August 11th – 15th was the grand daddy of all Star Trek Conventions, Star Trek Las Vegas. This year GeekyKool contributor Jon Tessler, was fortunate enough to be able to attend. It was 5 days of meeting actors and actresses, getting autographs, buying t-shirts, and helping with the Axanar display by shooting photos for Axanar social media. With much understatement, I will say I had a “blast”. I made a lot of new friends, saw Axanar actors I hadn’t seen since 2018, finally got to meet Vance Major Owen of Minard fame, along with Joshua Michael Irwin from the Avalon Universe. I also saw many actors from various Trek shows, and took a ton of photos. So without further delay, here is what happened.
Wednesday, Ashley Grant and I arrived in Vegas, and to say it is a “dry heat” is a big time understatement. A dry heat is worse than a humid heat is so many ways. Since I suffer from COPD and Asthma, the heat made it very hard to breath at times, throughout the week, but our hotel room was nice and cool. I spent the first day simply walking around the Con after getting checked in, trying to soak it all in. Everywhere you looked there were cosplayers, and multiple rooms set aside for various functions. The official start of the convention was at 12:30pm when Chase Masterson(who played Leeta on DS9) welcomed everyone back for another year. Last years Con was cancelled due to Covid, and with the uptick in cases, there were a lot of rules people had to follow. You had to wear a mask at all times, you had to have your Covid vaccine card showing both shots, or get tested prior to being allowed entry. If you didn’t have your shots, you got tested on site on Wednesday, but if you stayed for the entire weekend, you had to do a second test on Friday to be cleared for the rest of the weekend.
Thursday – I spent Thursday talking to Actors that I already knew from Axanar such as Steven Jepson(Admiral Slater) and Gary Graham(Ambassador Soval), while also finally meeting actors such as Tracee Cocco(Lt. Jae from ST:TNG) that I was friends with on Facebook. Tracee is a “hoot” as she LOVES going to conventions, and meeting fans. besides Lt Jae, she also played numerous alien characters across multiple Trek Series. She holds the record by appearing as more than 60 Aliens. Lt Jae also appeared in various TNG movies. I also met Robin Curtis who played Lt. Saavik in Star Trek 3 and Star Trek 4. She is currently a licensed real estate agent in upstate NY(she had held her real estate license for more than 20 years)
Thursday was also the first day of the Fan Film Panels that was hosted by Hollywood film critic Scott Mantz. Thursday focused on Vance Major Owen, and was basically a Q&A session. Scott Mantz was shocked to hear that Vance had made a total of 108 fan films, using nothing more than his Iphone as a camera. For Vance, the joy at being both at STLV, and having a film critic such as Scott Mantz talking to him, blew his mind. Vance always seems to think he is not as important in the fan film community because he doesn’t try and make anything look “professional”. The validation that Vance got both at the convention from people who have seen his work, and being featured on the fan film panels, was a major boost to Vance both as an actor and as a person. Vance had a really big smile on his face, the entire time, and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
Thursday Night, Ashley and I decided to go out to dinner on our own(most nights we got together with the Axanar crew for dinner). We wound up going to the Paris Casino and hotel and ate at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant. If I said the food was delicious, it would be an understatement. Ashley got the Beef Wellington, and I got the 10oz Filet Mignon. When people talk about steaks that cut like butter and melt in your mouth, THIS is EXACTLY what they are talking about. It was hands down the best meal either of us have ever eaten. it was worth EVERY dollar we spent on it( and that was a lot of dollars, when adding in the tip).
Friday – Friday was spent taking photos of cosplayers(those photos will be shared in a separate blog), helping out at the Axanar table, and going to the Avalon Universe fan film panel. There are a lot of big things brewing in the Avalon Universe, as Joshua Michael Irwin debuted a rough cut of the next film in the saga, one that was so new, that he was sitting in a corner doing editing and trying to get it finished before his panel. Joshua was joined on his panel by Vance, Crysstal Hubbard and Pixi Nereid(a new addition to the Avalon Universe).
Saturday – Saturday was the Axanar fan panel, and Alec Peters and some of the actors gave updates about the plans for going forward. Alec is trying to wrap up filming in October and November(depending on Covid and its rules), and them hopefully premier the next 2 parts at STLV 2022. I was still talking to actors, and taking pictures, by this point everything was a bit of a blur(lol), the days began to run together, I hadn’t been to a convention since 2017, and that was only a one day Comic Con.
Sunday – Sunday was my busiest day as far as getting autographs from actors, as a lot of the main actors were only there for 1 day. Sunday was also “Discovery day” as most of the Discovery panels were held on this day. the Fan film panel was Stalled Trek Animator Mark Largent, and he premiered this latest puppet parody “City on the Edge of Foreclosure”. Having already seen the film(I was a donor to the film), I was mostly interested in the audience reaction to it, and it was positive. Since the film is currently entered in a lot of Fan Film Award panels, I can not say how soon it will be released on Youtube, but when it is, I will make sure to share it here on Geekykool.
Monday, Ashley and I flew home, and I have taken the past week or so to recover. I have a bunch of cosplay photos to share from myself and other friends, and will compile those in another blog later this week. This was my first time visiting the Trek Convention held in Las Vegas, and while I was impressed with it, there were some things that Creation can do to make it run better. When purchasing tickets and autographs online, there is not a clear message that Autograph PDF tickets need to be printed out. Also the logistics for the main pavilion autograph actors needs to be better planned. A lot of the actors ran late to start, and the staff, don’t find out when and where people should line up for autographs until around 5 minutes prior to the start. Also autographs are done starting with Gold ticket purchasers, then those who pre-bought online, then everyone else. This is different than every other Con I have been to, where it is first come, first serve.
Next year the Con moves from the Rio Hotel to Ballys, I will probably go again, simply to get the autographs I missed due to actors cancelling their appearances. The week was fun, if not tiring. Trek fans proved they could come together and have a good time.
