and-black sari with gold trim; a lookalike Seven of Nine; the Borg Queen; one lookalike Khan and one female fashion remix complete with "Ceti eel purse"; two black-and-white pulp characters from the Voyager episode that I think is "Bride of Chaotica"; and show stealers Kim Cardassian and Khanye West! ("Imma let you finish. Imma let you finish," said Khanye, stealing the microphone from the emcee. "But I just wanna say, my superior intellect is the most superior intellect.") There were at least three fans of color and one self-identified genderqueer participant.
But so few of the amazing costumes we'd seen were represented, and as the judges deliberated (during the very poorly coordinated show, tbh), the emcee invited other cosplaying attendees up to the stage and we were treated to at least a hundred more people, many of whom could have given the entrants a run for their money.iggyw and I couldn't figure out why so few people had entered. Maybe the minimum 60% handmade rule the organizers posted? (They also had a rule that said no political messages, and someone was let through dressed as Donald Trump carrying a sign that said "Make the Federation great again," so who knows what they did or didn't actually allow.) We guessed perhaps an entry fee disincentive, but I don't see one on the website. *big shrug* In any case, we applauded everyone, including a great Odo and Kira couple dressed in their Vic's tux and red gown, Guinan, a young Jayla, Lokai and Bele, Lal and Data, Sisko, etc.
Sorry, sorry, photos so crappy
The final contest decisions were defensible, although I disagreed with some. Nicasio Silang has already pointed out the problem with @StarTrek tweeting a photo of the not-very-diverse winners with a caption about "infinite diversity in infinite combinations."
Still: A good way to round out the middle of the con.
Official StarTrek.com write-up with pictures
Last but not least: Next post will be about the cast panels. \o/
Previous post: cast member one-on-ones
I went to most of the talks I'd wanted to go to. Some of them met or exceeded expectations while others disappointed. An overall critique is that there were way too many white dudes up on stage. I only remember one panel with a female moderator, the leader of the Black Tribbles podcast team. No coincidence that that was a great session. Oh, and one lecture was half husband and half wife. A few other panels—but too few—had women on them. Disappointing, and reflected neither the demographics of the fandom or even of the con attendees nor the people who've worked on the shows (the "Writing for Trek" panel featured zero women, for instance). Likely the Feminist Fandom, Queer Trekkers and Women of Trek panels had greater presenter diversity, but I unfortunately missed them due to what they were scheduled against. Which is itself another kind of slight by the con organizers, putting them up against the big cast panels lots of people wanted to go to.
That said: Six of the panels we attended featured cast members; will write about those separately. The rest included:
FRIDAY
The History and Future of Star Trek novels
With David Mack, Edward Schlesinger, Margaret Clark, Marco Palmieri, Michael Jan Friedman, Glenn Hauman, Kirsten Beyer, Kevin Dilmore
I read the heck out of TOS, TNG & DS9 tie-in novels for about 8 years. It was cool to see at least one of the authors I'd liked (MJF), to hear them talk about their inspirations and personal favorites and to learn what's been happening in the tie-in novel world since I left it. I dunno, I guess I'd been thinking about the novels as being a closed set or having trailed off, but that's clearly not the case. They said the three 24th-century series have merged into a shared universe with consistent timelines so if an event occurs in a Voyager novel, that event also happens in the TNG & DS9 timelines, or a character goes somewhere in a TNG novel, that character can't be anywhere else at the same time in a different book. I was taken aback by what they said they've done to DS9.
Misc. notes:
- Tie-in novelists are like canon lawyers. Must cite sources in manuscripts to prove continuity.
- Kirsten Beyer read all the books when she started writing for Voyager and for tie-in novels because she considered them canon and didn't want to repeat storylines
- All books since the Pocket Books deal are available as e-books DRM-free
- The authors talk to one another, not just to editors. Like a show's writers room. Recent books being in a shared universe and therefore requiring consistent characterization and persistent plot arcs/repercussions makes inter-author communication necessary and also allows one author to set up a plot or relationship or joke for someone else's later book.
- Authors' faves and/or early influences included: Blish's novelizations, Imzadi, The Final Reflection, Yesterday's Son, Destiny, Entropy Effect, Covenant of the Crown, To Reign in Hell, How Much For Just the Planet?
- There have been crossovers (graphic novels?) with X-Men, Green Lantern, Doctor Who, Planet of the Apes…
- Upcoming things to look out for: Legacies series, Enigma Tales (Garak), Control (Section 31)
Fanbros: TNG vs DS9
With DJ Benhameen and Fanbros
We popped our heads into this one but didn't end up staying long. Excellent to see a black moderator, but the whole thing was too bro-y and not substantive enough for me. Just a couple of dudes—or was it four? two on each team—being asked to rate each show based on random criteria and little substantive argumentation, then voting on each variable by an audience that of course already knew its favorites and wasn't going to be swayed.
