Convention Circuit - Least Favorite Person Associated With Trek?

[Lonemagpie]

Has anyone met Andrew Robinson or Alexander Siddig? I'd really like to know whether they're jerks or not.

They're not jerks. I still associate Robinson with being Scorpio in Dirty Harry (yeah, showing my age here) but he's so polite and cuddly it's unbelievable. Sid's a nice guy and remembered who I was after a five year gap - that's pretty good going.

I have to say I've had no real bad experiences with any Trek folks I've met either as an attendee or as a fellow guest. Maybe this is because I haven't met the wrong ones, and maybe it's because I've tended to meet them at smaller fan-run UK cons rather than big expos.

Um... Lemme think of the variations...

Walter (and I last met him in the mid-noughties) could be distant and surly at one con and dancing on the tables (literally, I've seen him do that) the next. I'm told it depends on whether his wife is wife him or not. (I'm much the same - I'm a lot happier if my wife is wife me)

Jennifer Lien is kind of a martyr, trapped between a phobia of crowds and a desire to give something to the fans. You have to admire her dedication to doing something (cons) that obviously makes her uncomfortable. She'd never be rude but she might shy away from you...

Everybody else I've met from Trek ranges from polite and professional (Rene, for example, or John De Lancie) to an outright bundle of fun (Max Grodenchik, Garrett Wang, Marina, etc)

 

[1001001]

I have met almost everyone over the years.

Shatner is a douchebag. That's all I have to say about that.

Dominic Keating was a drunken mess. He was loudly giving the waitress a hard time in the bar...at 4:00 in the afternoon! BUT...with the fans he was great. So different than his character.

We saw Frakes and Sirtis together. They were both wonderful. Very open and friendly. She's hilarious. And not to be trifled with! She and I had a conversation about Nemesis, and she had plenty to say about that. She is one of my favorites.

John de Lancie was entertaining, but a bit...haughty.

One celeb I did not care for was Suzie Plakson. She was very stand offish, and not very polite. I went up to her table in the dealer's room and attemtped to engage her in conversation, and I got one word answers and the death stare. No one else was there at her table, and I still felt like I was interrupting her.

We saw Roxann Dawson and Robert Duncan MacNeill together. They were both very nice. She is the tiniest little thing!

My daughter and I met Gates McFadden, and she was great. My daughter was having her picture taken with her, and the camera malfunctioned. Instead of sending her away, Gates sat there and engaged her in conversation, and remembered her all throughout the weekend.

Nana Visitor was very funny and very sweet. She's a total space cadet. Extremely fan-friendly.

And of course, another of my favorite encounters was with Kate Mulgrew. I loved Captain Janeway, and meeting her was a real treat. She is something else. The energy coming off her is palpable.

There are lots more, but I think those are the highlights. Almost everyone we've met has been at least nice and professional, and many are just great.

 

[FredH]

But anyway, looking like he does, he obviously gets looks when he's on a plane, especially in first class.

I don't really understand that. Sure, he's Arabic, but I only know that because I know who he is. Seems to me he just looks Caucasian.

 

[JRS]

We saw Roxann Dawson and Robert Duncan MacNeill together. They were both very nice. She is the tiniest little thing!

Sounds cool. I would love to meet Roxann myself, though not sure If its going to happen anytime soon.
Would love to ask her more about her experiences as a director and so on.


I have sadly been only in couple of conventions( both CzechTrek ones) but at least I have had good time on both
I have met the following actresses:

Marina Sirtis
She was really cool, wonderful and looked great
Told many interesting and funny stories, made good hearted fun of her fellow castmember..and also about herself.
When was time for me to get her autograph, I was so nervous and excited, that I managed to say only "Thank you, very much" to her.
The funniest and most memorable thing happened during the photosession. Its my turn and I go next to her, place my hand around her back(gently)..and the camera goes flash!..and I quickly head towards the rooms exit, when I hear Marina yelling "Wait..Come back".
It seems that the photo didint succeed, because I blinked on the wrong moment..thus we needed to take another one...and still a third one. I thanked her and we parted company.
(My girlfriend joked that I did the blinking on purpose, so I could stay at Marinas side a little bit longer)

