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. Saturday, Day Two of the convention, was by far the busiest day of the three-day event, so busy and packed with celebrity appearances in fact, that it's taken two Reports to cover it all. Look for a report on Day Three, the convention's final day, tomorrow.

While yesterday's coverage of Day Two featured a report of George Takei ("Hikaru Sulu") and Walter Koenig ("Pavel Chekov") joining in on the tribute to Leonard Nimoy ("Spock") later in the day, the Original Series costars were actually the first stars to take the stage on Saturday.

Both of the characters the pair played on Star Trek added international appeal to the show, which was reflected in how they greeted the fans. Takei welcomed the fans in Spanish, while Koenig said "Live Long and Prosper" in Russian for the audience. Takei also took the opportunity right away to thank all the fans for their support and kind messages about the recent passing of his mother. "You are all members of my extended family," he said.

On a lighter note, Koenig recalled meeting Ricardo Montalban ("Khan Noonien Singh") at a cocktail party thrown by Director Nicholas Meyer before the shooting of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" commenced, and the veteran star looked forward to working with Koenig, noting that "We are going to be wonderful together!" At that point, the role of Captain Terrell, which ended up being played by Paul Winfield, had yet to be cast. Montalban asked Koenig who might be playing the role, and Koenig joked, "Fernando Lamas!" much to Montalban's chagrin.

The actors then opened the floor up for questions, and Koenig was asked about his writing career, specifically about his script for the Animated Series episode "The Infinite Vulcan." Koenig noted that when the Animated Series went into production, creator Gene Roddenberry was unable to swing hiring all of the actors back from the Original Series, so he compensated by having Koenig write an episode.

Takei was applauded for his community efforts, including Chairing the Board of Trustees for the Japanese-American National Museum in Los Angeles, which has had an exhibit touring Japan for the last several years. Whenever it moves to a different city, he goes to Japan to attend the opening, noting that it opened two years ago in Okinawa, and opened in Osaka last year and he'll be traveling to northern Japan in October for another opening.

When asked by a fan about his reaction as a New Yorker to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Koenig said, "It was a terrible thing, we were attacked, we were violated." Takei added that not only Americans but people from all over the world died in the World Trade Center, and "We mustn't be so nationalistic about that, it was a global tragedy," drawing applause from the assembled Star Trek fans.

Next up in the main ballroom was Trek alum Michael Piller, who now heads up his own successful show, USA Network's The Dead Zone, based on the novel by Stephen King. Piller thanked Trek fans for making the show a hit, and fielded questions regarding what's coming up for the series. Piller mentioned that he would love to feature Christopher Walken, who starred in the movie version of The Dead Zone. "We do have a character that we're going to be introducing that I would love to offer to him to play," said Piller. "Whether he'll be interested, I just can't say."

Piller was joined onstage by series star Anthony Michael Hall, who expressed his enthusiasm for the show thus far. "It's given me a great role to really sink my teeth into," he said. "This is definitely my favorite role to date."

Meanwhile, over in the Pavilion, a panel of Original Series guest actors convened to share stories and laughs about Star Trek's golden years. Appearing as a group were Don Marshall and Peter Marko (Lt.'s Bonna and Gaetano, respectively, from "The Galileo Seven"), Bobby Clark (the Gorn himself from "Arena"), Sean Kenney (the wheelchair-bound Captain Pike from "The Menagerie" and Lt. DePaul from "A Taste of Armageddon"), Eddie Paskey (Lt. Leslie, in multiple episodes), Derek Partridge (Dionyd in "Plato's Stepchildren"), and a trio of actors from "The Way to Eden:" Deborah Downey ("Mavig"), Victor Brandt ("Tongo Rad") and Charles Napier ("Adam" as well as General Denning in the DS9 episode "Little Green Men").

Clark also did uncredited work (or "N.D." for "No Dialogue," Star Trek's term for extras) on a number of other episodes besides "Arena," including "Mirror, Mirror," "The Apple" and "Return of the Archons." This being his ninth convention, he marveled at the Star Trek phenomenon. "I would never have known the reward, these were all just jobs at the time. I thank you all for being here."

Kenney got the job as the injured Captain Pike while acting in a play in Los Angeles. An agent approached him and he went in to meet Gene Roddenberry for a very unusual audition. "They just looked at me for a while, but I got the part." Today he's a photographer who also does a lot of writing.

