Collectormania Con Report - Saturday (Part 2)
Part 2 of my report on Saturday at Collectormania. Once again very pic-heavy and I'm happy for people to snurch the pics as long as you please don't remove the credit tag on them. Thanks.
Saturday - Part 2
We ended up camping out, sitting on the floor alongside the partition and folks were comparing autographs and pictures and stories about previous cons etc and it was a great atmosphere. As the time for the ENT talk began to wind up, we struggled back to our feet and had a peek or two around the partition to see what was happening…
and someone suddenly pointed out that David Nykl was loitering at the back of the talk area, watching the talk for a moment:
Finally the ENT talk ended and the folks in the talk area filed out and we hung around by the entrance as Jason arrived and both he and David headed up to the stage… and still we hung around, for no discernable reason, until JCB marched over and badgered the stewards into letting us in (the one occasion all weekend where I had any favourable thoughts towards the woman! :lol:) and we surged past the poor steward in a flurry of thrust-forward tickets and tried to dash madly for the best seats without making it look to Jason and David like we were dashing madly for the best seats! :D
I snagged a great seat on the aisle of the third row back (first couple are reserved for staff and folks with special needs) where I had a great view for photos. David and Jason were hovering around on stage, with JCB harassing Sparks over by the tech desk, as people continued to file into the room and then Jason jumped down off the stage and headed down the aisle past me, announcing that he was going to the bathroom. Shortly after that, JCB took it upon herself to announce the talk, stepping up on stage with a mic and starting her intro, only to find Jason missing! She asked where he was and then explained to the audience that if Jason’s missing he will always be in one of three places - he’s either gone to get something to eat, gone to get something to drink, or gone to the bathroom. As she said this, Jason’s voice called out from the back of the room “This time I did all three” and he came striding back up to the stage.
So JCB officially announced the SGA talk and, to thunderous applause, we were underway!
David and Jason started off sitting down but within moments, after taking his jacket off, David suggested they should stand up and they came to the front of the stage and kinda posed for people to take photos of them before returning to the table and kicking off the talk proper.
The following are from memory, not verbatim and also probably not in the right order, snippets of what went on in the talk:
David explained that Jason was on drugs because he had a cold, clarifying “legal, over the counter drugs!”
They asked where we were up to in the UK and we replied that we’d just seen Tabula Rasa this week and Missing would air next on Tuesday. They were a little surprised that we are only a week or so behind the US and said we’ve seen more of the episodes than they themselves have!
Jason teased David for actually knowing the names of the different episodes etc!
They talked about Missing and David asked if Jason had seen Missing and he said no and joked dismissively that it was a girls episode and he wasn’t interested. Boring! :D He said the girls had to work really hard on that episode and were out on location in the forest and doing stunts and walking over rope bridges etc and they were working really long days and were exhausted… and that he and Joe would come in for like half a day to film their scenes. They spent their time surfing in LA and then turned up for work (Jason mimed like stretching and all relaxed etc) the girls would be exhausted and jealous of them and he was like, “Well, you wanted a chick episode and you got one. Enjoy!” with a big grin! :D
David asked Jason if he’d read the script for Missing, other than his own scenes, and he grinned, “Nope!” :D
Someone mentioned that to get the proper effect of Zelenka and Ronon, David should wear Jason’s glasses. So they went ahead and did it with David trying on Jason’s glasses:
and Jason commenting that he couldn’t see a thing now, that he was blind as a bat without his glasses.
Jason talked about his decision to remove the dreads, about how they were very heavy, weighing 6.5lb-7lb (and about 15lb wet) and that he was getting headaches etc because of it and it was getting to be a real problem when doing stunts, that he was getting whiplash and straining his neck from the weight of the dreads swinging around. He also said it took him a while to readjust his centre of balance once the dreads were taken out, that with all that weight suddenly gone he kept tilting too far forward and nearly headbutting things! :D
He talked also about his idea for Ronon losing the dreads in Season 5 - that he wants to do an episode where Ronon gets captured and tortured and they shave his head or something.
