San Diego Comic-Con 2010 Here I Come!

Last year, at this time, I was making plans for what would be my first Star Trek Convention ever. To tell the truth, I had gone to one when I was about 19 (oh so many years ago) when a convention was organized in Montreal and Brent Spiner (Data) was the only guest there. But I only went to his panel. Shame on me I know. I think it was a small convention in that big hotel on René Lévesque street though truly I wouldn't know since I didn't look around haha! Star Trek: The Next Generation was still on the air back then... yep, a long time ago.

Still, Star Trek Las Vegas 2009 was my first big convention and almost 9 months later I look back on it with a huge amount of love and affection. Sure, I was dead tired, not used I was to these types of event, having travelled miles in an airplane – which I HATE to take. Plus I suffered from jet lag.

While there, some things went well, some less, and some went a bit wrong. Still I look back on it with fondness. It certainly was an incredible experience for me.

I got to meet Jonathan Frakes (believe me, that man's smile could melt a whole bunch of icebergs), Brent Spiner, Roxann Dawson and more!

I got to interview the wonderful Robert Picardo face to face (which you can read about here, here and here) and I got to spend an hour in the company of Zachary Quinto during a Meet and Greet. It was a fascinating experience.

And where else can you go have breakfast and have Jeffrey Combs and Casey Biggs eating only a few feet away from you in the morning! I tell you it's completely surreal!

Also, last year in June, I started this blog. This blog that changed my life a bit. I had never thought I would ever do something like this and it has been a strange and wonderful journey. I got to interview the lovely Sinead Keenan, the luminous Dawn Olivieri, the wonderful Wendi Lynn Allison and Patti Beninati – a woman I love as a friend and I admire deeply.

This year though, I'm not returning to the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention (though part of me really wish I would). This year, I'm going after another beast. The San Diego Comic-Con Event that will be held in July.

San Diego Comic Con will be the place where I will meet many of the friends I made on twitter and this is one of the things that I'm most looking forward to. I've made such good friends online that I cannot wait to finally meet them face to face.

This is where I also hope to meet many of the celebrities that entertain me and that I get to see weekly on my small screen and like most everyone, I have hopes and expectations concerning the many panels that SDCC will have this year.

I'm really hoping for another Heroes panel and I really want to assist to a Chuck panel. Maybe Jeffster will be there? NBC better renew both of my shows. I hope to see Zachary Quinto again and would love to meet both Zachary Levi and Joshua Gomez who play Chuck and his BFF Morgan respectively on the NBC spy comedy.

I also hope that the wonderful cast of the BBC British production of Being Human will be attending (they were SDCC in 2009) so I can shake their hands and thank them for the wonderful work they do for us the viewers. That's one thing that has me really excited about SDCC. It's the opportunity to tell these artists thank you for entertaining us week after week.

And would it be too much for a girl to ask for a glimpse for David Tennant and John Barrowman? I hope to have enough time to be in the presence of my favourite actors.

Sadly, I wont be tweeting, but I will try to update my blog about my experiences when I get home. Many of my friends on twitter will probably report live on the subject so I invite you to stay tuned. When I know who will be tweeting away, I will give out their twitter info.

Star Trek Enterprise's Scott Bakula to Return on Chuck

It seems that the former Enterprise Captain has signed on for multiple episodes for season 3 of Chuck.

This is great news because I really like Scott Bakula and loved him as Steve Bartowski, Chuck's dad and creator of the Intersect.

Apparently his comeback would happen towards the end of season 3. Josh Schwartz, Chuck executive producer, calls it the biggest thing we’ve ever done on the show.

Chuck is linked to Star Trek not only through Scott Bakula, but also through Robert Duncan McNeil who is supervising Producer on Chuck and who played Lieutenant Tom Paris on Star Trek Voyager. Former Voyager co-star Robert Picardo also appeared in one Chuck episode.

Scott Bakula currently co-stars in Men of a Certain Age alongside Ray Romano and Andre Braugher

Source

2009 Star Trek Convention: Saturday Night Gala

Picture 1: Robert Picardo belting it out for the crowd

Picture 2 and 3: Tim Russ with his electric guitar, accompanied by a piano man

Picture 4: Jacqueline Kim getting ready for her performance

Picture 5: Brent Spiner entertaining a raptured audience

Picture 6: The Enterprise Blues Band at the Dessert Party

On the Saturday night of the Star Trek Convention, I attended the gala presentation where four beloved actors were scheduled to perform.

