My Star Trek Experience
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The larger pool at the Alexis Park Hotel.
And there were definitely a lot of stars at the Convention!  Over sixty invited guests, many of whom were doing autographs only for the fortunate ones who had access to the large Parthenon Ballroom.  These lucky people had the pleasure of talking with William Shatner, Kate Mulgrew, and the crews of each of the four Star Trek series.  Naturally, my family had bought these, more expensive tickets.  We may be frugal, but we're not stupid.

But there were many other stars there, as well.  Recurring guest stars like Max Grodenchik (Rom) and Gwynyth Walsh (B'Tor) were in the Athena Ballroom alongside such actors as Robin Curtis (Saavik) and Gary Lockwood (Gary Mitchell.)  Stars from both the TV series and the Star Trek movies came and talked, signed, and took pictures with the fans.  No wonder the Athena Ballroom was always packed!
The lovely ladies Mary Kay Adams and Spice Williams, who don't even look like Klingons.
On Saturday, we arrived at the Alexis Park Hotel at 10am, hoping to get into the Athena for more autographs before the crowd.  But everyone else seemed to have the same idea, and we gave it up very quickly when we saw the line.  We found out later that Alan Ruck (Capt. Harriman) had arrived and was signing.  So that was why the room stayed overflowing all day!  We decided to hit the Apollo Ballroom once more.  This was our first stop on Thursday, and we had managed to squeeze in time there on Friday, as well.  This ballroom contained the dealers.  And did they have deals for all of us fans!  We browsed the tables, oohing and aahing over the merchandise, even buying a few choice items, but our eyes kept straying to our watches.  And at 10:30am, we headed out and went to the Zeus Ballroom.

This ballroom was across the hall from the large Parthenon Ballroom where, sure enough, many of our fellow fans were biding their time until they could get in line for autographs from the Star Trek crew members.  This day was September 8th, the official anniversary date of the original series.  In honor of the event, we got to see the original crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise.  But we knew from experience that our row wouldn't even be called for another two hours, so we slid into the Zeus Ballroom where the Klingons were speaking.  All of the lovely Klingon women were there: Spice Williams (Vixis), Mary Kay Adams (Grilka), Barbara March (Lursa), and Gwynyth Walsh (B'Tor.)  They spoke to us and answered our questions, allowing us to take photos of them onstage.  We asked them about the make-up, the costumes, and whether it was true what Robert O'Reilly (Gowron) had told us on Friday, that Lursa had fallen out of her costume more than once?  She hotly denied this and was supported by the others, who all avowed that Robert was a complete gossip and not to be trusted.  After they spoke, we were enchanted to hear from the adorable (really!) Boba Fett of Star Wars fame, Jeremy Bulloch.

We headed back to the Parthenon Ballroom in time to get in the long line to get autographs from Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), and John DeLancie (Q.)  George Takei (Sulu) had signed some on Friday and would be signing again on Sunday.  William Shatner, James Doohan, and Leonard Nimoy had done the pre-signed autographs.  We'd heard from Shatner on Thursday, since he couldn't be with us on Saturday, but Nimoy and Doohan would be talking to us that afternoon.  After our trip through the line, we returned to the Zeus Ballroom to hear Max Grodenchik (Rom) and Aron Eisenberg (Nog) discuss the merits of all things Ferengi.

At 2pm, we were in our seats in the Parthenon Ballroom as Dave Scott, our host for the weekend, introduced science fiction's most logical man, Leonard Nimoy.  Many years older and still sexy even without the pointed ears, our favorite Vulcan charmed us for an hour answering questions, telling what he's been up to, and reciting some of his poetry for us.  I got to tell him that I owned one of his books of poetry and how much I enjoyed it.  I didn't add that I was a poetry editor, nor that I published a monthly international poetry magazine, but it still felt serendipitous to hear him thank me for the compliment.
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