For third day in a row, Star Trek fans of all kinds streamed into Rosemont's Westin O'Hare hotel for Creation Entertainment's Official Star Trek Convention. Day 3's action got started off right away, as the theater presentations started off with Jeri Ryan giving a talk about her experiences portraying the Borg Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager. After that, there was another presentation by John Tenuto, this time giving some background on the collectibles/toys associated with Star Trek: Voyager(including a special edition Seven of Nine action figure that was only available overseas). After another music video(the convention had actually solicited submissions for videos from the public pre-convention, and those submissions had been used to plug gaps in the schedule as well as in pre-scheduled music video blocks), the MC sat down onstage and began leading a discussion on the relative merits(or lack thereof) of all 12 Star Trek movies.
While that was going on, Jeri Ryan was giving out autographs downstairs. One of the folks in line to get autographs was a little girl all dressed up as Seven of Nine. Needless to say, Ms. Ryan was very impressed with the girl's effort. After the autographs were done, action picked back up in the main theater with Gene Roddenberry's personal blooper reels. How these were acquired is a story in itself. Creation has been doing shows since 1971, including several Star Trek shows. While Roddenberry was still alive(he died in 1991) he gave his blooper reels from the old Star Trek as a personal gift to Creation. And so, these are still shown at conventions.
After the bloopers, Robert Beltran took to the stage. Beltran played Chakotay on Star Trek Voyager. After fielding several questions from the audience, Beltran yielded the stage to Suzie Plakson. Plakson had portrayed Worf's(a Klingon character on Star Trek) lover in a few episodes of the series. As she was onstage, she was transformed into her character live onstage by makeup artist John Paladin. After that, the stage was cleared for the final time as the weekend's last guest joined us. Nichelle Nichols closed out the convention with a reminiscence of her 50+ years in show business and her many experiences with NASA, among other topics. After Ms. Nichols left the stage, there were some more autographs, and then the 2014 Official Star Trek Chicago Convention came to an end. Creation will be coming back to Chicago in 2015, and who knows what they'll offer then?
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