Kate Mulgrew
Voyager star Kate Mulgrew arrived on stage and made her political position known immediately. She told the crowd that she was selected to be a delegate at this year's Democratic convention, but family matters intervened and she was unable to attend. A big John Kerry supporter, Kate encouraged people to vote in this very important election.

Kate, as passionate as ever, believes as strongly in her family as she does about politics. She described her five years with husband Tim Hagan, an Ohio politician, as the "the happiest five years of my life, with the best person I've ever met. He is remarkable beyond words."

Her big irony moment in life has to do with one of her sons who, growing up, was disdainful of the entertainment industry. He wanted a normal mother, one who didn't wear a weird suit working in the Delta Quadrant. Now in his 20s, her son broke the news to her recently: he wants to become an actor! "He found his passion, he found his joy." Now, Kate feels, everything has come full circle.

One of Kate's other passions is the eradication of Alzheimer's, as her mother is currently suffering from the latter stages of the disease. This past year has been difficult for Kate (her father passed away earlier in the year), and her goal is to see that enough money is raised to invest in the research needed (i.e. stem cell research), not to mention boosting awareness. "This is a global effort. I'm quite prepared to do a lot for this."

Kate also presented the Sally Malin (late mother of Creation co-chief Adam Malin) Teacher's Recognition Award to Barbara Givens of Las Vegas. It took Kate several minutes to read all of Barbara's accomplishments, a true inspiration to us all!

Majel Barrett Roddenberry
The "First Lady of Star Trek," Majel Barrett Roddenberry, opened the day by telling stories about how being an L.A. cop actually helped her late husband Gene begin his writing career.

When the future Star Trek creator moved to Hollywood in the 1950s, he discovered he was competing with over two million other would-be writers in the country, of which only about 4,000 made a living at it. What was it that separates them? "Insane stubbornness," Majel recounted. "Plus, a good agent." Gene determined the right representative for himself, and figured that having a badge and a gun could be an advantage.

"Then on one perfect day, his agent of choice reached a speed of 40 in a 25-mile-per-hour zone. So he pulled out his ticket book and 'happened' to mention his writing ambitions, at which point this agent became very eager to talk to Gene about his writing career." When Gene started taking pitch meetings with TV executives, he was surprised they all paid such rapt attention. "Well, Gene realized that when he had removed his jacket, there was a very large 38-caliber pistol on his person."

Max Grodénchik and Chase Masterson

Max Grodénchik and Chase Masterson, who played the Ferengi-Bajoran couple "Rom" and "Leeta," took the stage together and recounted how their characters got together. Producer Ira Steven Behr came up to Max on the set one day, put his arm around him and said, "We're gonna give you Leeta." "I said, 'What?'" Max recalled. "We're going to make Rom and Leeta a couple," Behr continued, and Max replied, "But she's with Dr. Bashir!" Behr said, "Sid [Alexander Siddig] is a handsome guy. We don't want Sid hooked up with anybody, because the female audience really likes him and we want him to be available." Max retorted, "Is this a compliment for me somehow?"

Chase interjected her perspective on the story. "We [Leeta and Bashir] were really too Barbie and Ken anyway. Leeta and Rom were fun, right? Kind of like the Lucy and Ricky of Star Trek!" Max added, "Bashir was too skinny!" and Chase agreed.

Alice Krige

Contrasting her terrifying appearance as the Borg Queen, the lovely Alice Krige took the stage and confessed to the fans that she hadn't yet been able to experience the payoff of her hard work on the "Borg Invasion 4-D" ride here at the Hilton. "That was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done," she said of her work on the ride, which consisted of several days alone on a blue-screen set. "I so much missed the human companionship of fellow actors."

When asked by a fan who she'd pick, Data or Picard, she pointed out that the Borg Queen would have chosen Data, since he'd been the one to break her hold over Picard, but when it came to either Stewart or Spiner, she spurred raucous laughter and applause by responding, "Oh, if I had to choose I'd have them both!"

Penny Juday

Penny Juday has been the art department coordinator at Paramount for several of the Star Trek movies and she has also been responsible for the exhibits on display at Star Trek: The Experience since its opening in 1998.

This weekend, Penny introduced a tribute to Original Series art director Matt Jefferies that will be seen on the Special Edition DVD of "Star Trek Generations" that is due out in September.

Ethan Phillips
Funnyman Ethan Phillips began his appearance with a string of one-liners, playing the crowd like a Vegas comedian, yet admitting, "all of these jokes are stolen, I didn't write them!" He soon started answering fan questions because, when it comes to conventions, "I don't come prepared, because I'm basically... lazy."

He estimates that over Voyager's seven-year run, he'd spent a staggering 3,200 hours in the makeup chair (that's just over 133 solid days), adding later that the makeup felt like "having a mattress glued to my head."

Phillips took a moment to auction off one of the rubber Neelix heads he'd worn on the show to benefit the Uprising Theatre Company in Los Angeles where he'd appeared in "Hamlet" last year, and where he'll appear in an upcoming production of "Macbeth," to be directed by DS9's Armin Shimerman. His makeup prosthetic fetched $950 for the non-profit theatre company.

STARTREK.COM Trivia Challenge
The first-ever STARTREK.COM Trivia Challenge managed to stump some fans, and quite a few fans were able to stump the STARTREK.COM team, including the Grand Prize winner Ryan Dietz. Congratulations, Ryan!