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Generations II - A Reflexion
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| The Royal Albert Hall |
After in February 1995 the Generations I Convention had been extraordinarily
successful, Stargazer Prod. Ltd. invited this year to the 30th birthday
celebration of Star Trek, Generations II, which like its predecessor took
place at Londonīs Royal Albert Hall over the Easter weekend from 6th to
8th April 1996. Again the event turned out to be a great success, at least
for the organizer. The hall was highly crowded, what resulted in diverse
waits: Admission to the hall about 20 min, autograph session about 1-2h,
access to the Galaxy Class Dealers Room about 30 min.
The program began at 10.30 am with a warm-up, which our Master of
Ceremonies,
the amazing Robert Benton, took for so brilliant, that he celebrated it the
following days again and again, using exactly the same words: "A nice hallo
to the people in front, a nice hallo to the people at the back, a nice
hallo to the people on the right and (who would have thought) a nice
hallo to the people on the left." Finally a "Happy Birthday" to all the
birthday celebrants of the day. Just so spontanously and witty he created
the announcement of the stars, always a new flash of inspiration coming over
his lips.
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| Master of Ceremonies |
Quite better and more professional were the guests. At the beginning of
their appearance most of them as usual told a nice anecdote and then were
ready to answer questions from the audience. Anything new however we didnīt
learn, either because there wasnīt anything new or because they werenīt
allowed to speak about it. Rather astonishing was the fact, that some of
the guests ( e.g. Walter Koenig and Avery Brooks ) gave quite critical but
also realistic thoughts about the commercial and economic side of Star Trek
and the entertainment industrie ( Hollywood ) in general.
And now some of the highlights of the program:
- Walter Koenig aped William Shatner directing Star Trek V
- James Doohan, George Takei and Walter Koenig improvised a scene on
board the USS Excelsior with the ship beeing under attack
- George Takei narrated the neverending story of his lost passport
- Robert Picardo ( in top form! ) enthused with his song "What is my name?"
- Ethan Phillips joked at his shiny poll when he discovered a close-up
of it on the big screen ("Never thought it was that big!")
- William Shatner told stories about dogs, horses and De Forest Kelly
- Larry Nemecek ( author of the TNG-Companion ) and his wife Janet
( assistant script coordinator of ST:Voyager ) showed hazy pictures of
diverse Trek-series and called it "Behind the scenes"
Really annoying was the fact, that the stars both at the convention and at
the party
were totally screened, so that any contact between them and their
fans beyond their performance on stage was made impossible. Merely Robert
Picardo and Ethan Phillips mixed one night with some trekkies at Londonīs
Star Trek pub "Pages Bar".
In sum: The performance of the guests was incredible; everything else sucked!
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