The failure of FedCon USA was big news this week and it isn’t the first con to go down, however such things are rare in the world of conventions. Today Trekmovie.com presents a brief history of conventions, including a couple of past failures to provide some context. We also take a look forward with a guide to trusted cons and tips for fans to avoid con disappointments.
Since TrekMovie first reported the abrupt demise of FedCon USA last weekend, there has been much debated and discussed during the postmortem. Although the failure of FedCon USA unfortunate, it is worth highlighting how the actors who showed up, especially Star Trek Enterprise’s John Billingsley (along with his wife Bonita), went above and beyond to make the best of a bad situation. See VIDEO below.
Last month TrekMovie reported that the contract for Star Trek The Experience in Las Vegas was up at the end of this year and it was not clear if it would be renewed. At the time it was believed a decision would be made by the end of May, however sources tell TrekMovie that talks are still ongoing and the future is still undetermined.
Star Trek: The Tour, which hasn’t been heard of since they ended their inaugural stop in Long Beach in March, has been reborn as "Star Trek: The Exhibition" and will be (re)launching at the San Diego Air and Space Museum on June 21st. TrekMovie has the exclusive first details on this new traveling Trek show.
This morning in Dallas, Texas, shortly after the start of the second day of the first ever FedCon USA, the show was cancelled. At 11:14 AM (Central Time), after the first Saturday guest (John Billingsley) finished his appearance, the show MC came out on stage announced that the convention was closed due to poor attendance.
The small town of Vulcan, Alberta, Canada (the same one that is lobbying to get the Star Trek premiere in 2009) is holding its 15th annual Star Trek convention this weekend, and this time there is a special Roddenberry tribute, and a special Roddenberry guest. TrekMovie.com has details and exclusive images of the memorial below.
Since opening in early 1998, Star Trek The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton has been the premiere live Star Trek attraction in the world. With its Trek-themed restaurant, museum, shops and rides, it plays hosts to thousands of tourists and Trekkies every year. However, the current contract is up and it looks like 2008 may be the last year for Star Trek The Experience.
On Sunday, April 28th, I was fortunate enough to attend the memorial for composer Leonard Rosenman (who passed away in March). It’s no secret that Rosenman was one of the composers of the Star Trek movies but this event proved to be even more Star Trek-centric than I’d anticipated.
May to September is traditionally "summer convention" time and this year there are many events for Star Trek fans. Convention panels, collectibles, celebrity Q&As, and news help fans bide the experience of waiting for May 2009. See below for Trekmovie.com’s guide this year’s summer conventions.
FedCon, Europe’s biggest Star Trek and Sci Fi convention took place over the last weekend in Bonn, Germany and over 5000 EuroFans came out to see the sci-fi stars. Among the many guests were TNG stars Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, Marina Sirtis and John de Lancie. Of particular interest were comments from Burton about hopes for another TNG move.
Zachary Quinto (the new Spock) and Nichelle Nichols (the original Uhura) took a trip to StarFest over the weekend to give Colorado fans a Trek treat. Quinto stuck with his code of silence but impressed the crowd with his respect for the role of Spock. And Nichols provided more details on her visit to the new Star Trek set. Nana Visitor also attended and and gave the ‘Niners’ and singing treat.
The ultimate event of the Grand Slam Sci-Fi Summit was the appearances of the two Spocks, Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy. The pair each had a solo portion followed by a joint appearance (in the same way they often do it when Shatner and Nimoy appear at cons). Of course the actors were not there to reveal big details about the ultra-secret Trek feature film, but their enthusiasm and chemistry was undeniable. Highlights + pics below.
Brent Spiner, Star Trek The Next Generations’ Data, took the stage Saturday at Creation’s Sci-Fi Grand Slam and entertained the large crowd with jokes and stories from his career in and out of Trek. He talked a lot about his new CD Dreamland, and also covered typecasting and gave his assessment of the TNG era films. See below for pics, quotes and also an exclusive video interview.
Friday at the Creation’s SciFi Grand Slam XVI had three Trek related events (Tim Russ, Nichelle Nichols and a group of guest stars), plus a cabaret. The stars entertained the lightly-packed crowd, but there wasn’t any big news (and your humble editor was spending a lot of time chatting with friends and folks around the con). But here are photos from the day.
Tomorrow TrekMovie.com heads to Burbank to attend the three day Creation Sci-Fi Grand Slam Summit XVI. Many Trek celebs will be in attendence including the two Spocks, Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy. On Sunday TrekMovie.com is hosting a Q&A with Star Trek writers Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci, maybe you can help
Tomorrow a new Star Trek-themed art show opens at the Caren Golden Fine Art Gallery in New York City. The solo exhibition by artist Devorah Sperber is called "Mirror Universe." The choice of name was not just to allude to the famous episode, but also because the theme of the show is "the concept of a mirror or parallel universe."