Opening the evening and in great form, was Robert Picardo, all dressed to the nine – minus the tie. Accompanied by the orchestra, and to a thunderous round of applause, Mr. Picardo entertained the attending crowd with four musical renditions of various love songs.

He was then followed by Tim Russ who accompanied himself with his electric guitar (and by a piano player as well) and blew us away with his raw musical style.

Third up was the lovely Jacqueline Kim who was there for the first time. Playing acoustic guitar, and visibly nervous, Miss Kim charmed many in the audience with her soft voice. I was delighted to hear her sing a song in french, my own native tongue.

Last, but not least, was Brent Spiner, accompanied by his orchestra. The highlight of the gala, it was Mr. Spiner's first time singing during a Star Trek Convention. He closed the evening with 6 songs, and managed to make us laugh – while at the same time showing his showmanship – by admitting he had missed a few of his lines. The audience was laughing and was completely under his spell.

At the end, there was a much deserved standing ovation from the crowd.

The gala was then followed by a dessert party (mainly ice cream and many toppings, no cakes – shame on you Creation, I feel you're going cheap on us). We were again entertained by Star Trek actors, namely from the Enterprise Blues Band. On certain tables, throned centerpieces made by convention-goers themselves.

All in all, I thought it was a better evening than the previous Thursday Night Gold Party. My recommendations to Creation though, stop going cheap on your guests with the food. Nuff said.

Exclusive Robert Picardo Interview: Part 3

Last, but not least, I wanted to talk about Robert Picardo’s involvement in charity work. The actor is a great proponent of charity and he is very much involved in his local chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

I attended the charity auction on the sunday evening after the convention. It was a lovely event filled with wonderful entertainment, and was hosted by Mr. Picardo himself. The actor was selling personal memorabilia in order to raise money for the San Gabriel Valley chapter of Habitat. Over 5000$ were successfully raised during the entertainment-filled evening.

Here is the final part of this exclusive interview:

IT: You seem to be very much involved in charities: The Aids Pediatric Foundation . . .

RP: The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation… I’ve raised money for them with my CDs probably for, I guess it’s ten years now, and other things – auctions of cast things. I have a long relationship with charity and I believe in them a great deal. More recently, in the last five years, Habitat for Humanity, my local chapter, which is the San Gabriel Valley Chapter. We’re having our third annual charity dinner; it’s actually our fourth event because the first one was a brunch, but it’s our third dinner. Pat Arthur, who runs my website, has been instrumental in setting that up and she’s very popular with my local chapter of Habitat for her planning and her follow-through with these events. So we have that Sunday night. We schedule it so that as soon as the convention closes here, that the fans who’d like to come and are already in town can find their way over there.

Also, I’ve raised money for a bunch of other worthy nonprofit organizations. The Planetary Society, which I’m a big supporter of. I’m on their advisory board, and I recommend all of your readers who are interested in real science, as well, not just science-fiction, or if they’d like to know the real status of our space program and what we’re doing now and see some extraordinary images from current exploration, they just have to go to planetarysociety.org. And also the Pasadena playhouse, which is the state theatre of California and also happens to be in my neighbourhood. I support them. Also, I usually do auctions for Catholic charities and different things.

I have a young nephew named Drew Koenig. He’s actually my first cousin Anthony’s eldest grandson. He’s five years old. He was diagnosed with brain cancer. He’s a real trooper, this kid. He’s really been through it since last November when he had the tumour taken out, and he’s had a very extensive course of chemotherapy and radiation. And now the family ran up some huge bills paying for that so there have been a number of events for him and for other families that they met with children with cancer. We had one of those at the Baltimore Convention Shoreleave. I’m going to try more regularly to have auctions of things to benefit him so I encourage your readers to go to http://www.robertpicardo.com/ and there will be a link to Drew Koenig: the Drew Koenig Fund, which is to help him and his family out with his treatment.

