This Wednesday I set out for the 3.5 hour at maximum warp journey to Las Vegas for the annual Star Trek convention at the Rio hotel.
Last year, my wife and I attended the Vegas con for the 50th anniversary of Star Trek celebration, and it was a blast. It was my first time at the Vegas ST convention and I thoroughly loved it. Met an online buddy of mine there, and we all had a terrific time. Now to clarify, we’d been to other ST conventions before (in Pasadena and in Burbank) but the Vegas convention is special. It is, to other Star Trek conventions, what Comic Con is to other comic conventions; a motherlode. The jackpot. Maybe I have that perception because my first time at the Vegas ST con just happened to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the original series, I dunno. But according to my friend George, they’re all a lot of fun so this year I’ve decided to test that for myself.
Sadly, my wife and convention partner-in-crime will NOT be joining me this time (she’s a teacher, and she is too deep in prep for the coming school year), so I’m hitting this convention solo. A bit of trepidation on my part, since I’ve never really attended a convention by myself; usually I’ve gone with my wife, friends or back in my days with Planet Entertainment, my company/coworkers. So…this is a bit of a first for me.
But I promise to relate as many photos and anecdotes on this blog in the coming days (* pinky swear… hehe *), as I plan to write entries from the convention as I did with the previous two Comic Con entries in this blog. So, stay tuned.
In the meantime? I leave you with the link to my full Flickr photo album of last year’s 50th anniversary Star Trek convention (click on Flickr link below):
Star Trek 50th Anniversary Convention in Las Vegas, Aug. 3-6th, 2016/Flickr
The 50th anniversary convention was one of the most immersive conventions I’d ever attended, and no doubt a lot of that had to do with the energy/enthusiasm for the 50th anniversary; but this year is also the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation so I suspect there will be some enthusiasm for that, as well as the rollout of a new series on Sept. 24th called “Star Trek: Discovery” coming to CBS-All Access streaming service.
I’m also hoping to get a bit of face/chat time with the cast/crew of the amazing, nonprofit-status fan series Star Trek Continues. I met several of them last year (and at other conventions) including star/creator Vic Mignogna (Capt. Kirk), Michele Specht (Counselor McKenna), Chris Doohan (plays Scotty, and is the son of original series’ Scotty, James Doohan), Cat Roberts (Lt. Palmer) and Kipleigh Brown (Ensign Smith) and they are just a terrific bunch of people.
In addition to piloting starships, Kipleigh Brown is also quite a talented writer and the proof is in the latest STC episode, “What Ships Are For”:
^ This is one of their best. “What Ships Are For” feels wonderfully retro but also deeply relevant and thought-provoking; as are the best of Star Trek episodes. Kudos to all involved. There are only two more episodes left in this series (coming later this year, in November and in December) and I will miss it very much when it ends.
I’m also covering an announcement of something new coming in the popular Star Trek Online gaming series. I’m covering it for the website Trekcore.com, but I promise to share that article here as well. As I’ve told my Trekcore associates, I’m not much of a gamer (my reflexes are barely adequate for Wii and I have the survival skills of an infant) but I enjoy a chance to do a bit of real journalism now and again.
Much more to come in the week ahead.
Live long and proper… and stay tuned.