Dragon*Con 2007 Saturday: The day of EEEEEEEEEEEE!
1:00 - Claudia Black
There was a BSG panel at 11:30 on Saturday, and I had half-joked about skipping it to get in line three hours early for Claudia Black's solo panel, feeling vaguely stalkery while doing so. Okay, not vaguely. But asta77, heading into the BSG panel at 11:30, called to warn me that people were already lining up, so it wasn't just me; I immediately booked it over to the Hyatt to spend a rewarding hour and a half in line with some fun people (I'm only being half-sarcastic; waiting in line was something of a theme for the weekend, and I really did enjoy hanging with the other people I was waiting with). They switched rooms with the Lone Gunmen panel to put Claudia in a bigger room (one that I'd estimate held at least 2000 people), and it was full. Sadly, Claudia was half an hour late to the hour-long panel; something about not being able to find parking, which I don't quite understand given that they'd surely have drivers for the actors, but then again I have no idea when she got in or where she was coming from. Even more sadly, Julie Caitlin Brown was managing Claudia Black's con appearance, as well as those of the other big Stargate actors, and she has something of a reputation as a raging bitch queen who runs these things as a combination drill line/money pump, which I did not see any evidence to contradict; she said no to extending the panel 15 minutes past its end time to make up for the late start.
Above: the evil Julie Caitlin Brown introduces Claudia Black. This is a crappy picture but the only one I have where Claudia is really smiling full tilt.
But the half hour we did get was 100% pure gold. Claudia Black is impossibly beautiful-I actually don't think the camera does her justice-and was rocking the maternity wear, and has a wonderfully lively and expressive face; in that, I think she's much closer to Vala than Aeryn, who is so still and reserved. (Although to some extent, the actors at cons are "on," playing themselves; it's another form of performance, and not necessarily a reflection of what they're like at home alone.) She also comes across as very genuine and warm, and was an extremely good panelist, articulate and engaging and funny, having back-and-forth conversations with the people who were asking questions and using the questions as a launching point for long stories but always coming back to answer them in the end.
She launched immediately into the story of why she was at the con: she and her husband have bought a house. This is a big adjustment for her, after years of living like a gypsy to follow roles, and apparently neither she nor her husband have what you would call traditional credit history, but her financial adviser thought it would be a good investment (she joked about firing him). She asked for a show of hands of people who have done home renovations; theirs apparently has gone completely off the rails (as they do; man, could I sympathize) and Dragon*Con is financing her new toilet seats, among other things. This explained a lot to me, since she's a notoriously private person, and also in her condition it had to have been a seriously exhausting weekend for her. She joked about how airplane trips and electrical storms are both supposed to bring on labor, and how she'd been thinking about that while flying into Atlanta in a thunderstorm. Her first child was born a week early, while she was at a friend's wedding; she'd flown to it (apparently in Australia you can fly right up to a week before your due date). She wants a home birth for her second child, but joked that it was more likely to occur in the Home Depot lumber aisle, the way the renovations were going. She seemed very energized and positive about childbirth, and actually recommended a book on it to sdwolfpup on Sunday when she got her autograph. She also talked at one point about how conventions like Dragon*Con were about more than shows, and were also a way for people who loved the same things to meet up with each other.
After that introductory monologue, she took questions. She was asked about what it was like to go from being a leading lady on the Farscape set to a guest on Stargate, and talked about her guest spot on "Prometheus Unbound." Apparently, she was standing in a hall, waiting to do some kind of rehearsal or line read, when Michael Shanks walked by; she tried to introduce herself to him but he blew by her and she was like, "Oh, he's one of those." It turned out that Shanks had for whatever reason not even seen her, and later felt horrible for looking like he was blowing her off. But once they did finally meet, she approached him about what she could do to help him bring out aspects of Daniel's character that maybe he hadn't had a chance to play with much on the show before, and asked what she could do to help him, and he was really grateful for that. (Later the same day, Shanks told essentially the same story in the Stargate panel, almost word-for-word, which was awesome.) She said it's a very different experience being a regular on the show, preoccupied with the daily grind but familiar with it, and coming in as a guest, and that they'd always tried to make guest actors comfortable on Farscape--she thought they'd had some really wonderful ones-and that she looked on being a guest actor as trying to figure out what she could do to make the show better for the regulars. She thought Vala really did give Shanks a chance to play with different aspects of Daniel, because she was such a different character for the show-she really appreciated the amount of fun she got to have with Vala, and thought her stint on "Prometheus Unbound" had left a good opening for her to return and add something different to the show. She also talked about how Farscape was a pretty chaotic production and Stargate--especially after such a long run-had a much more calm routine going, but that the whole production was very set in the military aspect of the show and characters by the time she got there and she had to constantly remind people that Vala wouldn't just sit there, Vala would be up and moving around and doing other things because she wasn't military. (The way she said this made it clear that it wasn't lack of imagination on the Stargate production people's parts so much as long-ingrained habit.)