TrekMovie.com is headed to beautiful downtown Burbank next month for the Creation Grand Slam Convention. The event is chock full of Trek and sci-fi celebs (including Spocks, Quinto and Nimoy). And today Creation and TrekMovie.com are announcing the addition of a TrekMovie.com Q&A with the writing team of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. We also have a pair of ‘Gold’ tickets to give away.
Creation Entertainment held their Official Star Trek convention in New Jersey this weekend and many Trek stars were on hand to entertain the fans (primarily from TNG, DS9 and Enterprise). We have some pictures and some first hand reports including an interesting tidbit from Patrick Stewart on a certain magical part he turned down. Plus a hilarious video of Brent Spiner joking with Patrick Stewart…check it all out below.
“Star Trek The Tour” kicked off Thursday with a press conference and gala party…and TrekMovie.com was there.
Star Trek The Tour opens up to the public in Long Beach this Friday, but TrekMovie.com had a chance to check out an early preview. See below for pictures and video
Star Trek The Tour (the 50,000 square foot traveling exhibit of Star Trek sets, costumes, props, motion rides, etc) kicks off next Friday in Long Beach, CA. William Shatner is the official ambassador for the event and has already started his publicity tour. In addition a number of Trek celebs are already lined up for signings. Plus Wil Wheaton reveals that the tour will feature the return of Wesley Crusher.
The Star Trek day at Paramount was packed. Stars and writers from every Trek series and from the feature films were there to show their support for the WGA strike. You can’t find a stronger supporter for writers rights than Harlan Ellison. The never disappointing writer of the Original Series episode “City on the Edge of Forever” was in fine form discussing the strike. While he was at it, he also took a shot at the latest rumors on the web about the new Star Trek movie using elements of “City.” (see below)
Monday’s Star Trek themed day for the WGA writers strike is picking up a number of Trek stars to come out and show their support. The list of actors includes series stars Anthony Montgomery, Brent Spiner, Wil Wheaton, Walter Koenig, and Armin Shimerman. Many Trek recurring guest stars will be there as well such as Chase Masterson, Gary Graham and Vaughan Armstrong (with his band). More stars are also expected to show, but can’t be sure until tomorrow.
Star Trek The Tour kicks off in 5 weeks, here are a couple of behind-the-scenes shots of tour preparations::
Trek to the Troops, an organization that uses science fiction as a means to celebrate to the US Armed Forces, will be holding their 3rd Annual Meet-and-Greet on December 11th. Special guests at the event will include Tim Russ (VOY: Tuvok), Chase Masterson (DS9: Leeta), Natalija Nogulich (TNG: Adm. Nechayev) and Chris Doohan (son of James Doohan). Music will be performed by perennial Trek guest star Vaughn Armstrong’s Enterprise Blues Band. Organizers also promise “lovely models.” The event will be held at the Bob Hope Hollywood USO at LAX in Los Angeles, California from 1pm to about 8pm. More information at the Trek to the Troops website.
It was announced long ago, but details have finally been released for ‘Star Trek: The Tour.’ The Tour is a 50,000 square foot traveling interactive exhibit of Star Trek sets, props, models, motion-simulator rides and more from all five Trek series and all ten Trek films. The tour will visit 40 cities around the country, kicking off in Long Beach California on January 18th, 2008.
This weekend TNG stars Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis beamed into the Sacramento Creation Sci-Fi Convention to the delight of Northern California Trek fans. The pair spoke with a great deal of enthusiasm and frankness about their time with the franchise. more detail and pix below
Earlier this month the annual Dragon*Con was held in Atlanta, Georgia with many Trek events from costume contests, Klingon beauty pageants, and Nichelle Nichols screening her new film (Lady Magdelene’s). The cornerstone of the event was the presence of actors Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, and Gates McFadden, who were on hand to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. During one of their appearances the subjects of the new Star Trek movie came up. According to a report on StarTrek.com, after feigning ignorance of the new feature, Frakes (director of Star Trek First Contact) praised the selection of Zachary Quinto as Spock and went on the praise the new Trek director as well, saying…
Creation Entertainment has announced that Zachary Quinto (Spock in the 2008 Star Trek film) has agreed to appear at the next ‘Grand Slam’ being held April 11th 2008 in Burbank, CA. Quinto will be the headliner for the event and will be available for photo ops and autographs. The film will be in post production by that time and hopefully the actor will have much to say about it. Roxann Dawson will also be attending with more names sure to be added soon. This will be Quinto’s first time at a Creation event and he is the first (new) Star Trek actor to have signed on to any Trek related convention. The honor for the first actor to talk about the film at a convention (after the Comic-Con announcements) goes to Quinto’s co-star and Vulcan tutor Leonard Nimoy at the Vegas Trek in August. Tickets available at the Creation Website.
The fine folks at ShatnerVision have put up five videos from William Shatner’s appearance at the recent Creation Las Vegas Star Trek Convention (reported here earlier). In the first Shatner jokes around about not being in the new Star Trek movie and in other videos (below) he recounts some funny stories including a recent ‘roadrage’ incident.