It's pretty remarkable when you think about it. Forty years after Star Trek first aired, and 35 years after the first convention — even with no new show in production — the fans still gather. They dress up, they commune, they collect, and they remember. As Alice Krige so aptly put it on Sunday, Star Trek has "this amazing afterlife" that was very much in evidence in Pasadena last weekend.

It was still a thrill to personally greet Majel Barrett at the Roddenberry.com table, or to run into the giant Carel Struycken ("Mr. Homn") in the autograph room, or to laugh at Jonathan Frakes' exuberant stories on stage, or to sit captivated as Avery Brooks sings.

But when Creation Entertainment kicked off the final day of its 14th annual Grand Slam/Sci-Fi Summit, there was an extra special thrill for many of the attendees: a chance to hear the personal experiences of two people who have actually explored the final frontier.

Captain Walter M. Schirra, Jr.

Wally Schirra was one of America's original Mercury Seven astronauts, and the only one to fly in all three of the nation's pioneering space programs, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. And on his 83rd birthday, March 12, he spent the morning at the Pasadena convention center speaking to Star Trek fans.

He recalled how he got involved in the space program in the first place. He was test piloting Mach 2 fighters when he was ordered to Washington. He sat in a room with about 80 other pilots before two engineers and a psychologist. "They started out by saying, 'Would you like to get in a capsule on top of a rocket?' I said, 'Hell no!'" Schirra laughed. But he stuck around and began physical exams, despite his reticence. "All my peers said, 'Look, Wally, if you want to go higher, farther and faster, the only way to do that is to get into that damn capsule.' 'Okay, I'll give it a try.' Well, we reported in, and of course ultimately there were seven of us."

"In case you don't remember their names, they were CCGGSSS — that's Carpenter, Cooper, Glenn, Grissom, Schirra, Shepard and Slayton. I'm the only smart 'S' left," he grinned. (Scott Carpenter and John Glenn are the only other two Mercury 7 astronauts still alive. Gordon Cooper died in 2004, and his ashes will be on the same memorial spaceflight as James Doohan's.)

Schirra recalled an encounter he had with the creator of Star Trek: "I was on a commercial flight with Gene Roddenberry sitting in the next seat. I said, 'Mr. Roddenberry, why did you beam those people up and down like that?' 'I couldn't figure out any other way to do it!' That was his exact answer." And when he mentioned he had been in the Apollo program, Roddenberry suddenly recognized him as Wally Schirra and was very excited to meet him.

He commented that the space program will continue, but he had doubts that a manned flight to Mars would be practical. "It takes seven months to get to Mars. You can't eat out. If you think seriously about it, you need about six to eight pounds of water a day just to drink — now if you multiply that by 365, that's almost a ton of water per person per year. That's a lot of water to haul around."

But he also bemoaned the "food stamp" budgets appropriated to manned space development. "We have not made a commitment from the President on down since Kennedy made a commitment to go to the Moon and back. They've paid lip service to everything. George W. Bush has talked about it, his father talked about it, Reagan talked about it, Jimmy Carter didn't understand it ... I go back to Nixon — he called the Moon and didn't even know the Area Code," he joked. "The brunt of it is that we have to have a national commitment to doing something like going back to the Moon or on to Mars. It can't be just a little amateur hour."

Captain Alan Bean

Speaking of birthdays, this astronaut also had one this week. He turned 74 on Wednesday, March 15. Alan Bean was the fourth person to walk on the Moon as the lunar module pilot on Apollo 12, and also commanded the second Skylab mission during which he spent 59 days in space. He retired from NASA in 1981 to pursue an artistic career. During his talk he showed slides of some of his paintings, which relate his first-hand experience of being an astronaut, on the big screen behind the stage.

He also showed photographs from his time with the space program, talking about "how we did this back in 1969." When Bean started in the space program in 1963, he assumed he would be surrounded by "a lot of geniuses." "What I found I was surrounded by were a lot of people just like me. Believe me, that was scary." That was the bad news, he said. "The good news was, for some reason we all believed we could find a way."

