This weekend the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation are in Canada at the Calgary Expo to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the series. TrekMovie is there all weekend and on Friday the first event featured a couple of the ladies of TNG, Denise Crosby and Gates McFadden. See below for our Friday report.
Calgary Expo Star Trek: TNG Reunion – Friday Report: McFadden and Crosby
Calgary kicked off its 7th annual Entertainment Expo Friday afternoon, and with expected numbers well over the fifty thousand mark, this promises to be a glorious event. The Canadian city, known for the famous Calgary Stampede, has always prominently featured Star Trek among other sci-fi, comic, and anime/manga genres for the last several years. This year, though, Calgarians and Trekkies alike were floored when the guest line up was announced. Joining legends like Stan Lee and Adam West, the entire cast of Star Trek: Next Generation agreed to beam in for the weekend.
Denise Crosby (Lt. Tasha Yar) and Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher) appeared together on stage Friday evening, sharing anecdotes about their friendship and evolution from Star Trek. Though McFadden admits that she had not been friends with Crosby during their time om the show, they now work together on theatre projects. Crosby also credits McFadden for "[bringing] us as actors into finding our own," dedicating much of her success to the guidance and friendship forged between the two ladies of Trek.
In response to fan questions, Crosby and McFadden recalled some of their most compelling memories of Star Trek. They shared a laugh over learning the confounded ‘Treknology’. Crosby admitted that, standing behind her console on the bridge, she wasn’t quite sure how to use the device in front of her. Crosby broke into absolute hysterics as she acted out how, at first, she’d frantically hit buttons, then related the advice given to her by Trek’s own Michael Okuda: "I think you only have to push one!"
Gates spoke of directing The Next Generation "Genesis" episode, laughingly commenting on the animals that had been brought in for the crew’s devolution. Though Spot was apparently cooperative, Gates admits she "had trouble reaching the iguana."
Denise brought the audience to tears when she shared a powerful story of her work while making Trekkies 2. She had offered to host a Star Trek convention there, something Serbian Trek fans had never dreamed would happen in their war-torn country. A Serbian farmer came up to shake her hand and told her that Star Trek had saved his life. "While the bombs were falling outside," he told her, "his family had Star Trek," and the better future that it promised was enough to keep them going.
Both McFadden and Crosby remembered fondly their time in Trek, noting that the theme of a better future is what makes it so enduring. "Go Star Trek!" exclaimed McFadden! Denise Crosby and Gates McFadden currently work together in the Ensemble Studio Theatre company in Los Angeles, where Gates is the artistic director.
Friday’s Star Trek events ended with photo opportunities and cast signings. Wil Wheaton was spotted backstage at James Marsters (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame) concert later in the evening. Most surprisingly, Garrett Wang decided to attend, showing up, sharing love with his fans, and helping out at the booth for Spock Days in Vulcan, Alberta."
My photo with Gates
Stay tuned for more TrekMovie coverage or Calgary Expo and the TNG reunion, including the Saturday evening 9-member panel TNG mega panel.
Alex Martinuik (aka "The Star Trek Girl") can be found on Twitter at @thestartrekgirl. She also has a regular video blog on YouTube (Warp9Engage).
Gates looks good!
That’s a fantastic photo. I’m a three hour drive away and decided not to go. Darn. Should have,
Who invited Wang? I thought this was supposed to be for the TNG cast?
Hmm, on second thought, judging by the statement “most surprisingly” he probably wasn’t invited, but decided to show up anyway because he has nothing to do, and wants to get attention. What an ego!
Wow, Alex you’re actually quite the hottie. Cool pic, love the uniform, for some reason not many people go for the Science uniforms in the TNG era. It’s like the safest uniform to wear.
Loved the whole Expo but didn’t get in early enough Friday for this panel. The TNG Exposed was great as were all the panels, seeing Delancie and Wang was fun as well. Wang was a guest of Vulcan Tourism-who had a booth at the Expo(he is attending their convention in June.
Red Dead Ryan – Why can’t Garrett Wang be there? I think he would work awesomely with the TNG crew. At least Picard might get him a dam promotion.
Side note: Gates McFadden looks great, Dr. Crusher was my favorite character aside from Picard and Data, and definitely began my attraction to female doctors. [Perhaps TMI]
Harry,
Gates ALWAYS looks good! My longtime TNG crush, no pun intended.
And yeah Alex I agree with Petros, U R a Q T Pi.
they are weinkled but gosh darn i still want to make love with them!
phil: Your typo forced me to read that in a Chekov voice.
