The first convention I ever went to was a Christmas present. The convention was on December 10, 1995. The big guest was Mr. "Get a Life" himself--William Shatner. He was very funny and mostly told stories about what you would not see in the then-upcoming Generations movie.
One of the main things I remember was that he had a lot of fun ad-libbing throughout the entire thing. But one he just couldn't understand why they took out was this: In Generations, there is a scene where Kirk steps out onto a bridge and says, "Captain on the Bridge". Later, once Kirk had fallen and lay dying beneath the wreckage, Shatner whispered, "Bridge...on the Captain..." LMAO
He told several other stories, but to tell you the truth, I don't remember most of them now. If any others occur to me, I will add them.
The second convention I went to was on a Sunday in 1996. I had been watching Voyager, the episode called "Flashback" with Captain Sulu. Well, one of the commercials shown during that hour advertised a small convention with George Takei. Even though it was a Sunday, I asked my parents if I could go. They said if I paid for it, sure! So, I babysat and got $15. Admission was $10, an 8x10 pic of George was $4 (with purchase of admission), and I bought a little button with Spock on it for $1.
Now, this was a very small one day convention, so there were maybe 100 people there, tops, and by the time I got there, I couldn't find a seat. There were seats to be had, but I didn't feel like climing over people, so I stood at the back of the room, with the 3 or 4 vendors and listened to George's wonderful deep voice.
Basically, he told a lot of the stories that were described in detail in his autobiography, which had recently come out. Then, in the Q & A period, the people kept asking questions that were answered in the book. He kept replying by saying, "Well, if you had read my book, you'd know the answer is...." He seemed mildly annoyed about that.
Finally, he went on a little break and they explained how the autographs would work. Your admission ticket gave you one autograph. If you wanted more autographs, you could buy more tickets. I had brought my copy of his Autobiography (which I had read) with me for him to sign, but since I bought a pic, I decided to have him sign that instead.
I won't tell you how long I was in line, since I really don't recall--about 45 minutes, I think. My dad showed up while I was in line, because I hadn't known how long it would take. He stood and chatted with me until I got to the table. So I finally get up there, hand my ticket to the other guy and wait to step closer to George. This was my first face to face encounter with any of the Star Trek actors, so I was a little in shock. LOL
I finally get up there, clutching my book to my chest and he glances up and greets me. I said hello and debated if I should offer my hand to shake. My Dad stepped forward and shook his hand instead. He even called him "George"!!! Here I am going, "Huh um hi...uh" LOL
Anyway, while he was signing my picture, he looked up at me to hand it back and caught sight of the book. His eyes lit up and he exclaimed, "Did you read my book?" I nodded and proudly said I'd read every word. He literally snatched the book from my hands and flipped it open. "What's your name, sweetie?" he asked. I stammered "Helen" and he wrote:
"To Helen, Reach for the highest star, George Takei"
I looked at the other guy in a small panic, since he had already signed my picture. The guy just shrugged and winked at me. So I got 2 autographs!! Not too shabby!!