But humans are imperfect. He showed a picture of himself in a spacesuit and a harness. It was an attempt to test whether an astronaut could walk around and perform jobs in the one-sixth gravity of Moon, by lifting him five-sixths of his weight. "And as they lifted up, I realized too late that they were lifting the spacesuit and I was inside and they weren't lifting me. Wally claimed a number of firsts — I would like to claim the fact that I got the first space-age wedgy right there."

"What we did then was the best we could do," Bean stated. "Since that time, well, we haven't moved along as fast as we could, and the reason we haven't, as Wally Schirra mentioned, is because it takes money to do this."

NASA responds to the Congress and the President, he reiterated. "We move along at the rate they give us the money to move along. We could do more. We could go back to the Moon — we could've kept going to the Moon. We'll go to Mars someday. Someday we'll go out to some of the moons of Jupiter; someday we'll visit some of the meteoroids that are out in that belt around the Sun."

"We can do these things when the majority of humans in this country or on this Earth want to go do it. NASA will be ready — we'll have teams of astronauts, men and women, that will go do these things, when the culture is ready to go."

As the same time, he warned against rushing. "We always want things to happen quick. We can't get that attitude about space exploration ... Columbus discovered America in 1492; the Pilgrims got here in 1620. What's that, 128 years? Well, that's how long it takes to go from exploration to pioneering. How long has it been since Neil [Armstrong] stepped on the Moon in 1969? It's not very long. So we're okay. We got plenty of time to do it — let's not get too anxious."

He described the Apollo program as "a good memory" of what human beings can accomplish by working together, making sacrifices and moving boldly. "We've got to have the courage, all of us, to have a dream and go for it."

Ronald D. Moore

Unless you live under a rock, you know that Ronald D. Moore, former writer/producer for The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, is the executive producer of probably the biggest science fiction sensation on television right now, Battlestar Galactica. Moore paid an unscheduled visit to the main stage on Sunday and fielded questions about the show. People were still reeling from the recent season finale, leading to the main question, "Have you lost your mind?!"

Moore said the recent creative directions of the show were designed as "an interesting way to change up the relationships, to sort of subvert your ideas on what the show is about, to take a lot of risks with the characters, and, y'know, piss off the audience, which is always a fun thing to do."

Responding to a question, Moore took the opportunity to comment about the role of religion in Galactica. "It's one of the fundamental building blocks of the show. When I was approaching the mini-series, I started playing around with ideas of Cylon Number Six saying 'God is love,' and I was instantly intrigued with the idea that a robot or an android or an artificial intelligence would come to a notion of God or a theology on its own. And I quickly saw that the polytheistic belief system of the colonies would be interesting juxtaposed against the monotheism of the Cylons. Religion is one of the fundamentals of the human experience ... and it just felt right to deal with the Cylons in their quest of, 'What is a person, what does it mean to be a real boy' on a certain level."

Fans really weren't so upset about the season finale as they were about the late start for the next season: October. "That was a network decision," Moore said, which he supports — "instead of rushing us back on the air in July like we did last season. To take a little more time in the production phase... And also build a little more anticipation."

"I don't need more anticipation," one fan grumbled.

"And it's a good way of torturing the audience!" Moore concluded.

Majel Barrett & Eugene Roddenberry

Before his mother came out on stage, Eugene W. Roddenberry Jr. — known to friends as "Rod" — wanted some time on his own with the audience first. With the lights turned down, he said into the mike, "People have always made fun of Star Trek fans for wearing costumes. Well, I have something to say about that." When the lights came up, Rod showed off a gold wetsuit with a Starfleet badge on the left side of the chest. "Laugh now — pretty soon all divers will be wearing these." He had the "Original Series wetsuit" made for a Star Trek scuba diving club that he started. It was a little tight, so Rod went backstage and showed an Enterprise blooper reel while he changed clothes.

When he came back, Rod praised the fans for keeping the spirit of Star Trek alive for 40 years. "I am so proud of what you guys have done, coming to conventions, being so supportive, walking up to me, walking up to my mother, walking up to everyone, and just giving us your thanks. It should be the reverse — we have to thank you."