Nana Visitor
I met Nana Visitor last year.
She was absolutly wonderful, warm..and so much fun
The "submarine sex" joke that she made about the translator really bought the house down , right from the start.
Nana was seriously happy to be in Czech..and told many interesting stories from DS9..and from her current life also.
During the autographing I chatted a with her a bit It was really like meeting an old friend. She was very open and friendly towards everybody, even if some people chatted with her quite a while.
The photosession was good also.

 

[Admiral Shran]

Anybody met Scott Bakula? I've heard he's a pretty easy going guy.

 

[sbk1234]

I used to be a Civil War reinactor. Some of the other reinactors from my group worked with Scott on the Civil War episode of Quantum Leap. They had nothing but good t hings to say about Scott. Said he was pretty nice.
I'm still pissed I didn't get to do it.

 

[od0_ital]

Anybody met Scott Bakula? I've heard he's a pretty easy going guy.

A couple friends of mine met him a couple of years ago at a big Quantum Leap convention in California. They said he was nice.

Didn't really go into detail, maybe 'cause I was jealous about not gettin' to go, even though I had a ticket & a hotel reservation. The friend who was goin' to pay for half the hotel & handle gettin' our airline tickets flaked on me.

Dammit.

 

[Botany Bay]

Anybody met Scott Bakula? I've heard he's a pretty easy going guy.

I've never met him, but I've got a story.

I was having dinner with some TBBS posters at a restaurant during a convention in LA once, and Bakula (or his agent) arranged for some champagne bottles to be sent to the table.

This was just after Enterprise had been cancelled, too, so it was a wonderful gesture.

I'd have to agree with T'Bonz about Blalock or whatever her name is. Her Q and A session was terrible. I thought she was either stoned, not very bright, or both.

As a life-long TOS obsessive, I was also a bit disappointed George Takei didn't even look up to acknowledge me when I said hello at an autograph line, particularly given the many stories I'd heard about how enthusiatic he is with fans. But there must have been 100 people wanting his signature in that line, so I can understand him wanting to get it over with. Also, his Q and A session beforehand didn't go smoothly, so maybe he was in a bad mood and just wanted to get out of there.

Compared with some of the stories in this thread, I have nothing to complain about though. I really feel for some of you guys. Discovering one of your heroes is a complete asshole is not pleasant.

All my other experiences were fantastic, including (luckily it seems), my short chats with Shatner.

Must agree also with the poster who mentioned Gary Lockwood - very cool guy, and will talk for ages with you.

But my all time favourite? TOS producer Bob Justman. I'd always admired him and his massive contribution to Star Trek. I was thrilled when he turned out to be funny, quirky, intelligent and down to earth. He seemed genuinely thrilled when I pulled out my old battered copy of his book Inside Star Trek to sign. He talked with me for much longer than he should have, holding up the line and coming over to chat when his autograph session finished.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

Anybody met Scott Bakula? I've heard he's a pretty easy going guy.

I've never met him, but I've got a story.

I was having dinner with some TBBS posters at a restaurant during a convention in LA once, and Bakula (or his agent) arranged for some champagne bottles to be sent to the table.

This was just after Enterprise had been cancelled, too, so it was a wonderful gesture.

Awww...

Any idea how he or his agent figured out that you needed a drink?

 

[Botany Bay]

Actually, nobody at the table needed a drink. It was a typical TBBS gathering - tequila shots and god knows what else were flying around everywhere.

It was a big gathering, in the middle of a big convention - there were Trek staff everywhere and one of the Ent production team was sitting at our table, so I'm guessing Bakula/his assistant found out through them, or they could have read the thread organising the dinner here on the BBS.

Whoever arranged it, it was an awesome gesture that just capped off a great night.