We have tremendous opportunities, working in a Science Fiction franchise, to be mercenary; to come and get things for ourselves, to get free trips, to make extra money and all that. But it’s always nice, I think, to balance commerce and self-interest with a good deed. So I’ve always tried to use these conventions as opportunities to do something for someone else, as well; and because Star Trek fans are not only very loyal, they’re also great supporters of charity. I suppose because they have, you know, being Star Trek fans by definition, they’re envisioning a brighter future. And I think people like that are pre-disposed to help make it happen by committing some of their resources to make things better for other people, especially other people in need. So Star Trek fans are very loyal supporters and if you say, ''hey, this is important to me, ''they kind of go – if they’re interested in you as an actor they go, ''Well, let’s see what’s important to him! Okay, that sounds worthwhile,'' and they follow suit. So it’s been a very nice kind of symbiosis [laughs] between my loyal fans and saying, ''hey guys, have a look at this! Do you think this is important too?'' And they’ve responded beautifully over the years, so I’m very grateful for that.

IT: Thank you so very much for your time!

RP: Thank you!

Exclusive Robert Picardo Interview: Part 2

Picture 1: Robert Picardo as werewolf Eddie Quist in The Howling

Picture 2: As Wade Mixon in the movie Sensored

In part 2 of this interview, I wanted to talk about one of Robert Picardo’s most recent characters, Alphonso, from the Acme Brand Comedy sketches ''Ask Alphonso.'' An hysterically funny Italian gigolo, the character ressembles one the actor's most famous movie characters, the Cowboy, from the movie Innerspace.

An extraordinary actor, Mr. Picardo played a very different range of characters. From the very funny characters such as the Cowboy and Alphonso, to the very dark and scary such as werewolf Eddie Quist on The Howling, and most recently Wade Mixon on Sensored.

I also wanted to know a bit more about his upcoming movie project called The Legends of Nethiah, on which he is currently working, as well as what he loves to do when he has a some time off.

Without further ado, here is part 2:

IT: I have to know about Alphonso …

RP: I love doing sketch comedy and I have guessed-hosted with a sketch comedy group called Acme Comedy Theatre, and one of the characters I played was sort of an Italian gigolo who does not know that he’s completely [laughs], he’s out of touch with the fact that he’s not entrancing women. He either never has, or he certainly isn’t anymore, but he’s very self-absorbed. So I wanted to play a completely self-absorbed character who thought he was God’s gift to women. It’s a little kind of a variation on my character in Innerspace, who was the cowboy. So it was just a character I played in a sketch and everybody loved him so we decided to do sort of advice for lovers from this completely self-absorbed guy, and his advice usually was, [laughs] ''it’s a shame you’re not me, guys, ‘cause I’m better than you,'' and for women it’s like, ''it’s a shame you’re not with me,'' so that’s the kind of advice he gives people. It’s really just for fun.

IT: Are you going to do more of these sketches?

RP: I would love to, I would love to do more. Until our Union comes with an agreement for the internet, now that we’ll have a contractual agreement. There was just an interruption of somebody’s websites because they didn’t know if they could keep making this programming. I was just doing it for fun. I was not doing it to get paid, it was just joy for me. But they stopped making programming pending the new agreement with the Screen Actors Guild, so I hope that when the website’s back up I will do more.

IT: So we know you’re a funny guy and we also know you’re a great dramatic actor. You’ve played some very dark roles and your recent film, called Sensored, just premiered in Sacramento. Can you tell [us] more about it?

RP: It’s a psychological drama more than a horror film. I play a character who is doing weird things in his basement. He looks like the guy down the block who just keeps to himself – who seems kind of nerdy but he’s also quite frightening when you see this other reality. But then as the movie progresses, you come to doubt his own sanity and how much of what he’s doing. Is he really doing or he thinks he’s doing? And is he torturing people or is he just brainwashing them? Or is he imagining that he’s doing? So it’s an interesting character study and a really cool role for me. But he’s a very dark character. The movie, I’m sure, will get a distributor. In fact, we’re talking to a number of them now. But whether or not it gets a feature release I don’t know. But it will come out on DVD and it’s pretty creepy.

IT: I want to talk a bit about The Howling. You mentioned that you scared the casting director Susan Arnold during the audition and that she was so freaked out that she didn’t want to see you again. Is that mended?

RP: Oh, I may have joked that she didn’t want to see me. She auditioned me for other things and I think cast me in other things, but I think I did creep her out a little. I think her reaction to me is what got me the part. Because she reacted to me and the producer saw how I creeped her out, so they thought ''yup, this guy will do this to our audience!'' She’s a lovely person. I haven’t seen her in years, but I have very fond memories of her.

