My family and I walked into the Masonic Center,  looking around for Laughing Muse and Shawk, whom we met through the TrekBBS, when I heard, “Litsaki?”  I turned around and there was LM, Shawk, her roommate and the roommate’s mom!  I recognized LM from the Seattle Con pictures posted on DK’s Website.  We introduced ourselves and decided to go downstairs to talk and kill time until Dominic and John came onstage.

We went to the floor downstairs, which had been turned into a dealer’s room and where various actors from different sci-fi shows were signing pictures and talking with fans.  There weren't very many vendors.  Since the Paramount crackdown on unapproved merchandise, the pickings were very slim indeed.  The signing tables were in the middle. 

We saw Nichelle Nichols hawking her new book; she looked very elegant and classy. Manu Intiraymi (Icheb) was there late in the day, the fellow who played Nog, the woman who played the Romulan Captain in TOS, Byron from B5, the main guest star from Fortunate Son, and some other people.  We didn't ask prices from the vendors-wanted to avoid temptation.  Laughing Muse and I went to a table to talk while my hubby, the kids and Shawk with her friends went to look at the merchandise. I noticed that very few fans were dressed up. Usually it was TNG costumes and I saw one ENT uniform.

We went upstairs to check out who was in the theater where all the guests would be.  First up were Eugene (Rod) Roddenberry and his dog, Orion.  He told some stories about how Gene was dad to him and not “The Great Bird of the Galaxy.”  He showed some TNG season 1 bloopers.  We also saw the producer of "Independence Day" along with an actor from his new movie, “Eight Legged Freaks,”  about giant alien spiders attacking Earth. The actor was extremely funny!  He paused rather pornographically for pictures, he imitated Patrick Stewart, and was just clever in general.

Finally the hour was upon us.  Dominic and John came onstage together, Dominic got as far as “Hello San Fran” - and nearly every flash bulb in the place went off simultaneously. Dominic and John went to their chairs and started talking.  They were very funny, played nicely off of each other, and seemed to enjoy messing with each others' heads.  Fan questions were generally sane. They looked very touched that the fans really like them. 

Dominic described the April Fool's joke they pulled on Scott Bakula. They found out that he had done a soft drink commercial when he was a lot younger, so they had the prop dept. make up bottles with the name-can't remember if it was 7-Up or Ginger Ale-and placed them around the bridge. When Scott went on the set of the bridge, they cued the music and he just cracked up. 

John had not so much funny stories as funny comments  and was quick with the quips.  When they started out their presentation, John said, "If he gets more questions than I do, I'm going to be really peeved. It happens every time we appear together..." Then he pointedly scooted his chair a few inches away from Dominic's. Someone asked about Malcolm being the first gay character. Dominic said dryly, "There's always one..." and proceeded to - again - tell the story of him reading that bit in TV Guide.  After that John answered with, "Well I'm trisexual!" He said that he had been in Braga's office and next to Phlox's name the word "trisexual" was circled with question marks.

Dominic brought up the subject of marshmallow Peeps. He told the story of seeing some Klingons crossing the street at another con and remarked to those in the car with him, “Those are my peeps,” then said how some of the people who post to his message board took the idea and ran with it - so now at every convention he gets little boxes of Peeps which, he says, he finds “quite tasty, actually.” John was asked to talk more about Book-It, and Dominic was asked if he had a favorite historical period. Dominic mentioned how his university studies had, essentially, taught him how to learn; and John dryly commented, “Oh yes, the other day on the set he was reading the Peloponnesian War…”

After being asked if their lives had changed significantly, both said they bought a house. John said, "Not together!" and scooted his chair away from Dominic. That brought big laughs.  Two young women asked Dominic if Jolene was going to “change.”  He looked out into the audience and told them to come up on the stage so that they could “change” him.  They ran up and hugged and kissed him, posing for photos.  One of them even licked his face!  He was so surprised, as were we all!  That was hilarious!

When the guys were walking off stage I saw Dominic pat John on the back in a friendly way, so I really think they are friends, maybe even good friends and what we saw on stage is natural, not staged or rehearsed.

After the show, we went to get their autographs. $20 for an autograph ticket. I could only afford one, so I got Dominic’s. He was very personable, laughed at the item I gave him to sign (the Peeps one) and even bent over the table to get a picture together!