I
Attended Creation's
15th Anniversary Celebration of
Star Trek: The Next Generation
To See Wil Wheaton
Yeah, you read that right.
Yeah, Patrick Stewart was there, and he's interesting. Yeah, Gates McFadden was there, too, and she's a cool lady. And yeah, the vendor room was kind of interesting, and since it was my first Star Trek convention, the sight of Trek geeks in their/our natural habitat felt alternatingly comforting and like an opportunity for an odd anthropological study. And there were lots of other guests on days other than the ones I saw on Saturday. But none of those things would get me to go to a con, really. I'm not really a sci-fi con-going kind of gal. I'm a geek, but not that particularly specialized kind of geek.
But, if you've read my Star Trek in my life page, you know why I went.
At some point I need to thank Levar Burton for Reading Rainbow, now that I think of it, and I will probably end up sending thank-you cards to Denise Crosby, Marina Sertis, Gates McFadden, and Michelle Forbes. But that's a story for another time.
I'd been hemming and hawing about whether or not I really wanted to go to the con for at least two weeks. I decided if I was going to do it, I was going to do it right, so I ordered a tank top with "www.wilwheaton.net 50,000 monkeys at 50,000 typewriters can't be wrong" across the front of it from Wil's online store. I got a babydoll T-shirt with the Klingon Convention Trauma comic strip on it, too, for my friend Janis in case she might come visit for the weekend. That ended up not working out for various reasons, which left me hemming and hawing right 'til the last minute.
Janis and I both read Wil's blog, and I wanted to thank him for creating it, as well as maybe find or create a present for Janis. I considered boldly approaching the autograph table and asking Wil saucily to sign one shirt in hand and one shirt on bod... but that's not really my style, and I didn't know if I could pull it off or how anyone would react. Besides, shirts get washed and even Sharpie marks fade on fabric, so that seemed kind of pointless. I thought about rooting around in my old scrapbooks until I could find the newspaper clippings from the week of the TNG premiere and asking him to sign them, or asking him to sign my DVD sets of seasons 1 and 2 that I've bought just recently. But none of that felt right, either... I wasn't there to see TV's Wil Wheaton, Wesley Crusher on Star Trek. I was there to see the Web's Wil Wheaton, creator and writer of wilwheaton.net.
Friday late afternoon I finally decided to go. So I puttered around a bit on the computer and made a gift for Wil and a gift for Janis and a gift for me. And I wrote a thank-you note to Wil. Then I got all nervous and couldn't fall asleep, because I was worrying that I might make a big idiot of myself. I shouldn't be nervous about this sort of thing; I managed to get through the Comicon to meet Michael Shanks in person to deliver a thank-you note without major trauma! But this was different... Star Trek is just plain BIG in my psyche.
Roger, a friend of mine from work, and I had been talking about what I was doing on Friday evening, and he'd been thinking about going, too. He'd been to Trek cons before, and I was feeling a little out of my element. I told him I was nervous enough about doing the autograph table thing, and would he mind if I did that part of the afternoon by myself. He's a kind of shy fellow most of the time, so I'm sure he understood my nerves, and he was quite supportive about the whole thing. Thanks, Roger!
So he and I agreed to meet up around lunchtime on Saturday. I'd spent my morning doing laundry and trying not to worry too much. I mean, if I go to a big place full of mostly strangers, and I make an idiot of myself, chances are they'll never see me again and it's no big deal. Right? I packed my purse with only essentials, and my gifts, and a rolled up canvas O'Reilly bag in case I decided I had to buy some loot in the vendor area. I love my new purse, by the way, because everything fits easily inside. I don't often splurge on clothing for myself, but I treated myself to a new purse and jacket this year in soft black leather, at the discount clothing store down the street.
Picture me, all psyched up and headed out my apartment door to my first Trek con. Black boots, blue jeans, black belt, white wilwheaton.net tank top, black leather long jacket. I'd been cautioned not to piss off anyone dressed as a Klingon or a Romulan, and I had a guide, and I wouldn't stay too long, just to talk to Wil a bit and give him his thank-yous, and maybe browse around the vendor area. Maybe I'd be OK after all!
I parked on campus, and we walked to the Pasadena convention center. See, neither of us really knew how parking was supposed to work, so it was easier parking on campus and walking. It was kind of chilly, so I brought my new jacket, and I ended up being very glad about that. Convention halls apparently have major temperature fluctuations! We got to the box office to buy our tickets and found our way inside. We got free Nemesis T-shirts just inside the doors, so I was glad I had my canvas bag.
We wandered into the vendor area but I recognized the voice coming from the far side of the curtain in the auditorium area, so we didn't dawdle much and just found seats off to the side. We ended up catching about the last 3/4 or so of Wil's show I think, I kind of lost track of time. I was really glad that Roger understood who I was there to see; he didn't seem to bat an eye when I started whooping and hollering and laughing out loud with the rest of the audience (I'm usually more reserved at work!).
