Day 1: Star Trek

The first day of the Memphis Star Trek/Xena Convention has come and gone, and it was a good first day indeed. First I should describe the format of Creation Entertainment conventions. The one in Memphis had a typical format: two rooms, a dealer room and a presentation room. The dealer room varies a bit in size, although it's not that large, about 2/3rds the size of the DunDraCon dealer room, with a lot of empty space. There were 5 setups, one selling photographs, one selling framed and autographed pictures, one for Star Trek merchandise, one for Xena merchandise, and the Hudson Leick Official Fan Club table.

The presentation room is set up like a standard business conference room. Row upon row of chairs, with sections for Gold ticket holders and two other classifications. Up front there is a small stage for the speakers and other activities and behind that there is a large screen for the various videos that will be shown. A closed off area for controlling the electronics and prepping rounds out the room.

The doors opened at 13:00 and there were 25 minutes given for people to browse the dealer room before the first segment. Grace Lee Whitney had a table and was signing autographs, with the autograph line soon taking over the room. Grace was quite engaging and friendly, and the proceeds were going to some of her favorite charities. Meanwhile the HLOFC staff were having trouble getting their computer set up as a sort of kiosk. I finally summoned the courage to go and introduce myself and shook hands with Mike Ownby and Wesser. Mike had a HLOFC Staff badge for me, which was quite nice although I'm uncomfortable with the thought that I'm considered a staff member for the rather insignificant amount of work that I've done.

I missed the first music video, a salute to the four Captains of Star Trek. Saturday didn't have as many people as Sunday and my brother and I just sat whereever we wanted to (in fact, we both had first row seats, but decided to sit in the second row near the center). Next was a half hour video of the first time Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner appeared together at a convention 10 years ago, for the 25th Anniversary. I'm impressed with their banter and the anecdotes that they told. William Shatner may be one of the more ridiculed actors of our time, but he is still a nice guy.

Next up was Grace. First a music video highlighting the speaker's work followed up by Grace herself to a lot of clapping. She came up and talked about Star Trek and her other appearances (she's appeared in every series). She also gossiped a bit, talked about alcoholism which she is recovering from and about life in general. A great lady and a priviledge to have heard her talk.

Other videos followed: a salute to Star Trek, some ancient Star Trek blooper reels which although bad quality are still cool, a music video salute to the women of Star Trek, one for Voyager and Tim Russ. There was also a trivia competition, where three audience experts come up and try to answer five questions in a row from the rest of the audience, prizes given out for stumpers and for audience members who answer a question that the experts can't. This was a smart trio which answered the five questions, then answered five more to receive their prize of $300. Also there was an auction of Star Trek items, most of them sold by Creation although there is usually a few one-off items like original scripts and props.