Someone asked David if he had enjoyed hitting Lorne over the head with a metal bar in Tabula Rasa (I think the person asking the question had gotten a bit confused there!). David was confused and said he didn’t remember doing that! He’d said during filming he’d thought it was kind of odd why Zelenka had a metal bar as a weapon and now people keep saying he hit Lorne with it (nitpicky A/N - it was actually one of Lorne’s men that Zelenka supposedly hit over the head) and he doesn’t remember filming that. He asked if that actually happened in the episode or was just referenced and I shouted out that it was referenced, that Lorne had told Sheppard that Zelenka had hit one of his men over the head with a metal bar.
David explained that the actors never or rarely get to see the finished episodes that we the audience do. They film their scenes out of order and unless they read through the whole script for the episode they don’t know how things fit together and what is referenced in other scenes etc. David said he did read the full script for Tabula Rasa but obviously forgot that line from Lorne! He asked Jason if he’d read the full script and Jason replied, “Nah”. :D
Whilst talking about Tabula Rasa, Jason asked “Don’t I get to shoot Sheppard in that one?” and when people said yes he nodded and said, “Sweet.” I loved that! :D He said he loves getting to do that, and actually said, “That never gets old” (making me wonder if that line in the episode was the writers putting a bit of Jason into the role! :D) and then said there was a guy - and looked around and picked him out of the audience - and said this guy had dared him to shoot Sheppard in every episode! :D
Someone asked David if, given the precedent set by what had happened to Carson, he actually wanted Zelenka to become a regular cast member and, if Zelenka were to be killed off, how would David want to die? David laughed at that and, pretending to be insulted/shocked, asked back, “Well how would you want to die?!” The person asking the question said something about Zelenka should slip in the shower or something mundane, rather than exploding tumours. Jason joined in at that and was quite dismissive of the exploding tumour thing... he said he was gutted when he read the storyline for Sunday, that Paul was a great friend and for the character to be killed off like that read to him like a bad sci-fi cliché. He shook his head and said disbelievingly, “They really dropped the ball on that one.”
David said that he had asked the producers if Zelenka would be a regular character and has been told he won’t be. He joked that he had asked them why not and said that the fans want it!! We all cheered and agreed that we did and David joked, “Well, you know Joe Mallozzi has that blog? Everyone go and post and there and tell him that all the fans want Zelenka to be a regular!” :D
David said that he knows he’s going to be in an episode only when the script gets delivered - and Jason joked that that was usually the weekend before filming!
Some one asked a question about apparently Jason being able to do a Jack Sparrow impersonation and David being able to tap dance and they said it was true and demonstrated, with Jason sitting at the table and doing an (alleged) Jack Sparrow impersonation and David moving to the end of the table and doing a quick tap dance! David wasn’t too impressed with Jason’s impersonation and said he just sounded drunk and Jason said, “Exactly!” :lol:
Someone asked about David’s lines in Czech and whether he gets the lines in the script in Czech. He explained that he gets the script in English and will translate any lines into Czech or it will just say in brackets [Zelenka swears in Czech] and he can say what he wants. He said that he had worked recently with Goran Visnij and they had talked about that and there was one episode of ER where Goran’s character had to swear in Croat and he just cut loose in Croat, swearing etc. Apparently, he later got a call from the Croatian TV station saying they can’t transmit that episode over there because of what he says in that scene! David said that he’s never had a call from Czech TV about what Zelenka says... :)
He also explained that he was born in Prague but grew up in Canada, and that he is fluent in Czech and speaks Czech at home. The person asking the question made some comment that it was weird for people, like her, who hadn’t realised that the Czech accent wasn’t his natural one, to hear him talking with a different accent and David joked that he did actually have a Czech accent and he puts on the Canadian accent. :D
Someone asked David about a role he had done for an episode of Psych where he played the organiser of a sci-fi convention. David laughed and said, “Ironically”. :) He talked about how in that role his character got to introduce George Takei onto the stage at the convention and so he thought at least he’d get to meet George which was cool. But no. He never met him. They filmed on totally different days - he filmed his scenes introducing George and the next day George filmed his scenes. So despite how it looks on the screen, they were never actually there together. David explained that it is often like that on Stargate Atlantis too - that when you have scenes where you are saying your lines to someone off-camera etc they are often not actually there and you just have someone feeding you the lines and you are acting on your own. Jason chimed in and joked that it’s like that when you’re working with Flanigan - that Joe’s off in his trailer and you’re there acting against nothing. :D
Part way through the talk David got up from the table, preferring to stand and move around as he talked - and joked to Jason, “No. it’s okay. You stay there.”
