Next Gen stars LeVar Burton and Brent Spiner are in Las Vegas this weekend attending the Consumer Electronics Show and were featured guests at Friday nights "It Won’t Stay in Vegas" blogger party. TrekMovie sent our Las Vegas correspondent (and former Star Trek The Experience actor) Lisa Blake to the event, where she got the pair to talk some tech (and some Trek).
Spiner and Burton talk Tech at CES
The It Wont Stay in Vegas Party is the it place to be for bloggers (and microbloggers) attending the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It was held at the Atomic Testing Museum, which is a very cool location a couple blocks off the strip. Brent Spiner, appropriately hosting the ‘Android Lounge’, named for the new Google Android phones which are the hot new thing. Burton was an honored guest and both were mobbed at the event. I had a brief moment to talk to Spiner (and a briefer moment with Burton), where we talked about their connections to technology.
Burton and Spiner hold court at CES Blogger Party
Lisa: What projects are you currently working on?
Brent: A live show of my own.
Lisa: Yes, I remember you were selling a CD when I talked to you at the 2008 Vegas Star Trek convention.
Brent: Yes, sales of my CD ‘Dreamland’ are going very well. But, order yours fast, because there’s not many left and the last hundred copies are going to be $1000 a piece, haha.
Lisa: What kind of gadgets from CES would you like to have for yourself?
Brent: I’m going to CES tomorrow and I want every kind of phone, a 3-D television, and whatever free swag I can get, haha.
Lisa: Do you think Star Trek has influenced today’s technology?
Brent: Of course it did. Just like Jules Verne influenced everything that happened in the 50’s and 60’s, Star Trek influenced things that are happening now.
Lisa: Hopefully Star Trek: The Experience will re-open here in Vegas.
Brent: I hope it comes back too. I never experienced it.
Lisa: Everyone on my backstage tours always loved sitting in Data’s chair on our TNG bridge.
Brent: Wow. I had 2 different chairs. We were practically lying down in the first season. They would call them the Passover chairs, because you always recline on Passover, haha.
Me and Brent
Lisa: What are you up to now?
LeVar: My business partner and I have a new production company, Burton/Wolfe Entertainment. We’re producing movies. We are storytellers. We are looking to tell stories everywhere there will be a screen, BWE will be there. That is our plan.
Lisa: Do you have any favorite gadgets?
LeVar: I got my iPhone with me tonight and my Nikon camera with me.
Me and LeVar
I’m impressed by how closely your correspendent matchs her facial expression in both pics. No mean feat. ;)
Nick Cook is right that is. . . . .strangely fascinating.
I also find it hard to believe Brent Spiner never made it to the STE. He must have been invited a hundred times for special events.
1 – Good point… wow.
Bear in mind Lisa worked in character at Star Trek: The Experience and still works in character (as a Zombie) at another Vegas attraction, so i imagine she has posed for lots of pictures and has the skillset down.
By the way, some of you may remember Lisa from her pics of the ST09 props that were revealed at CES last year
https://trekmovie.com/2009/01/14/more-details-and-images-on-star-trek-movie-props-on-display-at-ces/
“Brent Spiner, appropriately hosing the ‘Android Lounge’, ” now that’s kind of loose, huh?
LOong live typos
Way to go Lisa, good job thanks for this.
Brent Spiner was at the grand opening of Star Trek:the Experience on January 4, 1998. Perhaps he has forgotten.
Brent is known for his jokes. I suspect that this was one of them.
ahha, Brent’s hilarious.
” whatever free swag I can get, haha.”
lol !
Everyone remembers April Hebert!!!!!
Anthony or April, any news on the re-opening of STE?
Great job on the interview, thanks for the up date.
Nice job Lisa! Keep up the great reporting!! =)
Brent and LeVar: class all the way… too long away from Trek!
Based on the pics in Trekmovie.com this week; Stewart, Brent and Burton are holding up well. They all look in good shape and ready for a special new TV and/or Blu ray TNG mini series.
