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See all my pictures from Creation Con 2007 here!

Today we could sleep in – it wouldn’t be until after noon before Nimoy and Shatner show up. Still, we had Harry Potter books to read, blog posts to write and photos to download and edit. We had plenty to do.

We went to Dunkin’ for breakfast – it seems like there are Dunkin’ Donuts franchises every half mile! Dunkin’ is so important to South Jersey, it would seem, that there are roadsigns pointing to them along the city streets.

We got back to the hotel in time for Leonard Nimoy to take the stage. There was thunderous applause and cheers, and Spock raised his hands in the Hebrew sign “shin” – the tell-tale Vulcan salute he created for Star Trek. He went through notes that had been passed under his door asking various random questions, and oddly entertaining statements. “Dear Leonard, if you feel like hanging out, I’m wearing a red hat…”

He spoke for twenty minutes and teased us with news about the new J.J. Abrams Trek movie. He said he wasn’t cast in it yet, but there would be more news on Thursday. More questions came regarding a possible cameo appearance in Shatner’s “Boston Legal.”

As if on cue, William Fucking Shatner took the stage. Again, the crowd went nuts, and the room was lit by stroboscopic camera flashes. He told his best friend, Leonard, that he would love to have him on the show. Of course, he couldn’t help but rub in the fact that he was up for an Emmy.

Shatner spent a good portion of time fielding questions from the crowd, but he was obviously tired – he said that he had taken a red-eye flight from his home in Toronto, and had been awake since 4am that morning. He had more fun pretending to misunderstand the question, taking the question in ridiculous directions rather than answering the tedious “If you could be any alien, what kind of alien would you be?”

The two of them spoke for over an our about their deep friendship, and their professional rivalries. They spoke of the practical jokes they played on each other – of how hard it was to eat lunch during breaks in filming. If you were first into the commissary, you could eat and make it back to the studio in time to go back to work. Leonard wasn’t a great runner, so he bought a bike. Shatner took great joy in hiding, or padlocking Leonard’s bike. He also liked to steal DeForest Kelley’s english muffins when he wasn’t looking, causing poor “De” to question his own sanity.

Soon, though, it was over. The last guest of the convention, but what a great show it was. I’d like to thank Creation for putting on a good panel of guests. I would like to attend another Creation con next year, but I might save up to go to Vegas next year instead. Tons more cool guests there!

There were only two guests today – Robert Picardo, “The Doctor” from Voyager, and George Takei, “Hikaru Sulu” from the original series. Bob was hysterical, and so entertaining! He apparently sings Star Trek parody songs, and has a couple cd’s worth of them! He sang one which blew my mind, and gave me some of my best photographs of the weekend!

George was very gracious and smooth, his baritone pleasing to listen to, even as he droned on about Howard Stern. Speaking of Howard, some of his lackeys were at the convention filming George, but staying out of the way. Unfortunately, there was also some jerk-off who ended up with the last question, trying to rile up the audience. He was booed loudly, and escorted roughly away from the stage by some of Creation’s finest (a large woman who, the weekend previous at Shore-Leave, dressed as a pretty convincing Borg).

My good time was also marred a bit by the guys sitting next to me. I could tell that they were big Trek fans because they seemed to know the answer to every trivia question there was out there, but insisted on talking with each other throughout the entire event.

Now, we all know by now that George is gay, and we all love him – we’re proud that he’s out and it makes absolutely no difference to most of us. I say most of us because the doofus next to me couldn’t stop commenting on it. “What a flamer!” he would say, his gruff whisper carrying perhaps farther than he meant. He looked at me with a big grin, expecting me to share in his surreptitious comment. I glared back at him with as much loathing as I could express. His grin quickly melted off his face, and he was silent for the remainder of the day.

Asshole.

Friday night was also the night of the release of the new Harry Potter book. After we were done with the con for the day, we ran out for a quick bite to eat. Wegmans was right down the street, and we were strangely in the mood for their buffet. Afterwards, it was back to the hotel for a few while we rested, and sorted through the day’s photos. Around 10, we piled into the car and headed to the Borders.

The place was packed! There were hundreds of people, mostly young girls, and many wearing pointed witches hats. Though there were a great number of parents and boys, I saw very few apparently single thirty-somethings. Hmm. Should I feel ashamed? I can hear Rich now. Shut it!

It was chaos, really. Everyone milling about with no apparent line anywhere, except the line for coffee (which enormous). I got my recharge of coffee, and tried to find a quiet place to wait the hour-and-a-half until midnight – the official start of the sale. The young girls around us were overly excited, and conversations were held at lightning speeds, and at a pitch that would make dogs howl. I soon became cranky due partly to my tiredness, and partly to the headache I was getting. As the hour drew near, we gleaned by listening to the PA system they had set up that the wristbands that we were given were color coded, and we would be called to join the line by color.