Someone asked what it was like to walk through the stargate and David jumped up and said we’ll show you, you step through the ring and then… nothing! Nothing happens! :D
Someone asked Jason about doing the stunts and fight scenes and asked which fight scene had been the toughest to do. He said the scene in Reunion had been the toughest, that it had been a lot of work. He said they’d had about 8 hours of rehearsals for that fight scene. He said it was amazing working with Mark Dacascos, that it was a real thrill and a privilege. He said that Mark can jump up and kick someone in chest with both legs out straight and land on feet again, twisting round in his chair to show us what he meant.
Someone asked Jason if Ronon gets together with Keller. Jason at first seemed to say that he couldn’t say and that you’d have to watch the show but then seemed to say that no, they didn’t. He asked if the person asking the question wanted Ronon and Keller to get together and they said yes, they thought it would be cool to see Ronon get together with Keller. Jason grinned naughtily and said he’d been hoping they would too but sadly it’s not gonna happen.
Someone asked David something about how important he thought science was to the show and he pondered the question for a moment and then went and stood in front of where Jason was sat at the desk, trying to block him from view and saying that science is by far the most important part of the show. Jason stood up and grabbed him from behind to try and move him out of the way and they were both laughing and messing about.
Someone asked about Jason’s new tattoo on his arm and he explained that it is his family design and that there are people in Hawaii that trace and record the family design etc and he said the name of the design and that his family used to hunt birds in the forest, or something like that? And that’s what the design means.
He said there was another tattoo on his leg which he unfortunately couldn’t show us (cue much groaning from the audience!) which is his family history or something. David asked why he couldn’t show us and Jason said because it goes across his leg and goes across towards… and kinda waved his hand towards *ahem* you know where. David asked him which bit of his family history goes across that way and Jason deadpanned right back, “a big part”!! :lol:
Jason claimed David had a tattoo of a squirrel just there (in the *ahem* area) and mimed an angry squirrel! :lol:
And David joked something about having a tattoo of the long history of his family… and that this long history was tattooed all in one place! I’m not sure anyone else actually picked up on that little risqué joke as I think they were too busy laughing at Jason’s squirrel impersonation! :D
Someone asked a question about how Stargate has always combined religious mythology with science etc and David gave a wonderful, long answer about human nature and how we hold on to both faith and science that sadly I can’t recall in anywhere near enough detail to explain here. Jason just sat and listened and let him talk and at the end said he was going to let David answer all the questions cos he was incredible! :)
Someone asked Jason who would win a fight, an astronaut or a caveman. Jason seemed a bit confused (I think he was a bit out of it with his cold, poor boy!) and didn’t get what they meant by astronaut so David explained spaceman and Jason said he was gonna say caveman cos he was kind of a caveman so... :D
Sparks tried to say that we were out of time but David insisted on one last question, no, two last questions, one from each side! :lol: And Sparks kinda had to give in, saying as long as they were quick. One of the last two questions was “Why are all alien women hot?” to which Jason replied with a grin, “Why not?” :D
And that was about it - the guys posed for a couple more pictures and then were out of there, to huge applause.
I left the talk area at a sprint and headed straight over to the photo area to queue for my photo with Craig Charles and Chris Barrie. I ended up pretty near the end of the queue and spent the next short while slowly shuffling my way closer to the photo area, a step or two at a time, until I rounded the corner and could see folks having their photos taken. Craig Charles, being an utter loon, was putting his head on the shoulder of every person having their photo taken, the men included, and on one memorable occasion with a rather well-endowed lady he put his head on her shoulder, looked down and said, “Now there’s a cleavage you could ski down!” :lol:
When it got to my turn I walked up and Craig looked at my t-shirt and, as I stood myself between them, said, “Secret spy from the FBI!” :D So we smiled for the camera and I got Craig’s head on my shoulder but the photographer wasn’t happy with the first picture and asked us to stay there and then went for a second shot - and this time around I was vaguely aware out of my peripheral vision of Craig doing something that seemed to involve puckering up his lips. The photographer was happy with the second shot and I thanked them both and the left the room giggling.
