A Galaxy of Stars

Now in its fourth year, Robert Beltran's annual Galaxy Ball has swiftly become one of the must-attend events in the Star Trek social calendar. And the latest bash certainly lived upto its reputation for attracting glittering stars, what with Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Rene Auberjonois, Jonathon Frakes, Robert Picardo, Roxann Dawson and a host of others in attendance. STAR TREK Monthly's LA correspondent Abbie Bernstein was there to witness the goings-on, and grab a moment or two with some of the actors. NB: Galaxy Ball photos by Albert L. Ortega



There are occasions when a great cause and a great time are rolled into one event. The fourth annual Galaxy Ball, held 10 November at the Universal Sheraton Hotel, adjoining Universal Studios in California, certainly qualifies.

A one-day Star Trek event with Q&A panels in the daytime and a formal dinner in the evening, followed by musical performances from Star Trek cast members, the Galaxy Ball was conceived by Robert Beltran as a fundraiser for the Down's Syndrome Association of Los Angeles, an organisation that helps connect people with Down's Syndrome and their families with resources and support systems.

"My youngest sibling has Down's Syndrome," Beltran explains, "so I just found it a good opportunity to help children and adults with Down's Syndrome. It was a way to get other people involved." It was Beltran's first foray into organising a charity event: "Prior to the Galaxy Ball, all my charity work was purely personal. This is the only thing I've done in a public way."

This year, as well as Down's Syndrome LA, the Galaxy Ball also benefits charities dear to the hearts of some of the other guests: Amnesty International; the Electronic Frontier Foundation; the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation; Half the Sky Foundation (aiding Chinese orphans); Medicins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders (delivering emergency aid to victims of armed conflicts and natural disasters); Sojourn (a women's and children's shelter); the Wildwood School; the Wordbridge Playwrights Laboratory and Zenith Youth Homes. Ari Oyola, Jennifer Schlenzig and Jackie Edwards have helped Beltran organise the event.

It's sunlight outside, but there's star power within as Beltran introduces the day's first panel: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner and Wil Wheaton.

The quartet are all in a playful mood. When they discover that they are a microphone short, Stewart attempts to borrow one, but Frakes chides him. "You don't need a microphone -25 years in the Royal Shakespeare Company."

The bearded Spiner dons a pair of sunglasses and Stewart pretends to recoil: "Isn't that the most frightening thing you've ever seen?" More seriously, Stewart points out a bit of Star Trek: The Next Generation lore concerning the Sheraton Grand Ballroom. "The read-through of 'Encounter at Farpoint' happened in this room."

Spiner tries to condense the post-ST:TNG history of Star Trek into a single sentence: "Deep Voyage Nine: The Enterprise."

Frakes looks at his colleague appraisingly. "This is the first time in 15 years that Brent Spiner has looked more like Robert Goulet than I do." He has a long memory for interactions with his co-workers. "You remember when we were walking back to the car park?" he reminds Wheaton. "You said, 'I can tell by the music coming from your dressing room - you used to be cool, didn't you?"' Wheaton covers his face in mock-mortification. Wheaton, in a rare serious moment on the panel, expresses enthusiasm for their work. "I've been watching Star Trek [in reruns on TNN] and I'm remembering how cool our show was. It's like watching a moving high school yearbook."

The others can't resist more teasing. "I like the last few years," Frakes muses. "They were the best," Spiner adds. "It was as if a dead weight was lifted."

Wheaton mock-explains why his colleagues might feel this way about Wesley Crusher's absence: "My function was to embarrass and humiliate the adult cast members."

Frakes has a surprise for Stewart and the audience, bringing up the possibility that Wheaton's Crusher may turn up in Star Trek: Nemesis: "I've heard rumours."

Wheaton confirms that, pending signing of contracts, he will indeed appear in the feature. Stewart seems genuinely surprised and delighted.

Frakes expresses curiosity about Spiner's beard. "I'm working on a little movie with Dana Carvey," Spiner replies. "I play Devlin Bowman, black marketer."

They return to the subject of Star Trek X, to be directed by Stuart Baird, who helmed US Marshals. Baird also has an extensive background as a film editor, Spiner notes: "He's known as the world's greatest editor of action."

The audience is then invited to ask questions. The first reflects a matter much on everyone's mind - have the events of 11 September affected the movie's script? "The plot hasn't changed at all," Spiner assures.

"I think [the action] is very appropriate to the kind of story we're telling," Stewart adds, "and the attitude of our crew - I can't think of a better time for a Star Trek movie."

Someone else asks about various specific rumours concerning the movie's events. The actors are all unhappy about efforts to leak script details. "You know what," says Spiner, "I'm gonna tell you the whole rest of the film. 'Cause you already know the answers - it's all over the Internet. Let's put it on the Internet and ruin it for everybody."

Stewart says he is genuinely bewildered by the impulse to spoil. "Why do you want to know what happens? Is it so you'll enjoy it less?"

Before venturing into Star Trek's future, Stewart announces he'll be revisiting ST:TNG's past, hosting a marathon on TNN. He recently completed filming on a telefilm he also produced, Boss Lear.

Wheaton has been keeping busy with something called, 'Uncle Willie's Lamest Web site'. "Back in the middle of June," he says, "I got it into my head I would make myself a web site - wilwheaton.net - I do the entire thing myself, I have no help. [The site gets] about 90,000 hits a month." He's also been exercising his creativity in other areas. "The last four years, I've been writing comedy and political satire."

Spiner says he's involved with developing a comic book-based television series with Stewart's wife Wendy Neuss. Pressed for details, he offers a haiku: "Man. Funny. Comic. You go. You see."

A woman in the audience with a strong Texas twang asks Spiner how he's managed to "dump" his Houston accent. "You don't have an accent," Spiner tells his fellow Texan. "I haven't gotten rid of it - I just have another accent I put over it."

Someone asks which ST:TNG characters besides their own the actors would have liked to have played. "I'm gonna go with Minuet," Wheaton quips.

"I think we were all happy with the characters we played," Spiner says honestly.

"Now, if you had asked favourite characters," Frakes adds, "I think we'd all agree -Data."

"He was my favourite," Spiner observes innocently.

Frakes must leave early - he's promised to take his children roller-blading - leaving Stewart, Spiner and Wheaton to carry on.

Stewart shares some Star Trek Generations production trivia. " At the end, when Picard is standing alone on a finger of rock after burying Captain Kirk, that figure is not me. That was [Stewart's stunt double] John Novak."

Someone asks how they feel about Enterprise. "Why do I suddenly feel like Bill Shatner?" Stewart muses. "'Mr Shatner, what do you think about the new series?' Bill said, 'Well...' I just haven't had time to watch it."

"I saw it," Spiner offers. "I thought it was terrific."

"I think Enterprile is really cool," Wheaton agrees. "It's just different [from ST:TNG]. You don't have to like one and not the other." He then voices a question that has surely occurred to most hetero-sexual male actors in series television: "Where was Jolene Blalock when we were making our show?"

"That is a good-looking group of people," Stewart concurs.

Some things in Star Trek probably never change, including actors' difficulties with dialogue about futuristic technology. "The line Brent hated seeing most in any script," Stewart recalls, "was, 'Analyze, Mr Data.'"

Wheaton has a theory that, when the actors got too prankish on the set, the tough dialogue was written in as punishment' "Endless, non-phonetic technobabble."

"There were a lot of jokes," Stewart notes. "On Next Gen, we laughed a lot. When Bill [Shatner] joined us on Generations, his arrival was seamless, because he loved to laugh as much as we did."

"It's a lucky break that this group of people got along well," Spiner observes.



Beltran takes the stage, thanks the ST:TNG actors for their time, then introduces Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Rene Auberjonois and Aron Eisenberg.

Auberjonois talks about his early life as "a glorified lifeguard" for the children of Alan J. Lerner and Burgess Meredith. As an adult, he found himself playing Meredith's partner in the film The Hindenburg. Playing relatively small roles in a huge production, they had a lot of free time and consequently got to nap a lot. Some actors might have been bored. Not Meredith: "'I love to be paid to sleep!'"

Eisenberg is here raising money for the National Kidney Foundation of Southern California. "I had a kidney transplant at age 17," he reveals, and stresses the importance of filling out organ donor cards "and telling your family that you want to do that."

Auberjonois, presently filming a four-part arc on Judging Amy, is at the Galaxy Ball on behalf of Doctors Without Borders. "I love it," he says of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. "I'll always consider it one of the most important parts of my life, but I wouldn't be [making convention appearances] any more except that it raises money for charity."

Someone in the audience asks how Auberjonois "makes" Odo. Auberjonois explains how actors work with scripts, discusses the make-up and demonstrates the way he deepened his voice for the character. "But the one thing I can't do is, I can't melt."

