A beautiful Saturday in Pasadena was probably missed by several thousand Star Trek and science fiction fans as they mingled, purchased, listened and watched while events unfolded at Creation's 12th Annual Grand Slam. Saturday was noticeably busier than the Friday, naturally, as the star lineups are heavier and people who are only free for the weekend make their pilgrimage to this revered spot of traditional Star Trek entertainment.

Walter Koenig

Walter Koenig ("Chekov") kicked things off Saturday morning lauding one of his Original Series castmates. "Who saw The Practice the other night?" Koenig asked the audience. "I thought Bill Shatner was wonderful, absolutely wonderful. Evidently there's going to be a spin-off, and he's going to have another series on the air. So that's something to look forward to. He was really quite good."

Fielding questions from the fans, he was asked if he had any difficulty with the Russian accent of his character. "Well, it depends on whether or not you think I was successful!" Koenig replied with a laugh. "There are people who see very little merit in that accent. But for what it's worth, I have somewhat of an ear. I've done German on television, and I've done French on television, and in the theater I've done all manner of English accents. I don't sing very well, but I have been fairly successful with dialects. My parents are both from the Soviet Union, so that helped as well."

In course of his talk, Koenig related a story about his involvement with the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations." "I thought it would be fun to visit the set and see how well they had recreated the old series and the ship," he began. "I kinda slipped in the back, so nobody knew I was there. I was watching Colm Meaney and the doctor, Alexander Siddig, and they were trying to flip open the communicator — it was one of the old ones. They flip it open and it would flip back closed again. And they flip it open and it flipped back closed. I was watching this, and I was getting more and more frustrated. And then suddenly, I heard someone screaming. And then I realized — it was me. They yelled, 'Cut!' and everything stopped. This is the God's honest truth ... Everybody stopped and they all sort of froze.  I stepped into the light, and I walked over to them. I went, 'Give it to me.' And they handed it to me, and I said, 'This is the way it's done.' I was praying, 'God, let it work.' I flipped it open, and it stayed open, I said, 'Think you can do that?' And I walked off. It was a great moment."

Ron Perlman

Over the course of the weekend, we saw several Star Trek actors and guest stars at the convention touting other shows, projects or movies. Among them was Ron Perlman, the Reman Viceroy in "Star Trek Nemesis," who was there to promote his acclaimed new movie, "Hellboy."

After showing an extended trailer for the movie, the director, a jovial Perlman and several others from the production (sadly, minus the advertised Selma Blair) sat on a panel to discuss the new movie, which is slated to open this week. Director Guillermo del Toro spoke highly of his star, saying that Ron was "a great actor in a perfect role." Perlman returned the compliment by saying that, as a director, Del Toro was "amazingly generous." In his career, Perlman noted that prior to "Hellboy," his high water mark was playing Vincent in the Beauty and the Beast TV show. But now, "Hellboy" had effectively raised the water mark a little higher.

"Hellboy," Beauty and the Beast and Star Trek are all roles that required Perlman to be in heavy makeup. However, performing in these types of roles do not bother the unflappable actor. He remains philosophical by noting that the roles he's done requiring heavy makeup exceed the ones where he hasn't. "I enjoy mask work," he revealed.

John Rhys-Davies

Just after midday on Saturday, fans were treated to an appearance by a man who's been fortunate enough to list a number of film and television's most popular franchises on his resume. John Rhys-Davies (who played the holographic Leonardo da Vinci on Star Trek: Voyager), took the stage to thunderous applause to speak of his experiences on Voyager, Sliders, the Indiana Jones pictures (as Indy's trusted friend and expert digger Sallah) and of course, his most recent role as the dwarf Gimli in the Lord of the Rings films.

He began by joking about how difficult it was to remove the gore, guts and viscera from his Gimli axe between takes, then went directly to fan questions. He spoke of his small farm on the Isle of Man, "where we try to grow sheep," he joked.

When asked about his Voyager appearances, he reminisced fondly. "Why, it was great fun," he said. "I believe that Kate (Mulgrew, "Kathryn Janeway") originated the idea of using either Picasso or da Vinci on the show, I was lucky that they chose Leonardo!"

He spoke of meeting last week with Steven Spielberg to discuss the upcoming fourth Indiana Jones movie, which is now in the early stages, but "there is a remote chance that Sallah will return," he said. "This will be the best Indy of all time," he promised, drawing cheers and applause.

Nicole deBoer

Nicole deBoer ("Ezri Dax"), currently filming the third season of the Stephen King inspired The Dead Zone, was also part of a panel that included mainly other stars from the show, including Anthony Michael Hall. Nearly without a voice, DeBoer was suffering from a self-described "Canadian cold," presumably either obtained while filming in Canada, or referencing the fact that she is, in fact, a Canadian with a cold. When asked to describe the success of Dead Zone, she said it was in both down to the writing … and, jokingly, the hair!

