George Takei & Walter Koenig

The ballrooms were spacious, with a large screen up front on a stage. I thought these were for groups, but I was the only one there.

The rear of the ballroom. Above, a shuttlecraft flies by.

When it didn't start on time, I wandered and found smaller, more intimate screening rooms with groups of people looking up at the same Realplayer screen. At least I knew it wasn't me. There was talk at Quarks about some disastrous webcast experiences that previous day.

I decided to go back to a ballroom, where I flew off the ground to be level with the screen rather than tilt up at an angle.

When the webcast suddenly kicked in, it was a startle. The sound was very crisp. The POV was that of someone sitting in the back row, with rows of heads in shadow ahead of me. Hearing Adam Malin announce the first guests brought me back to our local cons way back when; I guess I missed those days. He wasn't even there for the gymnasium Picardo/Masterson show.

George & Walter aka Sulu & Chekov

Admittedly when TOS first came out, I never paid much attention to these two. I was a big Spock fan - we all were at the time. But Takei and Koenig made such great impressions on me at cons during the 1980s: their dedication and enthusiasm for the journey the series had taken them. They have ever respected the fans' reverence for their supporting roles, and this carries over into their presentation.

A projection of the stars is for fans sitting in the cheap seats.

George still laments over Excelsior never having had a series. I sure would have preferred it over Enterprise! I guess TPTB figured that throwing him the Voyager episode Flashback was enough. If any, it proved over the years that fans wanted more.

George Takei was as usual the more talkative one. Walter kidded him about it, but I think they complement eachother well, with Koenig being the more introspective type.

They took questions, alternately one from each side of the stage, where fans were lined up. A rep from Vir-con at one point asked a question on behalf of a virtual attendee viewing from the Internet, and the stars were very psyched over the entire concept.