September 10, 2025

Before I was a feminist media critic with a blog, I was a feminist dork who watched too much TV. This is valuable context to consider when I tell you that over the weekend, I went to a Star Trek Convention in Whippany, NJ, organized by Creation Entertainment, which has been organizing Star Trek conventions since 1971. Since Star Trek aired from 1966-1969, they were on the ground floor of fan convention-ing.

Two months ago, I saw an ad for “Trek to NJ 2025,” and it had a star-studded lineup. (Though as is often the case with conventions, not everyone who was advertised could make it, due to last-minute flight cancellations or professional obligations.) Prior to this, my total experience with Trek conventions was attending one (1) day of one in 2009, specifically to get Leonard Nimoy’s autograph. This time, I figured, I could go both days. Bryan and I booked tickets and invited his sister and a friend of mine from work. They both decided to only come on Sunday, which is when William Shatner (Captain Kirk) and Kate Mulgrew (Captain Janeway) would be there.

On Friday night, Bryan and I flipped a coin for which of us would wear my command gold T-shirt (aka “Captain Kirk shirt”), and which of us would wear the communications red nightgown (aka “Uhura’s dress.”) I won the dress for Saturday, which meant I had to find pantyhose to wear with it. I do not ordinarily wear pantyhose, so that took some rummaging through the sock drawer. I accessorized with Starfleet earrings Bryan 3D printed for me a few years ago. By chance, I also found the Starfleet logo pin that my mother made me for the 2009 convention. With that, my outfit was complete.

I packed a day bag with my copy of Open a Channel: A Woman's Trek by Nana Visitor, who was on Star Trek: Deep Space 9. My goal for the weekend was to have it signed by her, and as many of the women whose characters were represented on the cover as possible.

Day 1: Saturday

Our MC for the weekend was Bonnie Gordon, who has voiced 12 characters in animated Treks, and who kicked us off by singing “Oh What a Con,” to the tune of “Oh What a Night.” She rewrites the lyrics for every event and always picks a tune that was written in the state that’s hosting. It was cute.

First up was a scientific talk, “What we can learn from Star Trek about infections, diseases, and outbreaks, with Dr. Andy Broadbent.” Dr. Broadbent talked about the weird viruses and parasites that have appeared on Trek over the decades, from "polywater" that makes everyone uninhibited (TOS "The Naked Time") to a parasite that makes one irresistible to the opposite sex (Lower Decks "Cupid's Errant Arrow"). He compared them to real-world pathogens, some of which can cause behavioral changes (think: toxoplasmosis making mice unafraid of cats). He also took this opportunity to talk about what viruses are and how vaccines work, which is all too relevant these days, considering our Secretary of Health and Human Services is an anti-vaxxer.

Cue eyeroll from Dr. McCoy, via GIPHY

Dr. Broadbent finished with an excellent point: the decision not to vaccinate may seem like a personal choice, but in fact, it affects all of society. If you don't get your measles shot, and then there's a measles outbreak that stresses local hospital resources, and in that same week one of your neighbors is badly injured in a car accident, there may not be a doctor available to save their life. Therefore, responsible medical decisions need to be made at a societal level. If we want a Star Trek future, we need to start thinking like Star Trek characters, who always strive to balance the needs of the many and the needs of the few.

After that invigorating talk, Bryan and I went to the vendor room to line up for Nana Visitor’s autograph. People say that the US–like the Star Trek universe– is now a cashless society and that nobody spends money on memorabilia anymore. Well, people say a lot of things, but I can tell you that plenty of cash was being exchanged for memorabilia in the vendor room of Trek to NJ. In addition to the celebrity autographs and pictures, there were tables selling everything from ship models to scented candles. I was surprised by a sign that said “Captain Pike has landed” with a screenshot from the original 1964 pilot episode, because the actor who played Pike in that, Jeffrey Hunter, has been dead since 1969. It turned out that this table had Sean Kenney, who played a mute, disfigured Fleet Captain Pike in “The Menagerie,” an episode which recut the original pilot into a flashback explaining Spock’s decision to take the disabled Pike to Talos IV for treatment. Mr. Kenney was selling signed Christmas ornaments in which you can push a button on Pike’s wheelchair to hear sound clips from the episode - for an eye-popping $125. I did not buy one.

Our first purchases were Ms. Visitor’s autograph, followed shortly by a mug that said, “Tea, Earl Gay, Hot.” It was being sold by To Proudly Go, a fan club for LGBTQ Trek fans, who were raising money for charity. I said that Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard) would probably approve of this mug, given his longstanding allyship. The salesman said he’d text Stewart to find out…if he could get his phone number. This table is also where I discovered the existence of Star Trek drag shows, which they apparently host regularly. Learn something new every day.

