Official Creation Star Trek Con Philadelphia 2013 Day 3 Coverage

One more day left, so let’s just get to it. Sunday! Sunday! SUNDAY!!! Featuring Gates McFadden, Chase Masterson, Ethan Phillips, Rene Auberjonois and Aron Eisenberg. And if you missed the first two days, go back and read Friday and Saturday’s coverage.

Sunday

 
Sundays at these long cons are usually off days, as all the big fans come out on Saturday, and only the real hardcore people stick around for Sunday. This year they took it to another level by starting the morning out with the big autograph session, something that usually ends the day, so it can go on as long as it has to and you can just leave when you get your stuff signed without missing anything. Apparently it was to accommodate travel, but it made for a really weird vibe. In addition, it meant there was no way for you to get a photo op and get it signed, so that saved me a few bucks. The show opened at 10 am, but there wasn’t anything else happening until 12:30. I got my autographs and went and slept in my car for a hour and a half. It also didn’t help that Rene Auberjonois was doing custom sketches of Odo’s bucket to raise money for Doctors Without Borders. A great cause to be sure, but it does not lead to a fast moving line. Ethan Phillips took all of 4 minutes of waiting, then Rene Auberjonois took about 45 minutes, and that was for only like 35 people in front of me. At these thing I try to keep my fangirl in check. I hand them my thing to sign, give a quick thank you, and I’m on my way. Quick and considerate of all the other people in line behind me. We’re all fans here, but we all paid to see the guests, please don’t monopolize more than a minute of their time, especially if you can see the line snaking all the way to the back of the room. When they have their own table in the dealers room it’s a little different, but still, no more than a minute please. I’m generally in and out in 15 seconds. Though in those 15 seconds, Rene told me that 1600 Penn is most likely not coming back. No real shocker there, but he was quite good in it.

So once things finally started to get into swing, Gates McFadden was the first guest up. I spoke to her briefly in the dealers room the day before about how much I loved Marker, the much maligned first year UPN show with Richard Grieco. She told me that she’s never seen it to this day, and I said it appears to have dropped off into the ether, and will probably be lost forever like a show from the DuMont network with no DVD release. She then told me that it was several of her students from before her time on Star Trek that were involved in the creation/running of the show, and that they all eventually went on to Friends. I had no idea there was any relation between David Crane and Marta Kauffman and Gates McFadden, but apparently there is. Who knew?

That’s a good tip for talking to a guest from any type of genre show at one of these conventions. If the guests aren’t too busy, and you want to have a conversation to them, don’t talk to them about their main work. If you mention something obscure of theirs, they are much more likely to have a personal conversation with you. I always like to ask at least one question a con, so I asked Gates about her work on with the Muppets, and she said her favorite part of her time with the Jim Henson Workshop was having to teach David Bowie how to waltz for Labyrinth. She then spoke about how when she was filming Marker, she came down with appendicitis, and had to be rushed to the hospital. While she was there, when the doctor came in, he did a double take, and was like “Doctor Crusher?” He then proceeded to consult with her like she was actually a medical doctor, asking fo her opinion on his diagnosis and was showing her pictures and X-Rays he took during surgery like she knew what they were.

 
Next up was Chase Masterson, who apparently had a plane to catch, so her time was very brief. She told the same story she always tells about her first time meeting Avery Brooks and how he recognized her from a Nordic Track commercial. She then sang Pure Imagination, because Star Trek fans “get it”, and as a special for the 20th anniversary of Deep Space Nine, she closed with The Way You Look Tonight.

