(Note: this entry refers to the weekend of Jan. 22-24, 2010. Yea, I’m a little slow at posting my blog entries!)
I was a virgin until this past weekend. A virgin with no clue as to how this was all going to go down. I’d heard the stories and rumors and even saw bits and pieces of video clips. But I didn’t know whether it was going to chafe or leave me wanting more. Over the course of two highly anticipated days, I popped my sci-fi geek cherry and I got my answer.
I attended my very first Official Star Trek convention in San Francisco at the Westin St. Francis Hotel on Union Square. Patrick Stewart and William Shatner headlined with Armin Shimerman, Max Grodenchik, and various minor, but no less entertaining, players.
Time for a little background. I don’t really qualify as a serious Star Trek geek. I’m more of an enthusiast compared to the many die-hards I saw at the convention. But I still have mad love for Trek. It wasn’t always this way. It was more like I had like for Trek.
I grew up watching the reruns of Star Trek: TOS with the original Kirk, Spock, Bones, and gang. I saw all the films either on the big screen or on VHS (old school, baby). My favorites were Wrath of Khan and Voyage Home (not for the whales, but the comedy). It wasn’t Star Wars, but I still generally liked Trek because, well, I love sci-fi. In other words, Trek was OK whereas Star Wars rocked.
And then Star Trek: TNG hit the airwaves. It took a few episodes but I was really hooked. I became one of the TNG-is-better-than-TOS camp. Now, I was bi-sci-fi. I loved both Star Wars and Star Trek (as long as it was TNG). Favorite character of all time: Picard because he saves ass. 2nd favorite: Riker because he taps ass. Collectively, I liked all the women of TNG except of course for the replacement doctor in Season 2.
Flash forward to more recent years… I own the entire TNG series on DVD as well as the entire TNG Movie Collection box set (the most recent release as of this writing). I’ve watched the entire TNG series at least twice, counting the original airdates, and watched all the TNG movies multiple times on DVD, except for Nemesis which I only watched a second time to see whether it still sucked after all these years (it does). My wife got hooked when she joined me for my second viewing of the entire TNG series on DVD.
We’re both huge fans of the J.J. Abrams Star Trek film, too.
So, for my wife’s birthday this year, I surprised her with tickets to our very first Star Trek convention in one of her favorite cities. And my teen-hood hero, Captain Picard, was the main draw. I have a fun little story about this.
After probably about 2 hours of speaking to the crowd and doing Q&A on his own and then side-by-side with Shatner, it was time for Patrick Stewart to sign autographs. I had bought a ticket to get his autograph and stood in the extremely long line. I think by the time I got up to him an additional hour or two had passed.
From what I could tell, he hadn’t even had lunch. So I kind of assumed he’d be a little grumpy by the time I got up to him. Everyone in line had something flat and typical for him to sign – an 8×10 headshot of him, a poster with him on it as Picard, etc. – something easy and obvious so that he could whip right through the autograph session without too much delay. Oh but not me. I, the newbie, brought the frickin box to my Star Trek: The Next Generation Motion Picture Collection
DVD box set. It has absolutely no image of Picard on it. Instead it has a raised Federation lenticular logo on it (you can’t sign on top of the logo with a paint brush if you tried). So when I got up to Stewart, he looked down at the box, perplexed and a little annoyed. I had interrupted his flow. Now imagine 1st Season stern and crotchety Picard. The brief conversation, if you could call it that, went like this:
Stewart: “WHERE?!”
Me: “Um, right along the top is fine.”
Me: (As he’s signing my box) ”Thank you very much, Mr. Stewart.”
Stewart: (Looks me dead in the eye, still a tad annoyed) “You’re welcome.”
He passed the box to one of his handlers who gave it to me with a warm smile, probably to make up for the gruffness from Stewart.
I interrupted Stewart’s flow, got him to say (bark?) three words to me, and felt like a young Wesley Crusher getting his ass chewed out by the child-averse Captain of the Enterprise.
Awesome.
Overall, the convention was a lot of fun. I probably don’t need to attend another one ever unless Frakes is making an appearance. I wouldn’t mind chatting with No. 1. I hear he’s a bit more laid back. I must say though, getting Stewart to bark at me was the highlight of the experience. It’s a story I’ll tell for quite some time.