So that was me pretty much done for the day as far as needing to be in a certain place at a certain time and I decided to explore the rest of the show - I took a few more photos of the other guests as they were signing and some of the random Star Wars characters mooching around and then I went and methodically checked out the dealers’ stands, aisle by aisle.
I wasn’t really looking to buy anything - and there wasn’t much that appealed in any case - but I was taken with the idea of getting an SGA t-shirt if I could find one I liked. At P2 the sole t-shirt dealer had only had 1 design of SGA t-shirt (at an SGA con!!) and had sold out of every size but small(!) and it’d be nice to have an SGA shirt… so I found a good stall that had 3 SGA designs and I went for the mid-season design that had a nice picture of the cast (from the Season 3 promo pics) on it and splashed out £20… with a plan already formulating in my brain to wear it on Sunday, when I would be having my official pic with Jason!
After purchasing my t-shirt I wandered back over to the signing area where I once again met up with chayiana and basically hung around and took more photos and pondered the dilemma of whether to get Jason’s autograph… my dilemma was that my sister and arctic_penguin were coming with me to the con on Sunday and Anna was planning to get Jason’s autograph… so really I should wait and go up with her to get his autograph… but I really, really wanted to get one now! :lol: And… to be honest, I wanted to get his signature today and tomorrow and I was trying to be good and resist and only get one and so I should get that one on the Sunday but he was right there right now and there was no queue and what should I doooo… and so I gave in and went to get his autograph (knowing full well that I would almost certainly give in and go up again with Anna on Sunday anyway! :D). While I had been standing around, Jason had been coming and going from the desk and had actually gotten one of the orange crew t-shirts and gone along the row of autograph desks and gotten the other guests to sign it and had in fact put the t-shirt on over his own top and was wandering around in it.
So I went and handed over my vouchers to the lovely lady at the desk and picked out a yummy season 4 promo shot, complete with the new tattoo and went up to get it signed. He said hi and we chatted very briefly (for some reason I was more nervous about talking to Jason than I was with Joe Flanigan… possibly because he’s just do impossibly cool that I feel like a babbling, frumpish fool and like I shouldn’t take up too much of his time and should get out of there! :lol: Possibly also because scary JCB was hanging round a lot and I found her intimidating and didn’t want to incur her wrath/scorn for taking up her actors’ time) and I asked him if I could have a photo taken with him. He was happy to do so and stood up and leaned over the table but sadly I had no idea what to do with myself and just kind of leaned forward next to him with my arms behind my back (cos I didn’t know where to put them!) and so my photo looks horrible! *le sigh* Ah well.
As he sat back down and I thanked him I asked him how long it took to do his tattoo on his arm and he told me 8 hours! Wow. I said the longest tattoo I’d had done took about 40 minutes! :lol: His friend Ethan was sitting nearby and some more fans were coming up behind me for autographs so I grabbed my stuff and moved aside and ended up chatting for a minute with Ethan about tattoos!
By then it was time to go and check out whether my photos from the Red Dwarf photo shoot were available yet… and they were! The cool thing about the photos at Collectormania is that you get a copy of every shot, even the ones that didn’t work or the photographer wasn’t happy with. So I got two pictures… and found out what Craig had been doing in the second one! :lol:
I headed back to Jason’s desk area and caught up with chayiana, fififolle and with_apostrophe again and snapped a few more pics… including David Nykl wandering round in his crew t-shirt!
with_apostrophe was heading off to catch the train so we bid her a fond farewell and before too long I decided to head out too and drive home. I made a quick pit-stop at the organisers’ desk to buy a photo ticket for Peter Davidson for my friend Josie for the Sunday, lost chayiana in the crowds and headed off to the car, clutching my photos.
