The characterless hotels located on the perimeter of Los Angeles international airport have played host to countless conventions. But few can have been as emotional as the Star Trek gathering that took place at the end of August, “Beam Me Up Scotty — One Last Time”.
This was to be the last gathering (in this space-time continuum, at least) of all the surviving members of the original cast of Star Trek. They came together to pay tribute to the actor James Doohan, known to members of Starfleet as Lt Montgomery “Scotty” Scot, the chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise, now sadly ravaged by Alzheimer’s. The weekend’s events culminated in the unveiling of Doohan’s star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.
Before that, legions of Trekkies descended on the Renaissance Hotel in Hollywood. Friday night’s launch party was designed to give fans an opportunity to rub shoulders with some of their favourite Trek stars before the organised chaos of the convention itself. It was a colourful gathering, where towering Klingon warriors could be seen exchanging small talk with miniskirted Star Fleet officers and square-shouldered Admirals.
But it wasn’t all nerds in costume-party paradise. Most of the fans who had shelled out the £50 admission fee turned up in their regular clothes, hoping simply to catch a glimpse of their heroes. “They are really not kooks or weirdos or geeks,” said the Trek star Walter Koenig, who played the exuberant Russian Pavel Chekov. “They are people who come from every walk of life, who are bright, who have not lost their sense of wonder. They are people who still have that ability to dream of worlds other than the hard, cold reality of this one.”
His fellow cast member George Takei, known in the Trek universe as Lt Hikaru Sulu, agreed: “Star Trek fans are an amazingly diverse group of people. Astronauts, college professors, corporate CEOs. This vision of Gene Roddenberry’s was fuelled, energised and maintained by the dedication of the fans. They are the ones who created the Star Trek phenomenon (the show was only saved from cancellation after series one by a letter-writing campaign), and I am profoundly grateful to them for that.”
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The fans reciprocate by giving their idols a rare respect. The likes of Koenig and Nichelle Nichols (who played Lt Uhura, the Enterprise’s communications officer) were able to mingle, untroubled by Trekkies demanding autographs.
When the convention proper begins the following morning, the series actors have surprisingly little to offer in the way of crazed Trekkie stories. One of the few tales comes from Grace Lee Whitney, a member of the original cast, who played the recurring role of Yeoman Janice Rand and is a veteran of these events.
“I get a lot of love letters from fans. Young boys. I have to screen all my calls,” she says from behind her autograph signing station. “I had a fan who proposed to me with roses and a ring and everything, right in front of my table. I mean, he really was serious.”
For Koenig, meanwhile, the strangest convention encounter wasn’t even with a fan. “Jimmy (Doohan) and I did a convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was the only time that we were required to wear our uniform, something we were very much opposed to. It made us feel a little bit like monkeys on a string. We were waiting in the hotel lobby for the huge limo that was coming to pick us up and a woman, who had just registered as a guest at the hotel, stepped forward and said: ‘Will y’all take my bags to the room now?’ She thought we were bellhops! She extended a dollar bill to each of us.”
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Outside the autograph room there is a sudden bustle of activity. Doohan, Scotty himself, is making an impromptu appearance. The onset of Alzheimer’s has clearly dealt a devastating blow to this once boisterous and robust actor. Confined almost permanently, during the event, to a wheelchair, Doohan seems oblivious to the exhilaration that his presence is producing among the growing crowd. A towering Texan in a cowboy hat regales Doohan with the tale of his very expensive recent acquisition — a pair of costume boots worn by Doohan in one of his seven Star Trek movies. Quite how much Doohan absorbs is unclear.
Sadly, the Alzheimer’s has been cruel and, for the most part, his family is left to speak for him. However, when asked later what he thinks of his fans, Doohan has a sudden, emotionally charged moment of clarity: “To look out over 15 to 20 thousand people is very nice,” he says slowly. “That’s an audience.”
Back in the main ballroom, Koenig is fielding questions from hundreds of fans. Alone on stage, he appears both poised and comfortable, even when confronted by the oddest of questions. “Did those bugs they put in your ear in Star Trek II freak you out?” asks one person, eliciting a chorus of groans from more highbrow fans. “Well, you know, they were only stunt bugs,” Koenig replies with a patient smile. On Day 2, the audience is far bigger. Word has spread that William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are due to appear. These two actors are the closest Star Trek has to royalty, the men who embodied Captain Kirk and his pointy-eared Vulcan science officer, Spock.