The next questioner mentioned that she'd just watched Farscape for the first time recently, and had seen the show in about two weeks, and that it was now her favorite show. Claudia indicated that that had had to have been an intense experience (no kidding!) and asked her why she'd started watching it. The questioner said a friend had gotten her into it, and asked Claudia for a memorable experience from the filming. Claudia talked about filming on sand dunes, driving around in dune buggies; she didn't mention plot points or episode titles but it was clear that she was talking about filming "Infinite Possibilities." Location shoots were expensive, so there was always a sense that they were special, and this one, with the insane schedule and all of the action sequences and the driving sequences, left her with an incredible sense of freedom and a feeling that she was a part of something really amazing, even when she was off peeing in sand dunes while Quantas Flight whatever came in low overhead, since where they were filming was on the approach path to the airport. (It was really interesting to hear her glowing memories of the filming, since it contrasts so much with my emotional associations with those episodes, which are all dark and tragic.) She said that while actors often talk about doing their own stunts, on Farscape, they didn't have a huge budget, so she and Ben really did do a lot of their own stunts, including a lot of the driving around while shooting things in those episodes. They did have stunt doubles, though, and apparently they were a couple, which Claudia thought was sweet.
The next question was about her voice work, and, indicating her belly, Claudia mentioned that she'd been doing a lot of voice work lately because it was the ideal work for her right now. cofax7 yesterday asked me if she'd mentioned upcoming projects, and I completely spaced the voice stuff: she just recorded parts for an audiobook of George R.R. Martin's work (I'm unclear if it was a collection of short stories or something else, but it was apparently three books?). I believe this was the point where sdwolfpup's head exploded. :) She didn't have a chance to read the material before the recording sessions in most cases, so the names were tricky (she made a joke about sci fi names and apostrophes), but was impressed by the story (or stories) as she read, and really enjoyed doing the work.
And that was pretty much it, since she ran out of time. I cannot adequately describe in words how riveting she is; the charisma a lot of these actors have is almost a physical presence. But the results were clear, since a bunch of us who have otherwise had no interest in collecting autographs immediately went and bought Claudia Black autograph tickets. *facepalm* We were helping her buy toilet seats! Honestly, it does make sense. Really.
... It's a good thing she's not using her powers for evil. I should be embarrassed by how gushy I'm being, but honestly, I'm beyond shame. After the panel, we all turned to each other and made noises that only dogs and bats could hear. She was even more impressive in person than she is on screen, and that's saying a lot.
Plus, she has magic hair. She was messing with it pretty continuously while she talked and it looked perfect no matter what.
5:30 -- Stargate megapanel
[Panelists: Louis Gossett Jr., Alexis Cruz, Vanessa Angel, Christopher Judge, Michael Shanks, Lexa Doig, Jason Momoa, Paul McGillion, Corin Nemec, and some guy who is apparently connected to the show, and has done some extra parts, through his work on Late Night with Conan O'Brien?]
I am again doing all of this from memory; I think I've sorted out what happened on what day for the Stargate panels, but it's quite possible I've mixed what happened on what day up in some cases.
Because we were standing in line for Claudia Black autograph tickets, we did not get in line early for the Saturday Stargate panel (ARE YOU SENSING A THEME?), plus at some point I had to acquire lunch and other people went to other panels. As a result, when we did get in line at 5:15, the line went down the hall, out the door, down one side of the building, around the corner, around another corner, and around a third corner, effectively wrapping half a city block. But we did happen to be standing right where they unloaded two minivans full of actors on the curb and brought them through a side door into the building, so we got a pretty close view of Christopher Judge, Jason Momoa, Michael Shanks, and Lexa Doig. So pretty! And, as you can see from the fact that all of my decent pictures from this panel are of the screen, that's as close as we got, since by the time we got into the ballroom we were sitting approximately 12 miles from the stage.
