Historic Night: The Star Trek TNG Reunion

The cast of Star Trek TNG reunited on stage at the Corral in Calgary April 28, 2012. It was their first time together on stage since the show ended.

Sir Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes

Sir Patrick Stewart

"Q" on cue.

John de Lancie

It was a wonderful evening.
My friend and I went to Star Trek:TNG  reunion in Calgary on Saturday.  It was so cool to see the cast together after all this time, and to be surprised.
1.They all look good under the lights.
2. It was entertaining, especially Marina Sirtis who is hilarious.
3.Wil Wheaton is warm, engaging, funny, and intelligent.
4.They are performers and the evening was a performance.  No one would ever leave an event of this magnitude to chance.
5.The audience was surprised to have John de Lancie, "Q" on the show, join the cast after an in character entrance.

Wheaton said he regretted leaving the show at 18 but thought it was a good career move.  He was reluctant to visit the set afterward and at one point thought he didn't have the right to invite the cast to his wedding. It brought tears and reassurances from the cast. LeVar Burton noted, "I ....ing never liked you." He also agreed that Wheaton had been a pain in the ass, but "you were our pain in in the ass."

Denise Crosby didn't say much and neither did Michael Dorn. Sirtis spoke up a few times, Brent Spiner did as well and Gates McFadden did on occasion. Most of the time it was Sir Patrick, or Frakes, or Wheaton.

In a question about the Captain's enemies Sir Patrick named a Ferengi. Right on cue "Q" walked up through the audience bearing flowers.

It was good to see him and kudos to the organizers for keeping it quiet. But please don't insult my intelligence by telling me the  TNGers didn't know.
It was too pat, too perfect, too well-rehearsed to be anything but a performance. But it was fun, and that is what mattered.

Sylvia and I had seats toward the back 15 rows up. The big screens helped us to see what was going on. I am happy I have a good camera that allowed me to get good shots on the stage, and I am so very happy that I had the sense to set the ISO at the maximum setting.

About 5,000 people attended, some from out of the country. This was good.
But the organizers risked the wrath of many by saying it would start at 7 p.m. when it didn't start until 7:30  and even then, it didn't actually start.
We waited from 7 p.m.
A band played.
Some fellow took one hell of a chance and proposed. Fortunately for him she said yes.
When the program started Emily Expo, ComicCon mascot, came out and spoke for a bit, thanking various sponsors. Marvin Rush, a Star Trek director of photography, talked about how we're living in a Star Trek age.
Garrett Wang, Ensign Harry Kim, on Star Trek Voyageur talked about not liking TNG because every time he tried to watch an episode it was the not only the same one, but it was the lamest episode of TNG. Because he didn't watch it he wasn't nervous when he read for the part.
Then we were "treated" to an 18 minute video with assorted stars talking about what ST meant to them. It wasn't very entertaining and all it did was annoy me. If they were trying to whip us up into a frenzy with this nonsense they failed.  
Then, just when we thought it was going to get going, Emily Expo announced a 30 minute break.
But we survived the wait and the stars came out and I am glad I was there.