And then I done went home, ate dinner, downloaded photos, recharged camera batteries, went to bed and got up again the next morning to do it all over again…
More to follow...
Saturday - Part 2
We ended up camping out, sitting on the floor alongside the partition and folks were comparing autographs and pictures and stories about previous cons etc and it was a great atmosphere. As the time for the ENT talk began to wind up, we struggled back to our feet and had a peek or two around the partition to see what was happening…
and someone suddenly pointed out that David Nykl was loitering at the back of the talk area, watching the talk for a moment:
Finally the ENT talk ended and the folks in the talk area filed out and we hung around by the entrance as Jason arrived and both he and David headed up to the stage… and still we hung around, for no discernable reason, until JCB marched over and badgered the stewards into letting us in (the one occasion all weekend where I had any favourable thoughts towards the woman! :lol:) and we surged past the poor steward in a flurry of thrust-forward tickets and tried to dash madly for the best seats without making it look to Jason and David like we were dashing madly for the best seats! :D
I snagged a great seat on the aisle of the third row back (first couple are reserved for staff and folks with special needs) where I had a great view for photos. David and Jason were hovering around on stage, with JCB harassing Sparks over by the tech desk, as people continued to file into the room and then Jason jumped down off the stage and headed down the aisle past me, announcing that he was going to the bathroom. Shortly after that, JCB took it upon herself to announce the talk, stepping up on stage with a mic and starting her intro, only to find Jason missing! She asked where he was and then explained to the audience that if Jason’s missing he will always be in one of three places - he’s either gone to get something to eat, gone to get something to drink, or gone to the bathroom. As she said this, Jason’s voice called out from the back of the room “This time I did all three” and he came striding back up to the stage.
So JCB officially announced the SGA talk and, to thunderous applause, we were underway!
David and Jason started off sitting down but within moments, after taking his jacket off, David suggested they should stand up and they came to the front of the stage and kinda posed for people to take photos of them before returning to the table and kicking off the talk proper.
The following are from memory, not verbatim and also probably not in the right order, snippets of what went on in the talk:
David explained that Jason was on drugs because he had a cold, clarifying “legal, over the counter drugs!”
They asked where we were up to in the UK and we replied that we’d just seen Tabula Rasa this week and Missing would air next on Tuesday. They were a little surprised that we are only a week or so behind the US and said we’ve seen more of the episodes than they themselves have!
Jason teased David for actually knowing the names of the different episodes etc!
They talked about Missing and David asked if Jason had seen Missing and he said no and joked dismissively that it was a girls episode and he wasn’t interested. Boring! :D He said the girls had to work really hard on that episode and were out on location in the forest and doing stunts and walking over rope bridges etc and they were working really long days and were exhausted… and that he and Joe would come in for like half a day to film their scenes. They spent their time surfing in LA and then turned up for work (Jason mimed like stretching and all relaxed etc) the girls would be exhausted and jealous of them and he was like, “Well, you wanted a chick episode and you got one. Enjoy!” with a big grin! :D
David asked Jason if he’d read the script for Missing, other than his own scenes, and he grinned, “Nope!” :D
Someone mentioned that to get the proper effect of Zelenka and Ronon, David should wear Jason’s glasses. So they went ahead and did it with David trying on Jason’s glasses:
and Jason commenting that he couldn’t see a thing now, that he was blind as a bat without his glasses.
Jason talked about his decision to remove the dreads, about how they were very heavy, weighing 6.5lb-7lb (and about 15lb wet) and that he was getting headaches etc because of it and it was getting to be a real problem when doing stunts, that he was getting whiplash and straining his neck from the weight of the dreads swinging around. He also said it took him a while to readjust his centre of balance once the dreads were taken out, that with all that weight suddenly gone he kept tilting too far forward and nearly headbutting things! :D
He talked also about his idea for Ronon losing the dreads in Season 5 - that he wants to do an episode where Ronon gets captured and tortured and they shave his head or something.
