From: rrr@svl.cdc.com (Rich Ragan)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Trekon Report - San Francisco
Date: 3 Jan 93 05:03:02 GMT
Reply-To: rrr@svl.cdc.com
Organization: Control Data Corporation, Silicon Valley Operations

San Francisco: 9301.2 Trekon Report

I attended Trekon where Brent Spiner (Data) was the featured
guest. He answered questions for about an hour and half.
Some of the more interesting questions/answers are repeated
below for your edification. N.B. Some of this may be old
news to some of you. I doubt that any of it is really a
spoiler because Spiner was pretty careful about details on
contents of upcoming episodes.

Upcoming shows in the spring.

Ship in A Bottle - A Sherlock Holmes/Moriarty show.
Aquiel - A Geordi romance show (which pleased the audience)
Tapestry - A Q show
Birthright - A two part show with the first part devoted to
             Data and the second part devoted to Worf.
             Spiner did "leak" that a hitherto unknown
             capability of Data would be disclosed in Part 1
             but he was careful not to hint what it might be.

Q: [Question not Q] What happened to the original Spot?
A: He went to cat heaven. Someone surmised that Feline
   Supplement 124 might have been the cause. The new Spot
   was characterized as a very good actor -- better than
   some humans Spiner has worked with.

Q: Will Lore appear in future episodes?
A: I would like him to but the producers have no plans
   one way or the other.

Q: Given that you [Data] did some cross-dressing this
   season are there any plans to feature gay and lesbian
   relationships in Star Trek?
A: A long answer which pretty much boiled down to the
   fact that it is very hard in an action/adventure show
   to set up situations where it would even be evident
   that the people were gay. Two men or two women often
   sit together in 10 Forward but short of engaging in
   sexual activity in 10 Forward it would be hard to get
   the idea across.  Spiner said the producers were more
   worried about offending the gay community with a poor
   presentation than offending straight America. 
   During this discussion Spiner characterized himself
   with the phrase "I'm just a pleasure machine" which
   pretty much brought down the house.

Q: Will there be a 7th season?
A: No one has signed for one but it's not time yet.

Q: What about a feature film?
A: Nothing happening.

Q: Are you planning on directing an episode?
A: Everyone seems to be doing it these days.
   Levar Burton will do one later this season.
   I have no plans to do so.

Q: Do you, Picard, and Riker really play those musical
   instruments or do you fake it?
A: Picard worked very hard to play that flute. Riker/Frakes
   is an accomplished trombone player. I play a bad guitar
   and "faked" it.

Q: If Tasha Yar had lived, would she and Data be married?
A: [Tongue in cheek] Oh almost certainly and there would
   a horde of little android children running around the
   ship.

   [A crying baby in the audience was greeted with the
    comment from Spiner "Hush little Klingon Baby" to
    which it did and he went on to say "I have a way with
    Klingon babies."]

Q: Does your makeup itch?
A: I've learned to ignore anything that might make me
   touch my face because that would mess up the makeup.
   I get made up about 5:45 a.m. and keep it on for 
   12-18 hours.  I can go for a long time without
   touching myself [This line drew loud guffaws.]

Well that's about it from San Francisco. Stay tuned
for Deep Space Nine.

Rich Ragan (Richard.Ragan@cdc.com)



--
Richard R. Ragan   rrr@svl.cdc.com     (408) 496-4340 
Control Data Systems, Inc. - Silicon Valley Dev. Div.
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