by Sara Van Cleve
Good food, good music, and good times – that pretty much sums up Friday night at Star Trek Las Vegas.
My day started with a stage appearance by Connor Trinneer (Trip) and Dominic Keating (Lt. Reed).
Trinneer and Keating are always a pleasure to hear; they share fun stories from their time with Star Trek and always have fun with the fans. One of the highlights of their time on stage was when Keating shared one of his favorite practical jokes on set:
Scott Bakula did a Canada Dry commercial back in the late 80s – early 90s, and during an appearance on the Rosie O’Donnell Show, she played the clip. One of the producers of Enterprise then apparently got a copy and had the prop designer create replicas of the old-school Canada Dry bottles. The moment Bakula stepped on stage, “The Canada Dry Man” was greeted with the commercial on every screen on the bridge, replicas of the bottles held by the rest of the cast and a dance routine by the producers.
Another fun fact, if you want to call it that, is regarding the episode “Vox Sola.” Trinneer said he and Bakula had to spend three days of the episode’s shoot trapped in the gel-based web, which was actually made of nothing by KY Jelly.
“I had KY Jelly coming out of my ears for a week,” Trinneer said. “Which in different context sounds weird.”
Later in the day, Trinneer, Keating, and Garrett Wang (Harry Kim) performed a dramatic performance of the piece “Art.” The piece was wonderfully performed by the three, and surprisingly relatable, even though the situations weren’t necessarily relatable; how many of us have friends that spend 200,000 franks on a white canvas with white paint and white lines on the paint?
A personal highlight of the day for me was meeting Marina Sirtis. Along with many of her TNG co-stars, Sirtis sat in the vendors room for hours signing autographs for her fans.
Also, as the convention continues, more and more attendees show up in costume, from basic Starfleet uniforms to specific characters to much more complicated costumes, such as the Borg. Saturday there seemed to be somewhat of a Collective invasion as a group of six Borg convened outside the main theater:
Later in the night, Trekkies took over the Voodoo Lounge on the 50th and 51st floors of the Rio.
The night consisted of great food and great conversations with fellow fans. Overall, it was a great time!
After dinner and dessert, Chase Masterson (Leeta) took the stage to entertain fans with a live band, a first for Masterson. She literally sparkled as the serenaded the crowd in a shimmering sequin mini dress.
After Masterson, Klingons JG Hertzler (Martok) and Robert O’Reilly (Gowron) took the stage, bat’leth guitars in hand, and entertained the fans with their blend of Blues Brothers and rock ‘n’ roll covers, including “Wild Thing,” “I love Rock ‘n’ Roll” and more.
The crowd was dancing as the former Klingons shredded and sang their way through some of rock’s biggest hits. At the end of their set, the actors auctioned off their autographed bat’leth guitars to benefit the Wounded Warriors Fund.
The first guitar, the “Kahless Paul,” was auctioned off for $550; the second, the “Glorious Guitar,” racked in $700.
A day that started off with laughs from Enterprise humans ended with music by Deep Space Nine Klingons was quite the day.