sent from: Los Angeles, California, USA. destination: Los Angeles, California, USA

In the late 1990s when Star Trek Voyager was still on the air, I would occasionally take a day off work and go visit fellow fan Erin at Paramount Studios where she worked. We would take a buggy and with the air of being on official business we would scoot around outside the soundstages. 

We glimpsed a few actors catching a break, smoking a cigarette in uniform. Tim Russ, a few Borg, all hanging out in the unforgiving LA sun, the classic soundstage stroll past people in varied costumes that has been a cliche of many movies and tv shows. When the main doors to the stages were opened I’d see the names of the sets – ‘Klingon Bridge’, on the rear wooden walls that obscured any view of the actual thing, but somehow allowed me say to my father the next time we spoke – I saw the Klingon Bridge! 

When we went to the Star Trek London convention last month, I had to decide which Captain to get an autograph from. It was a careful balance of cost, timing, opportunity, and personal engagement. I went with Kate Mulgrew. Maria had the idea of having Kate sign the card to Erin and to present it to her as a gift on Thanksgiving, as we would be spending it together. Perfect, I said. 

So, here it is. Happy Thanksgiving Erin 🙂