Dining with Starfleet Senior Staff and Fixing Qs Mac

Dinner with the Alpha and Delta Quadrants

• On one memorable voyage, I found myself sitting at dinner with four cast members from Star Trek:
  • John de Lancie (the omnipotent Q from The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager)
  • Robert Picardo (the Emergency Medical Hologram / The HoloDoctor from Voyager)
  • Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher from The Next Generation)
  • Chase Masterson (Leeta from Deep Space Nine)
• Sitting at that table felt like presiding over a joint diplomatic conference between the Alpha and Delta Quadrants.

Troubleshooting Q's Mac

• During the voyage, John de Lancie ran into technical trouble with his Apple MacBook. As it turned out, even an omnipotent being from the Q Continuum with total dominion over space, time, and matter still needed Randal Schwartz to troubleshoot his Mac.

Sci-Fi Crossovers: Stargate and Beyond

• Hilariously, I didn't even realize until years later that John de Lancie had played Colonel Frank Simmons on Stargate SG-1 because I had fallen behind on the later seasons. Robert Picardo had also crossed over into the Stargate franchise as Richard Woolsey on Stargate Atlantis.
• Later, during one of my 13 years speaking at Dragon Con, I had a wonderful 5-minute conversation with Don S Davis (General George Hammond from Stargate SG-1 and Major Garland Briggs from Twin Peaks). He was one of the warmest, kindest southern gentlemen you could ever meet.