Today at Emerald City Comic-Con, Star Trek star George Takei took the stage at the Seattle Hyatt Regency hotel to rapturous applause by nearly 2,000 fans. His first words were his iconic signature line of “Oh MYYYYY…” which just upped the geeky happiness of his fans as they applauded even more. The 81 year-old film and TV star spent the next hour regaling the crowd with tales of his new projects and his life as Star Trek character. He also took a very serious turn as he recounted his four childhood years in an internment camp in “exotic” Arkansas during World War Two.

Takei explained that he had just come from Vancouver, B.C., where he was filming the AMC show Terror: Infamy, which is a horror show set in a Japanese-Internment camp during World War Two. Takei commented on the intense cold in Canada this past winter, making reference to his status as a Californian unused to the frigid cold of the north. Takei also mentioned another upcoming project, a graphic novel memoir of his childhood in the internment camps, titled They Called Us Enemy.

During the audience question and answer session, one fan asked about the swordplay in the Star Trek episode The Naked Time, and Takei related the story of how he told Star Trek writer John Black that he knew fencing, and then spent the next two weeks actually learning how to fence (from the fencing master of the old Errol Flynn Robin Hood film.

George Takei also confirmed that his favorite Star Trek movie is Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country, in which, his character, Sulu, has received a promotion to captain, and ends up saving the day (and saving Captain Kirk also).

Perhaps the most poignant and serious moments of the hour came when Takei discussed in detail what it was like for him and for his younger siblings in Los Angeles, when armed soldiers came to take them away, and later on about his life as a child in what to him was an exotic land far to the east: Arkansas. He relates that to the young child that he was at the time, the whole experience was an adventure, and that to him and his siblings, the camp with barbed wire to keep them in was “normal.” When the war ended and they returned to Los Angeles, all of their pre-war home was gone, and they lived in poverty on Skid Row.h

The capacity crowd (the room was declared full via the ECCC phone app about fifteen minutes before Takei took the stage), applauded loudly and laughed at his jokes, but also sat in reverent attention as Takei told his tales of discrimination and internment.

Overall, the crowd of Sulu, George Takei, and Star Trek fans got what they waited for and enjoyed every moment of their idol’s appearance on the stage in Seattle. He is a very well-loved part of their lives. As an aside, George Takei, ever the gentleman, thanked his fans multiple times for their devotion to Star Trek and for his storied career. As he left the stage after thanking the crowd once again, he invoked the Vulcan “Live Long and Prosper” hand gesture and exited stage right.

Thank you Mr. Takei, for an uplifting and educational hour with you!