Nicole, who did a normal audition for the show, was also known to executive producer and show co-creator Michael Piller. As for her audition for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, it was a somewhat more disconcerting experience. "I went in and auditioned. When I went out, I saw Jeri Ryan in her Seven of Nine outfit and it scared the [blank] out of me because I thought that was what they were looking for [the Ezri Dax role]." Needless to say, she nailed the audition and got the part. (We can safely say that, although Nicole is not as proportioned as Jeri, she is every bit as stunning!)

Wil Wheaton

Events took place in multiple venues across the Pasadena Convention Center over the weekend, packing the fans in where necessary. In the so-called "Little Theatre," Wil Wheaton ("Wesley Crusher") treated fans to a more intimate, introspective and personal appearance than fans could see on the main stage.

The former TNG actor took the stage to cheers and recounted what he's been up to recently, focusing on his own writing and his Web site, wilwheaton.net, which unlike most celebrity sites, is completely made and maintained by Wheaton himself.

Instead of taking questions, he spoke off the cuff and read passages from his first-person books "Dancing Barefoot" and the upcoming "Just a Geek." He spoke candidly of being a teenager on the TNG set surrounded by adults and how in the years after he left the show, he had started to forget all of the good times, focusing only on the negative. But that has since changed, partially the result of his first visit to the Star Trek Experience ride in Las Vegas, where the recreated Enterprise-D Bridge brought back floods of memories. "They have an area full of Star Trek memorabilia called The Museum of the Future," he said nostalgically. "But for me it was the past, it was 1987." He recalled how when entering the Experience, he pointed out the giant model of the Enterprise to his wife and said "Hey, I can see my house from here!"

After years of avoiding most Star Trek events, Wheaton found himself backstage at Robert Beltran's Galaxy Ball a few years back, speaking with Jonathan Frakes ("William T. Riker") and Brent Spiner ("Data") and realizing how much Star Trek had impacted his life. When Frakes saw him backstage, he called out "Hey, W!" which was Frakes' nickname for Wheaton. "All my life, I've always wanted a cool poker nickname," said Wheaton.

He also read the story of learning that his scenes in "Star Trek Nemesis" had been relegated to the cutting room floor and how surprised he was at being neither hurt nor angry about it. Also, he read the story of his meeting William Shatner, prefacing it with "This always gets me into trouble." To find out why, you'll just have to read his book.

William Shatner

As William Shatner took the stage, a fan from the audience yelled "Leonard says hi!" — referring to a comment Leonard Nimoy made at the convention on Friday. Shatner responded drolly, "Leonard said hi. I don't talk to Leonard anymore. He's got my job!" He was, of course, referring to the infamous Priceline.com commercial that is now running on television. But he admitted, "We had fun, Leonard and I, on that commercial."

Asked by a fan what the most difficult aspect of directing is, Shatner went to some length describing how much compromise he had to contend with while serving as director on "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier." "The premise that I thought of was, Star Trek goes 'in search of God,'" he related. "What an interesting premise! When I said to everybody, 'I know what it is — Star Trek Goes In Search of God!' everybody goes, 'Wow! What a premise that is, Bill! You are so smart! Except — who's God?' Hmm. 'Not only that,' said the studio, 'Who will we alienate?' I don't know, I hadn't thought of that. 'You're so smart! We can't do it.' But it's a great premise. Then somebody said, 'Well, what happens if it's an alien that looks like the devil!' And I so desperately wanted to do Star Trek In Search of God, I said, 'Okay, that sounds good, that'll work!' And thus began the first compromise in a journey of compromises."

"Compromise," Shatner continued. "When do you compromise? How much do you compromise? It's a lesson in life, really, that we all have to learn. When do you say, 'No no no, I'm not gonna do that, and if it costs me my job, I don't care, it goes against my principles?' And when do you say, 'Well, I understand your opposition to that, and let me see if I can accommodate that?' It's an interesting question. But here, I had to make decisions.  I had no idea what to do. There's no course for a director in Politics 101. So I made the first compromise on the very basic premise of that movie. And from then on, it was a series of accommodations." He then related his familiar story about the fire-spewing rock creatures he wanted for the climax of the movie, but the costumes and effects proved to be so expensive and so unwieldy they couldn't be done with any quality, so that aspect of the story was written out.

