Trekkies beam up to Vancouver

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VANCOUVER(NEWS1130) – Trekkies will celebrate 45 years of all things Star Trek starting Friday at The Official Star Trek Convention at the Wall Centre in Vancouver.

Organizers promise non-stop events, parties, contests, panels, music, performances, autographs and photo ops.  

Star Trek celebs include:

On Friday, Star Trek Enterprise’s Connor Trinneer (Trip) and Dominic Keating (Lt. Malcom Reed).

On Saturday, the Star Trek legends George Takei (Sulu) and Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura), and the evil Klingon Duras Sisters Gwynyth Walsh (B’Etor) and Barbara March (Lursa).

On Sunday, Nana Visitor (Major Kira), Rene Auberjonois (Odo) and Robert O’Reilly (Gowron), and finally the evil Klingon J.G. Hertzler (Martok) from Deep Space Nine.

Hertzler joined our Ben Wilson live by phone from his home in New York on the News1130 Evening Show.

He disputes his character was evil. “Martok was one of the finest, most honest, most virtuous Klingons in all of Klingon history! Gowron was evil.”

So why do Klingons always get such a bad wrap? Hertzler claims they were based in the 60s as Russians, and Americans hated Russians back then – that’s why they were evil.”

Hertzler was one of only a handful of actors on DS 9 who played seven different characters on the show.”I’ve played a lot of Klingons, some Hirogens but I’ve never played a Ferengi – time isn’t on my side!”

He became involved with Star Trek after a rough patch in his career where he felt like getting out of the business. It was after an audition in 1993 or ’94 at the Paramount Studios in California, and Hertzler figured he screwed it up. “Just then a producer walked by and said there’s a part you might be right for, it’s a Klingon. I had no idea what to with a Klingon. I had to speak Klingon and instead of stumbling through it, I asked to speak Latin.”    

The show’s producer had never heard anyone audition in Latin, was impressed and gave him a part.”When they say it’s the luck of the draw, it really is. You hang around long enough but you got to be lucky.”

Hertzler says he tells people the only reason he’s still talking to people about Star Trek is because his mother was a Latin teacher. “Everybody needs to take Latin 1. Save Latin, that’s the t-shirt.”

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