I knew this was going to take way longer than it needed to. When the 6th book was released, the bookstore I went to sold chits that represented a book sale. When midnight rolled around, the line moved quickly and easily – people being thrown books in exchange for the chits. The method Borders chose required the money exchange hands after midnight, which slowed the line down considerably.

It was over an hour before we got our books, but got them we did and headed straight home where we read the first chapter, and collapsed into blessed sleep.

Leonard Nimoy is staying in the suite right next door to us! Holy crap!

** EDIT: Apparently, there is a room between us, but I know it was him. One of the Creation wranglers knocked on the door and yelled, “Leonard!” He answered, “Yeah!” I could hear his voice carry clearly down the hall. **

I ran into Suzie Plakson, aka K’eylar/Doctor Salar/Female Q/Tarah from various Trek shows. My first reaction: She’s huge! She’s 6 foot 1 and a half, and just bigger than life. She was sitting at her tiny little booth showing off photos and little Live-Long-And-Prosper clay ornaments she makes, as well as her CD (country, no thank you). I looked up and there she was! Wow!

I told her what a fan of K’eylar’s I was, and how an old Trek-fan-buddy of mine and I would sit in his apartment and watch what we called “The Great Klingon Arc” that started with her appearances with Whorf, and ending with the Klingon Civil War. “There was a Klingon Civil War?” she asked. Ah well… We do tend to forget that these folks are merely actors in a show, and rarely, if at all, pay attention to the series.

She also asked me about my t-shirt. “What does your shirt mean,” she asked. I explained the whole HD-DVD story. Admiral Ross, sitting right next to her, asked, “HD-DVD? What’s that?” I explained the short-version of the story – how HD-DVD was a new format with DRM that would never be cracked, and that the code on my shirt would actually do the trick. He nodded, clearly not understanding, but Suzie grinned.

Ah, having conversations with supporting Trek actors like it’s nothing! It’s fun!

It was a long drive up from DC to Cherry Hill, NJ (a suburb of Philadelpia). I’ll discuss the trip itself, and the fun that is the streets of New Jersey in another post.

Registration for the con started for us around 2:30, so we had a lot of time to kill until it was time to actually go hang with our nerd brothers and sisters. We knew we wanted to pick up Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so we set out to kill time by finding a bookstore. We scoped out a few places beforehand, but MapQuest, and the nearly incomprehensible street signs in Jersey, conspired to thwart us. We followed our maps as best we could to the Cherry Hill Mall, where we were told a Borders Express sat, but we couldn’t find it.

I was certain we had passed it, but Heather’s intuition told us to keep going. That paid off in spades when we not only found a Borders bookstore, but a shorter way back to the main highway to get home!

The Borders people were great – they still had available a few extra books, and put us down for two! They’re having a midnight release party as well, which they promise will be a good time.

We got back to the hotel in time to see Marc Alaimo take the stage. Gul Dukat, from Deep Space Nine. He talked about his work on the show, the actors, and some of his classic theater work as well. One good question from the audience was – “what role would you have loved to have gotten that you didn’t get.” He said he’d been in two productions of Hamlet, but never played the title role.

After Marc was Connor Trinneer – Charlie “Trip” Tucker from Enterprise. He was very charming and funny, but Heather had a different opinion. I don’t know – I think he typifies the good Star Trek star – the guy that really embraces the post-show fandom, loving the fans. One thing that was interesting was his take on the future of Trip if the character survived. He believed that Trip would have followed Archer as far as his career would let him, and then get a command of his own. Interesting to imagine a Captain Charles Tucker commanding an NX-class starship! It gave the fanfic people a lot to chew on, I’m sure!

Nichelle Nichols, Uhura from the Original Series of Star Trek, took the stage to thunderous applause. For a woman in her seventies, she was absolutely beautiful! She growled greetings in a very Julie-Newmar kind of way, and started right into the story of getting started in Star Trek. She waxed nostalgic about living in Paris, and being called to Gene Roddenberry’s office to read for a part on his new series. Knowing absolutely nothing about the show, she agreed based entirely on her previous working relationship with Gene.

He didn’t have a part written for her, but asked if she’d be willing to read the part of “Spock.” She scanned through the script and found he had a great deal of lines. “Well, why don’t I try out for this role?” she purred, and gave a fantastic read for the part.  Reportedly, the producers liked her reading so much, they actually considered booting Nimoy off the show.

She was a little rambling, and at times seemed a little confused. She stopped once or twice, losing her train of thought while clutching at the bridge of her nose, as if suffering from a headache. “Oh no,” I whispered to Heather. “I sure hope she doesn’t stroke out right here…” She didn’t, and reluctantly left the stage for the next speaker – Aaron Douglas, a.k.a. Chief Galen Tyrol from Battlestar Galactica!

A more down-to-earth guy I have never met! He told lots of stories, and was self-deprecating and completely and totally honest. He expressed his joy of meeting with fans, and “talking shop” with them. What’s more, he discussed how much he loves going to fan-run conventions like Shore-Leave, and how much he hated Creation. Uh oh. Creation is the con we’re going to next!

