After 25 years of being a fan, yesterday I attended my first Star Trek convention with Hassan. We had such a good day. Although it was the last day of the convention, I’d chosen Sunday as the date to attend due to the 20th Anniversary of my favorite show, Deep Space Nine (DS9), and some of the activities which were happening only on Sunday. After arriving at the Rio, we checked in, found our seats in the main theater, and located the areas where specific photo ops would be, and the vendor area from which there would be other photo and autograph ops, and of course merchandise sales and ordering; and then found our way back to the main theater. First up was a Q&A session w/ Jeri Ryan. For those of you unfamiliar, she portrayed the character Seven of Nine on Voyager (VOY). After this the vendor area opened, and we sought Armin Shimerman, who portrayed Quark on DS9. Hassan took his photo with me, and he signed my copy of The Ferengi Rules of Acquisition. We continued through the vendor area, made some purchases and met more of our favorite actors: Aaron Eisenbergh: Nog on DS9; Fred Williamson: former defensive back for the Steelers, Raiders, and Chiefs, who also appeared in an episode of the original Star Trek series (TOS); Robert Picardo: Coach Cutlip on The Wonder Years, and The Doctor on VOY; Anthony Montgomery: Travis Mayweather on Enterprise (ENT); Jonathan Frakes: Will Riker on Next Generation (TNG); Marina Sirtis: Deana Troi on TNG; and Brent Spiner: Data on TNG; and Cirroc Lofton: Jake Sisko on DS9. But the highlight of this walkthrough was meeting Levar Burton: Geordi La Forge on TNG, but whom most of us also/otherwise know from Reading Rainbow, and as young Kunta Kinte in Roots. We missed the Q&A session with George Takei, Hikaru Sulu on TOS, as we were on line to get pictures taken, first with Avery Brooks, Captain Ben Sisko on DS9; and then Michael Dorn, Worf of both TNG & DS9. We did get back to the theater to catch the latter portion of Karl Urban’s, Dr. Leonard McCoy in the new ST movies, Q&A; which was followed by Voyager’s Captain Katherine Janeway, portrayed by Kate Mulgrew, who currently plays Red in the Netflix original series Orange is the new Black, and Cmdr. Chakotay, portrayed by Robert Beltran. Garrett Wong, one of their former co-stars in the role of Harry Kim, was one of the questionnaires who joked with them as to why his character never got promoted. The big event of the day was the back-to-back Q&A panels featuring most of the cast of DS9. Salome Jens, the female Changeling; Alexander Siddig, Dr. Julian Bashir; and Colm Meaney, Miles O’Brien could not be in attendance; but the panels consisted of Brooks, Terry Farrell: Jadzia Dax, Lofton, Nana Visitor: Kira Nerys, Shimerman, Dorn, Rene Auberjonois: Odo, but who mom & pop will always refer to as Clayton from Benson, and Nicole de Boer, Ezri Dax, on the first panel; and Mark Alaimo: Gul Skrain Dukat, Max Grodenchik: Rom, Chase Masterson: Leeta, Casey Biggs: Damar, Eisenberg, Andrew Robinson: Elim Garak, and Jeffrey Combs: Brunt/Weyoun. There were a lot of questions and discussion which revolved around the characters archs’ and the general underlying theme on and off the show of love. Love for one’s self, or child, or parent, spouse, or country, or colleagues, or God(s) emanated throughout the show, and was part of the reason why it remains my favorite of the Star Trek shows. Watching it with Hassan late Sunday nights in the late 90s was an big part of he and I becoming more than brothers, but friends; and I was glad to spend the day with him in something that we both enjoy so much. We finished our day at the event with one more signature, which of course we had to wait in another line for: In his portrayal of Captain Benjamin Lafayette Sisko, Avery Brooks wore many hats. He was a Starfleet officer and commander; religious icon to the Bajorans; a chef, musician, diplomat, and strategist; son of Joseph and Sarah, brother of Judith, widower of Jennifer, husband of Kassidy, father of Jacob, and father-to-be of Kassidy’s daughter. Second only to John Bracy, Ben Sisko is the embodiment of the kind of man I strive to be. Yesterday, I got my chance to thank Mr. Brooks for giving me that goal to reach for. We had such good a day.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 17:42:26 +0000
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