At Creation Entertainment's convention celebrating the 15th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the stars of that show looked back to the TV series and looked forward to the upcoming "Star Trek Nemesis." The screenwriter himself, John Logan, was also there to recount how the tenth Star Trek movie came to be.

John Logan — "the ultimate Trekkie"

Academy Award-nominated writer John Logan was genuinely enthused to take the stage Sunday, and was practically blushing. "You can't imagine how excited I am to be here. This is my very first convention appearance — from this side of the stage. Because I am, at my heart, to my bones, a Star Trek fan," he declared to the applause of an appreciative (and to an extent, relieved) audience. "And 'Star Trek Nemesis' is a movie for you."

Logan then went on to explain why he is the one behind the next epic adventure of the Enterprise-E. "My fascination with Star Trek began with William Shatner and Captain Kirk and the Original Series, on — I am very proud to say — the original run. I became absolutely obsessed with those characters and that story... I just became entranced with everything about Star Trek... I was the ultimate Trekkie. I was Captain Kirk for every Halloween I can remember — and still am. I was never ashamed of being a fan, and I always stood up there and said, 'Yes I am a Star Trek fan, you get it or you don't, I don't care!'"

"And then this Next Generation thing came about," he continued. "I'm totally skeptical! Captain who? Captain bald? What is this? Who is this robot? But sure enough, by the end of the first season, I [realized], my God, Gene Roddenberry has done it again! Taken a group of amazing actors and put them into incredible stories. So I was completely sold. I fell in love with all the characters, particularly — and this will be of relevance to 'Nemesis' — Picard, Data and Deanna."

He went on to describe how he came to meet Brent Spiner, that "robot" he so admired. He saw Spiner in a New York stage production of "1776," and a mutual friend in the cast introduced them. They became fast friends — "Within five minutes, you forget Data, and you're talking to one of the most entertaining, enjoyable, literate, funny men you have ever met" — and decided to work together. They explored ideas on, "what makes a good Star Trek movie, and what makes a GREAT Star Trek movie," and after six months of thought and discussion Spiner set up a meeting with Rick Berman — "you know, the overlord of the empire."

He asked the audience to step into his shoes for a moment: "All your life you've been inspired by this story, and now you're walking up the stairs into the office of the man who can make you part of that story. It's like going to Oz, and meeting the Wizard. So I walked in, and there's Rick Berman. And I was terrified. You know, I can sit in a room with Oliver Stone or Ridley Scott and never break a sweat. Rick Berman, I'm terrified." In that meeting, he nervously spelled out his ideas for the next movie, and felt they were so radical he expected Berman to say, "That's really nice, I loved 'Gladiator,' get out of my office." But instead, the producer responded positively. "He said, 'That's exactly right, let's shake it up, let's have some fun, let's do some radical things, and let's really explore this.' So the process began." Logan, Spiner and Berman worked as a triumvirate to develop the "Nemesis" that fans will see on December 13, he said.

During this process he was amused to discover that he knew much more about Star Trek than either of the others. "We'd be having a meeting, we'd be talking about, say, Data, and they would say 'What if we did this,' and I said, 'No no no, we can't do that because in episode 47 Dr. Soong said that Lore is the second positronic— And I'd go on these flights of Trekdom fancy! And they would just roll their eyes, wait very patiently for me to finish, and say, 'You done? Okay, good, let's move on with the story,'" he told the laughing audience. "But they were fond and very supportive of me, allowing me to be 'The Fan.'"

Logan wrote about 16 drafts of the script over the course of a year, and he also stayed involved during photography and during the editing process. When the first cut of the film came in at 2 hours and 40 minutes, his reaction was, "Great! And this is a problem?" It was a very unpleasant struggle to trim the film closer to 2 hours, but he praised Berman for fighting hard to protect the integrity of the script and the Star Trek canon. "He is absolutely my hero in this movie."

He also lauded director Stuart Baird as a "visionary." "The idea was to bring in some fresh blood — me, Stuart Baird, people who didn't necessarily have preconceived notions about Star Trek. I, of course, have nothing but preconceived notions, and Stuart, thankfully, knew nothing, so it was a great combination... Rick is there as lord and master, I'm there as the ultimate weenie fan, and Stuart Baird's saying, 'What's with the ears?'"