A gregarious guy, he talked about how he would love to take the stage and  have a beer handed to him by a fan. “Any beer would do,” he said as he looked sadly at the pitcher of ice-water near the microphone. “I mean, I’m not picky… any kind of beer, really…” After noticing nobody getting up, I shrugged, walked quietly out of the room, ran upstairs and bought a Becks. I stepped back inside and straight to the stage. A few people laughed and started to applaud as they saw the bottle in my hand. Aaron noticed and smiled. “Thanks, man – I really appreciate it!” He saw the red-shirt I was wearing. “You’re definitely not expendable! You can be on my hangar deck, any time!”

After the talk, we walked out, planning on heading up to the dealer room. Suddenly, I felt a hand thump my shoulder. Aaron was standing nose to nose with me. “Hey, man – thanks again. Really!” He smiled broadly and walked on past.

Heather turned and saw him depart. “Who the hell was that?” she asked.

We got up at the crack of dawn and hopped into the shower – we had to make it to Baltimore by 10am to be at the first panel. The drive up was easy, made easier by judicious use of Dunkin’ donuts and coffee. We made it with a half hour to spare, and headed straight down to registration. My first reaction was – it was fairly chaotic.

Imagine, if you will, a few thousand geeks – and I mean the real hard-core kind: the ones with poor social skills. In tightly confined spaces, and organized lines, the idea personal space disappears, and all the flaws in a system of nerdherding become apparent. The registration table was set long-ways into a narrow hall, and had two ladies. You would think these two ladies were designed to do the same job, since the mechanics of the hallway really only allowed a line along the length of the table. Oh, no! The first lady in line was ONLY for vendor and guest registration. The second lady was for pre-reg people, like us. So, Heather and I break out of line and head to the second lady, only to be outmaneuvered by some poor fat slob who was oblivious to the line. Bastard. It was a bad start.

It got worse – there were a few pinch points in the hallways, where booths and hallway corners made it so only one or two people could walk through easily. Of course, it was also the main thoroughfare between the large conference rooms and the dealer room! Naturally, it would make sense to put the Klingon Jail there – a large number of people in makeup of costumes guaranteed to draw attention, and slow down everybody at the pinch points. Awesome!

The panel we wanted to visit first was a two hour workshop on writing hosted by Ann Crispin. Unfortunately, she was a no-show, but, as it turns out, that panel cost an extra $65, so that wasn’t so bad. We ended up perusing the dealer room instead, buying a few stupid things that made us happy. I got a resin model of the handgun used in Battlestar Galactica, and Mace Windu’s lightsaber hilt. Both of these I’ll need to clean up and paint, but they’re very nice!

We ended up sitting in a couple of very interesting panels discussing 40 years of Star Trek from writers of ST Novels, and discussing Harry Potter. The Harry Potter group was frustrating due to a couple of people who had only seen the movies, and hadn’t read the books. We couldn’t talk about the future of Harry, or the impact of the most recent book.

After that, we headed on to see Nichelle Nichols and Aaron Douglas – Lt. Uhura from TOS, and Chief Galen Tyrol from BSG, respectively. More on that, later.

In the meantime, check out the pictures!! Here’s a teaser:

Rockwell has done some amazing work with regards to automation. You only have to watch this video to understand just how incredible their work is. I mean, this video is ten years old, and they’re still waaaay ahead of their time. Simply amazing work, Rockwell!

I mean, their work on unilateral phase detractors is worthy of a Nobel Prize!

This month is going to be a monstrous one! July has 4 big things in store for me and Heather – all of which are extremely dorky, so bear with me while I completely unfurl my 60 foot long GEEK banner, complete with dragon, crossed swords, wreaths of quadrotriticale, and ‘EX ASTRIS, SCIENTIA‘ beneath.

July 13th is the movie premier of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which we will go to with our wands and my Griffindor scarf. That night, we head up to Baltimore for Shore-Leave, a Star Trek convention. Shore-Leave also covers other sci-fi, but that’s just the warm-up con.

July 19th, we head out to Cherry Hill, New Jersey for CreationCon. This is the big one – the big Star Trek convention for this area for the 40th anniversary of Star Trek! The “Big Three” will be there (or at least the new Big Three since we lost Kelley and Doohan) of Shatner/Nimoy/Takei, which should just be the best thing ever.

The problem comes that weekend though – Saturday morning at 12:00am, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is released. Now, who’s going to have time in the middle of a convention to sit and read the final Harry Potter book? If I had my way, I would sit and read it until I read the absolute last word, but with all that’s going on, I really don’t expect to.

Unfortunately, there will be some at the convention that have greater endurance than I do, and will have finished the book by the next morning. A few of these folks will be assholes (it’s a natural tendency of geeks to attempt to exert their superiority amongst their fellows) and will spoil it for everybody. I just have to do my best to avoid it.

Two conventions, and two big Potter moments! This should be fun! Exhausting, bug fun!