Paskey was also William Shatner's stand-in and wore a lot of different colored shirts on the show. "I was a red shirt, a blue shirt, a gold shirt, all of them." And Shatner finally noticed Paskey had been around so much that he needed a name. "Eddie needs a name," Paskey attributed to Shatner, "Let's give him a name!" Thus, Mr. Leslie was born, named after Shatner's daughter.

Partridge recalled "Plato's Stepchildren" as being controversial for that famous interracial kiss between Kirk and Uhura, so much so that in the United Kingdom, the BBC wouldn't air the episode. His subsequent acting career included a number of interesting death scenes in movies, such as being strangled by an albino gorilla, eaten by a pack of lions and suffering a pacemaker failure during sex. He also has a number of hosting credits, including being an original host of the Financial News Network, a forerunner to CNBC.

Downey, who jammed with Spock in "The Way to Eden" ("I played that silly looking bicycle wheel, it made no sound whatsoever"), is now a painter in Indianapolis, specializing in portraits of sports stars, politicians and celebrities. In a strange coincidence, one of her recent commissions came, by chance, from Enterprise's Anthony Montgomery ("Travis Mayweather"), who was in town for the Indianapolis 500.

As Brandt took the microphone he was greeted by a fan in the back of the room shouting out "Herbert!" He laughed at the reference and told the story of how he got the part (he'd been a gofer running around the lot and got pulled in to audition), and about how he also played a "Redshirt" who was killed in Engineering in the episode "Elaan of Troyus." "I spent three days [of shooting] lying on the floor." One of those days, after a previous late night on the town, Brandt remembers falling asleep on the floor and suddenly feeling a boot poke him in the ribs. It was Shatner, and Brandt had been snoring during a close up. "Wake up and pretend you're dead!" Brandt recalls Shatner saying. He ran into Shatner again years later, working as a guest star on T.J. Hooker. Shatner joked that he didn't quite recall Brandt, noting, "I only remember the women."

Finally Napier spoke, noting that he helped Downey get the part as an attempt to lure the starlet away from her boyfriend. "It didn't work." He laughed about how he played the peaceful space hippie Adam and then went on and "graduated into maiming and killing people in movies like 'Rambo II.'" When he auditioned for Adam, he was asked if he could sing, "and of course, any time you ask an actor to fly, drive, ride a horse, write music, whatever, of course you say 'yes!'"

Afterwards, the panel shook hands with members of the audience in the intimate Pavilion room before heading back into the Dealers Room to man their autograph tables.

Meanwhile, in the main ballroom, Roxann Dawson ("B'Elanna Torres") and Robert Duncan McNeill ("Tom Paris") took to the stage. Dawson and McNeill may only play a married couple onscreen, but you'd never know that from watching their Q&A session — the duo displayed an easy, teasing chemistry, bantering back and forth throughout their joint appearance.

During the appearance, Dawson revealed that she had laryngitis, prompting McNeill to quip, "I'm going to talk for her, which I've wanted to do ever since we met!" Countered Dawson, "I thought it was since we got married!"

Both actors have made inroads into the field of directing since Voyager wrapped. In fact, McNeill noted that Dawson is currently directing Enterprise, while he is set to helm the season opener of Dawson's Creek. The duo also related that they recently spent a few days together on the set of Crossing Jordan — McNeill as an actor, Dawson observing the director. Still, at least one of them is seemingly reluctant to leave the Voyager days behind.

"I still get together with Ethan Phillips, Robert Beltran and Tim Russ, and we work through the scenes from Voyager," joked McNeill, tongue planted firmly in cheek. "Every Tuesday and Thursday night, we get together and we go back and we try things that maybe we didn't really get right ... We dress up, Ethan puts on the Neelix thing ..."

"It's so sad, isn't it?" countered Dawson. "They've invited me over but I have declined to attend."

Later, Dawson auctioned off some very special collectibles: two baseball caps from the final season of Voyager that were only given to the cast and crew of the show, signed by all nine cast members. In the end, the items went for $825 each, with all the proceeds going to Dawson's charities of choice: Camp Heartland and Half the Sky Foundation.

STARTREK.COM's coverage of Creation Entertainment's "Real Deal" Convention in Las Vegas will continue tomorrow with the our report on Day Three, including Anthony Montgomery, Dominic Keating, Linda Park, Nana Visitor and more, so come back for more quotes, pictures and anecdotes from one of Star Trek fandom's biggest events of the year!

Story and Photos by Sarah Kuhn & Paul Plunkett

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