WonderCon Day 1 Report

Back from Day One at WonderCon here in San Francisco. The streets surrounding the Moscone Center have Star Trek movie posters (like these, left) hanging from the street lights! Really impressive crowd for the first day, too.

Paramount was giving away the 4 posters pictured here, so I grabbed one of each. That was about it for my Star Trek haul. Didn't see any merchandise associated with the new film other than issues of the prequel comic series Star Trek: Countdown. I'm holding off on that until the compilation is released in April or May. Classic toys seemed all the rage in the Dealers' Room, though. Trek is definitely generating some excitement again.

A number of TV and movie personalities were there doing autographs. I was surprised when I saw Gary Lockwood (Gary Mitchell) at one of the booths! Then in the west of the Dealers' Room were a number of other personalities, many who'd appeared in Trek including Pamelyn Ferdin (child star of the 60s and 70s who was Mary in "And the Children Shall Lead"), Michelle Scarabelli (TNG "In Theory"), Bobby Clark (the Gorn!), super yummy (and still super yummy!) BarBara Luna (TOS "Mirror, Mirror"), Chase Masterson (DS9's Leeta), Malachi Throne and Sean Kenney (both in TOS "The Cage"), and more. I'm not an autograph person, but...

I did pick up the lush hardback of the Mouse Guard RPG and artist David Petersen not only autographed it, but sketched me a little mouse inside as well! I'm not at all familiar with Luke Crane's Burning Wheel rules system, but I've heard nothing but good things about the game, the price was right and the autograph was a plus.

Went to the The Once & Future Trek panel, and although only Daren Dochterman and TrekMovie's Tony Pascale were able to make it, there was a good turnout for the panel. Didn't learn anything new but it's always nice to attach a face to a name. Both were very funny and well-informed, and the crowd was mostly positive about the future of Trek (and not just the movie). People definitely still care, no matter what Voyager did (hahahaha). The guys showed some fun Trek clips including Star Trek Knights of the Round Table, a commercial for UK's National Power/Powergen featuring Shatner and Doohan in character, and what looked to be an anti-drugs PSA from the 70s built as a mashup of clips from Trek The Animated Series. At least I think it was for real, but I can't find it online, nor any reference to it... maybe it was just a fan mashup.

Anyway, that's my Day 1. I'll report back on Day 2 tomorrow with impressions following the big Paramount panel in the Main Hall!