ShoreLeave 15 Convention Report
Eric Burch
ShoreLeave 15 was July 9-11, 1993 at Mariott's Hunt Valley Inn north of
Baltimore, MD. Overall, it was a fun two-and-a-half days.
The hotel: The only big problem with this weekend was with the hotel.
Baseball's All-Star game is in Baltimore this year, and that and a few
other events caused a huge squeeze for lodging. There was also a big
screwup with reservations at the hotel; over 50 people got lost in the
shuffle. The hotel did the best they could, but just had a lot of other
problems. No-one was sleeping in the ballroom, but a few loud words
were exchanged.
Guests (in program-book order; I managed to see some of them a few
times):
Rene Auberjonois (Oh-bear-zahn-wah, just like it's spelled<g>).
His first fan-run con (third overall) and seems to be enjoying
playing Odo and attending cons. Just a little bit of a fan before
appearing in the ST VI. Lots of Hollywood stories (he's been in the
business quite a while) and Star Trek production stories (see him for
details); even enjoyed "playing the twit" in "Benson".
Filming for the new season of DS9 started just after Independence day
(he'd had his first scenes on Friday). SMALL SPOILER: The season
opener for DS9 is a three-parter. The end of part 1 has Cicso relieved
of command (no other plot details). Frank Langella is a guest star for
the 3-parter.
Robin Curtis (Saavik on ST III and ST IV). Didn't see her talk, though
did talk to her in the hall. She's a lot of fun at cons, and once you
meet her she'll never forget you. For one skit she played a Vulcan
ambassador (and managed to miss her dinner reservation).
Robert O'Reilly (Gowron). He was a lot of fun at the con--someone lent
him a Klingon robe and for a few hours really played up the Gowron part
(blond-haired Klingons, I guess they exist). Another actor who's been
everywhere--his rendition of "Jabberwocky" (from memory and in a strong
brough) was really really neat.
Andrew Probert (Artist--he designed all enterprises from ST:TMP through
ST:TNG, along with such things as the Cylons from BG and the DeLorean
from Back to the future). He went through his slide show about the
evolution of various ST designs. I've seen this once before and there
was too much else to do. He also generated the program cover, and would
doodle on the fly if you ran into him in the hall.
CAPT Daniel C. Roper, Commander, USS Enterprise (CVN-65). The real
Captain of the real Enterprise. Last year's SL was his first
convention, and he had so much fun he came back. In additon to the XO
and some of the crew, this year he brought the Navy Ceremonial
Guard. (CVN-65 is in drydock getting refueled and upgraded in Norfolk,
so the crew is available). A fun talk about the Real World (those of us
who watch Firepower on The Discovery Channel will enjoy it). He also
accepted a formal dinner service as used on ST VI from Pfaltzgraff
(sp?), along with donations to the Trek Rec Deck (on CVN-65, a bunch of
fan clubs are getting together to decorate one mess in a Star Trek
motif, along with some Trek memorabilia--Bob O'Reilly also donated one
of his Gowron head appliances).
Bjo and John Trimble. Saw a little bit of their talk. Had to mention
them because I've heard a lot about them, but never saw them.
Bob Greenberger and Howard Weinstein. Two of the funnest guys in the
Star Trek universe you've probably never heard of (Bob is a senior
editor at DC Comics; Howie is a Trek novel author and current writer
for the Star Trek comic, and Personal Friends of Mine (tm)). They're
two insiders who will tell you the truth and even say "I can't tell you
that" when they can't tell you something (many others will feign
ignorance). Bob brought the "Lois and Clark" 16 minute teaser that was
show to advertisers to get them interested in the show. The teaser
(complete scenes from the 2-hour pilot) was very very good. If you
haven't heard of this one, it's the modern-day adventures of Superman,
and follows the comic closely. This fall on ABC, Sunday at 8 (opposite
"Murder, She Wrote"). Also reported that there are two Star Trek VI
scripts in the works: the first movie will start filming in April '94
(after ST:TNG finishes shooting) for a Christmas '94 release, and the
next movie will follow "soon after".
Peter David. Talked a bit about some of the books he's working on.
Talked about his adventures getting out the first DS9 novel (his editor
called and wanted a book very very badly after the pilot aired in
January; Peter wrote it in about 2.5 weeks after seeing only the pilot
and the scripts for the next 4 episodes; novel came out a few weeks
ago--blazingly fast).
The other guests (Arne Starr, Bob Pinaha, Brad Fergeson, Michael Jan
Friedman, a bunch of NASA people) I didn't see, so I have nothing to
report.
Events:
"Meet the Pros" party. Fun, and most were there.
Masquerade. 62 costumes (18 "miniTrek" entries). 3.5 hours. A lot of
fun once it got going (45 minutes late; a simulated Peace Ceremony took
over two hours to set up and dragged on and on and on, but we must all
suffer these, I guess). Shore Leave's costume call is one of the
bigger, more "professional" productions (and tends to be intimidating
for first-time costumers). The dinosaur singing group which won a ton
of awards was very very good.
5-Backward (Pool party) and 10-Forward (dance). Lots of fun and very
crowded.
Temple of Trek. Could only stop in for a few minutes, but got enough
inspiration to last me to the next con.
Mystery Trekkie Theater 3000. This time they cored "The Apple". The
Rock 'em Sock 'em Captains (with functional arms and pop-up heads--used
to determine who is better: Kirk or Picard) was the better invention
(btw, Kirk got his block knocked off). 44 minutes of rolling in the
aisles.
Filking. All Friday night (but I'm not into it; plus, I had a party to
go to).
Boogie Knights. (song parodies) Usual funny stuff.
Cheap Treks. This play was "Federation's Most Wanted." Wesley Crusher,
captain of a prisoner transport, goes beserk and tries to take over the
galaxy. Destroys a Klingon colony and really irritates the Romulans.
Captain Worf of the Klingon battlecruiser K'Blamm can't stop him, and
Captain Riker of the Enterprise has to call Admiral Picard from his
vacation on Raisa (with Dr. Crusher) to intervene. Really maximum
funny.
Art show: Two rooms, and a lot of good contributions.
Dealers: Two large rooms, and all the hallways in between.
Klingons and Starfleet: These two fan groups had their own programming
track that I managed to avoid most of.
That's about it. Hope to get to Farpoint Oct 8-10 (same place).
Eric Burch / IBM Federal Systems Company / Gaithersburg, Maryland
bu...@vnet.ibm.com (Any opinions expressed above do not represent
the views of IBM, ILM, NLM, NLA, NBA, NBC, NSC, FSC, or my wife.)