By the time the pair take the stage the atmosphere in the audience is at fever pitch. The two produce an apparently spontaneous stream of stories and anecdotes that keep the audience laughing and cheering throughout. Shatner and Nimoy milk the reception like rock stars, and then pause to pay homage to Doohan.
“He’s a really great guy,” says Shatner. “Jimmy was famous in Canada (Shatner himself was born in Montreal) as a radio actor. When I came down here, while they were casting Star Trek, if I remember correctly — which is not at all certain —” cue audience laughter, “I suggested Jimmy Doohan.”
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“You suggested him for the role of Scotty?” says Nimoy, with a trademark raised eyebrow.
“That’s my impression.”
“Does Jimmy know that?”
“I haven’t told him yet. I was waiting until now.”
There’s more laughter from the audience, and then Shatner launches into a second tale of Doohan. One of his favourite moments, he says, is in Star Trek V, when Scotty talked about knowing the ship so well before walking into a bulkhead and knocking himself unconscious. Shatner can’t recall the exact dialogue, so Nimoy, in mock frustration, feeds him the line.
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“ ‘I know this ship like the back of me hand,’ ” Nimoy cries out. “I was there. You must have shot that scene 20 or 30 times!” Recreating the scene, Shatner leaps around the stage. Nimoy looks on with a grin. “If you continue doing that,” he says dryly, “you’re going to lose weight.” Shatner stops jumping and searches in vain for a snappy comeback.
Elsewhere, other Star Trek alumni are exhibiting an unexpectedly down-to-earth streak. When one fan asks Nichols, famous for having had the first inter-racial kiss ever shown on TV, what her favourite Star Trek moment is, she gives a wry smile. “When I signed my first contract.”
Koenig echoes that attitude: despite the conventions and continuing Trek mania, Star Trek is really not that big a part of his life. “I was just very pleased that I had a job. I really don’t think about Star Trek in my everyday life. I don’t like to live in the past and dwell on successes that were achieved a decade, or two decades, ago.”
The biggest moment of the whole convention takes place in one of the banquet rooms set aside for autograph hunters and memorabilia dealers. Here, fans with pre-purchased tickets can have their own private photo sessions with the stars. For 15 fleeting minutes, there is magic in the air. Gathered together, for the last time, is the entire surviving cast of the original Star Trek, huddled together in front of a blue backdrop for photos.
It is an emotionally charged moment for fans and stars alike. Here, for the last time together, are Kirk, Spock, Chekov, Sulu, Uhura and Scotty. Only the late DeForest Kelley, aka Dr Leonard “Bones” McCoy, is missing.
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Suddenly, chaos erupts. Fans without tickets are pushing their way into the room for a glimpse of this precious moment. You can almost hear Scotty cry, “She’s ginna blow, Cap’n. I cannae hold her together!” Just as things threaten to get out of control, Koenig calls out for silence. And then delivers a shameless plug for Shatner’s forthcoming TV series, Boston Legal. Stunned bewilderment. Shatner, Koenig explains, has “promised us all roles on the show if we plug it”. The crowd bursts into laughter and the tension evaporates. Those lessons in Klingon negotiating tactics were clearly not in vain.
As quickly as it began, the photo session ends, and the stars disappear as if beamed up. “Kirk has left the building,” mutters one disappointed fan, as the hallways and corridors of the Renaissance Hotel slowly empty, leaving one figure behind in her own autograph booth. Majel Barrett Roddenberry is the widow of Gene Roddenberry — the man who invented Star Trek — and a star of the series in her own right. She surveys the scene, and ponders the lasting appeal of her husband’s creation.
“Gene wrote about universal problems, and what he wrote about is just as valid today as it was then. He never planned on all this,” she says. “What he was hoping for, at least, was a gentler world. And that we have not accomplished. But his goal is something we are still looking toward.”
As the surviving cast boldly go back to their own lives, we can only wish, in the words of Spock, that they “live long and prosper.”
Star Trek the Original — Series 1 is available now on DVD; Series 2 is released on November 1