Wil's stories about being on the TNG set were absolutely hilarious. He does great physical comedy... I'll never forget his button-popping versions of The Picard Maneuver. After he tried buttoning the bottom part of his (familiar shade of red!) shirt the second time, a female voice chimed in from the audience, "take it off!" He handled that with a perfect response, letting us all know that the red shirt would be $200, and the black T-shirt underneath would be $500, and he'd be at the autograph table after his show. *guffaw* I honestly figured someone, or a group of someones, would go ahead with that, but by the end of the afternoon, he was still wearing that shirt. Maybe he wasn't able to accept credit cards?
He also described how he learned the lesson "don't drive a better car than the Captain." [sorry, I just had to go laugh myself silly again thinking about it.] And yes, the young Wil Wheaton wanted Star Trek stickers to put all over his car to make it look on the outside and inside like a Next Gen shuttlecraft. You were a geek, Wil. So were we all. And I love the fact that you're admitting to it, because there is absolutely nothing wrong with it at all!
By the end of the show, the whole audience was in stitches. People were guffawing out loud and moving right along, wherever Wil wanted to take 'em. His tone shifted from nostalgia to hilarity to pure honest gratitude, that his stories and heartfelt appreciation of the fans' acceptance were getting across to the audience. He was fairly open about some things that I can't imagine a younger fellow feeling comfortable talking about. He ran out of time giving longish, touching, funny and wry answers to audience members' questions who had lined up on either side of the stage, and most of the audience gave him a standing ovation. I know I was enthusiastically whooping and hollering and clapping, and probably startling the heck out of Roger...
And then the show was over, and we wandered back to the vendor area. We decided to see all of the tables set up inside the room, leaving the outside hallway for later. I found two bookmarks with little baubles on the tassels: one of angsty dead guy (Boromir) from LOTR with a little replica One Ring, and one with Luke, Leia, Han, and company with a tiny little pewter-looking Millennium Falcon. I was quite responsible and restrained in the vendor area... I'm so proud of myself! I couldn't believe all of the various action figures that have been created for Star Trek, though. It seems like every time someone did a costume change, a new action figure was born!
We also wandered past the Nemesis costume display. I think I'm curious about Nemesis now, but that means I'm going to have to rent or buy the other Next Gen movies on DVD, because I haven't seen Generations or Insurrection for a long while now. I wanted to wait until Wil got a bit settled at his table and expected a big line to form, and I didn't want to hold up a bunch of people while I tried to talk to him. Roger wandered off and agreed to meet up with me later, and into the little line I went.
There were a few fans that he had obviously met or known before who were talking to him about things he'd posted to his website about, which was nice to see. But none of them had the logo gear on! Come on, Posse, how are we supposed to spread the word if you don't advertise?!
It was really great meeting Wil. I think I managed to say most of the things I wanted to before he threw me completely off track with charming conversation, and we ended up talking about Caltech and all sorts of other things. He liked the gift I gave him and told me about his book... He's putting together the seed money for printing it. I bought two photos each for Janis and I, one of the idealistic and fairly naive Acting Ensign, and one of the badass Cadet Crusher. I always feel kind of sheepish asking for autographs, because I just know that actors in sci fi shows especially end up signing bazillions of them over their lifetime and it feels kind of pointlessly selfish to ask them to carpal tunnel themselves. I mean, I've met the dude now, and an autograph is just much more flat than a 3-D memory. It was really nice talking to him, and he persuaded me to hang around and to attend the evening show.
I met up with Roger again and I think I was babbling and kind of breathless and happy, but after a while I must have been able to hold a conversation because we talked about hanging out for more of the afternoon and whether or not Roger wanted to go to the show. I bought a bottle of water and we settled into the back row of the auditorium.
First we watched the charity auction... lots of people spent a lot of money. I decided that will never comprehend the allure of collector plates. You can't eat off of them, you can't stick them in the dishwasher, they collect dust if you display them, they're breakable and we live in earthquake country. Whuh? I was astounded that the set visit trip to Enterprise went for like $4700. Wow, that's a lot of money.
We sat in on Mr. Stewart's and Ms. McFadden's shows since we'd already decided to hang around.
Yeah, you read that right.
Yeah, he's the Captain and all and of course the audience was bigger, and she comes across as really thoughtful and deep, but as far as crowd participation/buy-in/reaction, Wil did steal the afternoon show. The stories about Patrick Stewart's Jaguar turned into a running joke of the afternoon, actually. Not that Patrick and Gates weren't cool; they are both great actors and their presence simply commands a lot of attention. However, Wil pretty much had the crowd eating out of his hand by the end of his spiel from my vantage point on the side. Humor and physical comedy and pure simple Wil won the audience by effort rather than identity.
