Captain's Log ST-CHI: Brent Spiner and Gates McFadden Dream of Beaming to Your Living Room
- Antal Bokor
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
I’ve probably been to at least 50 conventions over the years I’ve been covering arts and culture in the Chicagloand area. I’ve personally been to at least four Star Trek conventions, and have seen hundreds of panels. To say that the Brent Spiner and Gates McFadden panel started rough is a bit of an understatement. I even have the note scrawled across the top: “Second worst panel.” (The worst panel I’ve ever been to, if you’re curious, is a Haunted Chicago panel put on by the Windy City Ghostbusters. Sorry, guys.)
I have to say: I’m a huge fan of both of the guests, Gates McFadden and Brent Spiner. They both portrayed iconic characters on their run in Star Trek in both The Next Generation and Picard– Doctor Beverly Crusher and Data, respectively. When Spiner took the stage he was “dun dunning” along to the them from The Next Generation and McFadden jumped in with some vocalized percussion. Which was fine, and exactly what I would have expected from the impish Spiner and ebullient McFadden. But then the interaction quickly devolved into calls for light changes, different chairs, and Spiner introducing the audience to a game called “three degrees of Brent Spiner” which he promptly failed. (To be fair, he did connect himself to Jessel within 4 degrees near the end of the panel.)
But it’s all common in live entertainment, and everything started to come together very quickly as the two old friends took questions from the audience–who continued to yell suggestions for Spiner’s ongoing game of Three Degrees of Brent Spiner. Someone in the audience mentioned Ronald Reagan and he told the story of when Reagan came to the Paramount lot to meet the crew of Star Trek–something that Spiner says is also recounted in his book. “Everyone ready my book, right?” He asked the crowd in an intentionally sheepish way.
Spiner and Gates then got into a conversation about how you don’t really know people, even if you’ve been watching them portray characters for years. And that goes for them, too, as fans of various TV shows. When they get a chance to meet actors from shows they’ve watched–either incidentally or personally–these people are often different than they expect. “We don’t know each other until we actually are one-on-one and really present. Talk with each other. So I think that’s really interesting,” shared Gates. Gates then brought up Pee-Wee Hermann with Spiner interjecting, “I related to him.” and went on to say, “(Pee-Wee Herman) is more similar to Data than he is to Captain Picard.”
When asked which Muppet their characters (Data and Doctor Beverly Crusher) would get along with Spiner said “Elmo.” Though technically on Sesame Street, Elmo definitely counts. McFadden went with a more traditional answer with Kermit. I can definitely see Doctor Crusher getting along with Kermit, but I don’t think Miss Piggy would like that very much.
When a fan asked the guests if they thought Star Trek would still be around in 100 years, they both thought it would. Spiner said, “I’d be willing to say, that I do think that there will be some Star Trek on the air, some new Star Trek,” he continued, “It’s the Great American epic, and I think it goes on and on and on, and so there will always be (new Star Trek).” McFadden interjected to say, “We might be holding conventions, like, up in space, right?” and over the cheers of the crowd she said, “but that would be very pricey! So start saving now.” Not to be outdone, Spiner concluded the thought “(we could) beam right into your living room. That would be really expensive.”