Creation's Grand Slam: The Star Trek Sci Fi Summit XVII, 2/16/13

With Saturday being the only day Sir Patrick Stewart was attending Grand Slam: The Star Trek Sci Fi Summit XVII, it was understandingly very popular. Demand was so great not only did General Admission tickets sell out days before, but “Vendor/Signer Area Only” tickets were created for those who wanted to obtain autographs and photos with Stewart at $80 a pop. No doubt many were delighted by this development. However, my friend who was only going for Stewart's autograph paid $70 for a Saturday Preferred Admission a couple of days prior because he missed out on the GA tickets and was very frustrated when he learned the news.

A handful of people, many verbally eager for Stewart's appearance, were lined up before 8am and the line steadily increased before the doors opened at 8:30am. It was was oddly chaotic, as one line formed with different ticket holders mixed together. No one with Creation seemed to know where people needed to line up or else they didn't care. Some lady tried to get the different groups to stand in different places, but it didn't work as the entire line moved en masse to a different location. When the doors opened, people with badges were allowed in while those needing to pick them up found out at the door that they had to move to yet another line. Considering how long Creation has been putting these shows on and taking into account they already had Friday to deal with this issue, it was strange the start of the day didn't run more smoothly.

The lobby of the Convention Center, which really seemed more like a hallway, had trouble handling all the vendors and attendees milling about because of how narrow it was. The entry to the bathrooms were particularly crowded and it didn't help that was where people had to go to pay for parking. When a panel featuring a popular speaker concluded in the Academy Ballroom, the exit couldn't handle the flow of people streaming out. This was due in part because of the tables lining the walls hawking sci fi paraphernalia and selling autographs from celebrities who stretched the definition of the term, such as Natalija Nogulich, who played Admiral Nechayev in four episodes of ST:The Next Generation and two episodes of ST:Deep Space Nine; Don Marshall, who played Lt. Boma in ST: The Original Series episode “The Galileo Seven”; and Bobby Clark, who wore the Gorn costume in ST: TOS episode “The Arena”. I have no idea off the top of my head what Chase Masterson appears in, but she looked stunning in a gorgeous gray dress designed with a captivating asymmetrical structure that allowed her ample bosom to spill out the top.

Article Author: Gordon S. Miller

Gordon S. Miller is the artist formerly known as El Bicho, the nom de plume he used when he first began reviewing movies online for The Masked Movie Snobs in 2003. Before that year was out, he became that site's publisher. …

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