During the weekend of Creation Entertainment's 9th Annual Grand Slam Convention, some fan organizations took the opportunity to hold their own events outside Pasadena. Friday night some convention-goers hopped on the freeway to Monrovia to sit down for dinner with Ferengi, Cardassians, shapeshifters and spies. Several cast members from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and other special guests were on hand to celebrate the third Star Trek series, to support charity and talk about what they're currently up to.

For example, Rene Auberjonois ("Odo") will be on an upcoming episode of Frazier, and Armin Shimerman ("Quark") and his wife Kitty Swink ("Minister Rozahn" in "Sanctuary") recently did a made-for-TV movie together called "Best Intentions." Coincidently, the movie will also star Casey Biggs ("Damar") as Kitty's husband. Shimerman and Swink have also been working with the Screen Actors Guild on current contract negotiations, and recently headed up a very detailed study on residual payments for actors. "That's right, they left the Ferengi with the numbers," Shimerman said. Not to be left out, Andrew J. Robinson ("Garak"), hinted that he may continue his fiction-writing endeavors that began with "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – A Stitch in Time."

Gayle Stever, president of several DS9 actor fan clubs, emceed the dinner and announced that, "While Deep Space Nine sadly ended, DS9 fandom is still alive and well." She noted that the fan clubs have grown in size over the last two years, and have raised over a quarter of a million dollars for charity. This particular event benefited the Save the Children Fund, Doctors Without Borders and Guide Dogs for the Blind. The amount raised for the evening was approximately $6,500.

Also at the dinner were Max Grodenchik ("Rom"), William Sadler (Section 31's "Sloan"), Aron Eisenberg ("Nog") and Chase Masterson ("Leeta"). Other featured guests included Lolita Fatjo, Eric Stillwell, Bjo Trimble, and Larry Nemecek and J. Kelley Burke. Fatjo was pre-production coordinator and script coordinator for Star Trek: The Next Generation, ST: DS9 and Star Trek: Voyager. Stillwell was pre-production associate for ST: TNG and co-writer of "Yesterday's Enterprise" (TNG) and "Prime Factors" (Voyager). Bjo Trimble is one of Star Trek's most prominent fans; she created the original Star Trek Concordance, has been writing fan literature since the 1960's, and, most importantly, has often been credited for helping to save Star Trek from cancellation in the '60s when she and her husband John began a letter-writing campaign to the NBC network. Nemecek and Burke co-wrote the story for Voyager's "Prophecy"; Larry is also editor of the Star Trek Communicator magazine and authored the "Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion."

Story & photos by Sandy Stone