Besides helping out with the completion of "Nemesis," Logan — who still writes in WordPerfect 5.1 in DOS — is also currently penning the second draft of a movie about Abraham Lincoln for Steven Spielberg, completing a polish of a movie about Howard Hughes for Martin Scorsese, and working on the story for the sequel to "Gladiator." But amidst all the big-budget film projects, he is also open to writing an episode for the weekly TV series Enterprise. "They've talked to me a lot about whether I want to write one, and I said, 'Yeah, you betcha, as soon as my schedule allows it.'" Like in "Nemesis," he would love to deal further with the Romulans. "Now, I know, from 'Balance of Terror,' there are some problems with having Romulans in the Archer world, but I think we can solve that," he said, citing this week's episode "Minefield" as dealing well with that issue. "So I'm hoping I will [write an episode], because I love the show."

Brent Spiner — New father

"John Logan was out a minute ago. I listened backstage. I don't know WHAT he was talking about — there was not one thing he said that was truthful. [pause for laughter] I'm only kidding — I didn't listen."

Thus spoke the man responsible for Logan's involvement in the legacy of Star Trek. Brent Spiner took the stage to a huge ovation, immediately started striking GQ-type poses for the cameras, and had the audience in the palm of his hand from then on. He told the audience of his traditional convention protocol. "I'm happy to answer any of your questions. There are just two areas I would like to stay away from, if you don't mind, and those are: Star Trek, and my personal life. Anything else is fine. You know what? I'm gonna break with it this time. I'm gonna answer anything you ask — the only thing is, my answers are gonna be non sequiturs. So you can ask me anything you want, but the answers will make no sense. Fair enough? Okay, good."

So when asked whose idea it was for him to sing in "Nemesis," Spiner replied, "753." He then recanted: "Nah, I won't do that, I promise. It was John's idea that I sing in 'Nemesis.' The only disappointing thing is, the song is cut in half." That was part of the painful editing process. "The movie was, I think, nine hours long, something like that, but fortunately we've been able to cut it down to seven-and-a-half. But one of the things to go was part of my song, which was a huge disappointment to both me and John, and to Irving Berlin for that matter..."

The topic the audience was eager to bring up was Spiner's newborn son, which the fans learned about from Gates McFadden and other guests earlier in the weekend. "Thank you, thank you so much, he's a great little boy, and— we're gonna keep him! Yeah! He's three months old today." His name? "Actually, believe it or not, his name is a combination of Gates' son and Jonathan's son. Jonathan's son is Jameson, Gates' son is Jack, and my son is Jackson. Jackson Spiner." Going into an impersonation of Patrick Stewart: "Oh, he's a fine boy, Jackson. Yes!"

Back to "Nemesis," Spiner was asked if the character of Lore is part of the movie, given that the trailer seems to show an android duplicate of Data. "So you saw something that looked like Lore," he said. "That ain't Lore. No, Lore is not in this movie. Lore is making a feature of his own, I think — It's a musical! Starring Lore!"

A child asked, "Is 'Data' your first name or your last name?" "That is such a good question," he responded. "'Data' is actually both his first name AND his last name. His real name is Data Data. But because people got tired of saying Data, they just said Data. You know what confuses you? It's that people call the character Data, and then other people call him Mr. Data, so which is it? Is he Data, or is he Mr. Data? He's Data Data."

Why and how did he play Dr. Soong, Lore and Data all at the same time, like in the episode "Brothers"? "I'll tell you why first: they paid me three times. And the how is: magic. Magic and determination... The reason I wanted to do it was, it gave me the opportunity to work with my favorite actor."

Will Data's cat "Spot" be in the new movie? "Spot makes a very, very brief appearance," he revealed to the fans' delight. "You know, I've never really enjoyed working with Spot. I have to be honest, he was a fine cat, but not much of an actor... The writers seemed to think that all you had to do was write it and the cat would do it... They only wrote one piece of stage direction that made any sense, which was, 'Data watches Spot eat tuna.' And Spot did it the first time. Other than that, he was monstrous to work with, he really was." Needless to say, the audience was in stitches the whole time Spiner was on stage.