The Stargate Atlanta moderator kicked the panel off by making me want to sink under my chair and die on behalf of sane fans everywhere. This has become something of an annual tradition. I give great credit to the organization for running a successful track, especially since this is only their second year, and they have good charity drives, and I can't even imagine how much volunteer work putting together the con track is; and I do like the way the moderator gets the panels going by asking the panelists some silly but conversation-starting questions (what did you have for breakfast, etc.). Nevertheless. The Stargate panels are the only ones I've ever attended at Dragon*Con where one of the track organizers sits with the guests throughout the panel and makes herself part of it, and also the only one I've ever seen where the track organization gives wildly inappropriate gifts to the panelists, and also the only one I've seen where alcohol is provided to the panelists. Now I don't really give a rat's ass if the actors have a couple of beers while sharing stories, but I can't help but to feel like making sure the actors have a good time and like Stargate Atlanta has become somewhat more of a focus than actually running a good panel. This time, she promised to hand them commemorative booklets that included "short stories" that had won some kind of contest Stargate Atlanta had run before the con. In other words, they were giving the actors fanfic. WONDERFUL. It's bad enough when somebody in the audience asks a fanfic-related question; it is totally beyond the bounds, in my opinion, for the PANEL MODERATOR to be pushing it in the actors' faces, especially when they're basically stuck there and have to nod and smile politely. We the fans have a very different relationship with the characters than the actors do; it is the height of arrogance and entitlement to push our relationships with the characters onto the actors. So watching the actors nod and smile through that little introduction, and the exhortations to come mix it up with the fans in the Stargate con suite, was a little painful. Boundaries, people!
So the moderator asked them all what they had for breakfast, and then asked them all what they would cook and serve to a guest. Most of the answers were fairly generic, but I do remember Alexis Cruz saying he likes cooking and wanting to make stuffed peppers, and Christopher Judge giving an answer that involved champagne and strawberries and made me sit up in my chair and go, "Oh my god, Christopher Judge is Smoove B!"
And speaking of boundaries, it wasn't as if the moderator was the only person who made me want to sink under my chair and die on the behalf of sane fans everywhere, because the very first audience question (at least that I recall) was from some crazy woman who asked Jason Momoa and Paul McGillion if they would welcome the opportunity to kill off Sam Carter on Atlantis this season. Oh yes, she did go there. The actors all looked absolutely flabbergasted by the thought; Shanks and Judge looked fairly affronted, I thought; and the audience booed pretty aggressively. They were all basically like, "What the hell are you talking about?" And then Paul McGillion took the opportunity to remind everybody that his character is dead anyway, which pulled the panel back on track, I thought.
The moderator also asked Christopher Judge what I thought was a good question about the fact that he is so very much not Teal'c; he is a very vivid (I'd even say exhausting, in anything but small doses) personality, while Teal'c is so stoic and quiet. Michael Shanks jumped in at that point to assert that that was all, at least in the first five seasons, due to botox and hangovers. Christopher Judge told a story about being horribly hung over for the show's first table read and actually thinking Michael Shanks was James Spader, before he heard him talk, and thinking to himself that he hadn't asked for enough money.
Above: Michael Shanks explains about the botox and hangovers.
Paul McGillion was asked about working with David Hewlett; I guess David Hewlett has made a film called A Dog's Breakfast that both McGillion and Judge are in. McGillion joked, either here or at another point, about worrying he'd be the most annoying guy on the SGA cast until realizing that that wasn't possible because of Hewlett. He told this very hilarious story about filming scenes for A Dog's Breakfast where he and Hewlett spent a lot of time in the mud, and he was wearing women's clothes, and Hewlett was looking up at him from the mud at one point so he asked him, "This is going to be funny, right?" and Hewlett said, "God, I hope so." He then preempted a question he seems to get a lot by leaning into the microphone and saying, "He's not a very good kisser," and complaining about Hewlett's breath. Heh. They did actually show a two-minute or so promo clip of A Dog's Breakfast and it looked pretty funny, but I believe that happened during the Sunday panel.
