This summer’s Official Star Trek Las Vegas convention is shaping up to be one of the biggest ever. The five-day event now has a guest list approaching 100 Trek celebs. And with this year marking the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Creation Entertainment has lined up the main cast to celebrate.
The top-shelf weekend packages (Gold for $929 and Captain’s Chair for $849) have already sold out. Copper ($479) and General Admission ($330) packages remain available and Creation recently announced that single day day tickets (general and reserved seating) were going on sale.
Fans gather for a 50th anniversary photo op at STLV 2016
30th anniversary TNG panel added (with a fee…for some)
Creation also added a new a “30th Anniversary Reunion of Star Trek: The Next Generation” event which promises to have Sir Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Marina Sirtis, and Gates McFadden all on stage together. This event also was announced with separate pricing from “Redshirts General Admission” at $30 up to “Captain Picard Ready Room Seating” at $125. Notably, even those who already purchased Gold and Captain’s Chair packages would have to pay the extra fee.
While special events at cons (both Star Trek cons and other Comic Cons and events) with extra fees is not unprecedented, there was a good amount of backlash to this extra fee announcement on social media, partly due to a misunderstanding causing con-goers to believe that the regularly scheduled TNG panel would now cost extra. This even garnered the notice of TNG actress Gates McFadden who replied with “gulp” when hearing about the extra charge.
Responding to the feedback from their customers, Creation issued a statement clarifying that they are not charging for a regular panel but that it was a special evening event and that all the stars will be available in other panels during the day. They also altered their originally announced pricing scheme so that Gold and Captain’s Chair customers (UPDATE: this now includes Copper ticket holders, see below) will not have to pay to attend the TNG reunion and can keep their reserved seats for the event. Everyone else will have to pay $30 to attend.
Attn: #stlv attendees, we hear and value your responses. Here is a official statement regarding the Star Trek TNG reunion event. pic.twitter.com/8wAdZKvAxG
— CreationEnt (@CreationEnt) April 20, 2017
UPDATE (4/21/17): Creation is working to get Copper ticket holders free seats to the TNG panel, along with Gold and Captain’s Chair ticket holders.
Attention: #STLV attendees, here is a message from Creation Entertainment HQ. pic.twitter.com/vv4B8bSQOu
— CreationEnt (@CreationEnt) April 22, 2017
UPDATE (4/24/17): Creation is now offering free admission to the TNG event for Gold, Captain’s Chair, AND Copper ticket holders.
Attention: #STLV attendees, here is a message from Creation Entertainment HQ. pic.twitter.com/l8IUTBcnVV
— CreationEnt (@CreationEnt) April 24, 2017
94 guests and counting
In addition to the TNG cast, Creation have lined up almost all the stars from the other TV series. Here is who you can expect to see at STLV 2017:
Original Series:
Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, William Shatner, George Takei
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine:
Rene Auberjonois, Casey Biggs, Jeffrey Combs, Nicole de Boer, Aron Eisenberg, Max Grodenchik, J.G. Hertzler, Armin Shimerman, Alexander Siddig, Nana Visitor
Star Trek: Voyager:
Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Robert Duncan McNeill, Kate Mulgrew, Ethan Phillips, Robert Picardo, Garrett Wang
Enterprise:
John Billingsley, Dominic Keating, Linda Park, Connor Trinneer
2017 sees the return of popular Trek guest stars like John de Lancie (Q), David Warner (Gul Madred, Chancellor Gorkon), Robin Curtis (Saavik), Suzie Plakson (in K’Ehleyr make up!), and Alice Krige (Borg Queen) — plus, in his first appearances at STLV: Ron Perlman (Reman Viceroy).
A number of notable behind-the-scenes guests will be in attendance as well: Michael Westmore, Ron Jones, Brannon Braga, Andre Bormanis, Ira Steven Behr, Ronald D. Moore, Naren Shankar, and Rene Echevarria.
And yes, the Kelvin Timeline gets some love. Karl Urban, who is a big TOS fan in addition to being the Kelvin universe’s Dr. McCoy, will be attending. Other folks from the Kelvin films include Greg Grunberg (Cmdr. Finnegan in Beyond) and Paul McGillion (barracks commander in 2009’s Star Trek).
Disappointingly, but not too surprisingly, there have been no stars of Discovery announced as guests so far.
We should also note that Creation continue to add more names, so keep an eye on their guests page for more updates.
Karl Urban (at STLV 2014) one of 94 guests already announced for this year
Special events, photo ops, and more!
In addition to all the panels (and photo ops and signings), there will be a number of special events and activities over the weekend. There are regular parties, karaoke, and the annual costume contest.
There will also be a special panel for the “What We Left Behind” Deep Space Nine documentary including producer Ira Steven Behr and director Adam Nimoy. And there will be a special screening of the Remembering Leonard documentary about Leonard Nimoy produced by his daughter Julie.
Our friend Scott Mantz will also have a panel focused on the new Kelvin universe J.J. Abrams films complete with videos of his interviews with various stars from those movies.
There are also a number of photo backdrops to put yourself on the bridge, along with some set replicas, including a Borg Regeneration Chamber and the Guardian of Forever. New this year: Ten Forward.
10 Forward Replica coming to STLV for 2017
The Official Star Trek Convention runs from August 2nd through to the 6th at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. More information and tickets can be found at creationent.com.
Yes, if I dropped $900 just for a weekend ticket at a Star Trek convention…. and they still wanted to charge me ON TOP of that for a “30th Anniversary” evening panel, I’d be pretty pissed off too. There’s a point where Creation Ent just becomes brutally hurtful and spiteful to their repeat paying customer base at these insane prices trying to milk out every last cent.
So I guess this is the reason the rant I wrote about Creation on my blog was getting a lot more hits lately…
As someone who has attended several Creation cons (and spoken at a couple)… I’m not surprised.
Creation is a wonderful company – at gouging fans and squeezing them out of all their money. At least Disney goes above and beyond for the prices they charge (most of the time). Same for the Star Wars Celebration team. Creation… Not so much.
Thanks for the article Kayla, and call me maybe… :-)
WOW this looks like THE con to go to, I’m so jealous of whoever is lucky enough to go! Karl Urban was announced for the Mission NY con last year, but I think he dropped out. TOS has full representation and so do basically all the other shows! Mahhhh please lord let me win the powerball…
I would love a live stream like they do for Star Wars Celebration. Shame.
Right?! Not everyone can get out to Vegas and drop all the money necessary to really enjoy the Con. I’ve always wanted to go but just haven’t been able to make it happen yet.
I was gifted gold passes and a trip to Vegas as a bonus at work. My wife really enjoyed it all, but I found it so $$$ driven; I did enjoy the panels though. There are a few actors there that are good entertainers and seemed to enjoy it, many clearly did not, some I even felt bad for… They’ll charge the max people will pay and they charge for EVERYTHING. They aren’t at all helpful either, they gave me a huge hassle for a wrinkled $1000 gold pass receipt, wouldn’t print a new one for me or verify me with my ID. I had to go find a printer, reprint everything and come back.
To me it’s all fake, far overpriced and autographs are silly. I gave my free ones away, though, my wife did all hers. She then put them in a drawer at home, there they remain.
Another TNG reunion and Wil Wheaton is no where to be seen – is it true he had a falling out with Creation, or is it his choice not to do the big cons for personal reasons?