When I was young, I watched Star Trek, never missing a single show. I can name the episode within two minutes. So, of course, when I heard the 45th Anniversary Convention would be March 11, 12 and 13 I bought my tickets to my first Star Trek Convention and waited for the weekend to come.

The Captains
It was fun to share a common love with other fans of the show. Being my first Convention I didn’t know what to expect but I printed out my daily schedules and decided what I wanted to do.
Gene Roddenberry’s assistant, Richard Arnold, told us lots of juicy tidbits about our series. The most interesting being the show was pitched to the studios as “Wagon train to the stars”. The first considerations for Captain Kirk were Jack Lord and Lloyd Bridges. Star Trek was the first one hour show in color.
Grace Lee Whitney (Yoeman Rand) appeared and told of her days acting with Marliyn Monroe. Nichelle Nichols, the Duras sisters, and Leonard Nimoy appeared on Saturday. The Duras sisters (Gwynyth Walsh and Barbara March) were in full Klingon costumes and bantered back and forth, it was very entertaining.
Nichelle spoke of the studio buying out her contract after the first day of rushes because they thought the communication officer would be a white male. Roddenberry got around the studio by hiring Nichelle as a day player every day for the first two seasons until the studio gave her back a contract in the third season. Martin Luther King told her that she was making a positive difference on TV . He also told her that Star Trek was the only show he allowed his children to stay up so late to watch. She stayed and is proud of her part in changing TV history.
Leonard Nimoy was my highlight of the Convention. His first job after coming to Hollywood was scooping ice cream. Later he drove a taxi where he was called on to pick up Mr. Kennedy at a hotel. He recognized the man also from Massachuettes, it was JFK. He said hello Mr. Senator and they spoke. JFK told him “as in politics in acting there is always room for one more good one”. This motto and the idea of honor became the ideals of Leonard’s life.
For awhile Star Trek faded but with the success of Star Wars and George Lucas all things “Space” became popular again and Paramount decided it was time to create the Star Trek movies and they were so right.
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