He wanted to give an update on his delayed documentary project, "Trek Nation." "For years I've been saying it'll be out soon," he laughed. "It'll be out soon!" He and his editor have reworked the film several times, determined to make it unique and special. "We've had a few cuts, but we felt we kinda missed the mark and we've gone back to the drawing board. We're about halfway through another rough cut."

Rod then introduced his mother, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, who proceeded to take questions from the audience. Asked what she's doing now, Majel responded, "I am taking life so easy you wouldn't even believe it," she said in all seriousness. "I don't do anything anymore, and it's such a pleasure." "It's about time!" Rod added lovingly.

"I had absolutely no idea that this kind of a thing could evolve from where we started out. I don't think Gene did either," Majel commented about the phenomenon that had its genesis four decades ago. "What's happened since then is really just such a miracle."

She was asked if she still believed — like she stated last year in Las Vegas — that Star Trek needs a rest, or if it's time to revive it. "I'm sorry, everything that I say somehow or other comes back and slugs me right in the face! But no, it's not time yet. Give it another year or two. Well, as soon as Paramount decides they need more money, then they'll bring it back!"

(We should clarify something at this point: Paramount Pictures, a division of Viacom, still holds the rights to produce Star Trek movies, but the television franchise now belongs to CBS Paramount Television, a division of CBS Corp.)

What was Majel's favorite part about being Lwaxana Troi? "Getting to be as ornery and disgusting as it turned out to be," she replied. "In other words, herself!" Rod interjected.

Jonathan Frakes

Fan favorite Frakes is always a joy on stage. He's been appearing at conventions for nearly 20 years and still seems to have a great time doing it. He did, however, start things off a bit soberly: "At this time of dire straits in other parts of the world, we can all hold on to the optimistic vision that Star Trek has given us to help us through tough times. And we have the late, great Gene Roddenberry to thank for that! [Applause.] There's a strange tone, and I think it's because the world is in a very uneven and unstable place. When we're associated with something that is so optimistic, what was only entertainment now somehow has a little more resonance."

Dispensing with the seriousness, Frakes quickly switched gears and got into the swing of things — "Hopefully you haven't heard some of these stories before" — which in fact veteran convention-goers will have heard before. His mission for this appearance, he proudly yet mischievously claimed, was to start rumors. He began by commenting on pal Marina Sirtis' latest TV role. "I heard Marina was being nominated for an Emmy for that show. How's that?" Frakes went on to commend Marina's performance in "that show," TNT's The Closer. To put her new role in perspective, Frakes added: "It's not Counselor Troi."

Continuing his riff on fellow TNG actors, Frakes commented that he saw Brent Spiner recently. "Data's not really dead. Is that true?" he asked rhetorically. "Data is not dead. That's the story I'm sticking with. We're all on the same page with that, right?" [Applause.]

"'Old Baldy' [Patrick Stewart] I saw over in London. He's very busy," recounted Frakes. He then donned a booming posh English accent for an imitation of Stewart talking about his latest theatrical commitments: "I'm playing 'Anthony,' in 'Anthony and Cleopatra.' A part I was born to play, Claudius. I'm playing Claudius in 'Hamlet.' Yes, I'm going back to my roots — the Royal Shakespeare Company!"

Fellow guest Wil Wheaton got a mention when Jonathan expressed his amazement that the former child actor now has a 16-year old child. "Is that true? What's up with that? The Wil Wheaton I know, he was 16."

Gates McFadden is, according to Jonathan, "happily ensconced outside of Paris somewhere... [Michael] Dorn is shooting a sitcom in New York. LeVar. Where's LeVar? Reading a rainbow? I think he's directing an episode of 24. Who knew all this?"