 

[Too Much Fun]

I haven't been to many conventions, but the two people I most enjoyed meeting were Levar Burton and Denise Crosby. Burton was cool because he would let fans take a picture with him for no charge, while Michael Dorn sitting right beside him wouldn't. As the friend I went with said: Burton is a classy guy.

Denise Crosby was great too. I wish I hadn't been so nervous around her, though. All I managed to say was, "it was nice to meet you" to which she responded, "it was nice to meet YOU!", sounding genuinely enthusiastic, as if I'm some big shot or something. Sweet lady.

To the person upset that Spiner was snotty in response to someone saying they were sad about Data being killed, consider the fact that it was partially, or maybe even entirely his decision (he had story credit on "Nemesis", so naturally he wouldn't care about that). I agree, though, that he should be a little more tactful than just smugly dismissing the statement because of Data being a fictional character.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

It's a good thing I didn't hear that--because I would've been sorely tempted to say, "A fictional character that you acted, and you'd think you'd be able to take a compliment to how well you portrayed that character, LIKE A MAN."

I don't think I would've had the guts to do it, though.

 

[Tora Ziyal]

Saw Dominic Keating at Shore Leave last year. I didn't meet him myself, but I watched him signing autographs for a while. He seemed to be having a good time and was very friendly. May or may not have been sober.

The only actors I've actually talked w/ are Dominic West and Sonja Sohn from The Wire. I approached them during a pause in filming on the street in front of where I worked at the time. They were both very friendly and happy to sign autographs.

 

[JiNX-01]

Saw Dominic Keating at Shore Leave last year. I didn't meet him myself, but I watched him signing autographs for a while. He seemed to be having a good time and was very friendly. May or may not have been sober.

From what I've heard, I would vote for "Not."

 

[species5618]

The only actors I've actually talked w/ are Dominic West and Sonja Sohn from The Wire. I approached them during a pause in filming on the street in front of where I worked at the time. They were both very friendly and happy to sign autographs.

I freaking LOVE The Wire, and would have loved to have met those two! I did meet Jamie Hector (Marlo Stanfield) at a photography exhibition in Toronto a few months ago though--he was really friendly, cracking jokes, and he was more than happy to pose for photos with my friends and I.

 

[Paradon]

One celeb I did not care for was Suzie Plakson. She was very stand offish, and not very polite. I went up to her table in the dealer's room and attemtped to engage her in conversation, and I got one word answers and the death stare. No one else was there at her table, and I still felt like I was interrupting her.

Suzie Plankson is like Medusa...? I kindda like her, though...as an actor! I never thought she's like this.... She played a Klingon woman very well, though.... She kindda has that personality that can turn even the strongest toughest men into stone...!

 

[ClayinCA]

When I met Suzie at Shore Leave, waaaaaay back when she had first joined Trek, she was awesome. Bright, gregarious, friendly, and danced with me at the TenForward party Saturday night. (I was too tongue-tied to know what to do. But she looked like she was having a good time!)

 

[JiNX-01]

One celeb I did not care for was Suzie Plakson. She was very stand offish, and not very polite. I went up to her table in the dealer's room and attemtped to engage her in conversation, and I got one word answers and the death stare. No one else was there at her table, and I still felt like I was interrupting her.

Really? She was very nice to me, friendly and chatty at Creation Parsippany in 2009.

 

[FastForward]

My first con experience was at "Hal-Con" here in eastern Canada this past fall. It's a broad based con featuring SF, fantasy, comics, etc. Although the featured guests were Denise Crosby and Walter Koenig, there were a number of authors, comic book artist, video game developers, etc in attendance.

I went because of the costuming, and I spent a long time building a tribute to Master Chief from the Halo games. It was very well received, and at one point I was posing at the top of a small flight of stairs for pictures. There was a huge roar of laughter from the crowd and I turned to see Denise Crosby had crept up behind me and given me "bunny ears".

 

[Anwar]

You were at Hal-Con? So was I! I didn't get to see Walter Koenig though.

If you saw me, I was the guy in the Dead Jester Costume.