Someone asked a question about the fact that everybody in the Stargate verse speaks very convenient English. Alexis Cruz joked that he kept up the accent longer than anyone else, eventually realizing it was futile. Lexa Doig burst out with "Babelfish!" but then admitted to not having any idea what that meant. Shanks said he thought the unspoken preamble to any given episode would be Daniel spending 19 days on a planet learning the language, but that the show had just bypassed all of that because it wasn't interesting to see and they wanted to move straight to the drama.
There were several questions about various guest spots the actors had done, including Lexa Doig and Michael Shanks both having upcoming appearances on different episodes of Eureka. Shanks said Lexa had filmed her episode the week before he filmed his, and when he was on the set, all they could do was talk about her, and then he did the upper half of a soft-shoe routine to mime attempting to get attention, and it was pretty cute. Shanks didn't think his character would be back, but Lexa thought there might be a possibility to see hers again.
I believe it was in the context of guest spots, rather than a question specifically about Claudia Black, that Michael Shanks basically told the exact same story she had earlier in her panel about how they'd met when she did her guest spot on "Prometheus Unbound," that he'd mistakenly blown her off in the hallway and had gone up later to introduce himself to make up for it, and about how she'd asked him what she could do to help him, and how rare that was and how grateful he'd been for it.
Louis Gossett Jr. really surprised me, though I'm not sure why; it probably had more to do with my expectations than anything. I think I was surprised to begin with that he was at Dragon*Con. I also hadn't thought much of either Gerak as a character or of his performance (although admittedly some of that might have had to do with the general lameness of the Jaffa/Ori subplot in Season 9). But he was engaging and enthusiastic; he was having a great time at the con, seemed to get a kick out of the fans, and spoke glowingly of his experience on the show and the rest of the cast.
Jason Momoa was pretty quiet, almost shy-acting, and extremely wry. Corin Nemec also didn't say a whole lot in this panel, though when he did he was very well-spoken. He was asked again about gaining weight for the Jonas role (apparently this had been a question from Friday's panel). He was indeed much skinnier, and apparently that's his natural state.
Above: Corin Nemec is seriously one skinny dude.
I think it was at this panel that someone asked Vanessa Angel about Anise's interest in Daniel; she corrected the questioner to point out that Anise had been interested in Jack, while Freya had been interested in Daniel. She joked about her terrible costume, saying that Christopher Judge had taken to calling her 8 of 10. After that, Christopher Judge made a crack about Jack and Daniel's special relationship.
The last question (I think) was from some guy with an agenda who asked about the portrayal of religion on Stargate and what the show was saying about gods being false. It was pretty cringey. Alexis Cruz fielded it with an amazing amount of grace and articulateness, saying that it wasn't really about religion but rather about politics, and the means people would use to gain power over other people; it was an impressive way to turn around what could have been a really awkward situation.
* * * * *
We had a nice but extremely slow dinner at an Italian restaurant Saturday night with suenix before attempting to party like cool people. (Uh, cool people who met each other on the Internet and were now hanging out at a giant science fiction and fantasy convention. Yes. That kind of cool people.) However, in what was developing into a downright pattern, the Hyatt was being periodically closed off by the fire marshal, and the official parties all had lines to get in and weren't admitting more once the rooms hit capacity. asta77 wasn't able to get into the Colonial Day party even though she went over earlier than we did; we dropped by the Shindig, but there wasn't much happening. So instead, thanks to sdwolfpup's evil influence, we fortified ourself with alcohol and watched the pilot episode of Dante's Cove, a show so awful that contemplating the number of people who had to agree to each and every terrible decision in the entire production, indeed to think they were actually good ideas, leads to an out-of-body experience. (Later, at 2am with the lights out, sdwolfpup and I came to agree that the only explanation for this trainwreck is that it is being made by people who otherwise work in the porn industry and are excited as hell to be working on "legitimate" television, but whose conception of acting, character development, and dialogue does in fact derive from porn. Plus Tracy Scoggins, who does not have that excuse, but who is hopefully at least cashing a decent paycheck in exchange for a huge chunk of soul and all of her professional reputation.)
Oh "Kevin."
Up next: more standing in line, more Stargate and BSG, more fangirling Claudia Black. But not until after I've gotten back to San Francisco; I'm flying home tomorrow (today?).