Galaxy Quests: The Humor of Star Trek and Beyond
With Mark A. Altman, Gabrielle Stanton, Dave Rogers
Eh, not much to say. Panelists said they owed the humor in TOS largely to Gene L. Coon; that Star Trek's humor is great because it's character-based and because it establishes character; it's a tool, not a throwaway.
Thriving on Limitations: Behind the Scenes of The Wrath of Khan
With John and Maria Jose Tenuto
Husband-and-wife historian team delivered a talk while showing rare photographs from the filming of the movie. Neat. Some anecdotes I'd heard before, many I hadn't. Nick Meyer wearing dust mask and goggles to breathe in the small soundstage they set up as Ceti Alpha V. Costume design based on a naval movie. Ricardo Montalban cracking up over a rolling doll with his Fantasy Island character's face on it. Examples of creativity and sometimes silliness driven by the tight budget, like film crew members holding by the feet the actors playing the characters Khan had killed and strung up on Regula 1 station. Demonstrating that Chekov hadn't been left by the shipping containers when the others went out into the Genesis cave to eat fruit, he just wasn't seen in the final shots. Establishing the identities of the actors who played Khan's followers. Etc.
The First Convention and How It Helped Resurrect Star Trek
With Stuart Hellinger, Elyse Rosenstein, Joyce Yasner, Devra Langsam, Linda Deneroff
Man, I was really interested in this and was sad to have to miss most of the middle because that's when my DS9 group photo was scheduled.
Sorry, my phone camera is abysmal.
Anyway, notes. Most of them are not from the dude but from the woman on the left, whose name of course I didn't match up to the panelists list:
- "We were the first major media con."
- "We had planned for 800 people and got 3,000."
- "Now we have this." *indicates Javits Center* It's kept Trek alive. Movies, series.
- "It's hard to imagine now how isolated fans were 50 years ago."
- "You had to be hooked into a group to find fanzines."
- "If you wanted a phaser, you made your own phaser."
- [On the days before VCRs and syndication:] "I didn't get to see the salt monster for 5 years."
- The two head women had the idea for the con while hanging out trying to match up their TOS film scraps.
- There had been small SF fan cons, many of them resistant to including TV fandoms.
- Good and bad: "It's no longer a proud and lonely thing to be a fan." Mainstream.
The Evolution of Star Trek's Fandom
Ryan Britt, Cici James, Telka Vassie, Josué Cardona, Dr. Ali Mattu
I wrote down absolutely nothing from this panel. It didn't have much to offer, despite its interesting description. Possibly suffered by coming after the first-convention panel. When we walked in, the panelists were being asked to share their "how you came into this fandom" stories. Most of them seemed to be in their 30s and I didn't know who any of them were or why they'd been chosen to represent the fandom. At least they were of diverse genders and ethnicities?
Oh, wait, no, these notes are from there:
- With Discovery, Star Trek is coming back to where it belongs: television.
- Odd that some Trek fans subdivide and spill vitriol over one another when the show's core values are IDIC and tolerance.
We also tried the Star Trek Spelling Bee but discovered that only a handful of people were sitting in the audience, so we ducked right back out.
SATURDAY
Growing Up Trek
With Adam and Julie Nimoy and Rod Roddenberry
We came in late and might have missed a more interesting part. Just nice to "meet" Leonard Nimoy's and Gene Roddenberry's kids, hear a little about their perspectives on their parents and Nimoy's relationship with Roddenberry and Majel Barrett's relationship with Roddenberry and how they see the franchise and their places in it. Adam and Rod seemed to do most of the talking/get most of the questions, and people, including the moderator, seemed to keep forgetting that they had mothers as well as fathers, even right after Rod would say something about Majel.
Writing for Star Trek
With David Gerrold, David Mack, Michael Jan Friedman, Glenn Hauman
Possibly the biggest letdown of the panels for me. I'd been looking forward to it, but by this time in the program I was tired of hearing Gerrold, Mack and MJF talk, and the session just felt like a circle jerk. Not much insight into the unique requirements or satisfactions of writing in the Trek universe. Bailed after maybe 15 minutes.
Notes, all from Gerrold:
- Story about being handed a writers-directors guide when hired for Trek and instead of tossing it aside, taking note of details, like how Scotty prefers spending time with technical journals over other people. Then when he wrote The Trouble With Tribbles, he put right in the script, "That'll give me more time for my technical journals." Illuminated character and relationship with Kirk. Showrunners pleased it was right on target for characterization.
