Report by Bettina - you can see the French and German versions of this report at http://www.geocities.com/rab_beltransite

Robert Beltran in Paris?!? At the very second Star Trek Convention in France at all? An event that you definitely should not miss. Especially not, if you have called that country your home for about 15 years. Thus my daughter Julie and I set off for Paris, for our third convention this year… after Pasadena and Bonn.

Some firm and courageous members of our German RB group joined us, although they may not be masters of the French language. So we all gathered in the Hotel de Reuilly at Friday night, from which it only takes a few minutes to get to the Espace de Reuilly, where the con took place.

At Saturday’s breakfast, we started talking about Robert Beltran and went into raptures forgetting the time. So we only arrived at the scene at 10 a.m. being completely convinced (well… maybe I was not that convinced :-)) to have missed the opening ceremony scheduled for 9:30 a.m. As in France everything is a bit slower and a bit more relaxed, another half an hour passed until the opening ceremony finally started with Alexis Mullhoff welcoming the fans first in French than in English.

At first, he apologized that a few stars had unfortunately not been able to come. (Oh my goodness… is Robert one of them??? Of course, not. We had met Annie from Rome right at the entrance and she had told us that some of her friends, belonging to the staff, had seen Robert on Friday.) Now, let’s forget those who didn’t come and talk about those who appeared:

Celeste Yarnall, a still beautiful blonde, who used to be a guest star at TOS and is a good friend of William Shatner. She told entertaining little stories about the actors playing the characters of Kirk, Spock, Scotty and others. As her grandfather was French, she also spoke a bit French which even more emphasized her charm.

Robert O’Reilly and J.G. Hertzler, the two Klingons Gowron and Martok from Deep Space Nine, made the audience burst out laughing with their comedy show and their stories from the DS9 set.

Julie Caitlin Brown from Babylon 5 has a marvelous voice and she also recorded a CD. And for an American her French is surprisingly good.

And, of course, Robert Beltran, whose name was pronounced in French style when he was introduced to the audience. Indeed, his name is very French… there is a Robert Beltran (French pronunciation) living in my neighborhood :-).

I do not want to go into details about the other stars as we had actually come to Paris because of Robert. This fact, however, did not keep us from enjoying all the preceding performances.

Despite the late start in the morning, it was Robert’s turn on stage at 4 p.m. sharp. He stepped onto the stage dressed in black pants, a dark blue sweat shirt and a black leather jacket. While putting out feelers he welcomed the audience with a shy “Bonjour”. It was not the first time that he had been to France or Paris but it was the first time that he was confronted with French Star Trek fans. *Do they bite???* LOL

Obviously someone had told him that in France only the first two seasons of Voyager had aired. He tried not to show it but he seemed to be a bit surprised about the questions concerning Voyager’s end and his criticism of the series.
His answers were frank, honest and serious – almost too serious after the performance of the two Klingons right beforehand; the atmosphere changed completely which, however, had no negative effects. Concerning the contents of his answers, he did not say anything he had not said in recent interviews. Basically, that he thinks it is a shame that they did not make more out of the Voyager concept; there were too many missed chances. He also said that it was just about time to finish the series after seven years and that he is looking forward to a new task. Right now, he is writing a play about Napoleon on St. Helena which probably will be performed in Los Angeles some time. When a French fan remarked that he was much taller than Napoleon, he just said that it would not be very difficult to find actors who are taller than him and thus let him appear smaller.

He was also asked some questions concerning the last Voyager episodes but, of course, he is not allowed to talk about that topic. However, he blabbed – intentionally or not – and we know now that Chakotay and Seven establish a relationship and that Voyager comes back to earth. Robert, however, is not quite happy about this relationship between Chakotay and Seven. Mainly because it has been created in a kind of artificial way and been integrated into the last episodes and not because he could not imagine a slowly developing relationship between the commander and the former Borg drone.

Every now and then, he cracked a joke: “You will see it when the episode will air here in France in 5 years. There is a lot of time for you.”