After joking about how he would have been happy to direct ["Star Trek] Nemesis," Frakes turned his talk over to the elephant in the room, the fate, of Star Trek. "We all have our opinions," he noted tactfully. "Here's what I think happened to Star Trek. Correct me if I'm wrong: Greed. It's what took our show [TNG] off the air before it was meant to go off the air. We would have been thrilled to do another year. There was no reason to do 'Generations' that year. We could have given everybody another 26 episodes of that show! Granted, the movie was fun. It wasn't the world's greatest Star Trek movie. It was no ... 'First Contact'!" [Applause.]

Frakes had high praise for Scott Bakula (Archer), saying he was generous, kind, and talented, and that he dealt with Jonathan and Marina's appearance in the final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, "These Are the Voyages...", with total professionalism. He called him a mensch, and clarified the meaning to some as "a good-souled person. He was the best kind of professional gentleman, and for that I will always thank him."

Frakes then referred to his latest project: "I am working on a very funny movie for TNT called 'The Librarian 2.'" Starring Noah Wyle (ER), Bob Newhart and Gabrielle Anwar, he likened the film to "King Solomon's Mines."

But perhaps the biggest revelation of the afternoon was that Jonathan, who now lives with his family in Maine, has taken up, of all sports, Curling. "On Monday nights, at 6:30, I play on a curling team. How many other guys in the Star Trek franchise curl?!"

Out of the blue, Jonathan noticed that one of the people at the side of the stage with a huge camera in his hands was none other than veteran Trek director David Livingston. "One of our finest Star Trek directors," noted Frakes. Livingston, known for his meticulous work, couldn't avoid a riff from Frakes. "'Please go ahead. Take 37. No Jonathan, just go again. Take 38. Take 39. Take 40.' He's part of the family!" Livingston was actually there in one of his many professional capacities, this time as a still photographer for Getty Images.

Effusive, with his tongue firmly in cheek his entire time on stage, Frakes had a rollicking time on Sunday. But maybe, just maybe, it was all just rumors?

Alice Krige

It's a strange juxtaposition when you consider the actress Alice Krige against the characters she oftentimes portrays: From the Borg Queen in Star Trek, to the harsh madam Maddie in Deadwood, to her latest role in "Silent Hill" as Cristabella, Alice can play evil with the best of them. What makes it so astounding is when you take into account the fact that she is such a gentle soul underneath. Krige is about as proper, well-spoken and nice as anyone in the industry! Perhaps the secret to Alice's success is that her characters can either lull you into a false sense of security, or they can disarm you with subtle charms. You only think she is trustworthy and full of integrity, when the reality is much darker.

The South African-born Krige began by talking about her upcoming film, "Silent Hill," which opens in theatres April 21. She also showed a pretty scary trailer of the movie, which is based on a video game of the same name. Calling the movie a "meditation on the nature of good and evil," she urged people to see it if they dare. "It's a dark universe. It operates on a multitude of different layers," she added.

In the film, Alice plays a character who personifies evil — of course — a role that required her to inhabit a very dark space for three months of shooting. This eventually took its toll on the actress: "I was really unwell; it was a very hard piece for me to do."

Keeping the supernatural theme going, the first question from the audience focused on Alice's first major role after "Chariots of Fire," the appropriately titled "Ghost Story." The 1981 movie was famous for featuring a horde of legendary actors: Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., John Houseman and Patricia Neal. The relatively young Alice was a bit taken aback by the part, as she was still pretty fresh to movie making. "I was 26 when I did this [movie], but I was new to the industry."

The experience of working with these actors in "Ghost Story" is something she cherishes to this day. "It was the most extraordinary gift, because they had a kind of gallantry and charm that was not something that was manufactured or turned on. It was just who they were. They were an object lesson for a young actor in how to behave, and the attitude to take to your craft. They were quite, quite wonderful."

Shifting gears to her now legendary role in "Star Trek: First Contact," Alice remarked on things like the filming of the Borg Queen, and the physical hardships presented by the hard contact lenses she had to wear not mixing too well with the "dust of ages" from the old Paramount soundstage. But in spite of any physical problems, it was "one of the happiest pieces of work I've ever been part of."

