This is the last of a series of reports from Creation Entertainment's Grand Slam X convention held in Pasadena March 22-24. See also Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

A convention like Grand Slam brings Star Trek fans together from around the world, providing an opportunity to stage special events to raise money for charity, to put on a unique show, or to pay tribute to someone very special.

Breakfast on the Promenade

Now an annual staple to coincide with Grand Slam, the Breakfast on the Promenade charity event took place Sunday morning at the Holiday Inn in Monrovia (just down the freeway from Pasadena). The rousing early morning gala featured such luminaries from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as Casey Biggs (Damar), Jeffrey Combs (Brunt/Weyoun), Aron Eisenberg (Nog), Max Grodenchik (Rom), Chase Masterson (Leeta) and Andrew Robinson (Garak). (Photo by Charlie Wall)

Organized by the coordinators of several related fan clubs, the yearly breakfast raises money for several charities that are supported by the Deep Space Nine actors. Casey Biggs, raised an orphan himself, works for an orphanage called Penny Lane, while Chase Masterson's charity designate is Caring for Babies with AIDS. The other primary charity this year was the Save the Children fund. The Promenade event this year raised $13,000 dollars for these charities. (More information is available at NanaVision.com.)

This total came in part from certain special items that were auctioned by the celebrities, including a set of DS9 call sheets for which Robinson acquired a high bid of $400. A Bajoran earring, as worn by Major Kira, was hawked by Masterson for $2100. And a DS9 Press Kit went for $300 under the deft auctioneering of Eisenberg, Grodenchik and fellow "Ferengi Family" member Lolita Fatjo. Finally, Combs brought in a bid of $2200 for an Enterprise set tour.

"One of the most exciting things about having a fan club is the opportunity to raise money for charitable causes, and one of the causes that is closest to my heart is foster care, because I was in a foster home for so many years as a child," Biggs told STARTREK.COM. "Not only do the fans embrace these causes wholeheartedly, they continue to follow up and continue to donate the charities, and I'm always amazed how big their hearts and their pocketbooks are."

"Love Letters"

Going backwards chronologically, Saturday evening's special presentation was a reading of the A.R. Gurney play "Love Letters" by Star Trek: Voyager's Robert Duncan McNeill and Roxann Dawson. The piece traces the lifelong correspondence of the staid, dutiful lawyer Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and the lively, unstable artist Melissa Gardner, and the story of their bittersweet relationship gradually unfolds from what is written — and what is left unsaid — in their letters.

The reading brought tears to the audience's eyes. "It is the most moving thing I have seen in years," one fan told the actors the next day. McNeill commented, "When we rehearsed this play, Gurney, the playwright, says at the end, 'No, don't cry, the actors should not cry, you're just reading letters.' And I thought, 'Oh, why would I cry?' And then last night I got to the end of the play, and I really felt very moved, and I kept thinking, 'OK, Gurney said don't cry, don't cry...' It's a very sweet play." He and Dawson said they had a blast doing the reading and hoped to stage it again sometime.

Remembering Gene

Probably the most special event of the weekend took place Friday night, when Creation Entertainment sponsored "Remembering Gene: A night of fond remembrance of the man who made it all possible." Taking place in the convention center's Main Auditorium, it was a caravan of stars, fans and colleagues who took the stage one at a time to reminisce about the creative force behind the entire Star Trek phenomenon, Gene Roddenberry.

The night was hosted by Richard Arnold, a personal assistant to Roddenberry who remains an active participant in the fan community. "Gene, more than any other person in Hollywood that I have ever dealt with, understood the value of fans," Arnold recalled. "It's something that was a mystery to the studio — they didn't understand why he dealt with them, why he simply didn't just send the mail away the way everybody else did, why he put so much weight into the fans' comments, their letters, phone calls. It was always very important to him."

Two prominent fans who spoke were Bjo Trimble, who led the letter-writing campaign in 1968 to keep the original Star Trek alive for a third season, and Dan Madsen, president of the official fan club. Trimble remembered Roddenberry as being a man of his word, and Madsen said his life changed because of Star Trek. As a person of small stature, he was impressed by the fact that Roddenberry at one point considered casting Spock as a little person. "One of the things that I found so moving about Star Trek was that I felt like that there was a place for me in this world," Madsen said.

David Alexander, author of "Star Trek Creator: The Authorized Biography of Gene Roddenberry," said, "Gene was different things to different people. Someone impossible to pin down in a few words. So I wrote 300,000." He proceeded to recount numerous examples of Roddenberry's generous spirit, as expressed in both his personal and professional life.

Roddenberry's fellow producer on the Original Series, Bob Justman, recalled what it was like to reteam for Star Trek: The Next Generation. "We were back together again as if no time had intervened in between. It felt like we went home one night in 1969 and came back one day in 1986." But there was one big difference the second time around: "No network! There was no network! All that time that we wasted dealing with network's approval and disapproval and wanting changes of stories and/or scripts was gone. Paramount left us alone. They didn't interfere at all — well, once they did, and Gene bit them and they backed off and we never had any problems again... There was no censor. And guess what — we were responsible. We did the right thing. We didn't take advantage of the situation, and all was well on all fronts."

Not a Genius, but an Everyman

The first of the on-screen celebrities to come out and speak was Walter Koenig. "Now let me finish this next sentence before you start hissing and throwing tomatoes," he started. "I'm not convinced that he was a genius. But, I think what makes his life and his success so extraordinary is the fact that he was not a genius. He was in many ways an Everyman. An Everyman with a sense of idealism, with a philosophical bent that was very life-affirming. A person not unlike many of us. And I think that is a tremendous inspiration. Because knowing that he could achieve so much and have such an extraordinary effect on a society as he has had, I think gives us all some hope...some hope to make great contributions."

