Star Trek Actors Celebrate Grand Slam

Dozens of science fiction stars, producers and fans descended on Los Angeles for Creation's Grand Slam convention last weekend, where J.J. Abrams provided a brief status report on Star Trek XI and Colm Meaney (Miles O'Brien) revealed that his television wife had attended his real-life wedding last month.

StarTrek.com has a long report on the event, which began on Friday, April 13th, when consultant Richard Arnold gave a slide show documenting the origins of The Next Generation. Arnold also had the privilege of reading Abrams' message to the fans on Saturday (story).

John Billingsley brought a preview of The Man from Earth, a movie the Phlox actor recently completed by the late Jerome Bixby of "Mirror, Mirror" and "Requiem for Methuselah" fame. Billingsley, director Richard Schenkman and the writer's son, executive producer Emerson Bixby, discussed the film, of which Billingsley said, "One of the things this movie is about is the difference between religion and morality, between what's codified and what is truly spiritual, and that's what attracted me to the project...I thought it had some very, very interesting things to say about the nature of organized religion and the nature of the religious impulse."

Announcing that he had become grumpy in his old age, Walter Koenig discussed how he bonded with his characters, including not only Chekov but Bester from Babylon 5. "You cannot stand apart from the character and say, 'well, he's a bad guy.' You have find what it is that you respond to, relate to, and embrace it," he explained. His original series co-star George Takei appeared as well, mentioning his role as the father of Star Trek fan Hiro Nakamura on NBC's Heroes and saying that the producers refused to tell him much because they were afraid of leaks at Star Trek conventions.

Connor Trinneer spoke about both Enterprise and Stargate Atlantis, telling fans about how much he disliked filming the fall into the pool of water in "Precious Cargo." They were followed by a well-liked fan pairing, Nana Visitor (Kira) and Marc Alaimo (Dukat), who played mortal enemies on Deep Space Nine.

Voyager's Robert Duncan McNeill (Paris) announced that he has directed a pilot that includes Tim Russ in a cast headlined by Christina Applegate, who plays an amnesiac. Originally called "Sam I Am," the title was nixed by the estate of Dr. Seuss, so the series is currently trying to come up with a new one. "'Who Dat?' — I like that. Or, 'Amnesia Sucks,'" suggested McNeill, who said he enjoys working on new series with many of his Star Trek co-stars, including Ethan Phillips (Neelix) and Robert Picardo (The Doctor).

Meaney explained that it was hard to believe that Deep Space Nine went off the air ten years ago, saying, "I think the shows stand up — the production values were always terrific, and the scripts, the storylines stand up — they don't look dated, you know, like some shows do." He added that he remains friendly with Rosalind Chao, who played his wife Keiko: "It was lovely having my TV wife at my wedding."

Full coverage of the event is here.

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