Galileo 7 Flies Without Captain Kirk

Despite the last-minute cancellation of planned headliner William Shatner (Kirk), the Galileo 7 convention in Neuss, Germany at the end of September managed three days of entertainment with Jonathan Frakes (Riker) appearing as the main guest.

Ex Astris Scientia has posted "an incomplete and not necessarily accurate report" on the convention along with photos, warning that it is based on recollections rather than transcripts of Saturday's events. The first guest, Deep Space Nine's Marc Allen Shepherd (Morn), now lives in the host country with his German wife and their child. He said that he had planned to pursue a career as a marine biologist and now works as a photographer in his spare time. Because Morn never spoke on DS9, the actor recited a list - in German - of the top ten things he wished he had been able to say.

Suzie Plakson, who played both K'Ehleyr on DS9 and Tarah on Enterprise, said that in her first role as a Vulcan on The Next Generation, she had to struggle not to giggle at the cast's famous antics. She was appalled that K'Ehleyr - a Klingon, the mother of Worf's child - was killed without fighting back, and found the 18-hour days on Star Trek very different from her work in sitcoms, where she agreed with a fan that she tended to be typecast as a sarcastic person because Hollywood tends to "have a limited view of women."

Despite Plakson's regrets about K'Ehleyr's fate, fans told Michael Dorn that they believed Jadzia and Worf had made a perfect couple until Terry Farrell left the series. "She was a pretty good kisser," Dorn said, calling Star Trek the best twelve years of his life. "Worf is funny because he is so deadly serious about everything," he noted. He said that the Next Gen actors had tried to incorporate humor even into the somber Insurrection, and said that it took a year to bring a sense of humour to DS9.

Though Dorn joked that he doesn't like Riker, who his onetime series love Deanna Troi ended up marrying, Frakes made himself immensely popular with the audience, poking fun at Shatner for failing to appear and calling his crewmates "the most disrespectful cast I ever worked with." He was sorry that Riker did not get his own command sooner, and objected to having to play poker with "Geordi who can see through the cards, then Marina who feels everything and Worf who will beat you up. I can only beat Dr. Crusher." He said that North and South would always be special to him because he fell in love with his wife while filming it. As to the future of Star Trek, "They just like to make money...we will rise from the ashes, and I want to be a part of it."

The convention also featured an appearance by the Enterprise Blues Band, consisting of several Star Trek guest actors and crew who had come together after Vaughn Armstrong (Forrest) discovered that convention crowds loved his harmonica. Bobbi Sue Luther, who played one of the Orion slave girls from Enterprise, declared that President Bush "makes us [Americans] look ignorant and stupid" which earned her much applause.

Other guests included guest villains Scott L. Schwartz and Scott MacDonald, plus The X-Files' Dean Haglund. A more complete report on the convention is at Ex Astris Scientia.

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