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.

JJ Abrams Update on the Star Trek Sequel

So we have a release date of june 29th 2012 for the next Star Trek movie. But what don't we have?

Asked by Collider.Com about whether he had decided to direct the Star Trek Sequel JJ Abrams answered:

No. We don’t have a script yet or anything, but we have a release date (June 29, 2012). There’s a release date, but we’re still working on the script. The idea is that they have faith in this team.

Thus as of now according to Abrams we have no director and no due date for a script

And for all intents and purposes no storyline yet?

I know the sequel is 2 years away but it would be nice to know something about it. Or maybe I'm being too impatient.

Go here to read the interview in which Abrams also talks about Fringe and Lost

A Doctor Who/Star Trek Crossover and Other Revelations

Okay, so, back in 2004, it seems that there were plans to have a Doctor Who/Star Trek crossover. However Enterprise, the Star Trek series playing at the time, was axed before it could have happened.

Just to think that it could have happened makes me squee with total fangirl delight. Ah, the possibilities!!!

The information was taken from Doctor Who The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter just published in the UK.

SFX made a list of 20 things they learned from the reading of the book.

Amongst other interesting points made was that there was a line that was ultimately cut from the scene where the Doctor talks to Wilf on the Vinvocci's spaceship. Supposedly the Doctor would have told Wilf that he “was half-human back in 1999 for a couple of days.” This line would have referred to the 1996 Paul McGann Doctor Who movie.

Go here to read the list.

2009 Las Vegas Star Trek Convention: Trekkies!

No Star Trek Convention can be called a proper one without some people dressing up as their favourite Star Trek characters or wearing the uniform of their favourite Star Trek series. Not everyone dresses up at these conventions, but there are a fair amount of people who do. When you are there, however, it feels like nothing could be more natural and I absolutely loved it!

*please not that the ''Bunny Girl'' is not wearing a Star Trek costume but rather one of her own creation.

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.

2009 Star Trek Convention: Thursday Night Party

Picture 1: The Stratosphere (not my picture)

Picture 2 and 3: the Vegas view from the 104th floor

Picture 4-7: The second part of the entertainment comprised of Armin Shimmerman, Jeffrey Combs, Casey Biggs, Vaughn Armstrong and Max Grodenchik

The Thursday Night Party was a complete mixed bag for me. First, I arrived much later than 9pm because the autograph sessions ran late in the evening (it was the first day of the convention and it was also the busiest one concerning the free autographs for gold ticket holders.) Second, when I arrived at the Stratosphere, I searched in vain for my complimentary glass of champagne. I'm still miffed that I never got mine.

The reception was 104 floors up in the air, in the observation area. A big circular room with what appeared to be stores and the elevator shafts situated in its middle, the room was ill-suited for the event. The entertainment was taking place to one side of the room and people were grouping in one spot, making it very difficult for most to see the entertainment and to circulate easily.

The food was not fantastic either - if there was some to be found. The quality was average, in my opinion, and there was not a great quantity of it. The food stations were scattered around the room. When I decided to take some dessert, there was almost nothing left. Only a fruit here and there remained as well as the chocolate fountain. I also got scraps of what appeared to have been cheesecakes. I barely ate at all that night.

However, the entertainment itself was good. Suzie Plakson opened, but I missed most of her songs (having arrived late and looking for food and the free champagne I never got). But I did hear her a bit and she was great. The second part was very entertaining: Vaughn Armstrong, Max Grodenchik, Armin Shimmerman, Jeffrey Combs and Casey Biggs were singing songs written by Grodenchik. It was well-performed and fun, and the actors seemed to be enjoying themselves - from what I managed to see. It was a bit frustrating. In fact, I believe Creation received a lot of complaints because the next day, the actors repeated their performance in one of the convention's other rooms.

Then the entertainment was over by 11:30pm. And then there was no more music (seriously!) and no more food, so everybody simply started leaving. For a party that was supposed to last until 1am, it was definitely not a success! Also, only one ride was opened that night due to the high winds, so the people who were looking forward to all 3 rides were also disappointed in this.

In my opinion, Creation missed the mark completely for that party. I was utterly disappointed. Everyone agreed that it was generally a boring party though I give high points to the actors for at least being entertaining.

Zachary Quinto on the Star Trek Sequel and Redemption for Sylar?

In an excellent recent interview with Sci-Fi Wire, Zachary Quinto talked about his character Sylar on Heroes and about the Star Trek sequel.

Regarding Star Trek, the actor said that:

''I know that they're breaking the stories and working on it.''

He also added:

''I think it's going to be much better served by taking time and being clear about the story that they want to tell. Whether or not that involves Khan or Mr. Shatner remains to be seen."

As for Sylar, he revealed that there may be some romance coming up for him. And on the subject of Sylar's redemption, one of my own personnal favourite subjects, Mr. Quinto had this to say:

''Those are longer-term conversations. And Tim Kring, our creator, is an incredibly supportive and creatively open person, so we have those conversations from time to time about where we see the character going. I don't know. Maybe the redemption would be in his eradication somehow. Maybe some kind of ultimate sacrifice. Or maybe just bloody and gory, ... a well-deserved demise for someone who's caused so much pain in the world of Heroes. We'll see."

He also reveals a bit more about the carnival and its characters, and he talks about being an avid gamer.

You can read the entire story here.

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.