Eisenberg, who has appeared on Star Trek: Voyager as well as ST:DS9 is asked to name his favourite ST:VOY actor. "This is gonna sound like brown-nosing, but Robert Beltran. We had such fun on the episode Initiations." Eisenberg also loved watching Auberjonois and Armin Shimerman on ST:DS9. "Odo and Quark were like the Odd Couple - they insulted each other, but you know they're there for each other."

"The truth is," Auberjonois adds, "Armin did become my best friend out of that show -we still see each other. When [before ST:DS9] I did Benson, the day I joined the cast was the day Ethan Phillips joined the cast, and we've become dear friends. On the two series I've done, my best friends have been short, bald guys."

Eisenberg is asked to re-enact the Ferengi mating dance from You Are Cordially Invited. He says he will - if the person who made the request does it first. A brave attendee gets up on stage and performs her version, so Eisenberg obliges, then explains how the dance came to exist. "David Livingston, the [episode's] director says, 'At the top of the scene, I want you dancing.'" Eisenberg demonstrated the dance for Nana Visitor, who thought it was very funny and encouraged him. Terry Farrell was so delighted by Eisenberg's invention that she improvised Dax's dance with Nog later.

As cast members who wore heavy make-up, Auberjonois and Eisenberg both had early-morning calls. "The crew are working 16-19 hour days," Eisenberg recalls. "If you're in the episode [in alien make-up], you're working just as long."

Auberjonois couldn't wait to remove Odo's appliances at the end of the day. "It appalled and terrified the make-up artists to see that I peeled my face off. The Odo make-up was more uncomfort able than the Ferengi make-up - the Ferengis could take their teeth out between shots." He remembers how the different make-ups affected different cast members. "Michael Dorn's skin was very sensitive. Andy Robinson - I guess he's just a leathery old character actor. I put my [used] masks in the closet. By the end of a season, I think I had 60 faces. [The closet] looked like Silence of the Lambs."

An audience member tells Auberjonois she saw him play what was for her the definitive Fool in King Lear. Auberjonois is visibly moved. "I was 28 years old when I played that role. I'm 61 years old now. And to have someone hold that in their memory that long..." Later, he says, "I think it's wonderful when people like film that you've done, but [the film] is going to be around forever. But when they remember a live stage performance from many years ago, it's very meaningful."



After a break, it's time for the Star Trek: Voyager panel, with Beltran, Roxann Dawson and Robert Picardo. Beltran notes that Picardo's voice is much imitated by his colleagues. "We talk on the phone a lot, and I can never tell who's calling, because we all do a great Bob Picardo. One time, Picardo called, and I said, '**** you, Garrett.'"

Picardo examines some items to be auctioned off later in the proceedings, including an ST:VOY script: "What makes this interesting is, Tim Russ has signed it twice." Picardo is having a good time at the Galaxy Ball. So far, he's joked with Robert Beltran and Roxann Dawson on the panel, he's just finishing signing autographs and, later in the evening, he'll join his colleagues in a cabaret performance. "It's a very warm event," he says, "people are extremely nice, very gracious, grateful that we're here, and Robert Beltran is a great host for the day, and so far I'm enjoying myself. Looking forward to dinner."

This marks a repeat appearance at the Galaxy Ball for Picardo. "I think I've done a couple of them, but it's always a pleasure, because of the good cause it's for, because so many of my cast-mates come, because it's so nice and local," he laughs. The Universal Sheraton is just across the valley from where he lives. This year's Galaxy Ball benefits a number of causes, including Picardo's favourite charity, the Pediatric AIDS Foundation. He's recently earned them some other money as well, he is happy to report: "Just sent them 10 grand from The Weakest Link. I was a contestant. Actually, I came very, very, very, very close to winning the biggest jackpot that's ever been run-up on that show. But one of my fellow Star Trek actors beat me out by one question." He is magnanimous in defeat: "I just want to say that LeVar Burton is a heck of a good game show contestant. He was a fierce competitor. All those years of watching Jeopardy when he was a kid paid off.

Dawson recently directed The Andorian Incident episode of Enterprise. "I think the new show is wonderful. I think the changes give the director a little more freedom. I was a little scared when they told me [the Andorians were] blue guys with moving antennae. That was either gonna work or really, really not work." Picardo hasn't seen much Enterprise to date, due to bad reception of UPN in his new home. He says he'll have a better antenna soon. Meanwhile, "There's a period of adjustment. You see other people saying these things [Star Trek-style dialogue] and you go, 'Wait a minute, they're not us!"'

