The biggest fan run convention is DragonCon in Atlanta, and every Labor Day weekend they have an impressive dedicated ‘TrekTrak’. This year is no exception with a huge line-up of Trek celebs including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Kate Mulgrew and Patrick Stewart. Plus there are a number of Trek related activities and panels and more celebs, details below.
Press Release
SHATNER, NIMOY TO APPEAR ON DRAGON*CON’S “TREKTRAK”
ATLANTA – August 24 – Dragon*Con Director of Star Trek Programming Eric L. Watts is pleased to announce the star-studded line-up of seven guest celebrities scheduled to appear in TrekTrak programming at this year’s Dragon*Con, including three Enterprise captains. The convention takes place from Friday, September 4, to Monday, September 7, in downtown Atlanta. William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy (“Captain Kirk” and “Mr. Spock” from Star Trek), Patrick Stewart (“Captain Picard” from Star Trek: The Next Generation), Kate Mulgrew and Garrett Wang (“Captain Janeway” and “Harry Kim” from Star Trek: Voyager) and John Billingsley and Anthony Montgomery (“Dr. Phlox” and “Travis Mayweather” from Star Trek: Enterprise) are all scheduled to appear.
Mr. Shatner will be making a single panel appearance at 10:00 Friday morning, sharing the stage with Leonard Nimoy for a one-hour Q&A in the Marriott Marquis Atrium Ballroom. Mr. Nimoy will make two additional panel appearances, at 4:00 on Saturday afternoon and at 10:00 Sunday morning. In addition, both men will be signing autographs on Dragon*Con’s Walk of Fame.
Dragon*Con once again welcomes the return of the popular “TrekTrak Show,” a Tonight Show-style event where Mr. Watts and cohost James Cawley (“Captain Kirk” from Star Trek: Phase II) will interview Patrick Stewart and Kate Mulgrew—a “must-see” event for those “who want to know.” Celebrity commentary and insight continues with the “TrekTrak Presents” series of discussion panels that includes your favorite Star Trek characters discussing all things Star Trek and responding to your questions. Star Trek guest stars scheduled to appear include Louise Fletcher (“Kai Winn” from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Richard Herd (“Admiral Paris” from Star Trek: Voyager), Alan Ruck (“Captain Harriman” from Star Trek Generations) and Dwight Schultz (“Reginald Barclay” from The Next Generation and Voyager).
Also at Dragon*Con, TrekTrak will world-premiere “The Child,” the newest episode of Star Trek: Phase II (formerly New Voyages), the fan-created, fan-produced Internet series that continues the fourth-year voyages of the original series starship Enterprise, starring James Cawley as Captain Kirk. Starship Farragut, another independent film series based on the original Star Trek featuring the crew of the USS Farragut, will present two episodes on TrekTrak: the award-winning live-action “A Rock and a Hard Place” and the animated “Power Source.”
The excitement of TrekTrak programming at Dragon*Con builds to a roaring climax with the presentation of the 11th annual Miss Klingon Empire Beauty Pageant. Recognized by America Online as one of “The Top 11 Offbeat Beauty Pageants Across America” for two years in a row and as seen in Discover, Spin and Shock magazines, the pageant features the most beautiful women the Klingon Empire has to offer, to be judged in Beauty, Talent and Personality categories by celebrity judges John Billingsley, Anthony Montgomery, Garrett Wang and James Cawley.
Other exciting TrekTrak events and activities as well as a day-by-day programming schedule can be found at www.TrekTrak.com. Information about Dragon*Con can be found at www.dragoncon.org.
TrekTrak is thrilled to present these celebrities and programs at Dragon*Con and the entire TrekTrak staff looks forward to seeing you there.
Star Trek Chicago Update: Shatner Not To Attend
TrekMovie has been informed that William Shatner will not be attending the "Star Trek Chicago Expo and Film Marathon" event on Labor Day weekend.
That starts the first day of school. Can’t do it. Sounds fun though.