After that, it was back to the main theater for presentations by Anthony Rapp (Dr. Stamets on Star Trek Discovery) and Doug Jones, who is Saru on Discovery as well as Cochise on Falling Skies, the creature in Shape of Water, a Gentleman in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and many other interesting creatures in a variety of fun projects. He’s also a super sweet and funny guy who gave an excellent presentation. Bryan thought of a question for him after the Q&A line closed: Did you come up with Saru’s distinctive walk, or was that a directorial choice? We decided we’d visit his vendor table to ask him.

But first, there was the cosplay contest, scored by audience cheering. We had to pitch in on that. First place went to a mother/daughter duo who were dressed as the Vulcan guards in “Amok Time,” complete with a mannequin dressed as T’Pau that they were carrying around in a sedan chair. Sadly, I did not get a photo.

After the contest, we joined Doug Jones’ line, which was long. Halfway through it, I spied the table of Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher on The Next Generation), and she had no line at all. So, leaving Bryan in charge of asking Saru-gait questions, I peeled off to get her autograph in my book. She’s the kind of actor who likes to make conversation at the table; she teased the couple ahead of me over which of them was the bigger fan and which one “plays with his phone while you’re watching.” Then she asked me what I do for a living, and said I looked young for an ESL professor. I replied that people say I’m young for lots of things, including watching Star Trek and Bonanza. She incredulously asked, “You watch Bonanza?” So I found myself explaining the DFGRR’s existence, and she asked for the link. I gave her my business card. This means that at least one woman of Star Trek is now aware of our blog. Yay!

Bryan, meanwhile, reported back that Doug Jones came up with the walk because he was having trouble in Saru’s hoof-boots and figured out the best way to balance in them. Mr. Jones also hugged Bryan. Nice guy!

While all this was happening, we got a text from my sister-in-law. She’d had an emergency and couldn’t come the next day, but urgently wanted an autograph from William Shatner, who is now 93 and may not get to do many more conventions. The way autographs work for the biggest-name stars is that one must buy a ticket for the convention, then buy a ticket for that autograph line. On Sunday, wait for your group to be called to line up, and then have the person sign whatever you want signed. I had originally not planned to do that part of the convention experience, but since my sister-in-law needed us to, Bryan and I quickly picked up an autograph ticket for Shatner and one for Kate Mulgrew. Mulgrew could sign my Open a Channel book, and we were able to buy a copy of Boldly Go by William Shatner and Joshua Brandon, which Brandon was selling in the vendors’ room. He signed it but left room for Shatner’s signature.

By this time, we were carrying quite a few books and autographs and bits and bobs. We considered making a run to the car to drop everything off, but to our delight, we saw that Celia Rose Gooding (Uhura on Strange New Worlds) had opened her vendor table. Uhura is on the Open a Channel cover, albeit Nichelle Nichols’ version, so I really wanted Gooding to sign it. We were the third group on line, and the first had a little girl getting her picture. Gooding asked the girl’s permission and then lifted her up for the photo. When I got to the front, we explained that I’d won a coin toss to come dressed as her, and asked if I should lift her up for this photo. That got her to laugh. So I’ve officially made Uhura laugh. She also signed my book.

We returned to the theater in time for the Wheel of Trivia show. For this, 30 audience members can volunteer and take colored pieces of paper labeled “yes” or “no.” Then Bonnie Gordon spun a wheel to pick a trivia category, and podcaster Ryan Husk would read a yes/no question or true/false statement. The fans would hold up the relevant piece of paper, and a wrong answer = instant elimination. I was thrilled to make it to the final 3 of round 1 through a combination of knowing the answers and making lucky guesses. At that point, we each were told to face a different direction so we couldn't take cues from one another. On the penultimate question, all 3 of us got the answer wrong, so we all got to stay. Sadly, I was then stymied by a question about Deep Space 9, from which I’ve only seen a handful of episodes. It concerned Quark’s money-making plan in a certain episode, and I had no idea.

Next, Gooding did a fan Q&A. One memorable question was about what she wants Strange New Worlds to set up before it transitions to Original Series continuity. She confidently stated, “I wanna see Uhura be the first one to put purple eyeshadow on Spock.” There was a huge cheer at that. See, back in 1966, NBC was advertising itself as the “first all-color network.” Consequently, they encouraged makeup artists and costume designers and set decorators to make their shows very colorful. Leonard Nimoy wore purple eyeshadow as Mr. Spock from 1966-69. However, when the character returned for spinoff movies (1979-1991), he did not, nor has Ethan Peck worn any as Young Spock (2019-present). This means that Spock’s eyelids are not naturally purple, but Spock wears eyeshadow sometimes. Why shouldn’t it be his friend Uhura who gives him a makeup tutorial?

