It was an impressive crowd for a Thursday, when Creation Entertainment commenced one of its largest Star Trek gatherings ever at the Las Vegas Hilton.

Ricardo Montalban
The four-day convention was opened by one of the most admired actors in Trek lore, who refused to let his physical disability prevent his appearance at this event. Ricardo Montalban ("Khan"), confined to a wheelchair due to a spinal cord injury from years ago, pre-taped his talk specifically for Creation's Vegas audience. "Oh, how I wish I could be with you," said the actor who made such a mark in "Space Seed" and "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" on the tape. "But you know, I have attended a couple of your conventions, and I always leave with a wonderful feeling. A feeling of warmth, a feeling that perhaps you have some affection for me... I would love to be in person to tell you all this, but until the next time I will be able to attend, I just want to wish you a successful and happy convention, as they always are, and tell you that I want to send you a very warm abrazo [hug] from your amigo."

After that gracious welcome, Montalban spoke some about "Star Trek II," and also talked about the new theater in Hollywood named after him, which was the culmination of a long-held dream of his. He recalled that he originally bristled at the suggestion that his name be put on the theater, afraid he would be "aggrandizing" himself. But his partner in Nosotros, the Latino organization which brought the theater to fruition, told him, "A Hispanic name will be very, very inspiring, I think, to people of Spanish-speaking origins to look at it and say, 'Look, it can be done, it can be done.'" So Montalban said, "'Well, in that case, all right.' So now we have the Ricardo Montalban Theatre." That theater, which held its grand opening on May 8, is located near the corner of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles. Cirroc Lofton was actually the first scheduled guest on Thursday, but he was a no-show, so Creation used the slot for a time-honored tradition: the showing of the classic "blooper reel" from the Original Series. It's something fans have seen millions of times, but it still draws hearty laughs.

Guest Panel - An Alien Perspective
Kicking things off in the more intimate "Enterprise Theatre" was a guest-actor panel featuring genre all-stars such as Vaughn Armstrong (Admiral Forrest, among others), Randy Oglesby (Degra), Scott MacDonald (Cmdr. Dolim, Tosk, etc.), and Tony Amendola (Chorus). Also featured was non-Trek sci-fi alum Sam Jones from the movie "Flash Gordon". A couple of amusing stories were told by the panel, primarily to do with make-up, and the problems that come with wearing prosthetics for upwards of eighteen hours a day. A story related by Vaughn concerned a disgruntled actor who had been cast as a Romulan, but prior to shooting his scene stormed off the set. The crew assumed the actor was merely taking a bathroom break, when in reality he had walked off the set and onto the street to hail a taxi.

Tim Russ
Tim Russ took the stage late in the afternoon and immediately launched into a capella Voyager-themed "Love Boat" and "Gilligan's Island" song parodies, to much laughter and applause. When asked what he's been up to recently, he told the audience that he's continuing to work on "Bugsters," an original children's story on audio CD. This project also involves fellow Trek stars Chase Masterson and Ethan Phillips.

Russ was also asked about his amateur astronomy pursuits, a hobby he has a lot of time for. His favorite phenomena to gaze upon are globular clusters, a high concentration of stars located outside the Milky Way. Tim also ruminated on the future of mankind and how in 500 years' time religion would be completely different than what it is today. He cited an example of an Asimov story where colonies of humans on distant planets developed completely differently than what we currently know.

Walter Koenig
Walter Koenig appeared to a warm welcome and jumped right into fan questions, telling anecdotes and stories and finally solving one of Star Trek's great mysteries. When asked by a fan how it could be possible that Khan knew Chekov in "Wrath of Khan" when he hadn't been around for Khan's first appearance in the Original Series, Koenig set the record straight.

"He was there (in "Space Seed")! HE WAS THERE! He was working on the third deck behind the boiler room!" He went on to explain that an, er, indisposed Chekov had been occupying a restroom Khan desperately needed at some point, and that angry moment was when Khan memorized Chekov's face. Koenig also had a face-to-face meeting with Andy Bray, the young actor playing Chekov in the Improv's stage production of "Spock's Brain," which played last night. He also told a number of great stories, from how he learned about getting the role from a man on his knees to how he showed a pair of Deep Space Nine actors how to correctly open an Original Series-era Communicator.

Trekkies 2
The afternoon marked the public premiere of the sequel to "Trekkies" to a large and enthusiastic audience. Director Roger Nygard introduced the film, and said that a follow-up "Trekkies 3" is being considered. After the screening Nygard and fan Gabriel Koerner appeared on stage to talk about the making of the movie and answer fan questions.

Evening Events
A unique event was scheduled for the evening: a live rendition, courtesy of The Improv in Irvine, California, of the classic and oft-maligned "Spock's Brain." This production was produced with the cooperation of Paramount Pictures.

To close the evening a special "Dessert Party" was held for Gold patrons with various Trek luminaries including George Takei, Walter Koenig and Tim Russ.

STARTREK.COM will be presenting new and unique video programming all weekend at the Las Vegas convention including the big-screen premiere of "The Borg," a 20-minute documentary on this malevolent race.