While many are already looking ahead to next April’s Star Trek: Mission Chicago convention — the new ViacomCBS/ReedPOP “official” Star Trek convention — perennial mainstay Creation Entertainment’s Las Vegas convention is just around the corner, returning after a year off to the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino next month.

The 55-Year Mission Tour, the new name for the former Official Star Trek Convention event, kicks off on August 11 after last year’s pandemic-related delay and ultimate cancellation, bringing more than a hundred Star Trek guests (as of this writing), vendors, and fans together for five days of fun in Sin City.

Along with dozens of Star Trek guest actors, including Cheers and Frasier star Kelsey Grammer (who appeared in “Cause and Effect”), here are just some of the headlining series stars attending:

• William Shatner, George Takei, Walter Koenig, and Nichelle Nichols from the classic Star Trek series
   
• Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, LeVar Burton, John de Lancie, and Denise Crosby from The Next Generation
   
• Nana Visitor, Terry Farrell, Armin Shimerman, Cirroc Lofton, Nicole de Boer, Penny Johnson-Jerald, and many additional members of the extended Star Trek: Deep Space Nine cast
   
• Jeri Ryan, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Tim Russ, Garrett Wang from Star Trek: Voyager
   
• Connor Trinneer, Dominic Keating, John Billingsley, Anthony Montgomery from Star Trek: Enterprise
   
• Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, Blu del Barrio, David Ajala, Oded Fehr, and Patrick Kwok-Choon from Star Trek: Discovery
   
• Evan Evagora, Isa Briones, Michelle Hurd and Jonathan del Arco from Star Trek: Picard

Also attending will be Star Trek creatives Brannon Braga, Dan Curry, David Livingston, Mike and Denise Okuda, Dennis McCarthy, Jeff Russo, Rick Sternbach, VFX expert Ronald B. Moore, writer/producer Ronald D. Moore — along with an extremely rare public appearance from Star Trek: Voyager co-creator and showrunner Jeri Taylor.

Unfortunately, as the calendar has progressed a number of Star Trek headliners have cancelled their appearances due to a mix of professional and personal reasons; while some cancellations are typical for conventions, this year’s extended cancellation list can almost certainly be attributed, in some part, to pandemic impact — whether it be for extended filming schedules on Discovery, travel restrictions, or personal health decisions.

This year’s event will be a bit different in terms of programming, as Creation Entertainment’s license to use Star Trek branding expired at the end of 2020 — for example, all of the attending guests are listed professional headshots instead of in-character photos, there will be no Star Trek prop or costume displays, and so forth. (We have heard that actors will still have licensed Star Trek photos for autographs on at their tables, however.)

While the full week’s schedule will be published in the final days ahead of the convention start in August, there have already been a number of special events announced, from Star Trek cast members participating in creative new presentations to a number of science-themed panels to teach attendees about the future of the universe.

The annual Saturday Night Gala returns on August 14, featuring the Nevada Pops Orchestra — which this year will feature not only Star Trek composers Dennis McCarthy and Jeff Russo taking the stage as guest conductors, but Trek actors and stage stars Anthony Rapp and Isa Briones will also lend their voices to special performances during the concert.

The 55-Year Mission Tour Las Vegas’ Saturday Night Gala features an unforgettable evening of music, curated and conducted by esteemed conductor and musicologist (and Trekker) Richard McGee and the featuring the renowned Nevada Pops Orchestra! They will perform a magnificent show honoring Gene Roddenberry’s 100th birthday and his legacy and impact.

We are also proud to have Grammy Award-winning composer Dennis McCarthy and Emmy Award-winning composer Jeff Russo as guest conductors — and as an exceptional bonus, the incredibly talented Anthony Rapp and Isa Briones will be giving special performances with the orchestra!

Star Trek recurring guest stars Jeffrey Combs, Casey Biggs, and Vaughn Armstrong — who have been regularly performing on stage as the ‘Star Trek Rat Pack’ for years at Creation events (and will again at this year’s convention) — will showcase some of their favorite Shakespeare moments on August 13.

Long before Jeffrey Combs, Vaughn Armstrong and Casey Biggs became part of the Star Trek universe they honed their craft upon the stage performing the works of the greatest playwright of all time, William Shakespeare. They were not alone. Most actors within the Star Trek family did the same.

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Several podcasts will have headlining moments on stage during the convention, helmed by knowledgeable fans and experts who have longtime relationships with the Star Trek franchise, among them Enterprise Incidents with Scott & Steve and Inglorious Treksperts.

Co-hosted by respected Star Trek enthusiast/entertainment critic SCOTT MANTZ and lifelong fan STEVE MORRIS, the in-depth podcast analyzes and reviews every TOS episode (in production order) with a fresh new perspective, personal recollections and loads of fascinating trivia about how those classic episodes came to be.

We are excited to have Scott and Steve host a live podcast broadcast on-stage at our 55-Year Mission Tour, highlighting a classic episode from TOS.