Someone asked David if he had enjoyed hitting Lorne over the head with a metal bar in Tabula Rasa (I think the person asking the question had gotten a bit confused there!). David was confused and said he didn’t remember doing that! He’d said during filming he’d thought it was kind of odd why Zelenka had a metal bar as a weapon and now people keep saying he hit Lorne with it (nitpicky A/N - it was actually one of Lorne’s men that Zelenka supposedly hit over the head) and he doesn’t remember filming that. He asked if that actually happened in the episode or was just referenced and I shouted out that it was referenced, that Lorne had told Sheppard that Zelenka had hit one of his men over the head with a metal bar.
David explained that the actors never or rarely get to see the finished episodes that we the audience do. They film their scenes out of order and unless they read through the whole script for the episode they don’t know how things fit together and what is referenced in other scenes etc. David said he did read the full script for Tabula Rasa but obviously forgot that line from Lorne! He asked Jason if he’d read the full script and Jason replied, “Nah”. :D
Whilst talking about Tabula Rasa, Jason asked “Don’t I get to shoot Sheppard in that one?” and when people said yes he nodded and said, “Sweet.” I loved that! :D He said he loves getting to do that, and actually said, “That never gets old” (making me wonder if that line in the episode was the writers putting a bit of Jason into the role! :D) and then said there was a guy - and looked around and picked him out of the audience - and said this guy had dared him to shoot Sheppard in every episode! :D
Someone asked David if, given the precedent set by what had happened to Carson, he actually wanted Zelenka to become a regular cast member and, if Zelenka were to be killed off, how would David want to die? David laughed at that and, pretending to be insulted/shocked, asked back, “Well how would you want to die?!” The person asking the question said something about Zelenka should slip in the shower or something mundane, rather than exploding tumours. Jason joined in at that and was quite dismissive of the exploding tumour thing... he said he was gutted when he read the storyline for Sunday, that Paul was a great friend and for the character to be killed off like that read to him like a bad sci-fi cliché. He shook his head and said disbelievingly, “They really dropped the ball on that one.”
David said that he had asked the producers if Zelenka would be a regular character and has been told he won’t be. He joked that he had asked them why not and said that the fans want it!! We all cheered and agreed that we did and David joked, “Well, you know Joe Mallozzi has that blog? Everyone go and post and there and tell him that all the fans want Zelenka to be a regular!” :D
David said that he knows he’s going to be in an episode only when the script gets delivered - and Jason joked that that was usually the weekend before filming!
Some one asked a question about apparently Jason being able to do a Jack Sparrow impersonation and David being able to tap dance and they said it was true and demonstrated, with Jason sitting at the table and doing an (alleged) Jack Sparrow impersonation and David moving to the end of the table and doing a quick tap dance! David wasn’t too impressed with Jason’s impersonation and said he just sounded drunk and Jason said, “Exactly!” :lol:
Someone asked about David’s lines in Czech and whether he gets the lines in the script in Czech. He explained that he gets the script in English and will translate any lines into Czech or it will just say in brackets [Zelenka swears in Czech] and he can say what he wants. He said that he had worked recently with Goran Visnij and they had talked about that and there was one episode of ER where Goran’s character had to swear in Croat and he just cut loose in Croat, swearing etc. Apparently, he later got a call from the Croatian TV station saying they can’t transmit that episode over there because of what he says in that scene! David said that he’s never had a call from Czech TV about what Zelenka says... :)
He also explained that he was born in Prague but grew up in Canada, and that he is fluent in Czech and speaks Czech at home. The person asking the question made some comment that it was weird for people, like her, who hadn’t realised that the Czech accent wasn’t his natural one, to hear him talking with a different accent and David joked that he did actually have a Czech accent and he puts on the Canadian accent. :D
Someone asked David about a role he had done for an episode of Psych where he played the organiser of a sci-fi convention. David laughed and said, “Ironically”. :) He talked about how in that role his character got to introduce George Takei onto the stage at the convention and so he thought at least he’d get to meet George which was cool. But no. He never met him. They filmed on totally different days - he filmed his scenes introducing George and the next day George filmed his scenes. So despite how it looks on the screen, they were never actually there together. David explained that it is often like that on Stargate Atlantis too - that when you have scenes where you are saying your lines to someone off-camera etc they are often not actually there and you just have someone feeding you the lines and you are acting on your own. Jason chimed in and joked that it’s like that when you’re working with Flanigan - that Joe’s off in his trailer and you’re there acting against nothing. :D
Part way through the talk David got up from the table, preferring to stand and move around as he talked - and joked to Jason, “No. it’s okay. You stay there.”
