taranwalker Gaming: Star Trek 50th Anniversary Las Vegas Convention

And predictably, yesterday was awesome. Again. This whole convention has been a deeply spiritual experience for me. I typically hate belonging to clubs, and in fact go to obnoxiously extraordinary lengths to avoid them, but being a Trekkie surrounded by fellows Trekkies has been wonderful. And our mutual love for those that make Star Trek has been like a warm blanket on a cold night. It's been beautiful. I am sad that today is the end.

But today has hardly even started! Here's those pics from two days ago that I promised!

So, the last two days, like today, have been heavy panel days, so I didn't get out and explore nearly as much. It's been perfectly structured, honestly. The first couple days, we did some panels and lotta exploring, and the last 2-3 days, it's been watching/listening to some of our favorite people that make Star Trek.

Yesterday's recap:

The Tribute to Matt Jeffires was great. It was really cool hearing from production folks how he did what he did (design the Enterprise, its bridge, and more), and how he worked with Gene to do it. What a great presentation.

The Women in Star Trek Panel was awesome. It was Kate Mulgrew, some feminist bloggers, and a lady volcanologist that is also a contributor to trekmovie.com. They didn't all agree on things, and discussed it live on stage like responsible adults.

After that was TNG Part 3, which was WILD. Frakes, Sirtis, and Dorn. I felt bad for Michael Dorn because he didn't get nearly enough questions. Frakes got almost all of them. However, the nuthouse Frakes and Sirtis presented was hilarious and appreciated. He played up an almost Shatner-like persona while she lectured the audience on what questions to ask and which not to. It was very funny.

And Walter Koenig came out and talked for a while. He was a bit quieter, but it was very interesting getting to hear the history of TOS from his perspective.

After that, it was Shatner time. He was definitely Bill Shatner, which just a hint of a little more humility brought about by experience. And he was great talking to my oldest boy.

Then, it was time for Count Bakula. Scott, being a fellow St. Louisan, was, as expected, gracious and funny. I really could've used more time with him.

And Kate Mulgrew might have been the highlight of the day. Voyager was not my favorite series, Janeway was not my favorite captain, but she might be my favorite actor on the show. She is amazingly well-spoken, and projects such a sense of balance. And she has wicked comedic timing.

We closed with a really cool Borg makeup and history presentation from Michael Westmore. That was really neat.

Here's some pics of the day: