So, after my first and kind of overwhelming FedCon XVI last year, I tried out FedCon XVII two weeks ago. Well, maybe I was a bit more down-to-earth, maybe I didn't see the thing through rose-colored glasses, but this FedCon wasn't nearly like my first. It may also have been the fact, that "Jägermeister" - the big sponsor this year - was everywhere! (Well not inside the restrooms. At least I haven't seen them there.) Even Marc B. Lee called it the "JägerCon". There were other things I very much disliked, but I spare you the details. As you may have experienced yourself: The good things stay in memory and the bad things (were there any?) will pass away.

"Stop whining and bring up some of the good stuff!" you say. Well, here it comes...

Mary McDonnell alias Laura Roslin from Battlestar Galactica was very much a pleasant surprise. She was moved to tears at the closing ceremony and she didn't play her role there. Throughout the panels, she formed one of the running gags at FedCon. Wanting to say a few words in German, she said: "Es ist so geil hier zu sein!" She thought that "geil" means awesome, but in German it's more "horny" than "awesome" ;) Another quote when answering a question: "I ordered someone out of an airlock. I don't know whom, there were so many."
	I still don't know, where that question came from, but another running gag was: "Have you ever seen Jamie Bamber naked?" Even people from the audience, even Marc B. Lee himself inside the audience asked the different actors/actresses on stage this question more than once.
Brent Spiner alias Data in TNG - he would make a great stand-up comedian - was hilarious on stage. He came up with the theory, that you tell a bad joke, no matter how bad, and repeat it 10 times, the audience will die of laughter. So he told us: "How proud he was playing on Battlestar Galactica.". You may know, or may have guessed, Brent never played on BSG. But after the 10th time telling this in the strangest situations, the audience was rolling on the floor laughing.
	Did you know, that Rene Auberjonois alias Odo in DS9 actually played with the great Audrey Hepburn on Broadway? And that he and his wife are calling their house in LA "the house that Star Trek built"?
Bruce Boxleitner (left) alias John Sheridan in Babylon 5 had a panel together with Peter Jurasic alias Londo Mollari in Babylon 5. Those two also did Tron together by the way. This panel was clearly the highlight of the whole weekend! You really had to see those guys to believe it. Some quotes: Bruce: (responding to a question about the making-of of a movie) "I don't know, if they put it on tape". Peter: "It's called DVDs now!" Bruce: (responding to a question concerning what happened to the planet next to Babylon 5 after its destruction) [serious facial expression] "Well, I guess it's still there."
	LeVar Burton (Geordy La Forge), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) and Brent Spiner were great together. Shame on LeVar and Brent, leaving the panel after 20min, to catch their plane. But afterwards Marina told us much funstuff from the set at TNG. Her standard quote as the ship's counsellor was "Captain, he's hiding something". One day after that quote saying it to Patrick Steward (alias Jean-Luc Picard), he answered (in a funny way): "Yeah, I know that you stupid cow! You waste of space!"
This year's costume contest was great as always, but the about 3 meters high an 4-5 meters long At-At was amazing!
	You are dooooomed!!
What a nice couple!
	Even Stormtroopers have to go shopping from time to time.
Last, but definitely not least Giles Aston in his fabulous Nemesis costume taking a picture with me at the end of FedCon.

I'd like to close now with words from Londo Mollari: "That wasn't so bad after all, yes?"

Like last year, you will find a selection of the photos I took in the gallery. (Don't use the internal gallery located at http://www.jens-schaller.de/gallery, because the Drupal integration is somewhat slow.)

Stardate -315565.6 ... Bonn/Germany ... these are the voyages of Jens Schaller visiting his first Star Trek Convention...

After talking about visiting a Star Trek Convention for nearly 20 years, I finally did it. I visited the FedCon XVI in the Maritim Hotel in Bonn, which isn't very far from my home.

Yeah, I know there are some - or maybe some more - of you thinking: "A Trekkie Convention? That's some place for weirdos, right?". Well, I just thought nothing and had no special expectations. I just wanted to have a good time seeing some of the stars, etc.

But what I experienced there was beyond any imagination! My recommendation is: If you ever saw the different series of Star Trek and liked them, go visit a Convention, you'll love it!