IT: You have a movie you’re working on right now, The Legends of Nethiah. What is your role?

RP: I’m rehearsing and I start shooting it in about a week. It’s a really sweet little family movie. What I liken it to structurally is The Princess Bride, but it’s not a comedy – like a dramatic version of that. The wrap-around story is a grandfather telling his grandson a story. In this case, I’m the grandfather and my ten-year-old grandson is having trouble at school; his parents are divorcing, he’s acting up a lot, and he’s having just trouble in this transition in his life. And I tell him this story about these science-fiction characters and you cut to that world. So you see this wonderful little back-story that’s very futuristic and cool. We’ve shot that footage already. I even play a part in the story within the story, so it’s the ideas that when I tell my little grandson the dream, he dreams that his grandfather is a hero in the story. So you see me in two roles; you see me as an old warrior in the science-fiction story, The Legends of Nethiah, and then you see me as the grandfather telling the story to his grandson in order to teach him how to man-up and really deal with his problems, even though he’s so young. It’s a sweet little story and I’m looking forward to finish. We’ve done the first part; now we’re gonna do the part when we don’t have to jump around [laughs], the talking part.

IT: What does Robert Picardo do on his time off?

RP: I love to cook. I’m a serious cook. I recently got a wood-fired pizza oven outside; so I like to cook, have friends over, or just for my family or even for myself if I go out of town to work. When I was working in Canada, I made dinner for myself pretty much every night after work just because I enjoy eating my own cooking [laughs] because I know what’s in it and I’m pretty darn good. So that’s my main hobby, cooking. I like to read, I like to workout, smoke the occasional cigar, hang out with my friends – pretty simple stuff. I’m not a scuba diver or a skydiver, anything that I can hurt myself at, because I’m a little clumsy. Cooking is dangerous enough! I cut my finger shaking hands with someone last night, so you know, I got to watch it! It was a fan with a very sharp fingernail last night.

The conclusion of the interview is coming up in part 3.

Exclusive Robert Picardo Interview: Part 1

Picture 1: Robert Picardo as Stargate Atlantis's new leader, Richard Woolsey, and Paul McGillion as Beckett

Picture 2: Robert Picardo as the Doctor and his creator Lewis Zimmerman and Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi in the Voyager episode ''Life Line.''

An acting veteran with a career that spans more than 30 years and covers over 40 movies for both television and the big screen, as well as appearances in over 80 television series; Robert Picardo is well known for his roles on China Beach as Doctor Dick Richards and on The Wonder Years as Coach Cutlip. A stage actor first, Mr. Picardo once shared the theatre stage with the great Jack Lemmon, Danny Aiello and Diane Keaton amongst others.

Nowadays, he is more widely known to Science-Fiction fans as the Doctor on Star Trek Voyager and as Richard Wolsey on the Stargate series.

It was a complete honor for me to interview Mr. Picardo during the 2009 Star Trek Convention, as I am a great fan of his, and also because the Doctor is one of my favourite Star Trek characters ever.

In the first part of this interview, I wanted to talk about what he liked the most as an actor, what his feelings were on the subject of being part of both Star Trek and Stargate, and how he found the Doctor’s voice as a writer in both the Star Trek: Voyager episode called ''Life Line'' and in his very funny book: The Hologram’s Handbook.

Inside Trekker : You’ve had a very diverse career. You’ve acted in plays, movies, TV series – and you’ve also done some voice acting in animated movies and video games. Which medium do you like the most? What makes you the happiest?

RP: I think probably I’ve had the most fun working on stage. The actor is most in control when you’re working live. Even though you develop your performance under the supervision of a director, every night you are responsible for recreating your performance; so that, I think, is really the most exciting, especially for someone who started as a stage actor. However, it’s a great joy to work in all media and I love doing what I’m doing, which is everything. I like to do theatre work; I like to work on film and television, and I also like to do animation, as well. They all have different challenges and their different rewards. So I like it all. It’s good to be busy!

IT: You’ve been in two of the biggest and longest-running Sci-Fi franchises of all time – as the Doctor on Star Trek [Voyager] and Richard Woolsey on Stargate. How do you feel about being part of two huge franchises?