Picardo has recorded an album that is available through his fan club, with proceeds going to charity. "I have no plans to make a second album - but I had no plans to make a first one."

A British fan who's come all the way to California for the Galaxy Ball wants to know if the trio will still appear at conventions in England. "If I'm asked, absolutely," Picardo says.

"I was just [in England] when we started bombing [Afghanistan]," Dawson relates. "It was bizarre."

"I've been to Norwich," Beltran says. "Very nice people -I'd like to go back."

On favourite episodes, Picardo says, "Future's End was one I really enjoyed. Kate [Mulgrew] and I were really close - I look back at that with fond memories."

Dawson recalls how the creative staff tried to ease her workload during her real-life pregnancy. "They used to knock me out a lot. And there are scenes where the camera passes by me when I am sound a sleep for real."

"Her snoring was legendary," Beltran reveals with a laugh. "We always had fun."

"We had a wonderful time," Picardo agrees. "Robert's impressions..."

I don't know what you mean," Beltran says, precisely recreating the Doctor's haughty tones.

"Everyone does impressions of me," Picardo sighs. "Everyone. My kids do me."

Dawson is about to direct an episode of the drama series Any Day Now and is spending time "being a mom to my two kids."

Picardo is about to play Frasier's dad's boss on an episode of Frasier and has completed a low-budget film called Until Morning. "I play a schizophrenic." In real life, "We've just moved into a new house, so there's tons of work at home - so I have to get a new [acting] job, because staying at home is just too much work!"

The trio jointly auction off the script from the 11:59 episode. With revision pages and call sheets, it goes for $650. They then take their places at autograph tables, where they're joined by Auberjonois, Eisenberg, Wheaton, Tim Russ and Robert Duncan McNeill.



There's a break while everyone changes into formal wear for supper. The crowd is sizable and varied - nine fans have come from Germany for the event. Throughout the meal, Neal Norman and his Cosmic Orchestra provide live music. When the meal concludes, Dawson thanks the audience for coming, then introduces two young actors, Andrea Friedman and Luke Zimmerman, both with Down's Syndrome, who perform the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, taking their bows to roars of approval.

Ethan Phillips springs out of the crowd onto the stage, bearing the saxophone his wife bought for him. This is the first time he's played it in public. Backed by Norman's orchestra, he blows a rousing 'When the Saints Come Marching In'.

Then Tim Russ gets up and, backed by the orchestra, performs three soaring pop/rock tunes of his own composition, including the title track from his new album Kushangaza, which he explains, means "amazing" in Swahili, an ode to his female relatives. The gorgeous melody, Russ' skill with the guitar and authoritative vocals bring cheers from the crowd.

Beltran sings 'Only the Lonely', then cedes the stage to McNeil, who is joined by the orchestra on 'That's The Way I Like It, 'Fly Like An Eagle' and - with the crowd up and dancing -'Play That Funky Music, White Boy'. Dawson belts out a rendition of 'I Will Survive'. Beltran calms the mood by singing Paul Simon's 'American Tune' and 'One Night With You'.

Picardo wrote the lyrics for a pair of parody numbers he performs about the plight of an unemployed Star Trek actor, then launches into an Elvis-like 'Viva Las Vegas!' McNeill returns for 'Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me', Phillips does a comedy routine, Beltran reads a poem by Robert Frost, Russ sings ' Across the Great Divide' and Beltran, Dawson, McNeill, Phillips and Picardo all join to back Russ as he sings lead on 'Love The One You're With'.

Eisenberg joins the other actors for the climactic auction. There are scripts for ST'TNG's : Measure of a Man and ST:VOY's Alliances, a set tour of the series Angel for up to four people and a set tour of Enterprisefor two. The last of the fundraising done, Beltran's brother Louie Cruz Beltran, and His Orchestra launch into big band dance music that has the entire crowd on its collective feet.

The Galaxy Ball ultimately nets $50,000 for charity, but it does something else as well, as Down's Syndrome LA programme director Roxanne Carreon points out. "Very often, people with any sort of disability are identified by their disability first. The great thing about the Galaxy Ball is that it enables people without disabilities to come together with people who have Down's Syndrome - it gives our young people with Down's Syndrome an opportunity to be seen as a Star Trek fan, vs [being seen as] someone with Down's Syndrome first."

Text transcribed & Pics scanned/arranged by Gill Hoyle