Creation Entertainment's Grand Slam XIII – The Sci-Fi Summit took place in Pasadena this past weekend to a slightly smaller audience than in years past, but the event held many nice surprises for those in attendance.

George Takei

George Takei ("Sulu") was Grand Slam XIII's first guest speaker. At 1:00 p.m., Takei strode onstage and began greeting fans — some of them by name! One of the beneficiaries of Gene Roddenberry's inclusive outlook, Takei welcomed fans from places like Germany, Britain, Australia, and Singapore.

Takei made a few observations about the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise. He said that he knows the actors are disappointed because the show was not allowed to complete its run, just like the original Star Trek so many decades ago. Takei also said that the fans must be pained, too. However, he tried to find a silver lining in the cloud by declaring that the cancellation of the Original Series was what made everyone notice how intense the fan support was for the series.

During his Q&A session, Takei talked about his involvement in the Japanese-American community. He shared a moving story with the audience about a Japanese-American-only Army unit during World War II. The soldiers in that unit volunteered to scale a 2,000-ft.-high sheer cliff in the fight against the Nazis. In the middle of the night, several brave Japanese-American soldiers fell off the cliff, but none of them made a sound as they plunged to their deaths because any noise could've alerted the Germans of a surprise attack. In the morning, the Japanese-American unit took an enemy position that had withstood several months of air bombing.

Takei closed by repeating a line of dialogue that he used constantly throughout his appearance — Spock's "There are always possibilities." His words were meant to encourage fans of Enterprise as well as to remind people of Gene Roddenberry's optimistic, forward-looking philosophy.

Gates McFadden

Looking very summery and casual, Gates took center stage on Friday to a friendly reception.

An admiring fan told Gates that she was a strong, sexy, beautiful and smart character. To this, Gate replied that one of the key points in her taking the role was that her character could be all these things. She initially turned down the offer of the part of Dr. Beverly Crusher, but it was only after Gene Roddenberry assured her that the character would not be a stereotype that she agreed to take the role. However, Gates added, it didn't quite pan out exactly as she had hoped. She did feel that Gene knew, based on his experiences as a father, how important it was to portray her as a mother first, and a doctor who happened to be beautiful and intelligent as well. "I think he saw how important it was to spend time with your children. And that was part of the idea [on Star Trek: The Next Generation] to have children on board the ship. Which was a terrific idea. I loved that idea."

A true astronaut at heart, Gates also remarked how she would love to venture into space, if it were at all possible and feasible. Her biggest laugh of the afternoon came when someone asked her about whether she regretted being divorced from Captain Picard in the alternate future as viewed in "All Good Things..."

"Oh no, because I got a great settlement in the divorce."

Chase Masterson

After a couple of song-and-dance numbers from her CD "The Thrill of the Chase," Chase Masterson ("Leeta") told a story about her very first day on the set of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. She was really excited to be on the show, and while she was getting made up she went into the Hair trailer and found the star, Avery Brooks, there. "What Avery was doing in the Hair trailer, I don't know..." Chase was "a little too perky," admittedly, and kept chattering on and on about how thrilled she was to be there. "And Avery looked at me with that Avery look, and he said, 'Goodbye, Kathy.'" He kept trying to get rid of her, calling her "Kathy" for some reason. So she said, "I'm not Kathy, I never even played a Kathy." She continued, "And he took one long, hard Avery-Brooks look at me and said, 'Nordic Track.' Okay — I did a Nordic Track infomercial, like, eight years ago, and here, Avery Brooks, the star, is reminding me of it! How embarrassing! I took one long, hard Chase-Masterson look at him and I said, 'Avery — I got paid for doing it. What's your excuse for watching it?' He was nice to me after that."

Robert Picardo

Robert Picardo ("The Doctor") took the stage specifically to raise money for three of his favorite charities: The Pasadena Playhouse/State Theatre of California; the San Gabriel Valley chapter of Habitat for Humanity; and the Planetary Society. He had items he "stole" from the set of Voyager (actually, they were donated by the art directors), including a large panel from Engineering, which he auctioned off for $1800; a smaller Engineering sub-panel from the Bridge, which sold for $800; Picardo's call sheet from his last day of work on Voyager (with the notation "WF" which means "Work Finished"), along with a picture of the Doctor and Data together with the caption "Real Men Hard to Find? Get with the Program," which together went for $400; and a cap from the final season of the show, autographed by all cast members, selling for $500.

John deLancie

John de Lancie, who frequently plays the omnipotent god-like Q, greeted fans by catching them up with what he's been doing recently. Right now, he's working with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra on a series of shows about composers like Beethoven and Schubert. He's been directing operas and plays, too.

