VegasCon09: Friday – DS9 & Enterprise Panels + Spiner + TrekMovie Events + Remembering Majel + more

The Creation Entertainment official Star Trek Convention was back Friday with DS9 and Enterprise panels, Brent Spiner, Bob Picardo and Ethan Phillips performing, and a number of stars remembering Majel Barrett-Roddenberry. Stars talked about everything from the art of film, to the acting abilities of Spot the cat, to behind the scenes stories. We have a full report of the day (and final Star Trek showing) with pictures below.

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STAR TREK VEGAS CON – FRIDAY
 

Deep Space Nine Panel
Friday kicked off with a fully loaded DS9 panel that included Cirroc Lofton, Marc Alaimo, Jeffrey Combs, Rene Auberjonois, Armin Shimerman, Colm Meaney, Chase Masterson, and Casey Biggs. Many people asked questions about shooting specific scenes on the show, and there was a lot of discussion about the technicalities of filming the series.

 All of the actors gave props to the crew and editors of the show for the great work they did. However, they did lament how often some of their best work ended up on the cutting room floor. And an example of one of the technical details, was how they eventually learned that when multiple shots were done of a scene, the wide-shot would always be the one that cuts, so the actors would tend to not try so hard for those. 

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The DS9 Panel takes the stage

Cirroc talked about his new music career and what it is like to break into the music business saying that he thinks it is easier to break into the music business than the television or movie business at this time in Hollywood. He is currently working on hip hop & rap albums. Cirroc was also asked about what it was like to grow up on the show, being 14 when the show started and 21 when it finished. "I got to just be a kid," he said, "and break the rules." All of the other panelists chimed in saying how amazing it was to watch his coming of age. "We all feel paternal towards you," said Armin Shimerman, "It was amazing to watch you grow up before our eyes. We are all so proud of you."

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Everyone remembers watching Cirroc grow up on the show

 

Brent Spiner
The always vibrant Brent Spiner took the stage later in the day and was entertaining as always. He kept us amused by poking fun at Colm Meany (who was signing autographs behind the stage) and doing his best Patrick Stewart impression. He started his time by immediately skipping to questions saying, "I really have nothing to say to you people." He received plenty of the obligatory "why did you kill data" questions, and gave his usual snarky responses. "Now you’re going to say I wanted to kill off my character in First Contact, too," he joked, "The truth is, I wanted to kill off my character in the second season!"

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Spiner jokes about killing off Data

Brent was asked a lot of questions about working with Spot, of all things, and had some things to say about the cats’ acting abilities. There were two cats that played the role of Spot, said Spiner. "These two cats were among the worst actors I’ve ever worked with! If you opened the script and saw that the cats were going to be there, it was going to be a LONG day." Spiner went on to talk about his love of dogs and why they are easier to train. "The only thing Spot could do it one take is when [the script] said, ‘Spot eats tuna out of a can’."

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Brent picks on Spot’s acting abilites

Remembering Majel Barrett-Roddenberry
Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, son of Gene and Majel Roddenberry and a creative force in his own right talked this afternoon about all of his projects, ending his time on stage with a rememberence of his late mother. He said some very touching words, and then he invited some guests on stage to say somethign about Majel. First on stage was Kevin Sorbo, who spoke about meeting Majel as a Trekkie himself. "I’m a Trekkie, too!" he said. He remembered being shown into Gene’s office, which has been left the way it was when he was alive. "I got goosebumps. I was sitting in HIS chair!"

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Kevin Sorbo remembers admiring Majel and Gene

Carel Struycken (Mr. Homm of TNG) was also invited on stage to remember Majel. Carel said that his favorite part about working on Star Trek was the time he spent with Majel, both on stage and in the makeup room before shooting. He seemed very touched to be able to speak about her. For final remarks, Rod said a few words about his late mother. “I promise you I will live up to being a Roddenberry,” he said.

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Mr. Homm remembers Majel

Enterprise Panel

This panel was easily one of the most entertaining sets of the day. The stars, including Dominic Keating, Connor Trinneer, Anthony Montgomery, John Billingsley, Gary Graham, and Vaughn Armstrong, were cleary great friends and immediately brought a high positive energy to the stage. They are a tight knit group and began cracking jokes immediately.

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The stars talk amongst themselves

The panel was asked a lot of questions about the ending of Enterprise, and whether they felt the final episode was an appropriate way to wrap the show. "[The writers] did what they needed to do to close out the show," said Anthony, "It was a nice rounding out for the franchise." Dominic joked that "old" Frakes made the scenes feel clunky. Anthony discussed his music carreer in hip hop. "It’s clean rap. More Will Smith," he said, "I tell real stories." Dominic responded by offering a beat box so that Anthony could perform, but Anthony decided to save that for later.

