Sunday at Creation Entertainment's "Sci-Fi Summit" convention in Pasadena was an amalgam of genre franchises represented throughout the day. Stars from Stargate SG-1, Smallville, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel took the stage at one point or another, along with a number of behind-the-scenes people from sci-fi movies, TV and games. But there was still some Star Trek to be relished, and in fact the weekend climaxed on the "Boys of Enterprise." First, though, was a fan favorite, Mr. Brent Spiner.

Brent Spiner

The actor behind the yellow face of "Data" spoke a fair bit about "Star Trek Nemesis," making the point that there's little likelihood that his android character would ever be revived. But he joked that maybe he could be in a future movie as himself, playing "Captain Brent Spiner."

Responding to a question about what specific contributions he made to the script of "Nemesis," Brent said, "Believe it or not, I contributed almost nothing specific to Data. Rick [Berman] and John [Logan] kinda took care of Data. My area, believe it or not, was the action sequences — that's sort of what I was feeling when I would be sitting outside at night at my house and I'd get a phone call from John, and he'd say, 'Okay I've got Picard and Data on the ship — how do I get them off the ship?' And I would say, 'Well, what you do is, you have them fly a little ship inside the ship and fly out through the dome.' It would be stuff like that. I think it was sort of my notion that Data jump off the ship onto the other ship, and that [the two ships] would crash into one another. Most of the action beats I had something to do with. But I tried to stay away from the serious stuff — for obvious reasons."

Brent also took the opportunity to talk about some of his numerous appearances on other TV shows, particularly sitcoms such as Mad About You and Frazier. Regarding a recent experience on Friends, he recalled, "Eighty million people saw that show, and I had one tiny little scene. A scene with Jennifer Aniston. You know what — she kept saying something to me, and I don't quite get it — she kept saying, 'You are so much cooler than Brad.' Who's Brad? Is that, like, another actor on the show or something? Anyway, it was really fun doing Friends, actually. It was a very short little scene — when they asked me if I wanted to do it, I said, 'Well, it's so small,' and they said, 'It's just you and Jennifer' and I went, 'Okay!' The thing I'm proudest of is, I actually wrote a line and they used it — it was a line about Hugo Boss, and it got a big laugh and I was really pleased with myself."

A fan asked if, when he joined The Next Generation, he was ever afraid of being typecast. "Nah, not really," he replied. "Because there are so few good android roles out there, you know. I knew that I would probably never play another android."

Is he planning to release another CD, a follow-up to "Ol' Yellow Eyes is Back"? "Well, I'd like to, I really would," he said. "When I get to the point that I'm ready to lose of whole lot more money, I'm gonna do another CD, immediately. No, actually, it did okay, and I'd sort of like to do another one. I don't know what I would do — I was thinking, maybe me and Janet Jackson, a duet thing. We'll see."

Eugene W. Roddenberry Jr.

Sandwiched among the various presentations, the son of the late Gene Roddenberry got a chance to go on stage and apprise the fans on his progress toward re-opening the Roddenberry Store, and also to demonstrate "Star Trek Universe Online," a new free on-line game which is targeted for launch later this year. The game will allow players to pit different ships from the Star Trek universe against each other, and it includes expressive Instant Message avatars for participants to communicate with. These 3D avatars are so advanced they look like video, but they can be used with 56K modems. All the latest information can be found at Roddenberry.com.

Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, Connor Trinneer

A very rowdy and sometimes raunchy appearance by the three "Boys of Enterprise" concluded the weekend's schedule, with the question hanging in the air as to whether Star Trek: Enterprise would be renewed for a fourth season.

A bundle of energy as always, Anthony Montgomery ("Travis Mayweather") commented on the Enterprise theme song playing on speakers as they came out. "I like the original one. I like the first theme for our show, not the second version." Dominic Keating ("Malcolm Reed") retorted, "Oh how they changed!" and added, "Who cares what the theme song's like, as long as we're on the show next year." The audience rousingly agreed. Dominic continued with a laugh, "I just bumped into Anthony Michael Hall back there, I went over to say hi and how much I like the show, and he went, 'Get away from me, you stink of cancellation!' Ooh, that's cold."

As for the raunchiness, apparently there was a little incident earlier in the day during Connor Trinneer's ("Trip Tucker") autograph session on the other side of the convention hall. "I didn't know who was there, but I'm doing the autograph signing," Connor related, "and I looked up to a full moon of Dominic's butt. At first I didn't know it was Dominic and I thought, 'Oh, how tacky.' Then I saw it was Dominic and I thought, 'Well...' So I signed Dominic's ass." Dominic interjected, "With an X!" Connor came back, "I didn't want to spend too much time there!"

Asked by a fan where they think the NX-01 will be going next after its Delphic Expanse mission, Dominic immediately said, "It's going to the Caribbean. And I can't wait." More seriously, Connor responded, "We aren't given any information about that. Truly we are the last ones to know. I mean, probably if the writers start going back to work, that would be a pretty good indication that we're coming back." Dominic added, "Set construction's going on May 12. It's a good sign."

Who inspires them? Connor replied: "Honest — this'll sound kinda cheesy — but in terms of the way someone can behave and effectively do their job and have a good attitude, Scott Bakula's the man." Anthony concurred: "I'm going to say the exact same thing. Cliché, but Scott's life is where ours, if we're blessed, will go. And he's such a grounded person, he's such a genuine person, that I just try to be inspired by him." Dominic, after making a Shatner joke earlier, added in an imposing voice, "But I will be captain."

An audience member asked how they deal with criticism of the show. "I'm in therapy," Dominic quipped. Connor — obviously the straight man of the group — responded, "It's in our job, man. You know, the writers have to write, reviewers have to review, producers have to produce, and actors have to act. So yeah, it sucks sometimes that you're spending a lot of your energy and time, to have people say that they don't like it, or whatever they might say. You really want to ignore that kind of stuff as an actor, but it's almost impossible. It's like the Sirens."

Dominic added his tuppence worth: "Yeah, I wish they would let us alone. I mean, there are enough people out there that do like it, so stop trying to step all over it. I don't think we get horribly, ridiculously low ratings for a show that's never promoted."

The question came up about rumors of multiple endings shot for the season finale. "Lies! Lies I tell you!" Dominic began half-jokingly, but on the level he did nix that rumor, and talked some about the actual final scene. "Something funny about that — they were keeping it so under wraps, I got one piece of paper that arrived at my house in three envelopes. And then they had 35 extras on the last two days of shooting, and told them exactly what the ending was, and sent them back into the wide world. Can you believe it? Incredible! But I'm not kidding, one piece of paper in three envelopes arrived at my house, with a guard, and a dog."

Connor revealed a bit of personal information when asked what projects he plans to undertake during hiatus. "I'm doing a little lifelong project — I'm gettin' married." The audience gleefully applauded their congratulations. "Who's casting that?" Dominic asked. "Oh, it's Ron Surma," Connor deadpanned.

Amidst the cracks about potential cancellation, the three were actually quite optimistic about the show's chances for renewal. And regarding the remaining produced shows which begin airing April 21, Dominic especially was enthusiastic. "The next six episodes which take us to the end of the season, they rock. We're very proud of them. I think you're in for a good ride," he said.

To which, for Star Trek aficionados, Creation's 12th Annual Grand Slam, the "Sci-Fi Summmit," came to a close. We hope everyone had fun and see you all next year. Or in Las Vegas, London or wherever!