There was a BSG panel at 11:30 on Saturday, and I had half-joked about skipping it to get in line three hours early for Claudia Black's solo panel, feeling vaguely stalkery while doing so. Okay, not vaguely. But asta77, heading into the BSG panel at 11:30, called to warn me that people were already lining up, so it wasn't just me; I immediately booked it over to the Hyatt to spend a rewarding hour and a half in line with some fun people (I'm only being half-sarcastic; waiting in line was something of a theme for the weekend, and I really did enjoy hanging with the other people I was waiting with). They switched rooms with the Lone Gunmen panel to put Claudia in a bigger room (one that I'd estimate held at least 2000 people), and it was full. Sadly, Claudia was half an hour late to the hour-long panel; something about not being able to find parking, which I don't quite understand given that they'd surely have drivers for the actors, but then again I have no idea when she got in or where she was coming from. Even more sadly, Julie Caitlin Brown was managing Claudia Black's con appearance, as well as those of the other big Stargate actors, and she has something of a reputation as a raging bitch queen who runs these things as a combination drill line/money pump, which I did not see any evidence to contradict; she said no to extending the panel 15 minutes past its end time to make up for the late start.
Above: the evil Julie Caitlin Brown introduces Claudia Black. This is a crappy picture but the only one I have where Claudia is really smiling full tilt.
But the half hour we did get was 100% pure gold. Claudia Black is impossibly beautiful-I actually don't think the camera does her justice-and was rocking the maternity wear, and has a wonderfully lively and expressive face; in that, I think she's much closer to Vala than Aeryn, who is so still and reserved. (Although to some extent, the actors at cons are "on," playing themselves; it's another form of performance, and not necessarily a reflection of what they're like at home alone.) She also comes across as very genuine and warm, and was an extremely good panelist, articulate and engaging and funny, having back-and-forth conversations with the people who were asking questions and using the questions as a launching point for long stories but always coming back to answer them in the end.
She launched immediately into the story of why she was at the con: she and her husband have bought a house. This is a big adjustment for her, after years of living like a gypsy to follow roles, and apparently neither she nor her husband have what you would call traditional credit history, but her financial adviser thought it would be a good investment (she joked about firing him). She asked for a show of hands of people who have done home renovations; theirs apparently has gone completely off the rails (as they do; man, could I sympathize) and Dragon*Con is financing her new toilet seats, among other things. This explained a lot to me, since she's a notoriously private person, and also in her condition it had to have been a seriously exhausting weekend for her. She joked about how airplane trips and electrical storms are both supposed to bring on labor, and how she'd been thinking about that while flying into Atlanta in a thunderstorm. Her first child was born a week early, while she was at a friend's wedding; she'd flown to it (apparently in Australia you can fly right up to a week before your due date). She wants a home birth for her second child, but joked that it was more likely to occur in the Home Depot lumber aisle, the way the renovations were going. She seemed very energized and positive about childbirth, and actually recommended a book on it to sdwolfpup on Sunday when she got her autograph. She also talked at one point about how conventions like Dragon*Con were about more than shows, and were also a way for people who loved the same things to meet up with each other.
After that introductory monologue, she took questions. She was asked about what it was like to go from being a leading lady on the Farscape set to a guest on Stargate, and talked about her guest spot on "Prometheus Unbound." Apparently, she was standing in a hall, waiting to do some kind of rehearsal or line read, when Michael Shanks walked by; she tried to introduce herself to him but he blew by her and she was like, "Oh, he's one of those." It turned out that Shanks had for whatever reason not even seen her, and later felt horrible for looking like he was blowing her off. But once they did finally meet, she approached him about what she could do to help him bring out aspects of Daniel's character that maybe he hadn't had a chance to play with much on the show before, and asked what she could do to help him, and he was really grateful for that. (Later the same day, Shanks told essentially the same story in the Stargate panel, almost word-for-word, which was awesome.) She said it's a very different experience being a regular on the show, preoccupied with the daily grind but familiar with it, and coming in as a guest, and that they'd always tried to make guest actors comfortable on Farscape--she thought they'd had some really wonderful ones-and that she looked on being a guest actor as trying to figure out what she could do to make the show better for the regulars. She thought Vala really did give Shanks a chance to play with different aspects of Daniel, because she was such a different character for the show-she really appreciated the amount of fun she got to have with Vala, and thought her stint on "Prometheus Unbound" had left a good opening for her to return and add something different to the show. She also talked about how Farscape was a pretty chaotic production and Stargate--especially after such a long run-had a much more calm routine going, but that the whole production was very set in the military aspect of the show and characters by the time she got there and she had to constantly remind people that Vala wouldn't just sit there, Vala would be up and moving around and doing other things because she wasn't military. (The way she said this made it clear that it wasn't lack of imagination on the Stargate production people's parts so much as long-ingrained habit.)
