Last week's Slanted Fedora 35th Anniversary Convention at the Alexis Park Hotel in Las Vegas was one of the biggest gatherings of Star Trek stars and personalities in recent memory. Picking up where our Day One report left off, the following is a continuation of our convention coverage.

DAY TWO — FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7

Events got rolling on the second day of the convention in multiple venues throughout the hotel, with the day devoted primarily to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and its stars. In the main hall, the Parthenon Room, the first chunk of the day was spent by DS9 stars Nana Visitor ("Kira Nerys"), Cirroc Lofton ("Jake Sisko"), Nicole deBoer ("Ezri Dax"), Andrew J. Robinson ("Garak"), Armin Shimerman ("Quark") and Alexander Siddig ("Julian Bashir") signing autographs for fans.

Later events in the Parthenon Room during Friday included sessions with the individual DS9 stars throughout the afternoon, closing out with a group session of all the actors. The session ended with a song from James Darren (DS9's holo-crooner Vic Fontaine).

Over on the Zeus Stage, the "small" ballroom, numerous more intimate presentations filled out the day's events, including a special panel of Klingons including Robert O'Reilly ("Gowron"), Barbara March and Gwynyth Walsh (the murderous Duras sisters, Lursa and B'Etor) and Spice Williams (Vixis from "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier"). Also on the Zeus Stage were visits with Original Series cast members George Takei ("Hikaru Sulu"), Walter Koenig ("Pavel Chekhov"), Nichelle Nichols ("Uhura"), James Doohan ("Montgomery Scott") and Majel Barrett-Roddenberry ("Christine Chapel," "Lwaxana Troi").

A truly special event on the Zeus Stage was an hour with some actual space travelers, Apollo and Gemini astronaut Dick Gordon and NASA Shuttle Commander and pilot Rick Searfoss, talking with fans about what it's really like to venture into the final frontier — while apologizing for using too many NASA acronyms in their vocabulary.

Another event of interest on Friday on the Zeus Stage was a session with Marc Alaimo ("Gul Dukat"), Casey Biggs ("Damar") and Jeffrey Combs (the Vorta Weyoun and the Ferengi Liquidator Brunt, as well as appearances on Star Trek: Voyager and an upcoming episode of Enterprise). Biggs pointed out that the trio comprises "the ABC's of Star Trek: Alaimo, Biggs and Combs!" Combs wouldn't reveal much about his impending Enterprise appearance, but did whip the crowd into frenzy when he shouted "It's gonna rock!!"

The evening had something for almost everyone as actors from the various Star Trek shows gave a variety of special performances. In the Zeus room, the "ABC's" — Alaimo, Biggs and Combs — reprised their stage show "What Shakespeare Leaves Behind," followed by Marina Sirtis and Michael Dorn reading from Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite." Meanwhile in the main ballroom, John de Lancie read the story poem "The Devil & Billy Markham" by Shel Silverstein, and later Robert Picardo opened for "the Vulcan Elvis," Tim Russ (who is now sporting a Sisko look—bald and goateed), singing with Neil Norman and his Cosmic Orchestra.

Alaimo, Biggs and Combs celebrated the Bard by performing a variety of scenes, sonnets and soliloquies from plays ranging from "Richard III" to "A Midsummer Night's Dream." After Combs portrayed the female lead in "Romeo & Juliet" (in the fine tradition of Shakespearean theatre), the ex-Vorta quipped, "I've said it before, I'll say it again, it takes a man to play that scene!" The trio closed with a rapid-fire recitation of phrases common in the English language, pointing out that every time you use those phrases, "You are quoting Shakespeare."

When Robert Picardo took the stage with the orchestra he crooned some of the song parodies from his "Basic Bob" CD, but now with some updated lyrics. In a song bemoaning the end of Voyager with the refrain "Will you still love me tomorrow," he changed a couple of lines to: "Though I'm successful, fan-wise, you haven't checked out — En-ter-prise" and "Trek fans are like Drac-u-la ... They crave fresh blood — like Bak-u-la." (He later admitted, "Bakula is a very hard word to rhyme — I thought of 'spatula' first, then I came up with the only word that actually rhymes with 'Bakula.'")

Meanwhile at the Poolside Stage outside the ballroom area, the fans themselves got to do a little singing during "Klingon Karaoke." Many who participated would like to forget that experience, so we won't report any specifics here.