RP: I am proud to be the only actor who’s played a starring role in both of the major franchises. I am happy that the characters were distinct and different, and I’m really particularly happy that the Stargate fans accepted me – not only as a different character, if they were familiar with my work on Star Trek, but that they also grew to accept me as a leader. Because my character was pretty much introduced as a bad guy… or you thought he was a bad guy, then it turned out he was a just an obnoxious guy who meant well… and then he slowly, you know, they gave him some comic foibles and all that, but he was never meant to be a leader. He was someone who evaluated the leadership of others. He was like a think-tank person or a briefing room person who was all theory but no execution. [laughs] ''Here’s what you should have done.'' So the fact that the audience grew to accept me as a leader, I was proud of, because that was a difficult transition, I think, to take the character through.

IT: And you were a great leader. I loved you, actually.

RP: Thank you! Well, I’m happy to hear that because he’s not by nature a brave individual. We had established that. Also, he’s not very much of a people person; he doesn’t have very good interpersonal skills. He had to learn an awful lot, but mostly he had to learn to trust his senior officers. And he had to trust his own instincts and willingness to put the rulebook down and go with his gut, which was the hardest thing, I think, for him to do because he’s a very intellectual person.

IT: You have a writing credit on a season 6 episode (of Star Trek Voyager) called ''Life Line'', and you wrote The Hologram’s Handbook. How hard or easy was it for you to write that book in the Doctor’s voice?

RP: [Laughs] Well, I don’t have the discipline to sit down really to write scripts or to write a long-form book. But I loved playing that character and I missed him as the show was ending and that’s one of the reasons why I had the idea. But also, I thought of funny situations and ideas that we had never dealt with on the series. It really came out of the episode ''Message in a Bottle'' where I’m bragging to Andy Dick’s character, EMH Mark II, that I’ve had sexual experiences and I said to the writers: When did I have them? [laughs] When did it? How did this happen? The audience saw me first activated on Voyager and then they’ve been keeping in touch with me every week. When did all this stuff happen? No one had any answers for me, so I went and decided to write my own back story to different things that had come up on the show that I wanted to know [laughs], you know, what the background was. So it started just as humorous anecdotes.
And then I also have always been amused by all the psychology self-help books that are at supermarket checkout counters and all that. So it’s really a satire of the self-help book. It’s a ''if you’re smarter than everyone else that you have to work with, it’s how to get along with inferiors.'' So it was mostly just for fun. And my friend Jeff Yagher, who’s a wonderful actor and sculptor and cartoonist, he did the cartoons for the book. And we had been working together – he was guest starring on Voyager – and the idea developed for us to do something together, so he would do the art for the book and I would write the chapters. So that was also a fun way to collaborate with him and help him pay for his wedding.

IT: I read that [The Hologram’s Handbook]. It was a great book. I enjoyed it very much, and I even got the audio book

RP: Thank you! The audio book – it’s fun to hear me doing it, I think, because, you know, you get to hear the old windbag himself again if you miss him.

IT: Yes, I do miss him.

RP: Thank you! About the episode, one of my favourite plays is I Never Sang for My Father, so I thought it would be interesting to sort of borrow the structure of that play. It’s all about the disappointments from both directions – parents toward children and children toward parents. Parents, you know, ''why aren’t you what I’d hoped you’d be?'' And children’s point of view is ''why can’t you accept me for what I am, and why don’t you love me as I am, and look at what I can do and look what my strengths are?'' So, it was basically a father-child drama adapted for a programmer and a hologram.

The interview continues in part 2.

2009 Star Trek Convention Breakfast: Voyager Saturday

The Voyager cast arriving at the breakfast function: Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips and Roxann Dawson

A feature of the Star Trek Las Vegas Convention is to offer the fans a chance to have breakfast with their favourite actors. And so I bought my tickets to attend a breakfast with the Voyager cast on Saturday morning and one with Zachary Quinto, Jacob Kogan and Sabrina Scharf on the Sunday breakfast.

Never having gone to one of these events before I had no idea what to expect. Walking into this big reception room, a dozen white linen draped round tables awaited us. Included of course was a delicious breakfast, and the food was much better than I expected.

Breakfast started at 8h45, and the actors were scheduled to join us at 9h00. So it gave us a good fifteen minutes to eat and be done with it before they showed up. I originally thought that the actors would actually eat with us. But it was certainly better this way.