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The Enterprise panel had a blast on stage

TrekMovie Events: Panel & One Last Trek Screening
In the morning there was a Star Trek movie panel with Anthony Pascale as guest joined by Doug Murray and Larry Nemecek. Even though it was the first panel of the day and in the second ballroom, it was packed, so much so that we had underestimated the number of T-shirts to bring down to give away to the crowd. It was clear the new movie is working to bring in new fans or ‘renewed’ fans as almost all in attendance said this was their first con. There were only one or two negative comments about the film with most retelling how much they loved the movie. There was no news revealed that has not been reported here at TrekMovie.com, but the audience is very much looking forward to the sequel, although the crowd consensus was against involving Khan in the next Star Trek.

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Star Trek movie panel was packed

Friday night TrekMovie hosted the One Last Trek event, offering a casual way for the fans to get together and see Star Trek in theaters one last time. Also on hand were members co-sponspors TrekCast  and USS Las Vegas. The theater sold out, which was a first for the 2nd run Tropicana Cinemas where the event was held. Hundreds of fans showed up for a trivia contest, screening of the film, and tons of give-aways courtesy of Paramount, Bad Robot, GenkiWear, IDW and Playmates Toys.

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Anthony answers questions after the film while the other co-hosts get ready to hand out free goodies

MORE PHOTOS
We have more photos than those above. Below is the full slideshow of all the Star Trek Con stage images, plus more images from the One Last Trek event.

Celebrity Panels

One Last Trek

More to come
Stay tuned to TrekMovie.com for more wall-to-wall coverage of the 2009 Las Vegas Star Trek convention.

To stay most up-to-date, follow our Saturday Live-blogging, including live photo uploads (via iphones).

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Seeing those casts together again gets me thinking, why haven’t they done some 2-hour TV movies, or straight to dvd?

I would think a DS9 or Enterprise television event (or Voyager or TNG) would score huge ratings and make a lot of bucks. What are they (as in the networks/studios) waiting for??

@ 1.

It just won’t happen. CBS and paramount consider the ”old trek” dead forever. So don’t expect anything.

Great coverage! Thanks for the updates.

#1 The market was oversaturated. They wouldn’t have made much money from straight to DVD. Now the movie was a commercial success, they risk watering down the demand for Star Trek by bringing additional stories out.

However, the cost would be phenomenal. None of those sets are still standing. It would cost millions to rebuild DS9 or any of the bridges. I’m sure the movie sets cost millions too. Whereas shows such as Stargate still have those existing sets standing. In todays current economic downturn I wouldn’t count on anything happening. It would be far too expensive.

Of course you could go the cheap green screen route which they did with B5 which didn’t go down very well at all.

#1 I have to agree with you. You know that somewhere in a vault or on a desk there must be some script or plot idea just sitting there collecting dust. I understand however that Paramount is probably being cautious about putting too much Trek out there at this time but they could put it all together, film it and wait til say after the release of the second movie.

It would such a shame if they decided to do something much later and all the actors are so much older or unable to realistically resume their characters. A summer mini-series in 2012 would be awesome. Show us the Romulan war. Show us the return of Sisko. Don’t wait.

i’m in agreement with Oregano ! 2 Hour Specials is the way to go ! Why are they waiting ? Don’t send everyone home !!

Great to see the movie is getting great responses.

I thought there would be more negative comments than just 2.

Can I ask is there anyone like myself who liked the movie but was still a bit pissed off with the changes and the storyline?

I really want to get back next year, really missing it this year. The Vegas con is the best Trek con I have been to.

It would be nice if Paramount would do something with these shows or slip a few bucks and any left over props to the folks over at Star Trek Phase II and let them continue to make awesome new episodes for us.

Have older Trip and Malcom come aboard Kirk’s Enterprise for an adventure. Just spit-ballin’.

what were Larry Nemecek’s thoughts on the new movie?

talked with him at the bar at last years con, a very cool guy.

I would have watched the movie again.

#1

You’re absolutely right! TV movies or mini-series are they way to go.

An Enterprise/Romulan War mini series would rule!!

Same with a return to DS9 movie or mini-series.

Hell man, I’d settle for an animated, anthology style series where each week was a self contained episode featuring different stories & characters from each of the series. Imagine the voice talent!!

The limited view of the hollywood producers is sad!!

I wish them all brilliant careers. Many have had brilliant careers and I wish that to continue. I hope someone out there is taking note. I totally agree with #1. There’s certainly a market for well-made Trek. The problem has always been in getting the decent scripts together. I don’t think there are 24 great Trek scripts being written every year. But, one or two really good TV movies? Why not!