The next questioner mentioned that she'd just watched Farscape for the first time recently, and had seen the show in about two weeks, and that it was now her favorite show. Claudia indicated that that had had to have been an intense experience (no kidding!) and asked her why she'd started watching it. The questioner said a friend had gotten her into it, and asked Claudia for a memorable experience from the filming. Claudia talked about filming on sand dunes, driving around in dune buggies; she didn't mention plot points or episode titles but it was clear that she was talking about filming "Infinite Possibilities." Location shoots were expensive, so there was always a sense that they were special, and this one, with the insane schedule and all of the action sequences and the driving sequences, left her with an incredible sense of freedom and a feeling that she was a part of something really amazing, even when she was off peeing in sand dunes while Quantas Flight whatever came in low overhead, since where they were filming was on the approach path to the airport. (It was really interesting to hear her glowing memories of the filming, since it contrasts so much with my emotional associations with those episodes, which are all dark and tragic.) She said that while actors often talk about doing their own stunts, on Farscape, they didn't have a huge budget, so she and Ben really did do a lot of their own stunts, including a lot of the driving around while shooting things in those episodes. They did have stunt doubles, though, and apparently they were a couple, which Claudia thought was sweet.
The next question was about her voice work, and, indicating her belly, Claudia mentioned that she'd been doing a lot of voice work lately because it was the ideal work for her right now. cofax7 yesterday asked me if she'd mentioned upcoming projects, and I completely spaced the voice stuff: she just recorded parts for an audiobook of George R.R. Martin's work (I'm unclear if it was a collection of short stories or something else, but it was apparently three books?). I believe this was the point where sdwolfpup's head exploded. :) She didn't have a chance to read the material before the recording sessions in most cases, so the names were tricky (she made a joke about sci fi names and apostrophes), but was impressed by the story (or stories) as she read, and really enjoyed doing the work.
And that was pretty much it, since she ran out of time. I cannot adequately describe in words how riveting she is; the charisma a lot of these actors have is almost a physical presence. But the results were clear, since a bunch of us who have otherwise had no interest in collecting autographs immediately went and bought Claudia Black autograph tickets. *facepalm* We were helping her buy toilet seats! Honestly, it does make sense. Really.
... It's a good thing she's not using her powers for evil. I should be embarrassed by how gushy I'm being, but honestly, I'm beyond shame. After the panel, we all turned to each other and made noises that only dogs and bats could hear. She was even more impressive in person than she is on screen, and that's saying a lot.
Plus, she has magic hair. She was messing with it pretty continuously while she talked and it looked perfect no matter what.
5:30 -- Stargate megapanel
[Panelists: Louis Gossett Jr., Alexis Cruz, Vanessa Angel, Christopher Judge, Michael Shanks, Lexa Doig, Jason Momoa, Paul McGillion, Corin Nemec, and some guy who is apparently connected to the show, and has done some extra parts, through his work on Late Night with Conan O'Brien?]
I am again doing all of this from memory; I think I've sorted out what happened on what day for the Stargate panels, but it's quite possible I've mixed what happened on what day up in some cases.
Because we were standing in line for Claudia Black autograph tickets, we did not get in line early for the Saturday Stargate panel (ARE YOU SENSING A THEME?), plus at some point I had to acquire lunch and other people went to other panels. As a result, when we did get in line at 5:15, the line went down the hall, out the door, down one side of the building, around the corner, around another corner, and around a third corner, effectively wrapping half a city block. But we did happen to be standing right where they unloaded two minivans full of actors on the curb and brought them through a side door into the building, so we got a pretty close view of Christopher Judge, Jason Momoa, Michael Shanks, and Lexa Doig. So pretty! And, as you can see from the fact that all of my decent pictures from this panel are of the screen, that's as close as we got, since by the time we got into the ballroom we were sitting approximately 12 miles from the stage.
