the Star Trek conventions! first - Las Vegas.

The second time I went to Las Vegas was for a Star Trek convention. The first time I went there I was 15 years old, and it looked NOTHING like it does today. The first time I went was for "work" and was a horrible experience. I vowed NEVER to go back. But the convention organizers for the Las Vegas Star Trek convention talked me into it. They would give me a free room at the Hilton, where the convention was - and where (until recently) the 'Star Trek Experience' was. This was a pretty big phenom in it's day. 'Star Trek' fans got married there, people from all over the world came to have drinks in Quark's Bar&Restaurant that had crazy blue smoking drinks and looked like the ship in 'Next Generation'. Also, I think you could go through some kind of adventure in 'Deep Space 9'.
But I was too busy signing autographs to do any of that.

So, those who know me, know that I did an episode of 'Star Trek, Next Generation' when I was about 25. I had just had my oldest daughter, Izzy, 2 weeks before the audition. So I took her with me on the set - her and her wonderful nanny, Maria, and breast fed her whenever I could - on set and in my dressing room. I had this light beige silk costume that had been made for me - so it was REALLY stressful! I was terrified that I would leak milk all over that thing. The episode was called 'The Inner Light', and it was considered for a long time (maybe still is) the favorite of 'Next Generation' fans. Also a favorite of critics. I played Capt. Picard's daughter while he was living a whole other life through a probe. Pretty cool.

When the convention people called me up and asked if I was interested, I initially said no. But a couple of friends helped persuade me - and I figured it was at least good for a story. It's just that I had had SUCH a bad experience with Vegas. That was part of it. So, I asked my then boyfriend if he would come with me, and when he said yes, I jumped on board the convention train!

My boyfriend at that time was Gideon. A music producer and sound supervisor for big reality TV shows. He is one of the smartest and most talented men I have ever met. And he was in the process of OPENING my mind up.

Right outside of Vegas, the dread building in my stomach, he asked to take some pictures of me. It was 'golden hour', and the light was doing wonderful things.
"No, Gideon!", I said, in typical fashion, "I HATE getting my picture taken."
"Will you not admit, here and now, that I have taken some great pictures of you?", he demanded.
"Yes. But bad ones, too. I don't look very pretty right now. We've been in the car for hours."
"You look beautiful as ALWAYS," he growled, "and if you let me take this damn photo, I promise it will be the best one you've ever taken. I swear."

I reluctantly let him take a photo of me in front of a GIANT miner. A statue of a miner that looked like a mini-golf statue on steroids. A couple of weeks later, when he had developed it in his unique way, I was astonished to see that it WAS the best photo of me ever taken. The very best. After we broke up - some time after - we met at a tiny, hidden bar on the East side and he gave me the photo, framed. It's on my wall now. But no-one ever notices it, because it's in a dark hallway.

So, the next morning, I got dressed in my favorite red dress, and went down to the convention floor as instructed. I was placed behind a big long table with piles of photos from 'The Inner Light' to sign, and I found myself right next to a legend. It was Chewbacca! Ok,not really CHEWBACCA - but the actor that played him. Equally as exciting. Peter Mayhew was a solid veteran of these conventions, and was very sweet and informative to me.
Gideon came down with me, too, and hung out for a while before he got bored. He took more photos - of me with all kinds of Aliens and monsters. He was a jealous guy, but I think he was soon satisfied that the demographic of fans at a Star Trek/sci-fi convention weren't immediately threatening in that way.

Although - I have to say, the fans were all over the place. There were young and old, families, couples, gangs of men, people in costume, people in hippie attire. Throughout the day I was constantly entertained and wondered, "What is the the common thread between all of these people who have paid a lot of money to come here and get all of these photos signed, or have their photo taken with these actors?"

The fan I remember the most was this woman who was from some tiny, rural place in Oregon. She was a bit hippy-mamma in her dress, overweight, glasses, and VERY sincere. She burst into tears the moment she saw me. I mean SOBBING. And, yea. That would be funny, if it weren't. It wasn't exactly sad, either. I don't know. Obviously, this woman is still puzzling me to this day.