 
Then came more insanity. Not Cirroc Lofton Ark of the Covenant crazy, but still pretty messed up. Next was Ethan Phillips and Rene Auberjonois doing a reading as their characters from Benson. It was pretty much a non stop half hour of big dick and fart jokes. This was apparently something Creation requested. I have no idea why anyone would want to see two guests act as two characters from a 30 year old sitcom and do a Vaudeville act rather than an actual Q & A session based on the show the convention is actually about, but someone thought it was a good idea. While funny, it would not have been my first choice. If they want to do a theatrical reading, I’d be into that. They’ve done Shakespeare at these things before. But you wanna be dirty, shift it to the evening entertainment, not part of the main show when kids are around. Creation wastes a lot of time at these things, be it with skits like this rather than interactive time with guests, or playing fan made intro videos for each guest, rather then just bringing them out. If you saved that 5 minutes per guest over 10 guests, boom, space for another guest!

 
And rounding out the day and the con was Aron Eisenberg. Honestly, by this point in the con I was pretty much exhausted, and don’t really remember much of what he said. He did crash the very end of the Stump the Experts panel and had a good question which no one got. Who was the only actor he played against in both Voyager and Deep Space Nine? Patrick Kilpatrick. He ended the show by letting a 12 year old, who had the confidence of a serial killer and absolutely killed at Stump the Experts with obscure questions, end the show with some stock advice, which amounted to this: Pick a stock. Google the company. If any of the first 5 pages on the company contain the words “Star Wars”, do not invest in that company.

 
So, final thoughts? DS9 was always the bastard step child of the Trek family, and even though this was the 20th anniversary for DS9, this show didn’t pull like last year’s show for TNG‘s 25th. There weren’t as many hardcore fans (or just people in general), there wasn’t as much cosplay, and everyone seemed cheap. Last year at the auction autographed banners were going for $1000. This year one went for $325. It could be the economy, but there were no big spenders. Most of the lots never made it past $100, and bids were only increasing in $5 increments all show long. I only bought one thing all show, an art print autographed by Al Bean, Apollo 12 astronaut for $80. I also skipped out on photos/autographs with some of the guests who weren’t big names or who I couldn’t get to because of scheduling logistics. While I loved the character of Rom, Max Grodenchik is a hideous troll of a human being, and Aron Eisenburg is really short. Why they didn’t do a Ferengi shoot with all three including Armin Shimerman I have no idea, they were all there on Friday.

I think it’s come time that I’m gonna pass on future editions of these cons, even though they are 3 minutes from my house. It’s gotten to the point I’m not really learning anything I don’t already know. At the very least, I’m not gonna get the gold package, it’s just not worth the extra expense and the party is just not enough of an excuse for 3 minutes of meet of greet . I’ll bring a book and get a day pass and just wait for the named guests if I care, otherwise just see them all in the lobby. I also managed to save myself some money by buying everything but my admission in cash at the show, and didn’t end up paying tax and “delivery” fees to have them send me a pdf of my tickets to print out.

I did get some nice pictures though. And spent considerably less than last year.

• Price breakdown
• Gold Package – $326
• Armin Shimerman Photo – $40
• Vaughn Armstrong Photo – $35
• Casey Biggs Photo – $35
• Jeffrey Combs Photo – $35
• Gates McFadden Photo – $40
• Gates McFadden Autograph – $40
• Nana Visitor Photo – $40
• Michael Dorn Photo – $40
• Michael Dorn Autograph – $40
• Photos for Avery Brooks, Ethan Phillips, and Rene Auberjonois signatures – $18
• Frames for photos – $8
• The Outer Light graphic novel – $20
• Al Bean art – $80
• Final Cost – $797

 
In other words, I spent in the entirety of this con what I spent for one photo, just the photo, with all 5 captains at Wizard World last year.

JohnScott is the proud owner of a life size replica Captain Kirk Chair. He is a hoarder of Comic Books, Transformers, and Star Trek action figures. He attended Space Camp as an adult. He has taken vacations to the closing of the Star Trek Experience and the final night Shuttle launch. He has been known to yell at his television when the kids can't put together the damn statue in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. When not writing for InsufficientScotty, he is a Software Engineer for a major healthcare communications company. You can Email or follow on Twitter @NotEnoughScotty or Facebook