Someone asked what it was like to walk through the stargate and David jumped up and said we’ll show you, you step through the ring and then… nothing! Nothing happens! :D
Someone asked Jason about doing the stunts and fight scenes and asked which fight scene had been the toughest to do. He said the scene in Reunion had been the toughest, that it had been a lot of work. He said they’d had about 8 hours of rehearsals for that fight scene. He said it was amazing working with Mark Dacascos, that it was a real thrill and a privilege. He said that Mark can jump up and kick someone in chest with both legs out straight and land on feet again, twisting round in his chair to show us what he meant.
Someone asked Jason if Ronon gets together with Keller. Jason at first seemed to say that he couldn’t say and that you’d have to watch the show but then seemed to say that no, they didn’t. He asked if the person asking the question wanted Ronon and Keller to get together and they said yes, they thought it would be cool to see Ronon get together with Keller. Jason grinned naughtily and said he’d been hoping they would too but sadly it’s not gonna happen.
Someone asked David something about how important he thought science was to the show and he pondered the question for a moment and then went and stood in front of where Jason was sat at the desk, trying to block him from view and saying that science is by far the most important part of the show. Jason stood up and grabbed him from behind to try and move him out of the way and they were both laughing and messing about.
Someone asked about Jason’s new tattoo on his arm and he explained that it is his family design and that there are people in Hawaii that trace and record the family design etc and he said the name of the design and that his family used to hunt birds in the forest, or something like that? And that’s what the design means.
He said there was another tattoo on his leg which he unfortunately couldn’t show us (cue much groaning from the audience!) which is his family history or something. David asked why he couldn’t show us and Jason said because it goes across his leg and goes across towards… and kinda waved his hand towards *ahem* you know where. David asked him which bit of his family history goes across that way and Jason deadpanned right back, “a big part”!! :lol:
Jason claimed David had a tattoo of a squirrel just there (in the *ahem* area) and mimed an angry squirrel! :lol:
And David joked something about having a tattoo of the long history of his family… and that this long history was tattooed all in one place! I’m not sure anyone else actually picked up on that little risqué joke as I think they were too busy laughing at Jason’s squirrel impersonation! :D
Someone asked a question about how Stargate has always combined religious mythology with science etc and David gave a wonderful, long answer about human nature and how we hold on to both faith and science that sadly I can’t recall in anywhere near enough detail to explain here. Jason just sat and listened and let him talk and at the end said he was going to let David answer all the questions cos he was incredible! :)
Someone asked Jason who would win a fight, an astronaut or a caveman. Jason seemed a bit confused (I think he was a bit out of it with his cold, poor boy!) and didn’t get what they meant by astronaut so David explained spaceman and Jason said he was gonna say caveman cos he was kind of a caveman so... :D
Sparks tried to say that we were out of time but David insisted on one last question, no, two last questions, one from each side! :lol: And Sparks kinda had to give in, saying as long as they were quick. One of the last two questions was “Why are all alien women hot?” to which Jason replied with a grin, “Why not?” :D
And that was about it - the guys posed for a couple more pictures and then were out of there, to huge applause.
I left the talk area at a sprint and headed straight over to the photo area to queue for my photo with Craig Charles and Chris Barrie. I ended up pretty near the end of the queue and spent the next short while slowly shuffling my way closer to the photo area, a step or two at a time, until I rounded the corner and could see folks having their photos taken. Craig Charles, being an utter loon, was putting his head on the shoulder of every person having their photo taken, the men included, and on one memorable occasion with a rather well-endowed lady he put his head on her shoulder, looked down and said, “Now there’s a cleavage you could ski down!” :lol:
When it got to my turn I walked up and Craig looked at my t-shirt and, as I stood myself between them, said, “Secret spy from the FBI!” :D So we smiled for the camera and I got Craig’s head on my shoulder but the photographer wasn’t happy with the first picture and asked us to stay there and then went for a second shot - and this time around I was vaguely aware out of my peripheral vision of Craig doing something that seemed to involve puckering up his lips. The photographer was happy with the second shot and I thanked them both and the left the room giggling.