Being asked about the other Star Trek series he honestly answered that he did not see very much of them and that he only familiarized with the series when he was cast for the character of Chakotay. He pretty much likes some of the Star Trek movies. He is not against science fiction; he likes classics like “The day earth stood still”. He has a problem with bad scripts, no matter in which fields, and, in his opinion, TV has become too commercialized and that kills quality.

Despite, his experience concerning the last seven years is not that bad after all. He does not regret having played a part in this series. He said that good things are definitely prevailing, e.g. the gorgeous relations to his colleagues on the set. In addition, many of the episodes were fun for him and to a question concerning his favorite episode he answered again: ‘Unforgettable’, because there was hardly any techno babble in it and it contained some profound scenes.

When he stepped onto the stage for the second time, Sunday in the afternoon – this time dressed in a sweat shirt and jeans – he was much more relaxed and it was obvious that he had familiarized himself with the French audience. Although he apologized for his poor French and that he was not able to say more than a “Bonjour”, he gave himself away when answering a question asked in French before Alexis could interpret it for him. He seems to know French better than he is willing to admit. What was that story about the girl in Nice? *g*

Ok… I do not want to withhold that story from you. A young couple that wanted to leave the hall during Robert’s performance was asked by him what they were doing. They apologized and said they had to return to Nice. Nice… that reminded him of Dominique whom they could give his regards to. A fan wanted to know whether Dominique is female or male, as this first name is used for girls as well as for boys in France. After that question Robert stood in front of the microphone like a schoolboy being caught for doing something wrong, looked down and breathed: “A girl”. But he immediately added: “Well… that was a long time ago. I wonder how she might look today… but, enough of that.” *g*

When a fan asked him, if he would like to spend some time with Kate Mulgrew on an isolated planet just as Chakotay did once with Janeway, he pretended to be horrified: “For God’s sake… no way!” She would just order him around: “Robert, get me this… do that for me”; that is nothing he would enjoy.

He also would not have liked to see a relationship between Chakotay and Janeway. He would have preferred a relationship between Chakotay and B’Elanna or – why not? – Seven, if this relationship would have developed slowly. And asked concerning Kes he answered that she was only three years old and thus too young for Chakotay. He also thinks Jennifer Lien was too young for himself. :-)

Alexis who is very interested in Robert as a Shakespeare-playing actor and takes every opportunity to emphasize this, asked Robert which Shakespeare play he had loved most to perform. Robert named a few, as e.g. Julius Caesar, Macbeth etc. However his favorite play undoubtedly is Hamlet which he staged in LA a few years ago. He would as well like to perform a Molière or Goethe play as the European cultural life is much more sophisticated and diverse than the American one. He also tries to watch European films on TV, as far as this is possible in the US. Being asked whether he would like to play in a French film he answered “yes” and named several films that had impressed him, even if he was not able to remember the producers’ names correctly.

When a fan asked him which characters were the easiest and the most difficult ones to play, he answered that his fans might be astonished to hear that it was the character of Chakotay which was the most difficult to play. The reason for this is that this character does not have a real background or profile and that it is simply not possible, no matter how hard you try, to play scenes expressively in which Chakotay only had to sit on the bridge next to Janeway and type in some numbers. With Shakespeare plays it is different, because the character you have to play is a personality with character traits and a background, which you can live up while playing.

Of course, there were a lot more questions… and answers and other little stories. But as I did not take notes, I only remember some of the questions.

But there is one thing I would like to add concerning the organization of this event. This was only the 2nd Star Trek Convention in France at all but I liked it much more than Grand Slam in Pasadena or FedCon in Bonn. Of course, the small number of participants is an important advantage and it gave the whole event a manageable size and made it much cosier. Thus, I would like to commend the organizers, the French fan club “Unification”. Those people who treated fans with the same mixture of respect and warmth as they treat the stars, managed to develop a relation between fans and stars, which is not possible at big conventions, on the contrary, it is often prevented by the organizers. Thanks to the organizers’ attitude it was possible for every single participant to feel accepted, respected and part of the whole thing.

Bettina