NJ’s Official Star Trek Convention is full of surprises

There weren’t any captains on the roster for Creation Entertainment’s Official Star Trek Convention in Parsippany, N.J., which took place June 24-26. But that didn’t stop one of the captains (in fact, the very first captain) from showing up anyway.

William Shatner, aka Captain James T. Kirk, made several surprise appearances at the three-day convention, in order to shoot a forthcoming reality-series pilot about Star Trek fandom. Although he wasn’t part of the official talent, Shatner did lead Saturday’s audience is a unified yell of “Khan!”

His unexpected appearance proved to be a welcome surprise, indeed.

As far as the rest of the weekend, Creation put on another great show.

Friday’s program included visits from two of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s best actors: Nana Visitor and Rene Auberjonois. The two held Q&A sessions with the public, as well as posed for photo opportunities and signed autographs. The highlight of their appearance was a performance of Cross Our Hearts, a spoken-word piece where both Visitor and Auberjonois read quotes, stories and scenes from some of their favorite authors. They even read a scene as Odo and Major Kira, their characters on DS9.

Friday audiences at Creation conventions are always filled with die-hard fans. The big crowds usually stop in on Sunday to see the top-billed talent, but for my money, Friday and Saturday attracts the true fans.

Saturday saw appearances by Star Trek: Enterprise’s Connor Trinneer and Dominic Keating, plus a rare Q&A session with Lursa (Barbara March) and B’Etor (Gwynyth Walsh), everyone’s favorite Klingons.

Sunday was the big day and drew a sizable crowd that packed the Parsippany venue. Michael Dorn, Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, filled in for an absent Jonathan Frakes, who was on the West Coast directing an episode of the television series, Leverage.

Dorn got the party started with a hilarious Q&A session where he was asked seemingly every question under the sun. He spoke about his new vegan diet, his love of flying airplanes, his hours of makeup and even whether he used his costume for “extracurricular” activities. Dorn proved to be an affable, gracious guest, and the packed audience of hundreds of Star Trek fans ate it all up.

The First Lady of Star Trek, Nichelle Nichols, was the main draw, coming to the stage in the late afternoon. Rather than conducting a Q&A session, she was interviewed by Creation co-founder Adam Malin. The stories that Nichols shared from her time on Star Trek: The Original Series were enthralling.

A highlight was her retelling the story of how she almost quit the series after the first season. Who convinced her to stay on as Lt. Uhura? None other than Martin Luther King Jr., who was a big fan of the show and thought Nichols was truly revolutionizing television for African-Americans.

Many of the panel discussions were streamed live on a new pay-per-view broadcast from Creation.

The convention’s other events were all spirited occasions. Malin’s handling of the Creation no-minimum auction was great fun, as was a seminar on the “Ships of the Starfleet.” The vendors room was manageable, but perhaps a little too small. Of those tables that were present, there were several rare sci-fi finds.

Also in the vendors room were tables set up by Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Janice Rand from Star Trek: The Original Series) and Bobby Clark (the Gorn from the classic Star Trek episode, “Arena”).

All in all, Star Trek’s New Jersey convention was a hit. It fed its genre Kool-Aid to many willing fans. Let’s hope that Creation soon solidifies plans on a Garden State event next year.

Next up is the Official Star Trek Convention in Boston. Check www.HollywoodSoapbox.com in the coming days for a preview and also a review.

• Click here for more information on Creation Entertainment’s conventions.