By this time, Bryan and I were getting rather tired, so we headed home to get some rest.

Day 2: Sunday

I wore the Captain Kirk T-shirt; Bryan opted for casual wear instead of the nightgown. We started out in the vendor room, then went to the theater at 11 in time for timed autograph tickets to begin. My friend from work, Brian Cook, joined us there. While we were waiting for our assigned autograph groups, Gabrielle Ruiz talked about Star Trek Lower Decks, on which she voiced T’Lyn, as well as her career in musical theater and on Crazy Ex Girlfriend. Cirroc Lofton, Jake Sisko from Deep Space Nine, mentioned what it was like growing up on set after getting cast as a 14-year-old. And then Tim Russ, Tuvok from Voyager and the Khan audio series, shared a wide variety of funny stories about life and logic and so forth. As these presentations happened, projectors showed messages like “Gold Rows A and B can line up for Shatner” and “Captain’s Chair can line up for Shatner” and “All copper passes can line up for Shatner, Gold Rows A and B for Mulgrew.” We were General Admission Weekend Passes, unlabeled row, so it took a while. Eventually, though, I was able to leave my backpack with the Bry/ians and carry book 1 to Shatner’s table and book 2 to Mulgrew’s table. Success!

We did a bit more shopping in the vendors’ room, including for a scented candle inspired by Spock and a signed book by Sandy Gimpel, the stuntwoman who played Star Trek’s first-ever monster, the salt vampire from “The Man Trap.” That one is for my dad, who likes signed books and also watched “The Man Trap” as an impressionable 8-year-old, 59 years ago this week.

Then there were talks by Kate Mulgrew, who still knows how to command an audience, and William Shatner, who rambles a bit in his old age.

Finally, the closing event was “The Coolwaters Celebrity Game Show with Doug Jones, Gabrielle Ruiz, Cirroc Lofton, & Bonnie Gordon.” This was invented by their mutual convention agent, and is a cross between “Trivial Pursuit, Pictionary, and To Tell the Truth.” In round 1, they took 4 volunteers, paired each one up with a celebrity, and had them answer questions about the other 3 celebrities. This part was not too much fun to watch, although I was interested to learn how many Funko Pops have been based on Doug Jones characters. The boy who got it right had seen them listed on Jones’ banner in the vendor room. The answer is eleven, and they gave that kid a Saru action figure as a special prize.

Then round 2 arrived, and Brian Cook pointed at me when they asked for volunteers. I was picked! This round was “To Tell the Truth”-style: the host would ask the celebrities to define something, 3 of them would lie, and the four volunteers would have to figure out who was telling the truth. I thought this would be hard, but it turned out the category was “show business terms,” like “property master,” “MacGuffin,” “Wilhelm Scream.” The host had no way to know how many amateur theatrical productions I’ve made props for, or how long I’ve been a TVTropes addict. The only term I wasn’t sure about was “Abbie Singer,” which turns out to mean the second-to-last take of a filming day, but I was able to guess it based on knowing that the other offered definitions were fake. One person said Singer sewing machines were named after a costume designer, and they aren’t; another said Abbie Singer was the first Best Actress winner, and that’s not true; so on and so forth.

After a few rounds, I was tied with one other volunteer, and they ran out of definitions to lie about. For a tiebreaker, they pulled one of the unused celebrity questions from round 1. It was, “How old was Cirroc Lofton when he was cast on Deep Space 9?” And I’d heard him say it just that morning, so my hand flew in the air. “Fourteen!” Even Lofton was surprised.

Just like that, I advanced to the final round: Pictionary. The volunteer winner of round 1 was with Jones and Lofton, and I played with Ruiz and Gordon. After successfully guessing things like “beam me up” and “just a lot of hocus pocus,” we won!

The prizes were a mixed lot of “things that didn’t sell at prior conventions”, like old posters for Captain America and signed photos. The only signed photo I recognized was of Billie Dee Williams. The others were characters from a Star Trek game I haven’t played, and a Discovery season I haven’t watched yet. But I’m sure they’re cool, too. Finally, and most unique, were a convention-specific pin signed by Doug Jones and a Discovery ship paperweight.

Just like that, I was a Star Trek Convention Champion! All in all, not a bad way to spend a geeky weekend.

Until next time, keep your sexy lamps burning.