On the Saturday morning breakfast, three actors from the Voyager cast joined us: Ethan Phillips, Robert Picardo and Roxann Dawson. Robert Beltran was originally scheduled to appear at the convention and the breakfast but it seems that a family emergency kept him away.
This is how the thing worked: Each actor spends about 5-7 minutes at one table, chatting up the guests, then leaves for another table when the time is up (a handler follows each of them to keep things running smoothly).

First at our table was Ethan Phillips who was completely charming, jovial and fun. When he learned that I was French-speaking, he quickly proceeded to chat me up a bit in the language of Molière. It was great fun. Roxann Dawson was the next one to join us and I was completely taken aback by how beautiful this woman was. At 50, she doesn’t look a day older than 35. I want to be her desperately. She was funny and friendly to everyone. Last but not the least, came Robert Picardo, who was charming and sweet to everyone, talking about something he holds dear to his heart: the charity auction for Habitat for Humanity that he was holding the following evening.

It was a very pleasing experience and was, as in everything, too short. I was thus even more looking forward to the Sunday breakfast I was having the next day.

2009 Star Trek Convention Saturday: Voyager Panel

Picture 1: Robert Picardo, Roxann Dawson, Ethan Phillips and Tim Russ laughing with the audience

Picture 2: Robert Picardo and Roxann Dawson concentrating on a fan's question

Picture 3: Ethan Phillips and Tim Russ

Picture 4: Roxann and Ethan

Picture 5: Robert Picardo talking to the audience

Saturday was the day of the Star Trek Voyager Panel. Voyager is my favourite series along with The Next Generation and so it was with trepidation that I was looking forward to this one.
On this beautiful afternoon, in a theatre full of expecting fans, walked on stage Ethan Phillips (Neelix), Robert Picardo (the Doctor), Tim Russ (Tuvok), and the beautiful Roxann Dawson (B’Elanna Torres). It was not long after everyone was seated that jokes were darting all over the stage. The Voyager actors, friends to be sure, were having a field day and much like the Enterprise Panel they were hysterical

The fun started immediately with a conversation about wardrobe. Robert Picardo told the audience that the hat he was wearing served the purpose of cutting the glare from his head. Then the discussion moved on to Tim Russ’s choice of clothes with a suggestion that he may or may not be wearing sweatpants. But then, Picardo added that Russ spent most of his time on set in his bathrobe.

Ethan Phillips later joked that while on Voyager, he had both acting and janitorial roles on the set, to which Robert Picardo again dryly replied that his role was to wrangle and manage Ethan on set – to the amusement of the actors and their equally rapt audience. At one point, Tim Russ declared ''you thought seven years in the Delta Quadrant was bad, try working with these guys for years.'' To which Ethan Phillips replied ''try working with Tim after a three bean quiche,'' and Robert Picardo to add ''Tim Russ, the man, the myth, the methane.'' By then, the audience was just holding their sides with laughter.

During the panel, Robert Picardo recalled that there was, at one point, an idea to bring DeForest Kelley to the show. He had proposed that the Doctor would need to consult the medical database and ask Bones a question concerning medical ethics. However, this scene was never filmed because of Kelley’s health problems. Robert Picardo then said that he later met DeForest Kelley at one time after being on stage at the Creation convention in California, and recalled that Kelley had quipped to him ''I'm a doctor, not a hologram.''

Roxann Dawson shared her thoughts about working on Voyager while pregnant on and off the show (she was pregnant in season 6 but they hid it and then they made her character pregnant in season 7) so for two years we didn’t see her figure. She and Tim Russ also shared in the notion that they hated directing and acting at the same time, which they did in certain episodes. They both agreed that it was better to concentrate on one task at a time.

On working on Stargate Atlantis, Robert Picardo said that it was easier to ad-lib on he newer franchise but not on Star Trek. Also, that he was a secret agent brought in by the other side to take down the show. It was very funny.

One person asked a question concerning the destruction of Vulcan in the newest Star Trek movie. Tim Russ first replied that he was glad to have gotten a weekend pass to get off the planet (laughter from the audience) and then Ethan Phillips exclaimed that he was tired to hear about Vulcan: ''What about Talax?!'' he quipped. The crowd was very amused at this and the comment drew big laughs.