Well actually I guess they would have to rebirth Data via B4 and Data’s memory engrams that will put in him in the last movie.
hmm.. think about it.
Paramount/CBS could get all the actors back together from
DS9, Enterprise, TNG, Voyager and contract them all to do maybe a 5 show arc each.
Then sell the 4 DVD/Blu ray packs something like:
“The new adventures of…”
I am convinced every single actor would agree to come back for a mini series Encore.
TNG DVD MOVIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is what the world needs right now! haha
… well, it does! :)
@ 16
no way ! I’d much rather prefer a DS9 straight to dvd movie ! DS9 ended abruptly for me taste…. still some loose ends to tie off !
I doubt the TNG cast would ever do a dvd movie.
I wouldn’t mind an animated TNG dvd movie. That way, they could set a story during the time of TNG without having to worry about trying to de-age the actors or rebuilding the sets. And you could do the same with “Enterprise”. So many ideas just waiting to be explored. I hope CBS commisions a project like this in the interim. And get Bob Orci involved of course. But I doubt it will happen. Aside from “Star Trek Online”, novels and comics, there will be nothing till the next movie comes out.
As for the interview with Brent Spiner, I found him to be funny. LeVar Burton is a cool guy as well.
Yeah, so what did that “medical tricorder” tube thing end up being in the movie? Hypospray?
#19 Scotty will let us know when he remembers where he beamed it. :-)
lmao @#1, that was incredibly awesome how identical they are lol…
STE news would be nice, but I think the lack of news tells the story unfortunately in this economy. I think we won’t see or hear anything for 4 or more years.
Direct to DVD would do well for paramount I think, but I bet they are hesitant because of the geek piracy factor. I think something like 50-60% of scifi show audiences download the shows instead of watching them live anymore. Not to mention all the Stargate DVD releases hit piracy channels weeks before they hit the store shelves. All that said, sure would love to see them wrap up the Sisko story for DS9 and the Data story leading into Star Trek. Voyager I don’t really care about, they screwed up the welcome home but otherwise the story was told. Enterprise didn’t have enough fandom I think to drive DVD sales though there are plenty of stories to still tell there.
Quarksbartender, good to see you on. Wish I had met you when we finally made it to STE the day before it closed. The lines were insane so we couldn’t get in but you’re certainly a trekmovie staple.
I experienced STE in 2006 and it was awesome, although the Borg drone roaming around would not assimilate me! The Klingon chancellor was cool and the Ferengi guy was amazing..had a long conversation with him..very surreal. Shame it has closed, but I’ll always have the memories…as well as pictures of me sat in the Captains chair on the Enterprise bridge & being stood in a Borg regeneration chamber, oh and an obligatory fridge magnet and Star Trek mug (one of those that is wider at the bottom than it is at the top). Cool.
I wish us st exp fans had a place to get together fer news rumors etc–hi spril n quarksbar dude–what did lisa do at the exp-n where does she play a zombie? Still miss all u guys-havent been to vegas since u got closed—also is vernon wilmer going to be releasing part 3 of his my experience series? cant find his files online anywhere-
opps hi april not spril haha
@22
Sigh, you are lucky. I wish we had something like that around here.
Brent and LeVar have such great personalities and humors. I wish you had more time with LeVar.
Thank you Lisa for sharing.
They could make a telemovie with the next gen crew.
It would be huge ratings and to make it interesting they could have certain changes due to the altered timeline.
Perhaps make Worf an enemy who is forced to team up with Picard in the face of a greater threat.
They part enemies but with a new level of respect for each other.
There’s something about Star Trek that makes those who starred in all the series seem just so cool. William Shatner. Leonard Nimoy. Patrick Stewart. Brent Spiner. LeVar Burton et al. Always classy, always remember the fans, have a sense of humor and don’t take themselves too seriously. Even the new cast are gracious and humble. Says something about the enduring legacy of Star Trek.