Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: in 2019 my wife Anne and I attended our very first Dragon Con in Atlanta, Georgia. As one of the longest-running science fiction conventions in America, Dragon Con had received rave reviews from our internet friends over the past two decades, some of whom recommended it to us more than once and, according to my notes, would never shut up about it. We had so much of a blast that we returned in 2021 even though all 42,000+ attendees were required to wear masks and the celebrity photo ops positioned Plexiglas dividers between us potentially contaminated fans and the presumably vetted stars. Geek thrills persisted nevertheless.

Third time was the charm this Labor Day weekend as we repeated the eight-hour drive from Indianapolis to that amazing colossal southern spectacle. We can’t afford to do Dragon Con every year, but we’ll see how long we can keep up an every-other year schedule before we’re too old or overwhelmed to handle it.

Dragon Con was the fourth convention we’ve attended this year after C2E2, Indiana Comic Con, and the previous month’s Fan Expo Chicago. As usual, one of our top priorities was to collect a new set of photo ops with actors from TV shows and films we’ve enjoyed. In our lead photo, this year’s largest session was with four cast members from the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. You’ll note Christina Chong (who plays Enterprise security chief La’an Noonien-Singh) and Celia Rose Gooding (inheritor of the Uhura mantle) really threw themselves into our jazz-hands request, setting the bar high for their costars Ethan Peck (the new Spock) and Anson Mount (the stylishly coiffed Captain Christopher Pike), who in turn got As for effort and for their TV show.

Friday afternoon, we also made a point of visiting their tables at Dragon Con’s Walk of Fame (what they call their celeb autograph area). Chong and Gooding remained nonstop effervescent. Chong was kind enough to let me gush about her song “How Would That Feel” from the musical episode “Subspace Rhapsody”, a heartbreaking ballad that rather wrecked me. I was compelled to buy the four-song EP she had for sale at her table. Peck was a bit more reserved, but that deep, actorly voice still resonated.

Mindful of the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, Anne approached Mount’s table with the same greeting she’d used with Fan Expo guests: “I really enjoyed your performance in the most recent installment of a long-running sci-fi franchise, the name of which I will not mention!”

Mount’s response was less amused and more exasperated than any of Fan Expo’s Trek actors had been: “Why does everyone keep saying that?” He confirmed fans were welcome to say whatever they wanted to say, freedom of speech and so forth. (Fair enough; they’re the ones on strike, not us. We were simply trying to accommodate, keep them in compliance with union rules, and spark any sort of responses beyond basic two-word pleasantries.) But he resumed normal Space Dad amiability as we switched chitchat gears.

Also on hand this weekend: Paul Bettany! You might remember him from such works as Master and Commander, A Beautiful Mind, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and various chapters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where he began as the voice of Iron Man’s A.I. assistant Jarvis, then was transferred into the sentient android known as the Vision. His gig as co-headliner of the Disney+ miniseries WandaVision even earned him an Emmy nomination for technically playing two different versions of that hero.

Also in the house: Mandip Gill! Best known Stateside as Yaz, the Thirteen Doctor’s constant companion from the three most recent seasons of Doctor Who. We’ve met a few Doctors and Companions at past comic-cons and were excited to add her to the roster.

Anne, a classic-TV fan dating back to childhood and beyond, had the pleasure of meeting Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner, the respective stars of the ’70s quasi-superhero series The Six Million Dollar Man and its spinoff The Bionic Woman. The autograph experience was a tad awkward, with their tables crammed into a Walk of Fame corner next to three Firefly actors’ crowds, but we figured it out.

I was on the fence about whether or not to meet the Claudia Christian. Sure, I remember her from multiple mentions throughout the ’80s and ’90s, but I felt like that’d be flaunting our aforementioned rules because I haven’t finished Babylon 5 yet (I’m halfway through season 3). Ultimately I waived the rule because: (a) she brought books for sale, and I love whenever actors bring books they’ve written to cons; (b) I had extra cash on hand because some other planned expenditures had fallen through (more about that in a future chapter); and (c) Babylon 5 season 3 is really good so far.

We also saw a familiar As-Seen-On-TV face at one of the panels we attended. Our first Friday morning activity was the introductory Q&A for the “Trek Track” — i.e., this year’s series of fan-run panels about various aspects of the Trek universe. The Trek Track would also normally include any actor-related appearances, such as the multiple panels featuring the Strange New Worlds cast. However, because SAG-AFTRA strike rules forbade them from explicitly promoting their show, for 2023 those panels were grouped instead under the “Main Programming” blanket header, where they wouldn’t get in trouble. Their Q&A descriptions in the con program and app also avoided mentioning Trek or any of its shows, instead listing the random topics they’d be discussing completely unrelated to mass media.

In addition to his seven-year gig as TV’s Ensign Harry Kim on Star Trek: Voyager, Garrett Wang has been the director of D*C’s Trek Track since 2010. We met him in 1997 at a tiny Trek con in Lafayette, Indiana, which was my very first Trek-based event and the first time Anne and I ever attended a con together. We reunited with him 22 years later at Dragon Con 2019 and came away with a much happier and clearer photo. This time we were audience members in his Trek Track kickoff, where he and his crew provided some background info about what they do and outlined some of the weekend programming yet to come.

We’ll come back to that panel in a later chapter. Right now I have to go sort the literally thousand other pics we took this weekend.

To be continued! Other chapters in this very special MCC miniseries:

Part 2: Friday Cosplay (The First Half)
Part 3: Friday Cosplay (The Other Half)
Part 4: Saturday Cosplay (Non-Parade Edition)
Part 5: Our Favorite Cosplay Parade Moments
Part 6: Cosplay Parade Presents Barbie and Deadpool
Part 7: Cosplay Parade Vehicles and Riders
Part 8: Cosplay Parade Presents the Walt Disney Family of Companies
Part 9: Cosplay Parade Animation and Gaming
Part 10: Cosplay Parade Teams Sampler Platter
Part 11: Last Call for the Cosplay Parade
Part 12: Three Days of the Con-Doers