At the recent Comic Con in Chicago, three Star Trek Captains appeared to share their view of the universe. In the process, I realized that the Universe is very small, and many people in the sold-out audience talked about how much the series moved them. In fact, many comments talked about Star Trek not as a show, a movie, or even a franchise, but as a force that will long outlive any of us. Audience members felt that Star Trek will be meaningful and relevant 400 years from now. That’s something to think about, and often left the Captains reflective in responding.
Avery Brooks was the most philosophical. His answers were often quite long and deep. Some fun comments included how the audience thought his “Hawk” character from Spenser: For Hire would have dealt with some of the villains much more severely than Sisko. They also asked him if he loved baseball before – he said he does now. (He had an autographed Willie Mays baseball in his office on DS9.)
William Shatner was irreverent, and yet reflective too. Shatner took a plastic Jean-Luc Picard figure and dumped it into his water pitcher at one point, causing much laughter. Scott Bakula “saved him” from 
Scott Bakula was the warmest of the three, and talked about how hard (and easy) it was to follow all the series, and yet as the prequel to the whole series he had opportunities the others didn’t. All shared how they grew into their roles as Captains.
After the talk, a band called the “Five Year Mission” band performed original songs that they are writing for each of the original series episodes. That was fun to hear and the lyrics vividly recalled every episode.
Posted By: Howard Prager