Shatner spent some time talking about his Hollywood Charity Horse Show which will take place on Saturday, May 1, at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center. To benefit the children's charities supported by the Horse Show, he arranged with Rick Berman to auction off a tour of the set of Star Trek: Enterprise during the next season. "We anticipate that it'll be renewed. Everybody there is 99 percent sure!" he said (otherwise he'd guarantee a refund). The bidding got so fierce that Shatner stopped it at $5,200 and promised both remaining bidders that he would arrange set tours for both (for two each) at that price, thus raising more than $10,000 in a couple of minutes for his charities.

Sally Kellerman

As Shatner's time onstage drew to a close, he built the crowd up to introduce Sally Kellerman (Dr. Elizabeth Dehner in "Where No Man Has Gone Before"), but she was running late, so Shatner vamped by bringing their costar from the episode, Gary Lockwood ("Gary Mitchell") up onto the stage.

As the pair recounted stories of their fight scene from the episode where Lockwood's pants split, they were finally joined by Kellerman. After a few warm exchanges, Shatner and Lockwood departed, allowing Kellerman the stage.

"Hi everybody," she exclaimed, "It's great to be here, I've never been to one of these, I've always wondered what these conventions are like!"

She told of how it was, working with the silver contact lenses that she and Lockwood wore in the episode and how it made them practically blind while wearing them. She recalled the two of them stumbling through a scene, falling, missing their marks, but no one called out "cut" so they kept going, only to find out later that no one could yell "cut," because they were all laughing too hard.

Kellerman noted some tangential connections with her Star Trek costars, having been directed in a play by Leonard Nimoy at one time, and then working on the Kraft Playhouse with Lockwood, demonstrating how Hollywood can be a small world indeed.

As for her role in "Where No Man Has Gone Before," she reminded fans that although it was the third episode of Star Trek aired, it was the pilot for the show (actually, it was the second pilot, after NBC executives sent series creator Gene Roddenberry back to the drawing board after "The Cage"), but in truth, the episode led to the series getting greenlit, and the rest is history. "I've always taken great pride," noted Kellerman fondly, "In saying 'Yes, I was in the pilot of Star Trek.' "

Andrew Robinson & Armin Shimerman

Later in the show, Deep Space Nine fans were treated to a double bill of Armin Shimerman ("Quark") and Andrew Robinson ("Garak"). These two actors are obvious friends and wholly respectful of each other's abilities. They hugged on stage at one point after someone had shouted "We love you!"

"We love each other too," said Armin.

Robinson, commenting on his role as Garak, said that he "hated the makeup, loved the guy." His book, "A Stitch in Time" was also something close to his heart. "A labor of love," he offered. But perhaps something that has been played out, at least in book form. "I've said just about everything I can say about Garak." In fact, he respected the character so much that, although tempted, he simply "couldn't kill him off." Which means, of course, that Garak, lives another day and hopefully there will come a time when we will again see one of the best loved of DS9's rich tapestry of characters. Robinson noted that the only aspect of Garak that he did not like was any time he appeared in the Mirror Universe. This is where, according to the actor, "he lost all subtlety."

Overall, working on DS9 was a great experience for the veteran actor. And, he points out, acting in makeup has its advantages too. "I loved being anonymous. For seven years, people thought I'd retired from acting!"

Some actors, however, would clearly never be happy with regular trips to the makeup chair, namely Colm Meaney ("Miles O'Brien"). According to Armin, the Irish actor had little time for sessions lasting for hours rather than minutes. "Colm had to put on Klingon makeup for one episode!" To which Robinson added, "Anytime Sid [Alexander Siddig] or Colm Meaney had to spend more than five minutes in the makeup chair, they would cry like babies." Clearly no sympathy there for their costars!

When asked about his iconic role as the Scorpio killer in the Clint Eastwood film "Dirty Harry," Robinson was effusive in his praise of late director Don Siegel. Calling him "unheralded," Robinson said that Seigel was "by far the best director I ever worked for." Robinson went on to say that he recently saw a new print of the film on the big screen while at a festival in France. The scope of the film, and the style, he found remarkable still today. Of note, Robinson also starred with Walter Matthau in the classic "Charley Varrick," again directed by Don Siegel.

Armin, as ever, was gracious about the cast on DS9. "An amazing group of actors," he remarked. However, he found some episodes a bit painful to film. Chief amongst them was "Profit and Lace," which saw Armin cross dressing in the name of art. "I'm sure the writers thought it was hysterical," he says. "Quark in drag. That was the worst week of my life. Everyone had to pinch me."

Celebrity Dessert Party

Saturday evening ended with fans getting their — wait for it — just desserts. Connor Trinneer, Dominic Keating [pictured] and Nicole deBoer were among the stars eating desserts and mingling with fans at this special separate event that followed the day's events.