About their favourite Kate Mulgrew recollections, Tim Russ told a completely hysterical story that took place during the filming of Flashback. Tossing some debris from the set, Kate Mulgrew warned Russ not to hit her with it. After thinking about it, he did, and when he got back to his trailer all his clothes were gone. Then, in retaliation, Tim Russ posted pictures of his bare behind all over Kate Mulgrew’s trailer but finally they made peace. At almost the same moment both Ethan Phillips and Robert Picardo indicated to the audience that these pictures were now for sale in the Vendor’s room. It was priceless. Then Robert Picardo told a more bittersweet story when he recalled that on the very last day of shooting for pick-up shots, Kate Mulgrew was there and they were literally taking down the set while filming. When they called the very last shot, Robert happened to stick his head there (he claims he was probably stealing pieces from the set and that made everyone roar with laughter) and Kate started crying and hugged him.

When the panel ended, there was a long standing ovation in the packed theatre. The actors were obviously delighted at this very warm reception and stood up in salutation. It was clear that many of the audience members were Voyager fans who totally loved them, and I was one of them.

2009 Star Trek Convention Friday: House Call

Picture 1: Ethan Phillips and Robert Picardo doing the reading for House Call

Picture 2: DS9's Armin Shimmerman, at the foot of the stage, showed up mid-presentation to encourage the boys

Picture 3: Ethan Phillips doing his Solo reading while Robert Picardo is concentrating on the lines

Picture 4: The Doctor and Neelix in the Delta Quadrant

Picture 5: A lovely presentation after the play where Robert sang and Ethan played the saxophone

One of the biggest highlights of my Friday, during the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention at the Hilton, was to go and see House Call in the DeForest Kelley Theatre. This 45-minute one-act two-character hysterical play, co-written by Robert Picardo, Ethan Phillips, and Ted Kopulos, tells the audience about what happened to the Voyager Crew after their return to the Alpha Quadrant.

Told by the Doctor, played by the ever wonderful Robert Picardo, and by Neelix, played by the incredible Ethan Phillips, the play opens with the Doctor as he is preparing himself to go on a date with Seven of Nine in a very funny scene where he is applying too much of a perfume preparation with the computer’s help. He is then disrupted by a communication coming from his former Voyager comrade, Mister Neelix, back in the Delta Quadrant.

Following a lively and hysterical conversation between the two characters, the audience discovers what the members of the Voyager crew are now doing since coming home. We learn, for example, that Kathryn Janeway is now an Admiral but that she is still in command of her own ship, and we also learn that the Doctor is now teaching and has already gone on a date with Seven before (in a very hilarious retelling). However, the light-hearted reunion turns into something a bit more serious - though never dramatic -when Neelix admits to the Doctor that he needs his help because his stepson is sick and that he is worried about him (something having to do with spots) since no one else seems to be able to do anything to help. At which time, the Doctor offers to have his program be sent to the Delta Quadrant and to help personally. The two friends are reunited, the Doctor cures the young man, they make jokes when the Doctor claims he has dreamed he was named Joe (the Doctor’s indecision to chose a name has been a constant on the show and we learned, in the last episode, part of which takes place 20 years into the future, that he has finally chosen the very mundane name Joe), they burst into two songs from Man of La Mancha and then the Doctor returns to the Alpha Quadrant.

Both Ethan Phillips and Robert Picardo were in fine form, and the dialogue was witty and true to the tone and personality of each of the two characters. It was wonderful to see the both of them slip so easily back into characters that they have lived with and we have known for over 20 years. While I expected them to be fully dressed and made up as their Voyager characters (I had never seen the play before), the presentation was more low-key and closer in style to a play-reading. They both stood at a lectern and read their parts from there, with Robert Picardo at one point going over to Ethan Phillips’ side in a simulation of his arrival to the Delta Quadrant, complete with voice-made sound effects to the utter delight of the audience.

The play was hilarious and the audience appeared completely delighted by the experience. The easy banter between both Robert Picardo and Ethan Phillips was a source of much fun for the fans who clearly adore them and the rapport and evident friendship between the two actors provided some of the highlights of the show. At one point, Ethan started rambling at his lectern and Bob had to tell him to stop it. Believe me, it was very funny, and they went at it on and off during the run of the play. It was glorious. When House Call ended the audience rose to their feet and warmly applauded the two men to show their appreciation.

A small gem, I wish House Call would be filmed so that everyone could get to enjoy it. What I will remember the most, beside the amazing performances, is that the fans had fun, the actors were wonderful and funny, and I believe the play was a success all around. If you ever get to a Star Trek convention and House Call is being played, you have to see it, believe me, you wont regret it.