Dear “Red Dead Ryan”
Your comments regarding Mr. Wang’s appearance beg for a reply and a clarification regarding his participation in the TNG EXPOsed event Saturday, April 28, 2012. Allow me to clairify:
Mr Wang, in fact,was a guest of Vulcan Tourism during the entire Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo weekend, working at the booth tirelessly meeting fans and promoting the upcoming annual Spock Days activities taking place in Vulcan from June 8-10. Vulcan is licensed as the Star Trek Capital of Canada, and invited Garritt to participate as a moderator and host of the weekend’s exciting events. For more information, please visit http://www.vulcantourism.com. While Garrett worked at the booth the entire weekend, he was also invited by our management and programming teams at the Calgary Expo to participate as the host of Stan Lee’s panel, as well as offering his comments as a Star Trek alumni during TNG evening. It was our honour and pleasure to invite him in our plans for the reunion event.
Mr Wang, along with the dozens of other cast members and through every series under the Star Trek franchise, has contributed to the vision of Gene Roddenberry. We were proud to have him contribute his valuable perspective and by all accounts, the crowd loved his comments, futher cementing the impact that Star Trek has left on us all.
Your comment regarding the daily business activities of Mr. Wang, who is greatly involved in the comicon industry across North America, I suggest you research this before placing judgments.
I hope that offers some additional clarification to your disappointing remarks.
Yours truly,
Donna Gray
Media Relations Director
Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo
http://www.calgaryexpo.com
Hey Red Dead maybe you should hold your tongue before you make a comment about somebody you don’t even know. I’ll bet if Wang was standing in front of you, you wouldn’t have the balls to say this stuff to his face. Grow up and stop hiding behind your keyboard. Anonymity doesn’t give you the license to be an ass.
Thanks for the report. Have not heard from Denise or Gates in some time. Good to hear from them.
HI All,
I’d like to throw out there a few more facts to augment the valuable and accurate information provided by Donna Gray with regards to the attendance of actor and our friend Garrett Wang. Garrett was working with us throughout the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo. He is one of (if not the most) fan friendly Star Trek alum out there. It is an honor to watch him interact with the fans that grew to know and love Ensign Kim on Star Trek: Voyager. He takes time for every last one giving them nothing short of the ideal encounter with an iconic personality.
The fact that he was there as a guest of Vulcan Tourism not the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo bears no relevance to his intrinsic value at the convention. He is in fact friends with a number of the guest that were attending the TNG Reunion and was pleased to be able to ‘tip his hat’ to them on this significant anniversary. And let’s be honest…there wasn’t a fan in the crowd offended by his gracious attendance.
Sometimes the best experiences are the unexpected ones. Garrett thrilled many fans, especially those that were unable to get autographs or photo-ops with the cast of TNG, which were in huge demand. I, on behalf of Vulcan Tourism, was very proud to have him with us and I know the fans who met him walked away fulfilled and happy…isn’t that the whole purpose of these events? To connect and share happiness on a theme we all appreciate?
Cheers!
Catherine Pooley
Vulcan Tourism Coordinator
Vulcan, Alberta
@trektovulcan
Yeah, okay. I was wrong.
But the thing is, at another convention awhile ago, he said how much he wanted to punch William Shatner. That wasn’t cool. That really pissed me off.
What a great article! Glad to see that we have convention news comming in. I wish i could have made it up there to see the reunion.
Wow, I thought Crosby looked like a porker back in the day. Look at that old sow!
I attended the the Calgary comic expo on Friday and Saturday and stayed at the Fairmount hotel (this is where the whole cast stayed all weekend) and had the pleasure of meeting just about all the TNG cast.
What I will remember most about last weekend was walking through the BMO place grounds and running right into Garrett Wang at his table. It caught me completely off guard as it was not expected.
After meeting him personally and talking to him for a great amount of time I can say without a doubt he is a very very special human being. He has a personality like no other and took the time to take photos and entertain everyone who stopped by his table.
On the surface it did look strange that he was there but anyone with half a brain who took the time to look at the table banners and the material that was on the table easily saw he was there to promote VulcanTourism. He did a fantastic job promoting them and I will be visiting there this summer as a result.
The highlight of my trip was meeting Garrett and listening to him speak.
@Red Dead Ryan
He talked about how much Shatner is a douche at this convention too and he was 100% correct. He offered down to earth insight about a self centered asshole who cannot be approached by anyone unless they have a camera and a microphone. He’s almost as bad as Brent Spiner who is almost as bad as Shatner.
Jimbro, your comment re phil has me cackling. The irony is that I’m a copy editor, and my name is Jimbo.