If the twosomes on stage were the life of the party at Vegas, it was the threesomes who stirred up the most controversy — well, one of them at least. In this fourth report from Creation Entertainment's 5th annual official Star Trek convention in Las Vegas last month, we look at what transpired during sessions with George Takei, Nichelle Nichols & Walter Koenig of the Original Series; Jeffrey Combs, Marc Alaimo & Aron Eisenberg, recurring guest stars of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; and the featured players of "The Trouble with Tribbles," William Schallert, William Campbell & Charlie Brill.

George Takei, Nichelle Nichols & Walter Koenig

It's been less than a year since George Takei came out publicly as a gay man, and he has been increasingly outspoken about issues of concern to him ever since. And his castmates seem increasingly willing to back him up, even being inspired to go for broke themselves. And when people in the public eye use forums available to them to say precisely what's on their mind, some in the audience are going to get upset.

The Saturday morning session was reminiscent of Michael Moore's acceptance speech at the 2003 Oscars. When Takei expressed himself unabashedly, and Koenig and Nichols followed up with similar comments, the Vegas gathering was predominantly supportive and agreeable. But there was backlash from some quarters. Rather than shy away from any controversy, we will give you a full, objective report of what happened, and leave judgments about it to the message boards.

The three came out on stage to a standing ovation, and Takei in particular exchanged Vulcan salutes with the audience. After struggling through some microphone problems, Nichols opened:

"It's certainly wonderful to be here with you. After 40 years it's wonderful to be anywhere! But to be here with you makes it more important, and more delicious, and truly truly heartfelt wonderful. Thank you all for loving us and for hanging in there and introducing your children and our grandchildren to the wonderful legacy and dream of Gene Roddenberry."

"It's just an extraordinary phenomenon that goes on and on and on," Koenig began, suddenly amused by what he just said. "Yes, that's what it is, a phenom that goes on. All these years — it's still viable. Can you believe that? It's viable! We're still doing this!"

"This is really fantastic to look out on this sea of faces," expressed Takei. "You're all the ones who made this 40th anniversary possible. So on behalf of all of us involved with Star Trek, thank you for this longevity. It feels so good to say, we're 40!"

"Well in that case, I'm only 39!" laughed Koenig (because he started in the second season).

Some of the topics raised by fan questions, and stories told by the guests, included Takei's strange journey with the Howard Stern show, Koenig's stint as a guest star on Babylon 5 ("I'm forever grateful to Star Trek ... but in terms of an aesthetic, and a personal and professional sense of reinforcement, I got that in the 12 episodes I did for Babylon 5 manyfold more than I ever had doing Star Trek"), and Nichols' experience understudying for Diahann Carroll on Broadway. Koenig and Nichols also talked at some length about their recent involvement with the web productions "Star Trek: New Voyages" and "Of Gods and Men."

Takei got several praises from fans "for being 'out' there for us," as one put it. One audience member who came to the mike commended him for teaching tolerance by his actions, both as a gay man and as a Japanese-American who was detained in an internment camp during World War II. Takei responded:

"We're really talking about America and the fundamental ideals that made this country great. But you know, what's really worrisome is not only what happened more than 60 years ago, but what is happening to us today. We've got to relate history to today as well ... When Pearl Harbor was bombed, this entire country was terrorized. And acting on terror, they rounded up people on the West Coast who looked like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. We'd done nothing, there were no charges, no trial, no attorneys, no due process — we were simply rounded up and incarcerated in these barbed wire prison camps. The same thing is happening today" with Arabs, he said, apparently referring to the Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and "extraordinary rendition" controversies over detention and torture.

Takei continued, "We have to be mindful and be able to act on the ideals of this country. And you know, when we talk about national security issues — to illustrate how crazy our policy makers are, we have intelligence that's key to dealing with terrorism. Do you know that the military intelligence service is kicking out Arabic-speaking intelligence officers simply because they happen to be gay? Isn't that stupid?! Which is more important, national security or homophobia?!" Applause from the audience.

His ire rising, he went further: "You know, clearly with this administration what's more important are the silly issues, like homophobia, when national security is a critical issue ... I mean, George Bush says" — immediately there were grumblings from certain parts of the audience — "stay the course. Stay the course?! It's a disaster in Iraq! This man isn't able to deal with reality!" (Robust applause from the general audience.) "George Bush is staying on course" — (boos from a few) — "with that incompetent Donald Rumsfeld" — (a mixture of chagrin and delight from the audience) — "and that's who brought us to this ridiculous, disastrous point." General applause and supportive shout-outs.

Page 2: More from George, Walter and Nichelle
Page 3: Jeffrey Combs, Marc Alaimo & Aron Eisenberg
Page 4: William Schallert, William Campbell & Charlie Brill