I hate myself for doing this – Fanboy fiction usually makes my skin crawl. But, I will throw out these two items I’d like to see:

1) Show a DY-100 sleeper ship getting blowed(sic)-up real good at some point in the next movie. Is it Khan’s or not? Could be fun.

2) After having seen the trailers and first 15 minutes of Harry Potter in IMAX-3D last night, I would gladly plunk down money for a 3D Star Trek animated film. It’s a gimmick, sure, but I was blown away and now see what the big deal is. I’m even going to see that “Chance of Meatballs” movie when it comes out – the 3D trailer was awesome!

Great report. I would happily buy a Trekmovie T-shirt if you guys sold ’em on line ;-).

Dang. Chase Masterson is mega-hot!

Also, DS9 is my favorite tv show of all time. Its a real, real shame that it will never be revisited again. Paramount totally missed the boat in making a TV movie, DTV movie, or even an animated version of it. Stupid Paramount.

I really think animated is the way to go it they were going to do any new Trek on TV. The could get the original actors to do the voices, but they wouldn’t have the expense of sets and FX and all that.

But, I also agree with whoever said that they don’t want to dilute the demand for Trek in the theater. The movie made a lot of money and they’re certainly hoping that the next one does too. If Trek is available on TV, that could certainly hurt box office receipts for the next movie.

IMO.

#4 is right. The cost of rebuilding the sets would be too much compared to how little they’d make. Think about it, to film new DS9 stuff they’d have to rebuild Ops, the Promenade, living quarters and corridors, runabout interiors, and the sets for the Defiant. Even if sections were still somewhere stored, they’d have to be completely reassembled. Plus, I’m not too thrilled with the SFX aspect of that idea. Remember, a lot of filming models were auctioned off, including DS9 itself. And considering that the CGI model of the Defiant was completely off from the studio model, I’m not too optimistic about the ability to recreate the station well enough.

You rock

I would love a ST: ENT reunion show.

Where are Jolene and Scott Bakula during all these shenanigans?

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Bakula has done conventions in the past; however, Jolene normally does not.

#1 and #12

I totally agree…. a mini series or 2 hour movie or direct to video would be absolutely huge… Paramount… I hope you are reading this.

Me and my friend had a great time at the One Last Trek meetup. Thanks for being involved in setting up such a great event!!!

Okay, I really hate repeating myself (from an earlier convention report), but you guys really *do* need an editor.

Re:

“a rememberence” … correction: remembrance
“somethign” … correction: something
“were cleary great friends” … correction: clearly
“Also on hand were members co-sponspors” … correction: member’s co-sponsors

For the positives, again, the article was informative and makes me wish I was there

Yeah, I know I am setting myself up as I know I am not perfect either… and I am sorry, I really hate being snarky for pointing out the errors but they are rather glaring.

re: #21 – Scott Bakula has done one con so far that I know of. He said that he would be happy to do more, but that time constraints restricted him from most of them.

Jolene has been to at least two cons that I have been to.

Hi Kent #22 The first con Bakula was ever at was the creation vegas con in 06 for the 40th anniversary-Jolene was also scheduled to be there but was sick or something and didnt make it..Thats the only con I have been able to go to so far..too expensive….but it was great….The price for autographs and pix with him was so high you couldnt believe it because he has not been to any before so autographs are very rare…
The movie GT looked like a lotta fun…Sorry I couldnt be there…Trekmovie is doing more cool stuff all the time….thanks Anthony…

Yah Chase is HHHOOT those legs are something else! WHHHOOO Did you see her in the star trek of gods and men? My fave green skinned alien death scenes WOW hahaah…

Hey, all these posts about a 2 hour Star Trek TV special are sort of right… How about, instead of those comics, they make Nero into a 2 hour TV special. That would rock my world. Just saying.

While the Babylon 5 direct-to-DVD was a success for WB, they did it on the cheap. Some actual sets but mostly green screen to create larger areas of the station. WB was so happy with the financial return that they asked for another LOST TALES story, but they wanted to trim the budget even more. At the point JMS had to tell them flat out no. It was tough enough to make the first one without cutting corners further. Minimal cast, minimal sets and small budget.

Based on that created 2-hour direct-to-DVD movies would be very expensive for Paramount. The best green screen and CGI models in the world still have to be built and that costs money for all the locations to be represented accurately. The initial cost in setting it up would case the first release to happen at a significant loss to the studio. At that point they’d say,”Nope, this isn’t working.” They would again, cancel it and that would be it.

The SG series had a plan before the series ended. All the sets were stored and it allows them to make these movies on the cheap since very little in the way of new sets are required. They show great profit and based on news releases, they will be cranking out direct-to-DVDs for some time.

