STLV Mission Log

In a word, it was… exhaustive. The venue was enormous requiring a great deal of walking. It also included over 160 guests from Star Trek productions, though you wouldn’t know it. Due to the ongoing WGA and SAG strikes, the talent was using word limbo to dodge mentions of any current or past projects. I’m told it made for a more interesting convention both because of its historic nature and that Q&A in panels necessarily focused more on the talent’s personal life. Was it truly historic? Yes, and no. The entire experience was a mix of amazing, exhausting, and enlighting.

My wife set me up to fly to Las Vegas for the convention as a birthday gift. Yes, she's that amazing. Just a couple of days before the trip, she got sick and couldn’t go. After a frantic scramble to find a friend to take her place, I ended up going it alone. I was surprised by how much I wanted to share the entire experience with someone else, but, in the end, it turned out the way it needed to.

This wasn’t my first Trek event. I’d been to conventions in Dayton and Columbus, Ohio where I’d met the likes of Nana Visitor and Terry Farrell, then Kate Mulgrew and Tim Russ. This one was different. It had a mix of actors and crew.

My very first experience arriving at the hotel was hanging out in one of the lounges while waiting for my room to get ready. I ordered a drink and discovered that I had found my way to the “newbies” meet-up. I awkwardly struck up conversations with strangers, and as soon as the topic gravitated to Trek, I found myself. My people. I arrived.

It’s true, Trek fans are the nicest people on the planet. Everyone was helpful. I was also lucky enough to be the random gift winner of a laminated photo of Q, signed by legend himself, John de Lancie. It’s a truly unique gift because the back of the photo has an assortment of random scribbles from where John waited around somewhere.

My conversations with the stars were fun. Part of my birthday was a series of photo ops. My big takeaway is that the photo ops don’t get you much in the way of time to chat. You walk up, take the snap, and walk away. I prepared a short statement for each talent that I got a pic with—something I could say in 1.5 seconds. For Brent Spiner, “Hey man!” For Jonathan Frakes, “Hi Jonathan, thanks for the Cameo you did for my wife’s birthday.” To Andrew Robinson: “Thanks for my favorite character.”

My interactions with Ethan Peck and Anson Mount may be my favorite. To Anson, I said, “I love ‘The Well’. Keep doing it!”—a reference to his podcast. After the photo, he said, “Thanks for saying that.” Then to Ethan, “Thanks for joining the Star Trek family.” He replied, “Thanks for having me.” That, my friends, is the Star Trek family right there.

One amusing anecdote was at a morning Starbucks queue. I embarrassed myself in the most delightful way. I heard this boisterous individual whose voice sounded so familiar I couldn't get it out of my head. I thought for sure it was the voice actor for Victor Graves of the PlayStation Uncharted series. I approached him and asked him if he was a voice actor, to which he loudly replied, "Well, I am an actor. I played a character named Damar on a show called Deep Space Nine." Facepalm. It was Casey Biggs! You have to forgive the fact that I didn't recognize him without the spoon-head makeup.

In the merchant room, I met even more stars and there had the opportunity to have lots of incredible conversations. I met my personal hero, Terry Matalas, who encouraged my writing with, “Just keep going. Keep going.” I got to meet Connor Trineer and Dominic Keating from Enterprise-fame. I talked to Tawny Newsome, Eugene Cordero, from Lower Decks. There was also a heartwarming chat with Bruce Horak about his representation of people with disabilities which continues to inspire me in the tech work that I’m involved in today. I said “Good morning” to Levar Burton in passing, and got an autograph of Jeffrey Combs.

While I’d like to tell you the highlight was meeting all of the talent, and to be sure, it was, I was more surprised to find how fun it was to talk to other Star Trek fans about our shared passion all weekend long. That’s the thing I don’t get where I live. Sure, I’ll have conversations with my family and friends from time to time, but truth be told, I know that going on too long on the subject will have folks checking out.

More exciting than that, I met some amazing Trek fans that weekend. Adam, Jack, Brooke and April, Joel, Jonathan and Kerrie, and the Wash Gang. I really enjoyed the deep conversations. Adam and I crushed some Trek topics, including his encouragement for me to enjoy season 4 of Discovery, a series I’ve been slower at than most. Then Joel and I covered a swath of topics from AI, society, law, politics, and more. I met Jonathan and Kerrie during a lunch that I really didn’t want to eat alone. They kept me company and listened to me prattle about Trek, AI, and technology. I even let them in on my next writing project. I ran into them a couple of other times in photo op lines or the hallway. Each encounter was fun and encouraging. The Star Trek family—my people. As much as the stars were fun to interact with, these are the folks I’d go back for again.

A major highlight of the trip was meeting folks from the Shuttlepod Show. If you're not watching them on YouTube, and you're a Star Trek fan, you're really missing out. I met Dominic Keating of Enterprise fame, and had a nice conversation. I was convinced to sign up for Patreon and joined the Discord community right away. I said my "hellos" and expressed my hope to meet other supporters at the convention. Little did I know that I'd be informally adopted into the crew of the Shuttlepod Show.

Standing in line to get in one early morning, I bumped into fellow Trek fan Allen who introduced me to folks from the show. I eventually had a great conversation with Connor Trineer. I enjoyed hangouts with Mark Cartier, the producer of the show and Lee, a co-producer. I met the lovely Erica Larose and found myself being welcomed by the Wash Gang of Tiffany, Ange, Matt.

Waiting for dinner with the Shuttlepod show volunteers, I stood in line with Robert O'Reilly and had a remarkable conversation about working with folks on TNG and DS9.

I went to STLV alone, but left more connected than I ever expected to be. This event is evidence. Star Trek really is an ideal to live toward, where people from all walks of life can come together and unify around a single positive idea, that in our infinite diversity, and infinite combinations, we are one people, on a mission to boldly go…