"Oh my God, it's YOU!" she said right before she burst into tears."I can't BELIEVE you're HERE!", she went on.
I looked over my shoulder to see if it was really ME she was talking to or about. She was acting as though I were a long-lost relative or best friend.
"MER - I - BOOOR.." she sort of heaved out in gasps through the sobbing.
"Yes." I said timidly. "I played Meribor." (that was my character's name)
Peter Mayhew gave me a look as if to say, "Yep, that's how it is sometimes."
"I just can't BELIEVE you're HERE." the woman said again, "You just DON'T underSTAND"..she half collapsed, leaning heavily on the table that I was behind. I gave her a minute to get herself together, looking at Peter for reassurance. He nodded at me.
"It's my FAVORITE episode!" she said presently. "My very FAVORITE one. And this is the first one I've been able to come to - I saved all my money to come here - it's my first one! And YOU'RE HERE!! I just can't BELIEVE it!"
Once she had calmed down,and after she had related her life story as it pertained to Star Trek, she asked for a signed photo, and asked if she could have her photo taken with me - just like everyone else, mostly. I really had a bit of a challenge letting go of that whole 'i hate having my photo taken' thing....because that's all I did all day.

At the end of the day, I concluded that 'Star Trek' fans did, indeed, have ONE thing in common. And it's not that they're all dorky, or lonely. Not at all. In fact, I was kind of surprised that quite a few really hot guys made their way over to my table by the end of the day. And THAT reminded me of Jeff Forrester's God-like brother coming to one of my Halloween parties years ago with his hot friends, all dressed in original Star Trek uniforms and playing with their lasers and tasers all night. No. The thing I thought that they all had in common, was a certain idealism. Each and every fan I met in those 2 days in Vegas was as sweet as could be. And every fan that I spoke with seemed to have an idea that the world could be a better place.

That night, Gideon and I got into a terrible fight. It was about hookers. He thought they should be legal, and I thought his views were awful. The fight ended up with me bawling harder than my ardent fan - right in a public place - in the old downtown area. I sat on a corner and sobbed until my shoulders were shaking. I was so upset. And Gideon was just CROSS with me. He knew he was right and I was wrong about this thing.

So, the next day, I didn't get down to the convention floor until very late. I almost didn't get to meet Shatner. But I did.

One of the organizers came over to me and asked if I'd like to meet him.
"Of course!", I said. Star Trek - reruns of the original one - were the ONLY TV shows I watched as a kid. I had been alternately in love with Captain Kirk and Spock throughout my whole childhood.
I was led to the back of a giant room. There was a long, winding line of people that led to this little booth-like place. A temporary booth that had been made of red curtains.I was pushed past the people in the front of the line into the interior of the red curtained booth. It reminded me of the 'man behind the curtain' in 'The Wizard of Oz'.

And there he was. Captain James T. Kirk. His eyes were only slightly puffier than mine were from crying all night.
"Well, hello there." he said as he lit right up from the sight of me. His expression changed in about a millisecond from bored as hell to downright sparkly.
"Look at this guy," I thought. "He's still got it."
Shatner shook my hand, then brought me in for a hug. A nice, tight one.
We exchanged some more chit chat, but I don't remember what we said. I was kind of in shock.

When I finally emerged from the both, all happy and dazed, Gideon was standing there with his arms folded over his chest.
"Well." he said, as though I were his errant child. "Was that fun? Did you meet him? Did he hit on you?"
I just looked at Gideon and giggled.
I went up to him and gave him a great big hug. And then a kiss. That question wasn't worth answering.I started to kiss his neck and then his ear.
"YOU are a VERY bad girl." he said."YOU are going to be spanked. Very badly. Because you're SOOO bad." he said this very seriously.
I kissed his neck some more, and then whispered in his ear, "I just met Shatner. Let's get out of here."
We threw our stuff into his beat up old volvo sedan, and drove back to LA.

I didn't think much more about 'Star Trek' until I got the call a year later to do the convention in Pasadena.