Report by Christian Humberg
Photos by Tschiponnique Skupin / Future Image

ACHTUNG!: New German translation on Page 4! (Added 6.25.07) For those who have never attended, FedCon (short for Federation Convention) is Europe's biggest Trek event and is held (usually) in Bonn, Germany, a smaller city in the country's west. For many decades Bonn was the German capital; now it might easily be called the center of Trek fandom outside the United States. Fans from 17 different countries traveled here for the weekend to attend FedCon, the largest Star Trek and SF convention on the continent. Now in its 16th year, the annual three-day Trek fest — immortalized in the movie "Trekkies 2" — once again attracted thousands of people. This year's impressive list of Star Trek guests featured actors Kate Mulgrew, Avery Brooks, Jonathan Frakes, Garrett Wang, Armin Shimerman, Anthony Montgomery, Cirroc Lofton, Suzie Plakson, Robert O'Reilly and J.G. Hertzler along with Richard Arnold and illustrious German scientists and journalists interacting with the fans and talking about all things Trek.

Friday, June 8, 2007

"My god, I wish my agent was out there," said Armin Shimerman ("Quark") after his appearance at Friday's opening ceremony was greeted with enthusiastic applause and cheers from the audience. It's a trademark of FedCon that its attendees treat their celebrity guests with particular respect and politeness. "Mainbridge," the huge conference room on the ground floor of the Maritim Hotel — the traditional home of FedCon in Bonn — was packed when Master of Ceremonies Marc B. Lee introduced the actors and other guests on Friday night. Lee has been hosting the show for many years and has become a fan of German fandom. "I consider fandom in Germany to be different from anywhere I've ever been before. The atmosphere here goes on for 24 hours rather than your typical ten-to-six format," he told STARTREK.COM after the ceremony. "The fans in Europe create their own level of camaraderie and each and every year they return with the same level of enthusiasm as in the previous years."

Jonathan Frakes ("Riker") can attest to that. His first panel on Friday night, following opening ceremony, was very well attended and showed both the actor and his audience to be in a very good mood. Impressed by FedCon's atmosphere, Frakes talked about his first convention, where action figures of his TV character were given away for free and the fans were very skeptical towards the Next Generation crew, which had only just started production. "They didn't want to see us, they wanted Leonard Nimoy," Frakes remembered as he looked around at the thousands of listeners in the room. Times definitely have changed in 20 years. Being a fan of J.J. Abrams' work, Frakes is very optimistic about Star Trek's future: "J.J. has been given the keys to the spaceship. Seeing what he has done so far I think the franchise is in good hands. It could be great."

Friday's official program ended with a special panel, held by Avery Brooks and Cirroc Lofton. Father and son Sisko have a strong relationship which has extended far beyond the shooting of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Today the two actors continue to regard and treat each other with love. "And that's all because of you," Brooks told the audience. "Without you we never would have met." Lofton expressed his feelings towards his TV dad: "There is no other person I'd rather call dad than this man here. He made my time on Star Trek a real pleasure. I am a better actor because of him." When asked about his experiences with the episode "Trials and Tribble-ations," Brooks admitted: "It's a blessing that I came to Star Trek long after the boots and all the spandex. But the ability to play with Kirk was just amazing. It was all done with greenscreens and you couldn't tell."

The convention Friday ended somewhere in the mix of dancing bodies and drinking buddies in the bar of the Maritim. Yes, FedCon is a 24 hour experience!

Page 2: Saturday