The Stargate Atlanta moderator kicked the panel off by making me want to sink under my chair and die on behalf of sane fans everywhere. This has become something of an annual tradition. I give great credit to the organization for running a successful track, especially since this is only their second year, and they have good charity drives, and I can't even imagine how much volunteer work putting together the con track is; and I do like the way the moderator gets the panels going by asking the panelists some silly but conversation-starting questions (what did you have for breakfast, etc.). Nevertheless. The Stargate panels are the only ones I've ever attended at Dragon*Con where one of the track organizers sits with the guests throughout the panel and makes herself part of it, and also the only one I've ever seen where the track organization gives wildly inappropriate gifts to the panelists, and also the only one I've seen where alcohol is provided to the panelists. Now I don't really give a rat's ass if the actors have a couple of beers while sharing stories, but I can't help but to feel like making sure the actors have a good time and like Stargate Atlanta has become somewhat more of a focus than actually running a good panel. This time, she promised to hand them commemorative booklets that included "short stories" that had won some kind of contest Stargate Atlanta had run before the con. In other words, they were giving the actors fanfic. WONDERFUL. It's bad enough when somebody in the audience asks a fanfic-related question; it is totally beyond the bounds, in my opinion, for the PANEL MODERATOR to be pushing it in the actors' faces, especially when they're basically stuck there and have to nod and smile politely. We the fans have a very different relationship with the characters than the actors do; it is the height of arrogance and entitlement to push our relationships with the characters onto the actors. So watching the actors nod and smile through that little introduction, and the exhortations to come mix it up with the fans in the Stargate con suite, was a little painful. Boundaries, people!
So the moderator asked them all what they had for breakfast, and then asked them all what they would cook and serve to a guest. Most of the answers were fairly generic, but I do remember Alexis Cruz saying he likes cooking and wanting to make stuffed peppers, and Christopher Judge giving an answer that involved champagne and strawberries and made me sit up in my chair and go, "Oh my god, Christopher Judge is Smoove B!"
And speaking of boundaries, it wasn't as if the moderator was the only person who made me want to sink under my chair and die on the behalf of sane fans everywhere, because the very first audience question (at least that I recall) was from some crazy woman who asked Jason Momoa and Paul McGillion if they would welcome the opportunity to kill off Sam Carter on Atlantis this season. Oh yes, she did go there. The actors all looked absolutely flabbergasted by the thought; Shanks and Judge looked fairly affronted, I thought; and the audience booed pretty aggressively. They were all basically like, "What the hell are you talking about?" And then Paul McGillion took the opportunity to remind everybody that his character is dead anyway, which pulled the panel back on track, I thought.
The moderator also asked Christopher Judge what I thought was a good question about the fact that he is so very much not Teal'c; he is a very vivid (I'd even say exhausting, in anything but small doses) personality, while Teal'c is so stoic and quiet. Michael Shanks jumped in at that point to assert that that was all, at least in the first five seasons, due to botox and hangovers. Christopher Judge told a story about being horribly hung over for the show's first table read and actually thinking Michael Shanks was James Spader, before he heard him talk, and thinking to himself that he hadn't asked for enough money.
Above: Michael Shanks explains about the botox and hangovers.
Paul McGillion was asked about working with David Hewlett; I guess David Hewlett has made a film called A Dog's Breakfast that both McGillion and Judge are in. McGillion joked, either here or at another point, about worrying he'd be the most annoying guy on the SGA cast until realizing that that wasn't possible because of Hewlett. He told this very hilarious story about filming scenes for A Dog's Breakfast where he and Hewlett spent a lot of time in the mud, and he was wearing women's clothes, and Hewlett was looking up at him from the mud at one point so he asked him, "This is going to be funny, right?" and Hewlett said, "God, I hope so." He then preempted a question he seems to get a lot by leaning into the microphone and saying, "He's not a very good kisser," and complaining about Hewlett's breath. Heh. They did actually show a two-minute or so promo clip of A Dog's Breakfast and it looked pretty funny, but I believe that happened during the Sunday panel.