A consummate prankster, de Lancie said that his favorite "practical joke" moment during his time on TNG wasn't even really a practical joke. In one scene, Q was supposed to be naked, and he was wearing a g-string that accorded him some semblance of privacy. However, no one could get a good camera angle that would obscure the g-string's strings, so de Lancie simply took off his teeny underwear and shot the scene au naturel.

Reflecting on his career, de Lancie found it ironic that, on the stage in theatrical productions, he is often typecast as a nice father while he's often typecast as the villain in movies and TV shows. When asked if he knew who the Organians are, he mockingly asked a question of his own: "Are they big jerks like me?" As impish as he is, de Lancie picked a very serious episode as one of his all-time faves. He praised Michael Piller's exceptional writing for the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Death Wish", a story about a Q who sought the right to commit suicide.

Jerry Hardin

Jerry Hardin is perhaps most famous for his role as the shadowy "Deep Throat" in The X-Files, but to Star Trek fans he will always be "Samuel Clemens" aka "Mark Twain" from "Time's Arrow." He fit the role so well that during filming of the first part of that season cliffhanger, both the producer and the director of the episode urged him to do Twain on stage. Hardin thanked them for the compliment and said, "Well, y'know, Hal Holbrook's been doing it for 40 years — he'd put out a contract on me!" But during summer hiatus he started reading material by Twain again, which he hadn't done since he was a child. "He's really a funny man! And very wise, and very contemporary!" Hardin said. "I was just fascinated by the wonderful things he told and how he took what were essentially folk tales and made classic stories out of them." And when he came back to the TNG set for Part II, he announced, "Well, you guys talked me into it, I'm gonna do Twain!" And the director, Les Landau, said, "Great, I'll direct it! When do we start?" Hardin replied, "Whoa, wait a minute, I haven't written it yet!" Subsequently Hardin did put together a one-man show called "Mark Twain on Man & His World," which he has been performing at various venues ever since. "It's been 10 years now that I've been doing Mr. Twain, and I still love to be in his company." So far Hal Holbrook hasn't caught up with him, apparently.

James Darren

James Darren, "Vic Fontaine" in DS9, traded places on the schedule with Nichelle Nichols when she got stuck in traffic on the way to Pasadena. The cordial Darren greeted the audience by saying, "Nice to see you people. I feel like I'm running for office — maybe mayor." (There was a mayoral election in Los Angeles the previous week.) Darren then jumped right into his Q&A session.

He talked about working with William Shatner on T.J. Hooker, and later talked about his close friendships with people like Sandra Dee, Bobby Darin, and Frank Sinatra [Uh, what episodes where they in again? - Ed.]. He admitted that many people confused him with Bobby Darin because he acted opposite Sandra Dee (Darin's wife) and because they both sang and acted. Darren's style reminds one of the Rat Pack; indeed, Darren was essentially an honorary member. He worked with Joey Bishop in Las Vegas for a while, and he was close friends with Frank Sinatra. In fact, Darren is the godfather of Nancy Sinatra's first child.

When asked about the reasons for the success of the episode "It's Only a Paper Moon" (where Nog tries to cope with the loss of his leg during the Dominion War), Darren cited the characters' popularity with viewers. He also praised executive producer Ira Behr for having the courage to hire an old-style singer to do something like Star Trek, and for the ability to focus on two supporting characters without losing any integrity or audience interest.

Nichelle Nichols

The audience welcomed Nichelle Nichols ("Uhura") with a standing ovation. She spent most of her time on stage talking about her special relationship with Paris, France. "This last week, I was in Paris. It snowed for the first time there in 20-something years." She reminisced about going to Paris as a young woman; she remembers wanting to stay there forever.

Nichols, who started her career as a singer, recounted how she was doing a show in London during the 1960's, when she took a mini-vacation in Paris. While in Paris, she got several telegrams which she ignored. When Nichols' agent called to ask why she was ignoring her telegrams, Nichols said, "I don't know what a 'Star Trek' is."

Nichols was later asked about her championing of NASA. She said that she once didn't know much about NASA. However, at a convention in Chicago during the early 1970's, she told a huge throng of admirers greeting her in a hotel lobby that she simply wanted to attend a speech given by a NASA astronaut, that she didn't want to talk about Star Trek until her scheduled time the next day. Her fans then followed her into the auditorium where the astronaut was speaking!

Soon, NASA was inviting the Star Trek regulars to take tours of NASA facilities. Nichols accepted the offer. Every time that she went to a NASA building, departments would take turns shutting down so that NASA employees could meet one of their idols. In 1978, Nichols began recruiting women and minorities to work for NASA.

The cabaret on Friday night included performances by Darren, Masterson, Nichols and, in a rare musical appearance, George Takei singing a cappella!