She also mentioned the camaraderie of Jonathan [Frakes], Brent [Spiner] and Patrick Stewart (Picard). "They were so much fun. It was like being part of a functional family. Which is quite unusual, is it not? They were so happy to see each other. They hadn't worked together for two years. They were teasing each other, joking around and playing the fool, then [director] Jonathan would say 'roll cameras' and 'action,' and it was as if they turned on this white hot light and they were totally in the moment!"

On Star Trek and conventions, Alice was gracious as always. "This is the only piece of work I have ever done that has had this amazing afterlife. It has given me the greatest joy."

Avery Brooks

Before Avery came out to speak, there was a buzz emanating from backstage about how immensely "cool" he looked that day. Jonathan mentioned earlier on stage that he looked like Ron Carter, famous jazz bass player. Indeed, when he came out, Avery was styling in a silvery, silk-and-leather ensemble (take a look in the Photo Gallery at left). "I don't look like Ron Carter!" he guffawed. "Yeah, that Frakes is something, and it's always a pleasure. Wild man that he is."

Avery opened his talk by reiterating a sentiment he's expressed at other recent appearances (Seattle, Vegas, etc.). "I don't get out often, as you well know. But this year seems to be more prolific than others. I cannot say why, except for the last six or seven months, I've been saying this: Behold, I am still alive. Which to some extent is no small feat these days, is it not? So I am grateful in that way, grateful to still stand in front of you to say hello, albeit briefly."

What has he been doing lately? "Watching my children grow, and trying to make this music that I've been promising to make for many a day." He has mentioned doing an album, but no word yet on when that may be completed.

He was filled with many inspirational, even spiritual words, particularly about the show which had brought this gathering together. "I think all in all — and other people have said it more eloquently than I — but from the very beginning this idea of talking about the present in terms of the future allowed Star Trek to go literally places where we could not fix in our own lives. That's the beauty." He insisted that a child-like imagination is a gift from God and we should never let go of it. "That the chance that we will be alive and whole as a human race, as mankind, 400 years hence is exactly the point for me. Not because I said so, but nobody can prove me wrong."

Responding to a fan's question about "Trials and Tribble-ations," Avery commented that "it was fascinating to see how far the technology has come that I may actually be on the bridge with Kirk." However, he grinned, "I'm glad that the costumes, the wardrobe, evolved from that time. You know what I mean? The spandex, the whatever that was... I'm glad I came later."

The inevitable question about a DS9 movie came from an overseas visitor. Does Avery know anything? "The fact of the matter is, you will probably know in Greece before I do. That's the truth! And when that happens, call me."

Avery reflected on the creative decision about how his character would end up in "What You Leave Behind," and the reservations he expressed about it. "The producers were very gracious to allow me to come across the lot to sit in their offices, and talk about these things. But I thought, initially, 'Well, you're killing Sisko!' And they said, 'No, no, no, we're not.' I said, 'Well, that's what I see. Please don't kill Sisko.' And literally the response was, 'We thought you would be thrilled because we are making him a god!'

"Which I understood," he continued. "But I maintain that, what we most desire is to see our children grow. You know what I mean? To become a god, that sounds good. But I don't know what that means [when it comes to] tucking the child in at night. Or being worried about them gettin' home on time. See? Or, where you going, who you talking to, who you gonna see. Are you gonna have children? And in the daughter's case, who is he, and why is he here? The omnipotence of God allows one to see all things, I suppose, but I'd rather be standing on the front porch."

"However, what they did allow was this: I will be back 'in two weeks, or yesterday.' So that the barrier of time no longer matters. So if in fact by some strange occurrence the movie of DS9 should come, then Sisko is allowed through the barrier of time."

Unable to resist a small girl's request to hear him sing, he saved the best for last. When he got the cue that his time was almost up, he sat down, got into the moment, and began to use that rich, baritone, melodic voice of his. He sang "If Ever I Would Leave You" from "Camelot," ending with the lyric, "No, never could I leave you at all."

Thus concluded the 2006 Grand Slam convention. There are many more to come in this 40th anniversary year, so we'll see you around!