Someone asked a question about the fact that everybody in the Stargate verse speaks very convenient English. Alexis Cruz joked that he kept up the accent longer than anyone else, eventually realizing it was futile. Lexa Doig burst out with "Babelfish!" but then admitted to not having any idea what that meant. Shanks said he thought the unspoken preamble to any given episode would be Daniel spending 19 days on a planet learning the language, but that the show had just bypassed all of that because it wasn't interesting to see and they wanted to move straight to the drama.
There were several questions about various guest spots the actors had done, including Lexa Doig and Michael Shanks both having upcoming appearances on different episodes of Eureka. Shanks said Lexa had filmed her episode the week before he filmed his, and when he was on the set, all they could do was talk about her, and then he did the upper half of a soft-shoe routine to mime attempting to get attention, and it was pretty cute. Shanks didn't think his character would be back, but Lexa thought there might be a possibility to see hers again.
I believe it was in the context of guest spots, rather than a question specifically about Claudia Black, that Michael Shanks basically told the exact same story she had earlier in her panel about how they'd met when she did her guest spot on "Prometheus Unbound," that he'd mistakenly blown her off in the hallway and had gone up later to introduce himself to make up for it, and about how she'd asked him what she could do to help him, and how rare that was and how grateful he'd been for it.
Louis Gossett Jr. really surprised me, though I'm not sure why; it probably had more to do with my expectations than anything. I think I was surprised to begin with that he was at Dragon*Con. I also hadn't thought much of either Gerak as a character or of his performance (although admittedly some of that might have had to do with the general lameness of the Jaffa/Ori subplot in Season 9). But he was engaging and enthusiastic; he was having a great time at the con, seemed to get a kick out of the fans, and spoke glowingly of his experience on the show and the rest of the cast.
Jason Momoa was pretty quiet, almost shy-acting, and extremely wry. Corin Nemec also didn't say a whole lot in this panel, though when he did he was very well-spoken. He was asked again about gaining weight for the Jonas role (apparently this had been a question from Friday's panel). He was indeed much skinnier, and apparently that's his natural state.
Above: Corin Nemec is seriously one skinny dude.
I think it was at this panel that someone asked Vanessa Angel about Anise's interest in Daniel; she corrected the questioner to point out that Anise had been interested in Jack, while Freya had been interested in Daniel. She joked about her terrible costume, saying that Christopher Judge had taken to calling her 8 of 10. After that, Christopher Judge made a crack about Jack and Daniel's special relationship.
The last question (I think) was from some guy with an agenda who asked about the portrayal of religion on Stargate and what the show was saying about gods being false. It was pretty cringey. Alexis Cruz fielded it with an amazing amount of grace and articulateness, saying that it wasn't really about religion but rather about politics, and the means people would use to gain power over other people; it was an impressive way to turn around what could have been a really awkward situation.
* * * * *
We had a nice but extremely slow dinner at an Italian restaurant Saturday night with suenix before attempting to party like cool people. (Uh, cool people who met each other on the Internet and were now hanging out at a giant science fiction and fantasy convention. Yes. That kind of cool people.) However, in what was developing into a downright pattern, the Hyatt was being periodically closed off by the fire marshal, and the official parties all had lines to get in and weren't admitting more once the rooms hit capacity. asta77 wasn't able to get into the Colonial Day party even though she went over earlier than we did; we dropped by the Shindig, but there wasn't much happening. So instead, thanks to sdwolfpup's evil influence, we fortified ourself with alcohol and watched the pilot episode of Dante's Cove, a show so awful that contemplating the number of people who had to agree to each and every terrible decision in the entire production, indeed to think they were actually good ideas, leads to an out-of-body experience. (Later, at 2am with the lights out, sdwolfpup and I came to agree that the only explanation for this trainwreck is that it is being made by people who otherwise work in the porn industry and are excited as hell to be working on "legitimate" television, but whose conception of acting, character development, and dialogue does in fact derive from porn. Plus Tracy Scoggins, who does not have that excuse, but who is hopefully at least cashing a decent paycheck in exchange for a huge chunk of soul and all of her professional reputation.)
Oh "Kevin."
Up next: more standing in line, more Stargate and BSG, more fangirling Claudia Black. But not until after I've gotten back to San Francisco; I'm flying home tomorrow (today?).