Creation Entertainment's Las Vegas "Real Deal" Convention took place over the weekend at the Las Vegas Hilton, with a plethora of Star Trek fans, stars, attractions, parties, costumes and even a simultaneous virtual convention.

The convention took place in several different areas throughout the Las Vegas Hilton, including a Main Ballroom where the headlining guests took to the stage, a "Pavilion" which was a smaller Ballroom, "Star Trek: The Experience" for the convention parties and a Dealers Room featuring booths with all kinds of Star Trek merchandise as well as booths dedicated to other shows such as The Dead Zone, plus a TNN booth where fans could give testimonials about Star Trek, and a booth for StarTrek.net, powered by EarthLink, where fans could surf the exclusive content the Star Trek-themed ISP offers.

The convention kicked off on Friday with Majel Barrett Roddenberry, who also signed autographs in the Dealers Room at the Roddenberry.com booth. Later in the afternoon, Eugene Roddenberry, the late Gene Roddenberry's son, also took to the stage to a warm ovation and spoke about his father's legacy and his current work with Lincoln Enterprises (see related story here).

Following Majel was The Ferengi Family Hour, featuring Max Grodenchik ("Rom"), Chase Masterson ("Leeta"), Aron Eisenberg ("Nog") and Lolita Fatjo, all of whom recently took part in a STARTREK.COM chat, both in and out of character (see transcripts for the character chat and the actor chat).

Taking to the stage after the Ferengis on Friday afternoon was Nichelle Nichols ("Uhura"), who warmly greeted the enthusiastic crowd. "How wonderful to be back here again with you," she said. "Any ol' excuse to get to Las Vegas. And then, any excuse to get out of the Las Vegas heat, right?"

The exuberant Nichols displayed her trademark boundless energy, describing her many "wonderful adventures" with aplomb. In addition to sharing fond memories of her days on Star Trek, Nichols discussed her recent role in the movie "Snow Dogs." "Throughout my career, little children, especially at the conventions, will come up and say, 'You're Uhura!' And now ... little kids turn around and they go [Nichols puts on a face of child-like wonder] ... 'Snow Dogs!' And I love it." Nichols said that Disney is looking at a script for a sequel to the movie. "If you'd like [to see] it, write Disney and tell them you would love a sequel ... and I don't even mind if you mention my name!"

Nichols also answered queries about her novels, "Saturn's Child" and "Saturna's Quest." "I am really, really hoping that 'Saturn's Child,' combined with the sequel, 'Saturna's Quest,' will be made into a movie," she revealed. "We're now working on a TV movie or major motion picture script, and there is some interest in it, so I'm very, very excited."

Nichols capped her appearance with some beautiful a cappella singing, which was greeted with wild applause.

Star Trek: Voyager's venerable Vulcan Tim Russ ("Tuvok") was armed with a whole bag of tricks for his appearance. Russ kicked things off with Voyager-themed song parodies of Gilligan's Island and The Love Boat ("On Vooooooyager, we won't get home for so many years! On Vooooooyager, nobody goes to the bathroom here!"), and showed a rambunctious blooper reel featuring various cast members. One stand-out sequence had John de Lancie ("Q") repeatedly tripping over the word "omnipotent," while another featured Russ hamming it up as Tuvok. "We had a few moments, as you can see, when we weren't such serious spacemen," Russ joked.

In addition to talking about his days on Voyager, Russ discussed his experience playing a Klingon on Deep Space Nine. "I can understand why Klingons are so grumpy and irritable, after three and a half hours of make-up in four in the morning and wearing fourteen layers of clothing and boots with platform heels, and teeth that are false and a wig that weighs about forty pounds. It's obnoxiously uncomfortable ... I think I ended up fighting everybody in the cast in that episode!"

Russ also explained his "Sisko look," saying that he wanted to change his look in general after playing Tuvok for seven years. "And I'm too lazy to comb my hair in the morning!" he joked. Moving from Treks past to the present, Russ said that he'd love to appear on Enterprise at some point.

Later, Russ performed a Voyager sketch featuring such characters as "Mr. Kleenex" and "Seven and Three Quarters," and then concluded his appearance by picking up a guitar to serenade the audience with a song from one of his albums ("Kushangaza," which means "Amazing" in Swahili).

Next up, TNG and "Star Trek: Nemesis" star Marina Sirtis ("Deanna Troi") kicked off her highly animated Q&A session by revealing that she just won one of the elusive Vegas jackpots. "After I had given all the money to the black jack table, I went over and played some slots, and won it back, plus a little extra," she said. "I'm happy now! I don't have to lie to my husband about how much money I lost."

Sirtis talked quite a bit about Troi's role in the upcoming "Star Trek: Nemesis" — particularly the character's wedding to longtime love interest William Riker (Jonathan Frakes). "It's a fabulous wedding, and we have some old friends come to visit," she said. "And I wear a pink dress. Well, come on, white? At Troi's age? With her track record? I don't think so."

Sirtis went on to say that the nuptials don't exactly hold up to Betazoid traditions — much to the disappointment of some of the fans in the crowd. "Actually, we are on our way to Betazed for the traditional wedding when the adventure starts, so we never actually get there," she explained. "But because we're on our way, there's plenty of opportunity to make jokes about nudity. Worf doesn't want to get naked ... and Picard keeps going to the gym!"

And the wedding is only the beginning of the excitement for Troi. "I get to drive again," said Sirtis. "It's not exactly a crash, but it does need work." She later added that, "In this movie, it's a Troi you have not really seen before. It's a really, really nice part." Sirtis also mentioned that X-Men director Bryan Singer has a cameo in the film.

In closing, Sirtis bid the crowd a loving farewell, thanking the fans for their devotion to The Next Generation. "Thank you for supporting us for 15 years, I love each and every one of you!"

Later on Friday night in "Star Trek: The Experience," fans got to party down with the stars and listen to musical stylings of Nichols, Masterson and Russ in a sold-out Creation Party. While the day was a full one, the convention had just begun, with more to follow the next day.

STARTREK.COM's coverage of Creation Entertainment's "Real Deal" Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas will continue tomorrow with a report on Day Two, so come back for more quotes, pictures and anecdotes on one of Star Trek fandom's biggest events of the year!

Story and Photos by Sarah Kuhn & Paul Plunkett

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