In the DS9 panel yesterday Alexander Siddig said about Julian Bashir's likely future: "He's a retired doctor somewhere or working in an NGO or maybe just catching butterflies with Garak!"
Telling a joke that Alexander Siddig genuinely laughed at (despite it being my first ever time meeting a celebrity and also having had a huge crush on him when I was 15 and being tremendously nervous)
The sheer delight he took in being the first person to sign my DS9 baseball cap and taking up the whole brim
Nana Visitor laughing about how typical that was of him when she signed it next
Nana Visitor's smile and genuine warmth and also I got to put my arm around her waist when we got a photo together
Chase Masterson!!! Everything about Chase Masterson, but especially that she talked with us for like 7 or 8 minutes and ended it with, "People should be fucking kind!!" and asking us for hugs
Walter Koenig telling my girlfriend and I that we were a beautiful couple
Walter Koenig recognizing us the next day when we went back for another autograph and blushing a little when I told him it was for my mom, who had a huge crush on him as a child
The entire Disco cast (David Ajala, Ian Alexander, Noah Averbach-Katz, Anthony Rapp, and Doug Jones) being deeply, truly, profoundly obsessed with the book "by" Grudge the cat (as told to Robb Pearlman) we asked them all to autograph
David Ajala loving Grudge so much and telling us about how the cat didn't like him at first and tore his costume the first time they met
Actually everything about David Ajala. He is so genuinely kind and warm and present in the moment with you and blessed us for being there and walked around the convention a bunch
Ian Alexander read the entire Grudge book AND complimented my hair (!!!!)
Noah Averbach-Katz y'all!!!!! Literally THE nicest person. Spent probably 10 minutes talking to us AND gave us an extra autograph for free on "his" page in the Grudge book, with what he called "some corrections" (the cat did not like him)
He was so down to earth and fun to talk to. It just felt like talking to another fan.
Connecting with him about being Jewish!!! And he confirmed that Andorians are canonically Jewish because "they can't stop him" !!!!!
Anthony Rapp was just so kind and generous. He was like, "Do you think I can get one of these Grudge books?" And I was like, Uh, yeah, Mr. Rapp, for you, I think they'll make that happen
He also wrote a special note for us with some "corrections" on his page in the book
Doug Jones is surprisingly flirtatious??? Just a very sweet and funny man. Spent 5 minutes or so with every fan. Pinched our cheeks and hugged us!!!!!
We got autographs from Dominic Keating, Conner Trinneer, and Anthony Montgomery and they were so funny and also Anthony Montgomery is SO handsome and has the biggest smile
We told Conner Trinneer that that autograph was a gift for my mom, who is a huge fan of his, and Dominic Keating went, "Ah, you get all the mums... Then again, I'm watching the show again, and I think if I were a mum, I think I'd go for you, too"
Just how gay Dominic Keating is
He asked my girlfriend about her tattoo of a handlebar mustache, so she opened up and said that she got that because she used to have one, and he just quipped, "Ah, I see some things have changed"
My girlfriend making Conner Trinneer blush a little when she called him handsome
This truly amazing conglomerate glamour shot of Quark I got (sadly Armin Shimmerman was not there)
I went to my first ever Star Trek Convention (and first ever convention), and I thought I would write about it here to help preserve my memory, and kind of process my thoughts. Panels I went to: Lower Decks, Strange New Worlds, Physics in Star Trek, NASA’s Artemis Program, Kate Mulgrew’s Spotlight Panel, And like all the booths. Thoughts under the cut :)
First of all I’m an anxiety ridden person so it was a big step to go to something like this in general --and I went alone.
I was happily overwhelmed by how nice and welcoming every single person was, including all of the staff, panelists, actors etc. There was not a single person I interacted with that made me feel anything but welcome and cared for. I would absolutely recommend going to one of these to anyone.
Lower Decks Panel: This was absolutely my favorite experience of the whole day. The cast had clearly been waiting for this moment for a while, as they had never been able to do an in person panel all together. They DRESSED UP in costumes and took it so seriously that Jack Quaid wore a purple wig and Tawny Newsome’s sleeves were rolled up like Mariner’s. Their vibe was unmatched. They gave Jack Quaid a Tom Paris plate and he clutched it to his chest until they decided to sign it and give it away to a fan. Tawny asked if she would be receiving a Chakotay bowl or something. Tawny led a lower decks chant. It was the best possible way to have started my day. Some cool stuff we learned on the panel:
confirmed some "classic" faces will show up this season
promised a musical episode because Tawny Newsome keeps pitching musical episode ideas (while this was a joke, I’m taking it as fact)
confirmed the salamander babies WILL show up
Mike McMahan defended all the new trek shows after being asked a rather rude question about whether he will “keep other shows in line” and I thought his answer was beautiful
Strange New Worlds: I wasn’t even that hyped for SNW until this panel. The cast seems great. The sneak peek scene they brought was fantastic. They have a good vibe. They all seem to have deeply personal connections to Star Trek which is always a good sign for fans because they’ll be happy to talk about it with us! Everyone on the panel shared that they were introduced to Star Trek by their mothers! We learned about the interior ship design. They are looking to keep the mid century modern feel of TOS but also adapt it to make it flow better with the ship designs on the new shows in the same time frame. This show will be episodic like TOS. Which was a relief to the crowd, seemingly.