The hosts of the wildly popular Star Trek podcast, Inglorious Treksperts, Mark A. Altman (Pandora, Free Enterprise, The Librarians) and Daren Dochterman (Star Trek: The Motion Picture – Director’s Edition) bring you a very special live panel on Friday, with some very special surprise guests — including Ashley E. Miller (X-Men: First Class; DOTA: Dragon’s Blood) and Rafe Needleman (The Official Star Trek Trivia Book) — to learn all that is learnable and know all that is knowable as they discuss the Star Trek Universe in a way only they can.

You don’t want to miss this rare chance to see Inglorious Treksperts live and in person and you never know who’ll beam in. Join us on Friday!

Treksperts’ Daren Dochterman is also a member of the team working to restore Star Trek: The Motion Picture — The Director’s Edition to 4K Blu-ray, after his participation in the original 2000-era project, so this event may give us some insight into the status and direction of that long-awaited upgrade.

While there won’t be any official Star Trek props to showcase this year, franchise legend and notable photographer Leonard Nimoy will have a special exhibit at Creation’s convention, where a number of the dearly-departed Spock actor’s images will be available to view in an on-site gallery.

From his Shekhina and Secret Selves series to his other works, Leonard’s photography has been included in many museum collections, including The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Judah L. Magnes Museum, The LA County Museum of Art, the Jewish Museum of NY, The New Orleans Museum of Fine Art and The Hammer Museum.

Now you’ll be able to view some of Leonard’s amazing work in a special exhibition at the convention, so make sure to mark it down as a must-see!

For those of you wearing blue Starfleet uniforms, a series of science panels are set to occur throughout the week, looking at today’s scientific breakthroughs and how the futuristic sci-fi phenomena of Star Trek can fit with today’s knowledge of the natural world.

Star Trek science advisor Dr. Mohamed Noor and Star Trek: Discovery admiral Jayne Brook, who host a YouTube channel which launched earlier this year, will be running three panels throughout the week; Brook will join Noor on stage for the third event.

Panel 1: Why Are There So Many Humanoids on Star Trek? An Evolutionary Perspective

Have you ever wondered why most alien life depicted on Star Trek strongly resembles us Earthlings (besides the use of human actors)? Come explore the possibility of humanoid or other forms of life on other planets with Dr. Noor.

Panel 2: Genetics, Ancestry, Race, and Star Trek

In real life and throughout Star Trek, we hear about “DNA” and “genetic tests” all the time. How do these work? Come have a primer on basic transmission and genetic ancestry testing with Dr. Mohamed Noor, learn many of the fundamental concepts, and see how these concepts get applied in the Star Trek universe across the various series.

Panel 3: BioTrekkie with the Admiral: Jayne Brook and Dr. Noor on Star Trek: Discovery

Following their YouTube mini-series earlier this year, actress Jayne Brook (“Admiral Cornwell”) and science adviser Dr. Mohamed Noor talk about Star Trek: Discovery– the real science and more!

Planetary geologist Dr. David A. Williams, who has been involved in several past (and future) NASA and ESA missions, will hold a pair of panels around his expertise.

Panel 1: Titan – The Past and Future Exploration of Saturn’s Largest Moon

Many discoveries resulted from the NASA Cassini Saturn orbiter’s study of its moon Titan: hydrocarbon lakes, rivers, and oceans, a thick atmosphere with changing clouds and rain, long, linear sand dunes, and evidence of cryo- (cold) volcanism. Join ASU Professor David Williams to discuss all things Titan, as well as the capabilities of the first aerial rover of another world.

Panel 2: Class L, K, or M? Exploring the Strange New Worlds of Our Solar System through NASA’s Planetary Missions

All the Star Trek TV series and movies have visited a wide variety of strange, new worlds, many Earth-like (Class M), but others very different: ice worlds, volcano worlds, gas worlds, and more. How do they compare with the worlds in our own Solar System? This presentation will include a look ahead to planetary missions coming in the decade of the 2020s.

A group of Star Trek: Discovery’s actors have taken to regular Dungeons and Dragons gaming adventures — often recapped through the cast’s social media accounts — and an on-stage campaign of the role-playing game will take place with Discovery actors Anthony Rapp, Mary Wiseman, Blu del Barrio, Mary Chieffo, and Noah Averbach-Katz.

Watch some of your favorite Discovery stars play… Dungeons and Dragons?! Come see how the Discovery actors spend their time away from set — fighting dragons, escaping dungeons, and being total nerds! It doesn’t matter if you’re a D&D veteran or have never even heard of the game, you’ll have a great time watching DISCO cast members improvise, role-play, and try to make each other laugh.

Tickets for the convention, which runs from August 11 – 15, are still available both through Creation’s official website and for discounted single-day pricing at Goldstar, for those of you planning to attend.

While our full TrekCore team won’t be making the journey to Las Vegas this year, we’ll still have a small contingent of our usual crew on-site for the week’s events — all of us vaccinated and packing face masks to wear — so be on the lookout for all of our coverage both here at TrekCore.com and throughout the week on our Twitter feed.

Will you be attending Creation Entertainment’s 55 Year Mission Tour convention this year? Are you unable to visit due to travel restrictions, or choosing to stay home due to pandemic concerns?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below — and for those of you heading to Vegas, we’ll see you at the con!