- We didn't have a writers room back then. Think it works against writers. Too echo chambery. Good ideas often come from outside, show you how you can push the format.
- Dorothy Fontana was first reader of submitted scripts, looked for consistency, tossed many out. Gene Coon was second reader, exec, decided whether to buy.
Meet Writer-Producers from Star Trek: Discovery
With Nicholas Meyer and Kirsten Beyer
Wait, no, this might have been the biggest letdown. Why hold an hour-long panel in the main auditorium about the new series if you're not going to say anything notable about the new series? Super frustrating, low on content, with bonus eye-rolling information control and baffling discord between Meyer and the moderator. The introducers lectured the audience about the importance of not taking any photos or videos during a Very Special Intro Video, because don't you want to follow the rules so you can have another Very Special Intro Video next time and not ruin everybody's fun? Then it turned out to be just a trailer with some "exclusive" interview clips with Bryan Fuller and one shot that hadn't already been aired, of some prosthetics on mannequins for an undisclosed alien species.
I don't know a lot about the new show. I don't know a lot about how "the fandom" feels about the new show. Meyer & the moderator indicated that there's been a lot of cynicism, and much of the panel accordingly came across as defensive. Despite my disappointment in the Reboot series, I recognize that JJ Abrams is not involved in this offshoot (although the inclusion of Orci & Kurtzman doesn't inspire confidence) and find myself sharing the opinion of those like the panelists who say that, look, the showrunners love Star Trek—Bryan Fuller is a huge fan who's written episodes before and posed in uniform with cast and crew members, Nick Meyer was responsible for Wrath of Khan and The Undiscovered Country and part of The Voyage Home, Kirsten Beyer wrote for Voyager and writes and edits tie-in novels, they've got the guy who wrote "Darmok" (Joe Menosky) and the director of Cube and Splice (Vincenzo Natali)—so why not give them the benefit of the doubt? We feel the way you do about Star Trek, said Beyer.
Of course, this did come after Meyer, responding to a confrontational audience question about not screwing things up, said in exactly the withering way you'd imagine, "Fans do not know what is best for them."
Also, while they compared CBS's use of Discovery to launch its Access platform to UPN's use of Voyager to launch its new network, no one challenged them on the decision to put Star Trek, a show about equality and justice, on a paid platform.
Later, they made a Big Deal about a New Revelation that was just an announcement that Beyer has been given a fancier title and will be overseeing a new novel and some comics related to Discovery. Maybe that was exciting for somebody else?
Official article from StarTrek.com if you're interested.
Black Tribbles: Star Trek Into Blackness
With Len Webb aka BatTribble, Kennedy Allen aka Storm Tribble, Erik Darden aka Master Tribble, Randy Green aka SuperTribble, Jason Richardson aka Spider-Tribble
All black panelists! Female moderator! Presentation neither boring nor bro-y! Thoroughly entertaining talk that touched on significant black characters throughout the history of the franchise and what they meant for fans, especially fans of color, and for the progression of social justice in the wider culture. Impossible to replicate the experience here (pun intended), but the presenters had great rapport and energy and I definitely want to check out their geek podcast at http://www.blacktribbles.com/.
Notes:
- Familiar story about young Whoopi Goldberg going out of her mind seeing a black woman on TV (Nichelle Nichols) as someone other than a maid
- Data got more [tail] than Geordi
- Worf and intersectionality
- Sisko and positive black male familial interactions
- Sisko being a badass who chased off Q after one episode
- Tuvok as the James Baldwin of Star Trek
ST IV table read
With Terry Farrell, Ethan Phillips, Bobak "Mohawk Guy" Ferdowsi, Mary Stuart Masterson, Damian Young, Brian Haley, John Kim, Anna George, Katarina Morhacova, Robert Clohessy
The Javits Center being in the middle of nowhere midtown west, you're stuck for food unless you like $10 sandwiches that come in those little plastic triangles or want to go for a bit of a walk. By dinnertime on day two, we were ready for such a walk. Good thing, too, because it was as we stood in the atrium deciding where to go that we had our Django sighting.
Anyway, grabbing Chinese takeout meant that we missed most of the Star Trek IV stage reading. Terry Farrell and Ethan Phillips weren't announced until the last minute, and I didn't know any of the other performers besides Mary Stuart Masterson, so it didn't seem like much of a gamble. We caught the last 5 or 10 minutes and didn't regret our choice. If the readers had all been cast members doing parts besides their own characters, it would have been much more fun (and much less flat-sounding). Still, it was fun to see at least that little bit. Farrell read the part of the Federation President chastising Kirk, and there was one funny moment when she said, "Silence!" only there hadn't been anything to silence, so then the audience made a lot of noise so she could say it again.