So that was me pretty much done for the day as far as needing to be in a certain place at a certain time and I decided to explore the rest of the show - I took a few more photos of the other guests as they were signing and some of the random Star Wars characters mooching around and then I went and methodically checked out the dealers’ stands, aisle by aisle.
I wasn’t really looking to buy anything - and there wasn’t much that appealed in any case - but I was taken with the idea of getting an SGA t-shirt if I could find one I liked. At P2 the sole t-shirt dealer had only had 1 design of SGA t-shirt (at an SGA con!!) and had sold out of every size but small(!) and it’d be nice to have an SGA shirt… so I found a good stall that had 3 SGA designs and I went for the mid-season design that had a nice picture of the cast (from the Season 3 promo pics) on it and splashed out £20… with a plan already formulating in my brain to wear it on Sunday, when I would be having my official pic with Jason!
After purchasing my t-shirt I wandered back over to the signing area where I once again met up with chayiana and basically hung around and took more photos and pondered the dilemma of whether to get Jason’s autograph… my dilemma was that my sister and arctic_penguin were coming with me to the con on Sunday and Anna was planning to get Jason’s autograph… so really I should wait and go up with her to get his autograph… but I really, really wanted to get one now! :lol: And… to be honest, I wanted to get his signature today and tomorrow and I was trying to be good and resist and only get one and so I should get that one on the Sunday but he was right there right now and there was no queue and what should I doooo… and so I gave in and went to get his autograph (knowing full well that I would almost certainly give in and go up again with Anna on Sunday anyway! :D). While I had been standing around, Jason had been coming and going from the desk and had actually gotten one of the orange crew t-shirts and gone along the row of autograph desks and gotten the other guests to sign it and had in fact put the t-shirt on over his own top and was wandering around in it.
So I went and handed over my vouchers to the lovely lady at the desk and picked out a yummy season 4 promo shot, complete with the new tattoo and went up to get it signed. He said hi and we chatted very briefly (for some reason I was more nervous about talking to Jason than I was with Joe Flanigan… possibly because he’s just do impossibly cool that I feel like a babbling, frumpish fool and like I shouldn’t take up too much of his time and should get out of there! :lol: Possibly also because scary JCB was hanging round a lot and I found her intimidating and didn’t want to incur her wrath/scorn for taking up her actors’ time) and I asked him if I could have a photo taken with him. He was happy to do so and stood up and leaned over the table but sadly I had no idea what to do with myself and just kind of leaned forward next to him with my arms behind my back (cos I didn’t know where to put them!) and so my photo looks horrible! *le sigh* Ah well.
As he sat back down and I thanked him I asked him how long it took to do his tattoo on his arm and he told me 8 hours! Wow. I said the longest tattoo I’d had done took about 40 minutes! :lol: His friend Ethan was sitting nearby and some more fans were coming up behind me for autographs so I grabbed my stuff and moved aside and ended up chatting for a minute with Ethan about tattoos!
By then it was time to go and check out whether my photos from the Red Dwarf photo shoot were available yet… and they were! The cool thing about the photos at Collectormania is that you get a copy of every shot, even the ones that didn’t work or the photographer wasn’t happy with. So I got two pictures… and found out what Craig had been doing in the second one! :lol:
I headed back to Jason’s desk area and caught up with chayiana, fififolle and with_apostrophe again and snapped a few more pics… including David Nykl wandering round in his crew t-shirt!
with_apostrophe was heading off to catch the train so we bid her a fond farewell and before too long I decided to head out too and drive home. I made a quick pit-stop at the organisers’ desk to buy a photo ticket for Peter Davidson for my friend Josie for the Sunday, lost chayiana in the crowds and headed off to the car, clutching my photos.
And then I done went home, ate dinner, downloaded photos, recharged camera batteries, went to bed and got up again the next morning to do it all over again…
More to follow...