Roger and I wandered out into the hallway to the last of the vendor tables. I bought a Starfleet Academy mug, because one can never have too many mugs. I wandered by Wil's table one more time later to confirm the time and location of the evening show. Roger and I met some other fans of the website, and took some photos for other people. That was kind of fun and kind of strange all at once. Then we tried to find our way out of the convention center. I'd already warned Wil and a few other Posse folks that I expected to be walking around in circles all evening, and it proved true when Roger and I got turned around twice and ended up in the parking garage. We stopped, trying to get our bearings, and who should come around the corner but Wil, rolling behind him a small suitcase with all of his con gear. He gave us directions, and laughed along with me about my living in the area for eleven years and never having been to the convention center.
Roger and I tried to buy a ticket for Roger at the box office, but it was already closed and no other instructions were posted, so Roger decided to make sure I got dinner and then he'd go home. But my car was on campus, blocks and blocks away, and it was already 6:30 by this point and it was starting to rain. So we grabbed a quick bite at Rubio's and then walked back to campus. We'd gotten parking advice from a nice lady wearing a bunch of official security-looking gear, so I moved my car to the Sheraton parking area which turned out to be the same parking garage we'd gotten into earlier. It took me two tries to make it into the convention center from there, but I managed it. I found a seat in the middle of the audience, maybe the fifth or sixth row, just in time.
The entire evening performance was so very, very wonderful. I've got to get myself a copy of that "Bed Among The Lentils" piece that Ms. McFadden did so entrancingly... part of Talking Heads by Alan Bennett, which I wish was out on DVD or in non-PAL VHS. The poetry she chose was nifty, too. I wish I had the name of the pianist who wrote the last two poems she read, they were simply amazing, kind of transcendent, enough to get lost just listening.
The comedian fellow was quite entertaining and I was amazed at the depth and breadth of his sci fi background. The whole audience laughed 'til our eyes watered or our sides ached at various points in his show.
Then it was Wil's turn.
The mike adjustments trouble at the beginning was obviously a speed bump, but he incorporated it and just went with it, which was crafty. The G-rated version: "Yeah, sure, he can fly the Enterprise, but he can't fix a microphone stand!" I'm kinda glad my mom wasn't in the audience, though; she'd've made him eat soap.
He talked a little bit about what sort of mental and life place he was in a year ago when he created the website, and then he read some of my favorite essays. He started with Hooters, and then The Trade, and then Fireworks, and then The Wesley Dialogues, and he finished with Hooters Revisited. Most of the people sitting around me were breathless during significant chunks of the readings, just kind of hanging on his every word, getting carried along.
Wil seems to be at a more dynamic and interesting personal place than many of the other Next Gen actors right now, or at least, he seems more willing to open up about it online and otherwise, so he has lots of new material to say, and it's from the heart. Trek geeks may be a lot of things, some good and some bad, but deep down, most all of them/us respond to that.
I had the privilege of thanking some people for something that really mattered and matters to me, and I am so glad that I took the opportunity.
I hung around after the show for a little bit and thanked him again. It's so cool to see someone doing something they love, that makes their Mom proud, that reaches out to strangers and makes them friends. We all have issues in our pasts, and we can all deal with them, learn from them, take the good and leave the bad behind. Wil does so with wit and irreverence and openness that really impresses me.
A lot of what Wil writes about in his blog resonates with me, and probably with my generation in general. We're to the point in our lives where we're looking back on who we were before, what our dreams and our goals and our opinions of ourselves and the world were. And sometimes, what we see makes us feel bad, and sometimes makes us feel good. We reinterpret our experiences through the lens of a few more years of experience, and we're realizing that fifteen years from now, we'll look back fifteen years and thirty years and probably feel different than we do now about when we were teenagers... and how we are now. This doesn't invalidate whatever feelings are of the moment, though, and dealing with that dichotomy, the invariable shifts in viewpoint that come from the first decades of adulthood is deep-rooted stuff. Wil writes about action figures, and teenaged angst, and Wacky Pack stickers, and wanting to feel accepted and loved, and Hooters girls. He writes about past dreams for the future, and coping with being smacked upside the head with the idea that you're not where you expected to be. He writes about accepting, rejoicing in, celebrating where you are now.
And he's so completely, and tangibly, thrilled that people like his writing, that both non-fans and fans of Star Trek are finding something vital and entertaining in his writing, that it's reaching people. It's wonderful to see an artist feeling that.
The past few years have put me in a place where his writing reminds me of important lessons. I've got a sharp memory, and sometimes that means I'm carrying around a heck of a lot more baggage than is healthy for me. I know better, but sometimes it's easy to lose that perspective.
In letting much of the negative feelings about the past go, we may make room for many of the positive feelings from the past to return to us. It also frees us to enjoy the present, and hope for the future without becoming consumed by it. That's the loudest message I hear when I read Wil's blog. Own that, boyo.
Thanks for a completely awesome day, Wil.
One more thing: Wil's first book is available, and it is excellent...
About
Adele
Interests
Callings
Arts
Online
Projects