Marina Sirtis — Choice of pink was hers

Backtracking to the first day of the convention, Friday, the celebrity appearances kicked off with Marina Sirtis ("Deanna Troi"), dressed casually in jeans and keeping things light with her outrageously funny outbursts and comments.

With "Nemesis" being the hot topic of conversation, she wasted no time in talking about the highly anticipated film. After eliciting enthusiastic applause from the audience by asking them if they've liked the "Nemesis" trailers they've seen so far, she spoke about the costumes on display at the convention. "Did you all see my wedding dress?" She pointed out that the choice of going with a pink dress was hers, commenting, "I just didn't want to go to conventions and get flack for wearing white to my wedding." (A picture of that dress appears in this related story.)

In terms of the film itself, she mentioned that a lot of footage didn't make the final cut, hinting that it would make great stuff for the DVD release. But overall, "the film is so action-packed it will make you nauseous — but in a good way, like a ride at Magic Mountain."

Sirtis also told a story about how Enterprise star Scott Bakula ("Jonathan Archer") made a gesture to his TNG brethren after the Enterprise-E captain's chair got stolen off the "Nemesis" set. He sent over a child-sized chair, with crayon-lettered words on the back spelling out "Kaptain's Chair," to the amusement of the "Nemesis" cast and crew.

She emphasized that "Nemesis" is going to have to really perform in order for more Star Trek films with the TNG cast to follow. She also acknowledged the heavy competition "Nemesis" will encounter, exclaiming, "[Forget] 'Lord of the Rings'! See our movie!"

Responding to fan questions, Sirtis cited "The Measure of a Man" as "my favorite episode not about me — I love courtroom drama."

In keeping with her outspoken and light-hearted demeanor, she bantered with the Creation Entertainment hosts about being invited to the next Pasadena event, next spring's Grand Slam Convention. When they produced her contract, showing she had already confirmed her appearance in writing, she joked, "One thing you learn about me over the years: I'm always right."

Michael Dorn — "Lt. Commander for the rest of his life"

Michael Dorn (Worf) took the stage as the TNG theme blared over the speakers and observed, "I hear that in my sleep now."

The genial Dorn reminisced about filming TNG's final episode "All Good Things...", saying that he remained stoic about the whole thing up until the very end. "It was the last day on the last episode, and two weeks before then, I was saying [to the rest of the cast], 'Aw, come on, it'll be fine, we'll go on, we'll see each other, we're still friends! I'm not gonna get emotional about it! Come on, you're wusses.' So, the last cut, they took off my sash for the last time, and the director comes over and says, 'Oh, Michael, congratulations!' And I just broke down! People were going, 'Is there something wrong with Michael? I think he's having a nervous breakdown or something!'"

Dorn, however, claims not to be the biggest softy in the cast. "Of course, Marina is the big one," he said. "Marina cries at the drop of a hat. She cries at the credits of 'Fried Green Tomatoes.'"

Dorn also briefly touched on his days on Deep Space Nine, saying that, while he enjoyed working on the show, it was no picnic for his alter ego. "Worf didn't like [DS9]," he said. "It was like a shopping mall in space! He's, like, the mall cop. 'Mr. Worf, go down to the Eddie Bauer, someone's trying to steal some pants!'"

While Worf is still key to the Star Trek universe, Dorn acknowledges that his chances for promotion are slim. "Worf is going to be lieutenant commander for the rest of his life," he said. "All because he saved his squeeze! He went back to get Terry Farrell [Jadzia Dax, referring to "Change of Heart"]. So now he's going be lieutenant commander for the rest of his life, which is cool — he doesn't like that captain stuff!"

Towards the end of his appearance, Dorn was joined by pal Marina Sirtis, who made a great show of tapping her watch to indicate that his time onstage was up. As Dorn thanked the fans for being such a loyal audience over the years, he turned to Sirtis and quipped, "Don't start crying!"

