Convention Fans

I feel like I have been very fortunate in my celebrity encounters over the years. I’ve attended a lot of cons, and met actors from all manner of shows. The vast majority have not only been pleasant, but downright awesome. Some of the highlights include George Takei, Cirroc Lofton, Avery Brooks, LeVar Burton, Jonathan Frakes, Kevin Sorbo, Richard Hatch, and Nathan Fillion. Some of the not so great encounters have included Nichelle Nichols, Gates McFadden, Tim Russ, and Denise Crosby. After Dragon*con 2009, I now have celebrity guest(s) to add to each category. I am officially dubbing this entry “The Assholes of Dragon*con 2009.”

But I’m sure you’re thinking, hey, she implied she had someone to add to the awesome category? And you would be right. One of the nicest celebrity guests I’ve ever met happens to be one of the oldest assholes around: Barry Bostwick. (For you non-Rocky Horror Picture Show fans, Barry’s character is called “asshole” throughout the movie by fans.)

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Nothing was more talked about at Dragon*con 2009 than the William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy panel. While Nimoy had been on the guest list for a number of months, Shatner had been a late addition. So late in fact, that many programming directors had already submitted their schedules. With so many big name guests already taking up the largest ballroom time slots, what in the world were they going to do with Shatner?

The answer arrived when the Dragon*con pocket program became available online. Shatner would be doing only one panel, and it would be with Nimoy at 10 a.m. Friday morning. That’s right, one of the first events of the entire convention. This news meant some fans had to readjust their travel and registration pick up plans. Fans were talking about sleeping outside the ballroom entrance just to ensure a front row seat. Dragon*con staff came back and said no lining up more than 2 hours before the event. There was confusion and frustration in abundance. On top of that, the location of the panel was changed between the printing of the schedules and the arrival of attendees.

And so, with all of this brewing, the Convention Fans crew planned to get in line for said Friday morning panel at exactly 2 hours in advance.

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I have always considered myself very fortunate, as my parents happily indulged my love of Star Trek from a very early age. When I was too young to have a car, they drove me to comic book stores, geeky events, and even Star Trek conventions. My mother even drove me out to  Star Trek Day at Kennedy Space Center back in 1998, which was my first real “convention” type experience. One of the guests that attended was Garrett Wang, also known as Ensign Harry Kim of Star Trek: Voyager. I loyally watched the show every week, and was thrilled that he was going to be there.

I remember that all of the guest events were held in the Kennedy Space Center’s The Apollo-Saturn V Center, which houses an actual Saturn 5 rocket. There was a small stage area, and a large queue line set up. I remember that Garrett’s line stretched the length of the building. I found out later that he stayed until everyone who had wanted an autograph, got one. I remember that he was really nice, and signed an autograph and took a picture with me. I was positively ecstatic, and decided I was going to attend every convention I could possibly get to from then on out.

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I decided to end the official “Brent Spiner” week of Convention Fans with the story of how I met the man behind our favorite android. Since it’s a rather quick story, I’m also throwing in my experiences meeting Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker) and Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher), since I met them all right in a row at Dragon*con a few years back.

As I’ve mentioned previously, Brent is an odd guy, but a funny guy. When I first met him, I was admittedly a bit weirded out by his sense of humor and demeanor. I had patiently waited in the autograph line, and when it was finally my turn to approach his table, I selected the photo I wanted signed, and said hello.  I asked him to please sign it to Kelly (my name). He looked at me for a moment, and with a deadly serious tone said: “Kelly? You know Kelly is traditionally a man’s name? And a last name? You could have been born Kelly Kelly.”

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No matter what series of Star Trek you may call your favorite, you have probably heard of the character “Q.” Who could possibly forget the frustratingly funny, and wonderfully omnipotent antagonist from three different Star Trek series? The actor behind Q is John de Lancie, an incredibly talented individual with a slew of film, television, and stage credits to his name.

I’ve met a lot of Star Trek actors over the years. Some are charming. Some are a bit uptight. Some laugh and joke with fans. And some act like they really don’t get what all the fuss is about.

That is John de Lancie.

Although polite and kind, he seems genuinely bewildered as to why he attracts a line of eager fans looking to shake his hand and hand him $20 for an autograph. John is an actor. Acting is what he does for a living. To him, it seems like just as much of a regular job as a dentist or a plumber.

But John isn’t a dentist or plumber, and he’s not just any old actor. He’s the man behind a much beloved character on a widely popular science fiction show with a large, dedicated fan base.

I had a chance to see John de Lancie a few years ago at a convention, and this is the story.

At the convention, I actually got to see the entirety of John de Lancie’s Q & A session. Fans lined up on either side of the ballroom to ask their questions. One of the very first ones was “How did you get the part of Q?”John de Lancie has probably been asked this a million times, but he kindly explained the whole ordeal like it was the first time he had ever been asked that question.

The story went like this: John had been asked to come in to audition for Star Trek: The Next Generation and do a read for powers that be. He agreed after much prodding, and afterward, one of the people in the audition room had come out to tell John what a nice job he had done. He even said something to the effect of, “you make my words sound better than they are.” It was Gene Roddenberry. At the time, John had no clue who he even was. But needless-to-say, he got the part.

Fast forward forty minutes into the future. John has answered dozens of questions at this point, and done so patiently. He then turns toward one of the microphones for the next question, and there stands an out of breath fan (it was as if he had just run into the ballroom). Now, I’m paraphrasing here, but basically what the fan said was this: “Sorry I missed the first part of this, so I hope this question hasn’t been asked already. How did you get the part of Q?”

Without missing a single beat, John de Lancie replies (in a completely serious tone): “I slept with Gene Roddenberry.”

He then went right to the next fan with a question, with the audience laughing so hard that many had tears in their eyes (myself included). The tardy fan was left standing there - jaw on the floor and eyes wide.

John de Lancie is AWESOME.

(Note: You can see my first “Guest Stories” entry about meeting George Takei by clicking here.)