Maybe Nimoy will make some progress in his mission to get Shat to watch the new movie. :-)
“TrekMovie has been informed that William Shatner will not be attending the “Star Trek Chicago Expo and Film Marathon” event on Labor Day weekend.”
Welllll, quite a few of us around here warned that was going to happen. Here’s hoping those in the Tri-State area were listening! I’m sure those $89 refund checks, less a $88 handling fee are already on the way for those who didn’t listen.
https://trekmovie.com/2009/08/17/conventional-wisdom-trekmovie-guide-to-fall-winter-star-trek-events/
John’s article noted that TrekMovie did not recommend buying tickets in advance from StarTrekChicago because we suspected this could happen.
In general we do not recommend advance purchase tickets from new cons
Oh, and of course startrekchicago.com is still using William Shatner’s picture anyway…. and they still have their “press release” up:
http://www.theimagesagency.com/releasetale.pdf
You’d think they’d update their page and be honest….
#4 AP, of course, I include you and John as the “us around here”, in contrast with certain other Star Trek sites. :)
I gotta get to this one! Planning on taking at least one offspring; maybe more!
Shatner puts the self-center Jason Nesbitt to shame.
My wife and I are going. I was having a nerdgasm as it was and then they said the Shatt was coming. I almost didnt recover lol. I was supposed to go to diffrent conventions this year and they all fell through. Man am I glad they did because this is turning out to be a hell of a guest list.
I hate crowds … but I’m rapidly losing my ability to resist attending this event.
Scott B. out.
I can’t believe how difficult “you know who” can be… maybe he had a “skip out ” clause in his contract. at least nimoy will be there as well as patrick stewart…it was just a couple years ago that it appeared that stewart was trying hard to distance himself from trek, and since then he has embraced it. at least to a degree that he will show up at conventions..and god forbid..watch the new movie. I wouldnt say that “you know who” should be banned from all future convention plans, but I wonder if that would make him happier.
I think that one of these conventions should show the New Trek Movie 2009 with a special screening and have all the Capt from all the Series there to watch it with the fans and then have a panel on what they thought. Now that would be Kool.
“Star Trek Phase II” is showing “The Child?” What happened to part II of “Blood and Fire?’
Wish I could be there!
I agree with Anthony that I suspected this would happen. I was told Shatner was not going a while back.
This is the best convention (I never use the word “con” anymore) in the country. You gotta see it to believe it. Go in with your eyes (and tolerance level) wide open.
Eric Watts is fantastic at his job. The Klingon Beauty(?) Pageant is a hoot!
Looking forward to meeting up with my peeps at D*C. I’m announcing the IRON ARTIST event, co-hosting the CHARITY AUCTION and main auctioneer for the ART AUCTION. They keep adding things for me to do each year. Also looking forward to my “special” dinner Saturday night.
Hope TrekMovie covers this convention.
All these people who keep insisting Mr. Shatner see the movie remind me of potheads at a party who invariably try to get non-smokers to join them, whether he.. or they… want to or not.
It’s kinda irritating, actually.
#13 Star Trek Phase II – Blood and Fire was screened in its entirety at last years Dragon*Con
Just because The Child is being premiered at Dragon*Con doesn’t necessarily mean to say we’ll get to see The Child released on exactly the same day.
In a recent update on the Phase II forums it has been stated that Blood and Fire Part II is aimed for a Labor Day release date at the earliest.
Well, I hope no-one was ‘conned’ into getting Chicago tickets.
I can see it now…..the Shat shows up for his convention appearance. People grab him and tie him up to a chair. Using plier-like devices to force his eyelids open a la Clockwork Orange, they force him to watch the new Star Trek movie. Sitting next to him throughout the film his captors later testify that they could hear him keep muttering, “Oh, my!”
Sure are a lot of people on these threads who have most likely never met or seen “you know who” yet presume to know intimately the workings of his mind and heart and why he chooses to do or not to do many things.
Man…is Garrett Wang going to all the conventions!?!
That guy is everywhere!
