Convention season is starting up for the year, and with less than five months until Creation Entertainment’s 2018 Star Trek convention kicks off, it’s time to look ahead to what’s been announced so far about the year’s biggest event in Trek!
Hosted annually at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas (since Star Trek The Experience, which formerly hosted the event, closed in 2008), this year’s con is scheduled to run from August 1-5. STLV it is the largest (and as of this writing, only) licensed Star Trek convention in the United States, boasting upwards of 100 Star Trek-centric guests each year.
While it’s still a bit early in the year to hit that 100+ threshold, Creation has already announced more than 70 attendees confirmed to appear so far, including familiar giants of Trek like beloved captains William Shatner (Kirk) and Kate Mulgrew (Janeway) — and the franchise’s newest Starfleet captain, Jason Isaacs (Lorca) of Star Trek: Discovery.
2018 also marks Deep Space Nine‘s 25th Anniversary, and we’re hoping that the already-substantial list of DS9 cast attendees continues to grow between now and August, especially with the impending release of What We Left Behind, the DS9 documentary which has been in production for some time after a record fundraiser campaign in 2017.
As of this writing, confirmed DS9 guests include executive producers Ira Steven Behr and Ronald D. Moore, along with series leads Colm Meaney (O’Brien), Terry Farrell (Jadzia), Michael Dorn (Worf), Nicole de Boer (Ezri), Cirroc Lofton (Jake), and several other guests from the series.
(Not yet listed, and unfortunately unlikely to attend, is Avery Brooks (Sisko), who has seemly taken a step back from Trek in recent years; the actor also has declined to participate in the What We Left Behind documentary.)
Last summer, STLV attendees got the first chance to meet some of the Star Trek: Discovery cast and crew, many of whom spent the entire week roaming the convention halls and vendors room, mingling with fans and posing for selfies along the way.
2018 will continue that Discovery presence, with returning stars Mary Chieffo (L’Rell), Wilson Cruz (Culber), and Kenneth Mitchell (Kol) coming back for their second Vegas show, along with first timers Rainn Wilson (Mudd) and James Frain (Sarek) — and Jason Isaacs (Lorca), as noted above — along for the ride.
With plenty of time left until the convention beings, fans remain hopeful that more of the main Discovery cast (and production team) will be added; last year’s Discovery attendees weren’t announced until late summer.
Deep Space Nine and Discovery certainly aren’t the only Trek series represented in guest attendees, of course; there are plenty of Trek stars from across the franchise already announced for the show — including you can see the whole current list at Creation’s site which is constantly updated as STLV approaches.
Sons of Kirk, fronted by Enterprise actor Gary Graham (Soval) returns this year as the house band, but so far the usual exclusive entertainment for the “Gold” and “Captain’s Chair” attendee parties has not yet been announced. For those of you familiar with the Rio hotel, there are rumors floating about that these parties may relocate from the VooDoo Steakhouse to another venue, and we’ll be sure to update when we find out more.
Meanwhile, Saturday’s Late Night Dessert, Cocktail, and Centerpiece Party also returns (another “Gold” and “Captain’s Chair” restricted event), but the usual open-to-all karaoke nights are free attend, and are often a highlight of the convention. Held on Thursday and Friday evenings, each night is hosted by a different set of Star Trek celebrities. Previous years have welcomed Connor Trinneer (Trip) and Dominic Keating (Malcolm) from Enterprise as hosts, or Robert O’Reilly (Gowron) and J.G. Hertzler (Martok) in costume as their Klingon characters.
While the full week’s event schedule won’t be revealed until late July, so far Creation has announced that makeup legend Michael Westmore will continue his now-traditional instructional session, this year transforming Casey Biggs (Damar) into his Cardassian alter ego live on stage. Afterwards, Biggs will stay in both makeup and costume for photo op sessions with fans.
On the final night of the show, the longstanding Rat Pack performance — starring Max Grodenchik (Rom), Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun), Vaughn Armstrong (Admiral Forrest), and Biggs — continues for another year, in which the tuxedo’d stars present a Star Trek-themed parody of the original Las Vegas Rat Pack nightclub act; the musical event always makes Sunday night a hilarious conclusion to the week’s events.
Creation has also enhanced the overall convention experience in the last several years, adding extensive signage and decoration (including life-size replicas of the Guardian of Forever, a transporter pad from the Original Series, and set of Borg regeneration chambers) throughout the event.
Last year, two larger-scale photo areas were also on site, including a recreation of the classic Enterprise bridge (complete with captain’s chair and helm/navigation consoles), and a fantastic replica of the Ten Forward bar as part of the Next Generation 30th Anniversary theme. Perhaps we’ll have a similar construction for DS9’s 25th this summer!
Aside from the celebrities, panels, and events, this convention has the largest
gathering of Star Trek cosplayers in the nation with many officially-scheduled (along with additional fan-arranged) opportunities for gatherings and group photos.
Creation hasn’t yet announced their autograph or photo op ticket prices or availabilities yet, but those will certainly start to be made public in the next few months as guest schedules are further refined.
While there will still be the option to buy autograph or photo op tickets on site in Vegas when you arrive, high-tier guests (like Colm Meaney, who only attends STLV every few years) may have those options sold out by the time August rolls around; if there’s any must-have guests on your list, do yourself a favor and preorder those tickets when the opportunity presents itself online.
Creation’s highest-level ticket package (“Gold”) is currently sold out, we expect — based upon past experience — that some additional availability will become open via auction closer to the start of the convention. The other four ticketing levels (“Captain’s Chair,” “Copper,” “General Admission Weekend,” and individual day passes) are still available, along with tickets to the annual Saturday Night Gala, which once again hosts the Nevada Pops Orchestra and Maestro Richard McGee playing music from the series and films.
(Only General Admission and day-pass holders need to pay extra for this event; it’s included in the top three tiers of ticketing options.)
We don’t expect tickets to completely sell out this year, now is certainly the time to start preparing travel itineraries, hotel bookings, must-see guests, and everything that goes with the STLV experience. While there are multiple options for hotel stays in Las Vegas, of course, Creation does offer a block of special-rate rooms at the Rio Hotel for those who want to stay on-site for the week — which, if it’s in your price range, we recommend to maximize your Trek time.
If you’ve never been to the annual Las Vegas convention and are planning to make 2018 your first time, I’d like to recommend you check out the Shore Leave podcast’s STLV 101 series, recorded ahead of last year’s convention, to guide first-time visitors to the world of STLV.
I, along with my co-host Jeff Hulit and several other STLV regular attendees, cover topics from planning your visit to surviving the rigors of a five-day con in our podcast series. STLV is a whole different experience, and we hope that even fans who have been to smaller Trek events will find something new to help prepare them for the fun of this convention.
Travelling to STLV may start out as a once-in-a-lifetime journey, but for many who attend, it has become an annual pilgrimage to the desert, where Trek fans from all over the planet gather to not only meet the franchise’s stars, but to celebrate their common love for Trek in all the forms that may present itself — both during convention hours, and throughout the evenings during the week-long celebration in Las Vegas.
We’ll have more on what lies ahead for STLV 2018 in the coming months, to keep checking back to TrekCore as we venture closer to the summer!