This is the first part of our reporting from Creation Entertainment's Official Star
Trek Las Vegas Convention at the Hilton, which was held from August 16-20.

What a week-end! Starting on the Wednesday night, with a "Chocolate on the Edge of Forever" party, and lasting well into Sunday night with an entourage watching Comedy Central's Roast of William Shatner in Quark's Bar, it was wall-to-wall entertainment, food, merchandise and mingling.

As a crowning achievement, Creation Entertainment pulled off the coup of the year by snagging Scott Bakula ("Jonathan Archer") for their annual event, the mother of all Star Trek conventions. This year, as big and bold as ever, provided fans with thrills, tears, laughs, and even some shock and ahhh!

But it was Sunday that was the holy grail for some as the handsome, if a bit hirsute Scott Bakula took the stage to a standing ovation and wildly ecstatic applause. Scott's appeal, of course, is twofold as he is responsible for a pair of definitive sci-fi roles, Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap and Captain Jonathan Archer from Star Trek: Enterprise.

With hundreds of cameras marking this historic appearance, Scott had the audience at hello. After bounding on stage to strains of "Faith of the Heart," following a glowing introduction by Creation's Adam Malin, Bakula appearead at ease, and at home, on stage. And judging by his hairstyle, it looks like after finishing his run in "Shenandoah" at the infamously historic Ford's Theatre in Washington earlier this year, Scott has decided to keep the long-locked civil war-era look.

"I have laryngitis so I can't talk," he stated jokingly as he feigned walking off stage. As the rarely seen Jolene Blalock had already cancelled her appearance that day due to illness, some fans were probably a bit bemused by Scott's joke.

"Long time no see. Too long. Thank you all for being here today. I haven't been able to get here before, but it's been worth the wait. It's really great to see everybody. I've heard so much about all of you from everybody else. And it's always very positive. I'm just glad I could finally be here and talk to you and see you all in person," he opened.

Without prompting he said he misses doing the show, but that last week he did a few hours of voiceover work on the "Star Trek: Legacy" computer game, the one that features the voices of all five Star Trek captains. "So I had a little trip down memory lane," he stated. "It was actually a lot of fun once I was able to start speaking again in Star Trek-ese because man when you get out of practice it takes a while!"

Scott's first question at a Star Trek convention focused on his recent run in the musical "Shenandoah" at Ford's Theatre — site of President Lincoln's assassination — and how he felt about performing there.

"The night that was actually the most weird was the anniversary of Lincoln's assassination. Working underneath his balcony seating, we were firing guns, we were saying his name several times in the piece. The only good thing about it was we got off the stage before the [actual] time of his assassination. I was glad to get off the stage that night, to be quite honest. But it was a great place. Washington D.C. was wonderful too. I had a ball there. The cherry blossoms were unbelievable. I recommend it to everybody."

Page 2: The Enterprise Finale