Gary Graham has Played a more convincing Vulcan then most other guys in recent Trek series.

>>1. Oregon Trek Geek :
>> Seeing those casts together again gets me thinking, why haven’t
>> they done some 2-hour TV movies, or straight to dvd?

I was wondering the same thing, Paramount should do like MGM did with the Stargate SG-1 DVDs. I’m sure that many Star Trek fans will be delighted to see their favorite crew one more time.

Convention? All I took in were those legs!

WOW!

Simply and Incredibly WOW

I finally see a pic of the legendary Anthony! ;)

All The Reporting is incredible, as well as the pictures. Amazing.

I so so so so so so so wish I was there. I think Im going to buy my ticket for next years convention today :)

Wish i could be there. Ah well, maybe next year? And still dont get 1 thing: Why kill Data? Why not let him disappear or something? Argh

Kevin Sorbo is awesome!

25:

MC1 Doug:

I expect that reporting from a Las Vegas Star Trek Con doesn’t leave much time for grammar correction. Or even spellcheck.

I suspect it involves running between events to one’s hotel room to quickly unload onto a laptop what’s in the writer’s short-term memory, and then, hopefully coming up with something cohesive at the end. It may be proof-read in a bar or a hotel lobby while Trekmovie readers continue come by and say “hi.” and then it has go up on the site in time for us all to devour it.

I don’t like grammar/spelling issues much either, but I give Kayla a big pass here given the hectic environment.

The reporting is terrific, in general, and I eagerly await tales of three Spocks and Shat.

again I am floored by all of the cast photos..too bad shatner can’t have this much fun!

CBS and Paramount should get it together and do an Enterprise mini-series or TV movie, with revenue streaming from a DVD premiere.

The Earth-Romulan War… tied into the next Abramsverse movie, if they decide to riff off “Balance of Terror” or “The Enterprise Incident”. Do a decent Birth of the Federation story, show us (don’t tell us) why Archer is an important person in Star Trek’s history. End the adventure with Scott Bakula in old age makeup as Admiral Archer, and his unfortunate run-in with Scotty, and that ‘Prized Beagle’ backstory.

Since the Enterprise sets have long since bit the dust, everything would have to rebuilt based on the original plans, or more likely recycled and redressed from the last film. So an NX-ifyed reuse of Star Trek (2009)’s Kelvin bridge and corridors. Add some exposed Plasma/LCD monitors (which now cost a quarter what they did in 2001) to reflect the earlier century. Probably no scenes set in Engineering, unless they go on location to a brewery again or partially recreate Trip’s pride and joy, extending the unaffordable parts of the set with blue screen and CGI.

The NASA style uniforms should stay more or less the same ‘cut’, but if a more colourful update is required – add red and gold flightsuits to the existing blue one, doing away with a shoulder stripe to differentiate each department.

Would this be a refit that occurs after 2161? Somehow the NX-01 is saved from decommission, one of the perks of Admiralty Archer exploits? Would it still be 2156 and just forget how hardly anything at all changed for “These are the Voyages…”, during those missing 5 years?

Given a good enough story to tell, it could pull in more than ENT fans, smudging the issue of it being either a soft reboot, a redesigned sequel or a prequel to the current film series.

In addition to the set problems, there’s also actor/character unavailability – for the latter, both Nemesis (TNG) and What You Leave Behind (DS9) wrote out huge chunks of the cast. For the former, Patrick Stewart & Brent Spiner have both called Trek a closed book (Spiner thinks he’s too old to play an android any more; Stewart just wants to do other stuff, mostly theatre work), and there’s no guarantee you could pull enough of the others back in to make what would essentially be a nostalgia piece worthwhile.

This article needs many more pictures of Chase Masterson.

I would love to see a Romulan War miniseries. Everyone knows Romulans from Trek XI now, and seeing Cap’n Archer in action before he was the Admiral could be groovy.

If it were well-written, it could make some money and tie in with the new movies nicely. And seriously, I bet no matter how you felt about ENT when it was on, you’d watch it just to see some new Trek on TV.

Cirroc Lofton looks like Tom Morello.

Man, do I wish they’d give some kind of DECENT conclusion to Enterprise. I loved that series, believe it or not. :3

(Psst… Michael Martin and Angy Mangels wrote it better!)

are there any parts of the con that you have to be legal age for?If so, what’s the legal age?I don’t live in the US, so I have no clue.

Also, is it just me or does Brent Spiner seem somewhat…arrogant…or I guess disliking towards Trek and his character? No offense, I’m a huge Data and Spiner fan and I’m basing this just on what I’ve read here.

to every body wanting more trek,check out all the fan films. ‘of gods and men’ is a great little production, and a few of these people are in it.