Without anymore babbling I'll try to give you a few impressions:

	In each Spaceship of Star Trek there have to be Jefferies tubes, right?
Seeing a group of app. 15-20 Imperial Stormtroopers passing by really is something.		Captain Jack Sparrow and his crew were there too and Jack got the audience award for the best costume. Not to mention his mimic ;)

Jonathan Frakes aka Commander William Thomas "Will" Riker entered the stage singing with an italian accent: "Voooooooooooolaaaaaaaaaarrrreeeeeeeeee" and the whole audience answered: "Ooooooooooooooohhhooooooooooooooo". Later on he replayed a scene on the bridge when the ship was attacked. The camera shakes and the actor had to shake too. Frakes playing Patrick Steward as Captain Jean-Luc Picard mumbling: "25 years in the Royal Shakespeare Company for THIS..."
	The costume contest was awesome (at least most times). Here's a scene of Kosh and Delenn out of Babylon 5, where Kosh reads a Vogon poem straight out of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
Jewel Staite (Kaylee Frye from Firefly/Serenity) und Laura Bertram (Trance Gemini from Andromeda) did a panel together. If have to say that I did only watch one or two episodes of Andromeda and found it awful, but Laura in person is fabulous. Someone in the audience got it to the point: "I have never seen Andromeda, but if your role is nearly as great as you are, I have to watch it." When asked by another person in the audience, which unusual question the both would like to be asked and also would like to answer, silience occured. After a few moments Laura asked Jewel with a squeaky kind of voice: "Jewel, what's your favourite Jellybean flavour?" Jewel: "Watermelon" Laura: "Now THAT was an unusual question." Jewel: "Now Laura, what's your favourite animal?" Laura (again with that voice): "A seahorse..." "And do you know why?" Jewel: "No?" Laura: "Because the men have to carry out the babies..." The audience was rolling on the floor laughing ;)
	Garret Wang alias Ensign Harry Kim (Voyager) is really some comedian. He told us, that he nearly ran over Harrison Ford when arriving on his first day for filming Star Trek Voyager. He thought about the possible headlines in the newspapers: "Star Trek rookie kills Han Solo" He also told us about the (internal) nickname for Jeri Ryan aka Seven of Nine: "2 of D" Some more laughs came for the Elbow Story (see: The Anatomy lesson) and the Shaking Practise ("The DS9 guys REALLY know how to shake").
Kate Mulgrew (aka Captain Kathryn Janeway) had a great presence on stage. She is a very intelligent, but also thoughtful person with a great sense of humor. The "Spitball Story" was just gorgeous, but to long to tell here. She and Armin Shimerman aka Quark (DS9) were the only ones getting standing ovations and they absolutely deserved it.
	Well, without much words: Me and the sweet and wonderful Laura Bertram. After signing a photo I did the day before, she asked for my web address for taking a look at the other pictures in the FedConXVI gallery.

On Saturday night there was a big party with great people to meet and Cirroc Lofton and Anthony Montgomery performing some live Hip-Hop/Rap songs. Star Trek fans really know how to party.

You really can't describe what is happending to you when visiting such a place. It seems like you are leaving the real world entering another for nearly three days. There is something in the air that sucks you in and you need a while to adjust after it. I guess "Reality Jetlag" would be the perfect expression for it.

I leave you now with a photo of the closing ceremony, as always hosted by the fabulous Marc B. Lee, and I hope you enjoyed the little flight through the FedConXVI. It was a wonderful weekend with lots of nice people. Special greetings go to Kathrin and Any.

For more photos, feel free to visit the FedConXVI gallery.

~Jens

Update: Due to a current incident, I decided to password protect all photos in the gallery. Please , if you'd like to gain access.

I normally don't post such quiz results, but since I very much like good comics and their real film versions I simply couldn't resist this time...

You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern 55% Spider-Man 50% Robin 47% Supergirl 40% Wonder Woman 35% Catwoman 35% Superman 30% Batman 30% Hulk 30% The Flash 30% Iron Man 30%

Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Well, what can I say: He even matches my website colors ;)
If you don't know this Green Lantern dude, you may take a look at the associated wikipedia entry.

Where there is light, there has to be darkness. In this case my Supervillian part would be the following:

You are The Joker

The Joker 39% Mr. Freeze 32% Green Goblin 32% Venom 30% Magneto 27% Dr. Doom 27% Lex Luthor 25% Apocalypse 25% Juggernaut 24% Dark Phoenix 24% Kingpin 21% Mystique 20% Catwoman 18% Riddler 15% Poison Ivy 14% Two-Face 12%

The Clown Prince of Crime. You are a brilliant mastermind but are criminally insane. You love to joke around while accomplishing the task at hand.

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain am I?" quiz...

The Joker should be fairly known, there is of course a wikipedia entry for him.

The strange things is, that both percentages nearly add up to 100%...

I wish you all a Happy (and most of all Healthy) New Year!