Comiccon is Trending

You understand that in order to write sci-fi, even “serious” sci-fi, you must first be a Trekkie, and perhaps a Star Wars fan too. No, I've never been to Comiccon before. Comics aren’t my thing, but when Shatner comes to town and you have an opportunity, well...you must...see...The Shatner.

The morning began this way.

My husband and I bounced out of bed. My son dragged his sleep-drugged hormone-infested 15-year-old body from beneath the covers an hour later. My daughter was still comatose. So I sent her a text:

Time to get up.

And again two minutes later.

Time to get up.

And two minutes later.

Are you up yet?

Yah.

The Shatner awaits.

So she got up, 20 minutes later.

Then we were off. We drove into the fairly ginormous lot of the CE building, found a parking spot—a good sign—and joined this line.

This is what 12,000 people in a line-up looks like. But we didn’t realize it snaked around the building, zigzagged and looped back again. As we turned the corner and discovered how long the line really was, a look of astonishment and disgust flashed onto our faces. Then, after we zigzagged and looped back, the next group of people turned the corner, with looks of astonishment and disgust. This time we laughed, 'cause we were in the home stretch, baby.

The home stretch took an hour longer, but we weren't bored. It gave us a chance to gawk at all the spectacular and sometimes lame costumes.

Finally we entered the zoo door.

Got it, got it, want it. Actually don’t have any at all.

We stopped by the Star Wars booth. They were too busy fighting the dark side and intergalactic wars to bother with us.

But they were cute.

Eventually I became caught up in the purpose of the event: celebrity-worship. Not every day you get to see Elvira.

Or Q.

Or the Delorian. You can worship a car too.

I apologize for the crappy photos, but you must understand how hard it was to even get close to a car with 12,000 people batting you out of the way (or at least jostling). And the resolution on this camera was bloody awful.

Back to celebrities: Even Starsky and Hutch made an appearance. Not. But their car did. It looked appropriately battered, so I think it was the real deal.

But no Shatner.

After browsing and gawking for a good hour or two, we headed over to the panels.

Marina Sirtis was giving a speech and I thought, what the hay, let's see if she can provide us with some insight into the inner workings of the Enterprise, and Wesley Crusher (not that we cared) (about Wesley Crusher). Little did we know . . .

. . . she'd be the highlight of our visit. Deanna Troi is the wimpiest, dullest character in the Star Trek series. But on that little stage she shone, and did her best to disparage The Shatner. How dare... you disparage...The Shatner. Undoubtedly she'd been a comedian in another life, or on another planet. We heard stories of her delight at finally getting to "drive the ship" in Generations, until she actually read the script and discovered she crashes the ship, not once, but twice, and in another instance how she endured The Wrath of the Director and Crew when she refused to sit on burning embers in the captain's chair after an explosion and forced them to spend six hours reconstructing the set; this lady had us in stitches.

Did we actually get to see The Shatner, though? No. While Marina blessed us with her stand-up routine, Shatner breezed in, signed 300-400 autographs at $75 a pop, and breezed out again. He also gave a speech, but I wasn’t tackling that line which extended nearly as far as the original five kilometres we slogged through to get in. Honestly, Marina upstaged the man entirely, so we didn’t miss a thing.

And we got to see him . . .

It's the Star Trek bear. Don't you recognize him from Episode ?

But we did worry we wouldn't be allowed to leave, because, you know . . .

Besides being a total blast, Comiccon triggered some nostalgia. My husband and I remembered our Star Trek years, and how our daughter adored the Star Trek theme song. I’ll show you how much . . .

And there you have it. They do start young, don’t they? Can't resist the call of the Enterprise. To boldly go where no one . . .

Live long and prosper, my fellow Trekkies.