George Takei noted that Roddenberry "had a great appetite for people, and ideas, and things new. He was a man with an enormous curiosity." Takei continued, "He was big in everything he did. He had a big vision... His vision was so big that it transcended the barriers of politics and the realities of that time. We were engaged in a Cold War — two great powers, glaring at each other, threatening each other with nuclear annihilation, the Soviet Union and the U.S. And yet, we had the fiction on the show of a trusted, valued colleague, a beloved colleague, Pavel Chekov, [who] spoke with a Russian accent [and] was proud of his Russian heritage. Thirty-five years later, that fiction is now the reality of the International Space Station up there."

Also appearing from the Original Series cast was Nichelle Nichols. "When I look at that picture of Gene, and when I think of that man, I can only say, Gene Roddenberry, you are larger than life. You are beloved. You are not gone. You will always be here with us, because we have something that we can hold onto. And Star Trek and your philosophy will live forever, because it's valid, and it's true, and it's earthbound, and it's innate. And besides, no one is like you. No one."

Richard Arnold then read letters from two personalities who were unable to attend the evening's celebration. William Shatner wrote, "He has left us a legacy that will resonate for a long time to come... We will not forget Gene Roddenberry as long as Star Trek lives." TNG's Wil Wheaton observed, "Gene was an anachronism in Hollywood — a warm, caring, profoundly creative man who never compromised his vision."

A surprise guest who otherwise did not appear at the convention was Marina Sirtis. The passing of Roddenberry in 1991 was particularly poignant for her, because it was on that same day, 10 years prior, that her own father died. It was especially emotional for her because she had adopted Gene and Majel Roddenberry as her "surrogate parents." "His door was always open, and we knew that we could go to him with anything. And nothing was really unimportant in his eyes," she said. Her real task that evening, though, was to introduce the next guest, whom she called her "brother" — Eugene Wesley Roddenberry Jr., aka Rod Roddenberry.

"I am Gene 'Poo-Poo' Roddenberry!"

Rod, now all grown up, said he didn't have anything profound to say about Gene Roddenberry the great human being, "but what I will tell you about is Gene Roddenberry the dad. That's really where my memories are." He recounted his experience of going with his father to the Santa Monica Pier at the age of 10, engaging in traditional father-son activities, and "talking about things you talk about at that age" — for instance, Gene encouraged him to talk to the girls, which the boy considered "crazy."

But he continued: "So we would get home, and pull into the garage, and shut off the car, and we would sit there, and he'd look at me and say, 'I am Gene Poo-Poo Roddenberry!' And I'd say, 'I'm Rod Poo-Poo Roddenberry!' And that's kind of our way of ending the day. Don't ask me what that means! Don't ask me how telling you we called each other 'Poo-Poo' was sentimental, it just was!"

Now that the audience was in stitches — "You can all call him 'Poo-Poo' from now on" — it was time to introduce the evening's final guest, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry.

After noting that she's been involved with Star Trek for 38 years (she did the first pilot in 1964), she thanked the audience for keeping the phenomenon alive. Her tribute to her late husband consisted of quotes from Gene himself "that might sum up some of his feelings in some of the ways that you've learned to love him."

"You know, he once said the human experiment is far from over. 'We have reached only the beginning of still new beginnings. Man will not merely endure, he will prevail. He is immortal — not because he alone among Earth's creatures has an inexhaustible voice. But, he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion, sacrifice and endurance.' He went on, I think, speaking directly to us right here tonight: 'It is our privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart by reminding him of his courage, and honor, and hope, and pride, and compassion, and pity, and sacrifice which has been the glory of man's past. I hope we here can be true to that, and make all that also the glory of man's future.'

"Science fiction writers, artists and filmmakers have a unique task," Majel continued. "That's to portray that which we have never seen. As Gene once said, one thing seems likely: science, art, fact and imagination are all parts of the same incredible force that sits at the heart of what we are. His view was that the goal of science fiction was not merely to entertain but to engage the imaginations of the viewers — to generate ideas, acceptance of change, and to inspire those whose exposure to these ideas will lead them into the fields of the future: computer technology, space systems, analysis and engineering, and so forth. He believed that once these ideas captured the imagination of the viewers, it would be obvious that they were good. That they would help solve humanity's current problems, and that in attempting to turn fiction into reality for the future, progress would result today.

"Our Prime Directive?" she concluded. "Well, to make sure that when the future arrives, there are still humans in it... Failure is not an option. And so, the universe grows, the voyage continues, and his vision lives."

The evening wrapped up with a series of video clips compiled by Creation of Roddenberry himself appearing at conventions. In 1989 his opening remarks to a wildly enthusiastic audience was, "I'd like to set the record straight on something: You're under the strange impression that I make these shows for you. I make them for me!"

"The Great Bird of the Galaxy" always had a spectacular reception from the fans, particularly in 1991 when he appeared at the Shrine Auditorium in a wheelchair (pushed by a long-haired Rod), and rose to his feet to the lengthy ovation despite his disability in the waning years of his life.

Still to come: Convention photo galleries! Keep checking back!

Story by Sandy Stone & Tim Gaskill
Photos by Sandy Stone (except where otherwise indicated)

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