And then there was the cosplay contest, but there's only one panel left to describe and there's not much to say, so let's do that first and then get back to the awesome costumes.
SUNDAY
Trek Talks: NASA
With Kjell Lindgren (astronaut), Michelle Thaller (assistant director for science communication at the Goddard Spaceflight Center), Dave Lavery (program executive for solar system exploration), Jeffrey Sheehy (senior technical officer of the Space Technology Mission Directorate) and moderator Robert Picardo
We only caught the last 15 minutes or so of this panel but what we heard was nifty. Overviews of some current projects on the ISS, Mars travel, propulsion systems, etc. Joyous talk from Thaller about what makes Star Trek wonderful and how it intersects with her life as a scientist. Funny anecdote from Lindgren about coming back into gravity after 100+ days in orbit, unable to hold himself up even on all fours. Relayed Scott Kelly's description of landing the space shuttle as being like driving a Cadillac on a freshly paved road and landing a Soyuz capsule as being like driving a Cold War-era Soviet economy car off a cliff while it's on fire. Picardo did a nice job moderating. Someone said he's on the board of the Planetary Society—yep, Google just confirmed—which helps explain why his questions were so informed and on point.
So, yes, the Cosplay contest!
Judges: Anna Marquardt, Charlie Beckerman, Terry Farrell
There were tons of attendees in costume throughout the weekend: seas of uniforms from all series and movies, both standard and dress, commercial and hand-sewn; Andorians, Klingons, Cardassians, Trill, Ferengi, Vulcans and Romulans; half a dozen Khans of many genders, Data, Gary Seven with his cat, Harry Mudd, a couple of Romulan Commanders, Gaila, Lal, Sybok, several Saaviks, anthropomorphized Enterprises. Niche costumes, too: Data and Geordi as Holmes and Watson, holodeck tux Garak (her makeup was so good) (@vulcannnic), Christine Chapel from a messed-up part of an animated series episode where one uniform sleeve was red instead of blue (pic here). Some mashups, like the Tenth Doctor as a Trill. And some randos in Ghostbuster and Stormtrooper costumes.
So naturally we were looking forward to Saturday night's cosplay contest—and were surprised when only about a dozen contestants walked the runway.
Don't get me wrong, there were some stunning cosplayers up there. A Desi Beverly Crusher in a teal-and-black sari with gold trim; a lookalike Seven of Nine; the Borg Queen; one lookalike Khan and one female fashion remix complete with "Ceti eel purse"; two black-and-white pulp characters from the Voyager episode that I think is "Bride of Chaotica"; and show stealers Kim Cardassian and Khanye West! ("Imma let you finish. Imma let you finish," said Khanye, stealing the microphone from the emcee. "But I just wanna say, my superior intellect is the most superior intellect.") There were at least three fans of color and one self-identified genderqueer participant.
But so few of the amazing costumes we'd seen were represented, and as the judges deliberated (during the very poorly coordinated show, tbh), the emcee invited other cosplaying attendees up to the stage and we were treated to at least a hundred more people, many of whom could have given the entrants a run for their money.
Sorry, sorry, photos so crappy
The final contest decisions were defensible, although I disagreed with some. Nicasio Silang has already pointed out the problem with @StarTrek tweeting a photo of the not-very-diverse winners with a caption about "infinite diversity in infinite combinations."
Still: A good way to round out the middle of the con.
Official StarTrek.com write-up with pictures
Last but not least: Next post will be about the cast panels. \o/
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Date: Sep. 10th, 2016 08:47 pm (UTC)Sad to hear that the new series panel wasn't very good. I have been feeling cautiously optimistic about it but wow, "Fans do not know what is best for them," what even. I guess I will just try to keep having faith in Bryan Fuller.
I'm really enjoying reading your con report!
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Date: Sep. 11th, 2016 02:55 pm (UTC)Ah, I forgot, I was going to dig up my copy of Masks when I was at my dad's house and bring it up here. Next time.
Did I read the Kobayashi Maru book? I'd probably remember it, right? Hm.
>>I have been feeling cautiously optimistic about it but wow
It struck such a discordant note when I'd had nothing but optimism regarding Meyer's involvement. Maybe he's just an occasional jerk who produces good Star Trek and I'll be happier seeing his work rather than his face.
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Date: Sep. 11th, 2016 02:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sep. 11th, 2016 02:50 pm (UTC)