My First Star Trek Convention

I was excited... and a bit apprehensive. I know how much Moshe loves Star Trek conventions. I thought it would be fun to enter "his" world.

At the same time, I expected to meet some pretty strange people....

Barely 60 people attended the 'Q-Con 2' convention. I would not even call it a "convention"…. but when I called it a Star Trek “gathering,” Moshe got all hot under the collar.

“It’s a convention,” he corrected me. (He is so cute when he takes this Star Trek stuff so seriously!)

All kidding aside, I was also excited to meet John de Lancie, the convention’s guest star. John de Lancie played the recurring character of “Q” – a being who is both petulant and omnipotent (a rather dangerous combination).

De Lancie’s son, Keegan, who played Q’s son in an episode of Voyager, was also a guest star. Keegan is a Fulbright scholar, studying in Amman, Jordan. He and his parents were visiting Israel on a personal tour. The convention was scheduled around their visit!

It would have been fun to bring the kids too, but my girls had gymnastics and my son had Ofek (an afternoon program for gifted kids).

So Moshe took off early from work, and the two of us drove to Herzliya for the convention.

There was only one building in the area and I thought 'this can't be the place; it's a youth center.'

It was the place.

We arrived 15 minutes early (mark the date!), and hung around for a while until things got started.

There were about 15 people in the auditorium when this young guy, with big, thick-rimmed glasses (you can’t make this stuff up!), came out and asked which episode we would like to see.

After watching the episode, the guy came back to let us know that the next part of the program would begin in about half an hour, and did we want to just wait or watch part of another episode.

I kid you not! (We paid money for this!!)

Well, hey, we are Star Trek fans, so we voted for another episode! Duh!

In the end, we watched the entire episode, with time to spare before the program began.

Then we watched the episode with both Keegan and John de Lancie, with live commentary by Keegan. Afterwards, he chatted with the audience.

Then Marnie Mosiman, John deLancie’s wife, performed two songs. The first was a parody of “Without You,” from “My Fair Lady,” called “Without Q.” It was very clever. (She stuck in some Israel references as well)

Then John de Lancie read The Devil and Billy Markham, by Shel Silverstein. (I could only find part 1 on line, but de Lancie) Afterwards, he chatted with the audience as well.

During De Lancie’s Q & A with the audience, he mentioned that he acted in Days of Our Lives, back in the 80’s. My father’s cousin, Michael David, used to write for that show back then. They must have worked together.

De Lancie is currently directing operas, which I think is really cool. (If I can admit to liking Star Trek, then I can admit to liking opera.)

One participant asked de Lancie why he thought Q had such popular appeal – de Lancie suggested that Q’s absolute freedom, coupled with no sense of responsibility is every person’s fantasty. I laughed at first, then realized the profundity of that statement. It is true – it would be awesome to be able to do whatever one wanted with no concern about the consequences!

I was not like that, even as a teenager….

Afterwards, we got a chance to talk with John some more, and also Keegan and Marnie. They were all very nice and interesting people.

That was the best part of the convention being so small – it felt very personal and friendly.

Keegan says he comes to visit Israel fairly frequently. I mentioned that I worked as a tour guide and offered to help him plan an itinerary. I doubt he will take me up on my offer, but wouldn’t it be cool if he did?



Please daven (or send happy, healing thoughts) for RivkA bat Teirtzel.

With love and optimism,
RivkA