The Guest Stars of Star Trek: The Next Generation

Over the weekend, fans got to see some of the other faces from TNG, even if those faces were obscured by alien makeup in the show. Saturday's panel of notable guest stars included Lisa Wilcox (Yuta in "The Vengeance Factor"), Julie Caitlin Brown (Vekor in "Gambit" and Ty Kajada in DS9's "The Passenger"), Chris Demetral (Jean-Luc Riker in "Future Imperfect"), Julia Nickson (Lian T'Su in "The Arsenal of Freedom" and Cassandra in DS9's "Paradise") and Brian Cousins (Parem in "The Next Phase" and Crosis in "Descent"). They were all on hand to answer questions and relate anecdotes from their respective experiences on the show. Cousins, for instance, remembered that his 3 a.m. make-up call for "Descent" resulted in him literally sleeping on the job. After getting outfitted as a Borg, his first shot required him to merely lie down on the floor ... and he dozed off. "All I remember is two hours later, somebody going, 'We're going to the next set-up now.' I literally slept through the whole thing!" he laughed. "I'm on tape ... I can watch myself forever sleeping!"

On Sunday, Carolyn Seymour and Brian Thompson appeared on stage together. Seymour has played two Romulan parts, Taris in "Contagion" and Toreth in "Face of the Enemy," along with a variety of other characters. The hulking Thompson was Klag in "A Matter of Honor" and a Klingon helm officer in "Star Trek Generations," along with other large characters including a Jem'Hadar in DS9, but he is most recognizable as the evil "Bounty Hunter" in The X-Files, which led one fan to confess she was terrified to see him at the convention. Seymour and Thompson talked about such things as auditioning for Star Trek and sitting in the makeup chair for hours. Thompson almost didn't land his first Star Trek role in "A Matter of Honor" because he was too big to fit into the Klingon costume that Wardrobe wanted to recycle from "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" — the one worn by Christopher Lloyd. But a call from his agent to the show's producers convinced them that Wardrobe shouldn't be making casting decisions, and he was hired, starting a fruitful relationship with the Trek world.

The Weakest Link

Representatives from the game show The Weakest Link were on hand to recruit contestants for a Star Trek-themed edition of the show. On Saturday, they took over the stage and brought up some brave volunteers to give the fans a taste of what to expect and to encourage people to sign up as potential contestants.

While many in the audience groaned at the simple questions asked ("What's Captain Kirk's first name?" "Who played Wesley Crusher?"), the group assembled onstage survived the glare of the spotlight and the pressure of the moment, save the one fan voted by the audience to be "the weakest link," but he laughed it off as practice for the real thing.

Evening Events — "Get ready for a big ol' bumpy head!"

As is traditional on the convention circuit, fans were treated to two evening events where they got to see their beloved actors perform something other than a Star Trek script. Friday night Dorn and Sirtis reunited on the stage to do a reading of Neil Simon's "Plaza Suite." Saturday night Gates McFadden did a reading from the play "Bed Among the Lentils" and poems from T.S. Elliott and others. Later Wil Wheaton got up and recited several essays that he's published on his personal website, wilwheaton.net, called "The Wesley Dialogues," describing in a funny and touching way his journey of closure and reconciliation with his alter ego.

Sandwiched between Gates and Wil was an actor/comedian named Rick Overton who has appeared in a number of genre films, most recently "Eight Legged Freaks," and who often brings his Star Trek and sci-fi themed standup routine to these conventions. With his frenetic energy and die-hard love of the genre, he had the audience almost literally rolling on the floor. Some samples of his Trek-inspired material: "I miss the aliens that were completely, evenly black on one side. Now, you gotta have a bumpy head. If you're not from Earth, get ready for a big ol' bumpy head!" "You know what's so funny to me, is the communicator from the original Star Trek series is only about four pounds heavier than a Nokia phone today!" "Here's my impression of a Cardassian massage therapist: Man, your shoulders are tight."

Story by Sandy Stone, Paul Plunkett and Sarah Kuhn
Photos by Sandy Stone and Dani Bartov

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