Physics in Trek: This presentation was awesome. A science consultant for Trek ran it. She was very cool and very good at explaining the physics and what works and what doesn’t. She worked hard to give examples from all trek, and it was cool to hear about how much on Trek is actually possible. Or, at least, Plausible. This was probably my second favorite event of the day.
NASA’s Artemis Program: This was run by a former NASA employee who know does consulting work for human missions to space. He was very interesting. He gave an overview of how we are getting back to the moon and why and what we will do when we get there. He also included a side by side timeline of what was happening in Trek on TV versus what was happening with NASA IRL, which was something I had never thought of before.
Kate Mulgrew Panel: This was a bit chaotic because she was interviewed by two different people about two completely different topics (star trek and her family/book) with a pretty wild Q/A squished in between. Kate Mulgrew has a very unique way of interacting with people that’s obviously very authentic to her, which made me feel intimidated even though I wasn’t even asking a question. I underestimated how much she would fill the room with her personality. She’s very kind to people and even when she says something a little curt she makes up for it by wrapping up the interaction with compliments and gratefulness.
An audience member brought up Garrett's impression of Kate and Kate really dug into Garrett with "oh you've heard Garrett's impression of me? I'm shocked!" The audience member said he could do it better so she INVITED HIM ON STAGE and "gave him acting notes". After his second attempt (he was better than Garrett), she joked that he made her sound like Katherine Hepburn and repeated the line he had said in a Trans Atlantic accent and messed with her hair like an old movie. It was very funny.
I ended up purchasing her book because, as it turns out, some of the experiences I’ve had with my grandparents are similar to the experiences she has had with her mother, and even listening to her talk about it was therapeutic. She signed the book and it was the least awkward interaction I’ve ever had in a scenario like that, and I really don’t know how she could stay so nice after meeting hundreds of people all damn day. Some random stuff we learned from her panel:
She’s writing a third book, a novel
There was a trailer for The Man Who Fell To Earth
She was directly asked by a fan whether she would be appearing in the third season of Picard and the interviewer walked up to her to tell her she isn’t allowed to talk about that. She said you’ll have to watch to see if Janeway makes her way to the Chateau. So. Do with that what you will.
Negative stuff? Not much. There were a couple things that bothered me that I’m not going to share. The only thing I will share is that some of the interviewers on the panels seemed to have not been properly prepared by the event organizers. Some of the interactions were really awkward and clunky, and it definitely felt like they hadn’t been set up for success.
IM SO ANNOYED that I didn't buy a ticket for sunday because I live in Chicago for fucks sake and today looked really really fun. I honestly might go to Seattle.
I made this piece as a gift and got the chance to give it to him at Star Trek Mission Chicago con!! 🥰🥰🥰 I’m literally so so happy!
However, Doug now knows my art tag, along with allllll the gay Star Trek art attached to it 😂😂😂 I’m so sorry Doug please ignore the embarrassing ones 😂😂😂
Captain Pike's Starfleet Duty Uniform at the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds exhibit → Star Trek: Mission Chicago convention, April 9 2022
Captain Pike's Starfleet Duty Uniform, Command Division, circa 2259
Authorized for wear by those personnel specializing in the command and control tasks aboard starships as well as ground and space-based installations, along with Starfleet Command's upper leadership hierarchy. The assigned division is represented by the uniform tunic's gold color, with the officer's rank denoted by stripes on the tunic's sleeves.
This version of the Command Division Starfleet Duty Uniform is worn by actor Anson Mount for his portrayal of Captain Christopher Pike. It is a creation of costume designers Bernadette Croft and Gersha Phillips and the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds costume department. (Caption from the exhibition)
MVP of Mission Chicago though was the older woman cosplaying as Kai Winn along with a friend cosplaying Kai Opaka, and when I asked to take their picture, I guess the Winn cosplayer noticed the little Garak doll I was holding (and mistook which Cardassian he was) and she said "tell Gul Dukat I miss him"
Tawny Newsome, the voice actor for Mariner on Lower Decks, came up to sing some Talking Heads because apparently she used to be in a Talking Heads cover band which is pretty fantastic