57-Year Mission Las Vegas Convention Packed With Star Trek Celebs Including Just Announced Zachary Quinto

| July 28, 2023 | By: Anthony Pascale 21 comments so far

Next week, the annual Star Trek fan pilgrimage to Las Vegas, Nevada begins again for the 57-Year Mission Convention run by Creation Entertainment. TrekMovie will be there to cover the event, and we are even holding a panel and co-hosting a party. The event kicks off at the Rio Hotel Convention Center on Thursday, August 3rd, and runs through Sunday the 6th. Panels and events will be spread across three separate stages and there is, as always, a dealers room with Star Trek merchandise along with a number of celebrities signing autographs. While this year’s event will be held in the midst of two Hollywood strikes, it looks like that hasn’t had a big impact on the guest lineup of Trek celebrities and beyond. We have put together some of the highlights of this unofficial Trek event, which we still fondly think of as STLV (Star Trek Las Vegas).

Star Trek (and Orville) stars lined up for Vegas

The total celebrity attendee list for this year is one of Creation’s biggest yet, with 159 guests lined up so far, including dozens of actors from across the franchise, from classic “legacy” shows, the new Paramount+ shows as well as the feature films (TOS, TNG, and Kelvin).

Big names include William Shatner, Anson Mount, Jeri Ryan, Sonequa Martin-Green, Tawny Newsome, Jonathan Frakes, Linda Park, Nana Visitor, and Michelle Hurd. In fact, most of the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Picard casts will be in Vegas, and there is a special Next Generation reunion with almost the entire cast. There is also a number of first-time Star Trek convention guests, like Paul Wesley from Strange New Worlds.

Fans will also find many other stars and guest stars from their favorite shows. This includes guest stars like Todd Stashwick from Picard, Andrew Robinson from DS9 and many more, including multi-appearance guest stars like John de Lancie, Jeffrey Combs, John Schuck, and Vaughn Armstrong. They even have Elias Toufexis from the upcoming fifth and final season of Discovery. And this year the guest list also extends beyond Star Trek to include The Orville, with five of the stars of Seth MacFarlane’s homage to TNG lined up, including Adrianne Palicki.

Some of the headliners lined up for STLV 2023

Strikes have some effect, but more stars still signing up

While the SAG and WGA strikes had a big impact on San Diego Comic-Con, that was because that convention is used by the studios as a promotional event. The Creation 57-Year Mission convention is fully independent of the studios, in particular Paramount Global, and all guests are attending as personal appearances, fully allowed within the guild rules. Celebrities will be still be doing panels, although SAG does have restrictions regarding discussions of struck work. Everything else will be pretty much the same, with actors doing photo ops (with fans in cosplay not presenting any obstacles) and signing autographs. Separately, licensed photos of the actors as their Star Trek characters will be available to purchase from Creation at the event, and actors are allowed to sign those as well.

As for COVID, this year masks are optional for guests. There are no tests or vaccine requirements and it is up to the actors if they want to use the plastic divider for photo ops.

While there has been a handful of cancellations in the last couple of weeks (like Kate Mulgrew and Jack Quaid), that is typical. In fact, Creation co-CEO Gary Berman tells TrekMovie, “Normally at this time, we’d have more cancellations.” Creation has even been adding to the list this week including today’s confirmation that Zachary Quinto (Spock from the Kelvin movies) will be attending. Other recent additions include Greg Grunberg (Star Trek Beyond) and Jonathan Del Arco (TNG and Picard).

The strikes are just the latest challenge that Creation has had to navigate in recent years.  This annual convention is a particular passion for co-founders Gary Berman and Adam Malin, who started running Star Trek events in the 1970s. Speaking to TrekMovie, Berman wanted to thank the fans for their continued support:

I would really like to thank the fans for supporting our fan conventions. I think all of the convention promoters have been through a lot of difficulty with COVID, especially the independent ones like us. We had to cancel 30 shows, giving out refunds and so forth. Now we’re rolling along with the new punches. So I think it’s really important for Adam and I to thank all the fans for supporting us.

Berman also confirmed that Creation will be back at the Rio in 2024 for the 58-Year Mission, noting the resort is getting millions in renovations over the next year.

Behind-the-scenes pros, scientists, and beyond

Beyond the big stars, Creation has also lined up an impressive list of behind-the-scenes vets from the franchise, including a number of writers and showrunners like Brannon Braga (TNG, Voyager, Enterprise), Terry Matalas (Picard), and Kevin & Dan Hageman (Prodigy). And there are a number of great Trek designers and artists attending like Dave Blass, Mike & Denise Okuda, Doug Drexler, John Eaves, and Michael Westmore. All will be appearing on stage, some doing multiple panels; Picard production designer Dave Blass is doing a couple of deep dives into season 3. There will also be a panel headed up by producer Dave Zappone giving an update on the upcoming Voyager documentary To the Journey.

As usual, there are also a number of scientists and professionals lined up to talk about how Star Trek matches up with the real world: academics, NASA personnel, computer experts, even lawyers, plus a certain experimental petrologist who’s part of the TrekMovie team.

There will also be panels held by Star Trek experts and podcasts including the team from the Inglorious Treksperts and some of us at TrekMovie.com (more on that below).

Party like it’s 2023

Like every year, there will be a number of special events held in the evenings. There will be stand-up comedy from Rick Overton and Voyager’s Garrett Wang, karaoke parties with Enterprise’s Dominic Keating and Connor Trinneer, and a Wednesday night “convention kick-off” dance party with The Roddenberries band. Greg Grunberg’s band will be supplying the tunes for the Saturday night festivities—along with some special guests. There will also be nightly movie screenings of Star Trek films, including the fan favorite Trek homage Galaxy Quest. And of course there’s always the annual costume contest.

Tickets available

All 4-day packages are still available for the show with the exception of “Gold.” You can also purchase single-day general admission passes for $70 each day ($95 for preferred seating). Upgrades for VIP meet and greets along with individual photo ops are available within the packages or can be purchased stand-alone. However, a number of these extras are selling out fast, especially the photo ops. For more details visit creationent.com.

TrekMovie at STLV

TrekMovie.com will provide our usual coverage of the event both live via our social media accounts (including our growing Threads account) along with on-site and post-event coverage on our two podcasts. We will be co-hosting the annual “Landing Party” at the Rio Masquerade Bar on Wednesday evening at 9 pm, where there will be a trivia contest with cool prizes.

We are also be conducting another “State of Star Trek,” panel on Thursday, 11:30 AM in the DeForest Kelley Theater. TrekMovie editors and podcasters Anthony Pascale, Laurie Ulster, Kayla Iacovino, Matt Wright, and Brian Drew will talk about where things stand and where things are headed for the franchise on television, film, and beyond. Please come and say hi, there will be a Q&A to ask any burning questions you have.

And if you can’t make it to Las Vegas you can always try your hand at online gaming at mytopsportsbooks.com.

  

Find more news on Star Trek events.

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Wait, what!? If Zachary is joining, Kelvin announcement!?

Unlikely. If we were getting that it would have been at SDCC. iirc this is just for fans and there’s usually not anything announced there.

Oh that was a joke sorry

🤣🤣🤣

That’s funny. It’s cool he and Peck will be on stage together though.

Wish I could go this year.

Looking forward to seeing y’all at the Prodigy panel!

We’re huge fans Aaron and I know that panel will be packed now since Paramount screwed you guys. 🙄

Sorry should say ‘I’, I ruffled some feathers here recently when I say we.

I made this post before I realized I changed laptops and made a typo. sorry. It’s fixed now.

ML51 says don’t forget to pickup milk on your way home tonight, because little ML11 is hungry.

I’ve always wanted to go to this. Sadly I don’t see being able to go for a while. My window closed. Wife doesn’t have as much time for travel now. And this would always be a tough sell for her.

Can you imagine members of the United Auto Workers doing this during a strike?

So the poor slob actors and writers who aren’t making the mid-size and higher money will remain on the picket line during the heat wave next week, while Quinto and all the rest here get their personal appearance fees and $75 per pop fan photos in an air conditioned hotel in Las Vegas. And then we had Fran Drescher, the SAG president who has a net worth of $30M+, over in Italy doing her highly paid appearance with a Kardashian as the strike was about to begin. What a crock.

If you are in the recognizable to elite range, this strike ain’t so bad. :-(

I would like to live in the universe where Jeffrey Combs is elite. I think my brain is shorting out imagining it. That would be paradise for me.

Lol, yeah.

For this strike I would just like to see a little more Norma Rae and a little less Ferris Buellar’s Day Off.

It would be great if Playmates Toys would seize the opportunity to attend and let us all know what’s up with them. It’s ridiculous that they aren’t addressing any of their customers questions are concerns regarding Star Trek toys. Please Trekmovie, get us some kind of answers!

I am always up for more Playmates.

Is Playmates still moving forward with the Trek license? I had read that sales weren’t a good as they thought they’d be and I’ve seen some of the announced figures are now canceled.

Wow sounds great. I’m was really excited about seeing Mulgrew there and was disappointed when she pulled out. But this looks like more will be showing up than I thought.

I’m interested in seeing the Prodigy panel the most to support it and really excited to see Terry Matalas to talk about Picard.

Also excited for the Voyager Documentary update. I’m all caught up with the Delta Flyers podcast. For any Voyager fan I definitely recommend checking it out, It’s really good.

Hard to believe Gary and Adam started with a single comic book convention in NYC when they were teenagers in 1970! (Yes, I know they sold and then bought back Creation at one point!)

Anyone else miss when they’d do weekend Scifi/Comics shows in major (and mid-sized cities) 2-3 times a year – at one point doing 100 or more a year!

I’ve attended this convention in the past and the camaraderie between fans has been amazing. You can sit at a table with total strangers, but your love of Star Trek makes you instant friends. I’m sorry I can’t attend this year.

I’ve always wanted to go to one of these. They look like a lot of fun.