I go to Trek conventions all over the nation, including some of CreationsCrap like in Vegas, and DragonCon is by far the most fun and best organized. There’s so much programming going on over four days, that it’s really too much, but at least there’s plenty to pick and choose from. There’s a big focus on costume-wearing at DragonCon, and I enjoy walking around and seeing all the costumes just as much as seeing the celebs and other programming. The convention is spread across four contiguous large hotels in downtown Atlanta, so even though it’s crowded, it’s not miserable like SDCC.
With such a big list of Stars at the Atlanta Convention, all I’ve really herd over time was it is going to be a big show. But no one was ever boasting of the Guest List. Was there a private agreement that no one was to talk about the Guest Appearances?
Or have I been looking in all the wrong places for trek news, but I use Google to search for links. Maybe someone out there can build a Star Trek search engine.
Spockish—Most of the trek guests for DragonCon have been announced publicly for months, but like all conventions they add additional guests throughout the year. Only Shatner was a recent addition. Also, sometimes there’s cancellations, like Robbie Duncan McNeil cancelled a couple of weeks ago. All you have to do is look at their website, throughout the year, for updates (dragoncon.org).
Trek Schmek. I’m going for Mary McDonnell! :-)
#8 I love you :)
who is Jason Nesbitt?
This is not a shot at the Chicago Trek fans at all. However, after the comments about “slaying the dragon”, impersonal con, et al., the management company kind of had this coming.
Just a quick question. Does Avery Brooks do conventions?
Avery Brooks was at Dcon Last Year 2008.
#11 Shatner is going to be at the Atlanta Con w/Nimoy and Stewart. He’s NOT going to be at the CHICAGO Con.
@ #29: …and was one of the most difficult celebrities I’ve ever had to work with.
Avery Brook’s interview during Trektrak with he and Michael Dorn was the oddest Trek thing I’ve ever been to. He basically came out and did a much nicer version of the infamous SNL sketch w/ Shatner. He didn’t insult us, but he did use the part about Trek being a show he did as a job a few years ago and that he’s so far detached from it that he didn’t have anything to say about it. Michael Dorn tried to save the situation, IMO. I felt bad for Eric. The crowd was getting “ugly”.
I agree about Avery Brooks. I’ve seen him at the Vegas Trek convention and last year’s DragonCon and he’s a very strange man. Brooks and Dorn were so incredibly boring on-stage together. I’ve seen Dorn at other shows and he was ok, but maybe he was thrown-off by Brook’s odd dynamics.
Thanks everybody.;)
I would encourage Eric to get Michael Dorn back ASAP, preferably with a NG castmate. The Burton/Sirtis and Frakes/McFadden/Spiner panels were the best times I’ve had a DC.
Eric of DragonCon/TrekTrak came up with some doozy questions/comments for the Frakes/McFadden/Spiner panel at DragonCon. The audience was howling with laughter. I thought Spiner was a bit of an ass though.
@ Rob and Booger: Thanks, guys. After last year’s awkward and uncomfortable interview, I really feel a lot of pressure to come up with the “perfect” interview questions for Patrick and Kate this year. And I certainly encourage suggestions from all you guys. Send any suggested interview questions to me at TrekTrak@aol.com. BTW, TrekTrak has a Facebook group now.
At long last! My neck pd the woods. 30 years ago I helped with others gat trek cons here in Atlanta. My goodness how it has grown drom one room at the biltmore to wowDRagon Con for all to enjoy thank you fans for helping this baby hrow up and be the con of all!
Ps forgot to say we hold parades for evry geek to proudly strt our stuff. Be there! Or miss out on geek central. All geeks! Say it loud & proud!
On the behalf of Prestige Entertainment and The Chicago Expo I wish to make a statement. We didn’t update the website or notify any press until all the ticketholders were contacted by certified mail. Now that they have been notified, we have issued a press release to The Sun Times, The Daily Harold, The Reader and AP Chicago. We have been fully upfront with those persons that purchased tickets from us, and they will receive refunds. You can view the press release at our website.