Pegasus One - Part One of Three
So, I went to the Wolf convention Pegasus One February 3-6, and practically a year later here's my report - or at least the first part of three. I'll be linking them all together, putting it all in as one would simply make it too long to pay attention to. Part 2 here and 3 here.
Why so late? It got put off for other responsibilities like essays etc and then I lost my notes after moving house, and moving house again. Finally, I found them and so here is my long overdue report. No pictures to go with it since my camera sucked and couldn't focus on anything further away than the guy/gal sitting in front of me's head.
I've also collected together links to other reports and photos. A masterlist of sorts.
Other Reports/Photos
Beanie's reports ( here and here) and public photo posts (watermarked but pretty to look at) - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
Strivaria's reports - part 1 and part 2.
GateWorld goer's reports - MattG, alfirin-kirinki & mazzmatazz
Other con reports and known photos
http://gambits-rogue.livejournal.com/188079.html
http://neth-dugan.livejournal.com/101318.html (keebler elf explanation in it! Now I know too!)
The Guests ...we had the following:
Joe Flanigan - most people don't need telling who he is, but just in case, it's the man behind John Sheppard. Quite lucky he came since he had to cancel going to the Battlestar Atlantica con the week before and he was in demand at the con for photo ops and signatures, hence very busy.
Rainbow Sun Francks - dually talented actor and musician, who plays Lt. Aiden Ford in SGA. Recently been in new Canadian comedy “This Space for Rent”, and has got a number of albums out (see the website Oddlyenough).
Jason Momoa - the Season Two newcomer that many people were oblivious to given that a lot of the UK fans hadn't seen any of Ronon Dex yet. His first proper con, but he is a con virgin no more; plenty of fan interacting on his part, he got down and danced, did the Haka and generally was really great guest despite the fact he proclaimed he was nervous.
Craig Veroni - the lovely Canadian who's responsible for the British scientist Dr. Peter Grodin, who was sadly killed off at the end of Season One. He's been in a new film “Two for the Money” (official site here).
Ellie Harvie - actor and stand-up comedian, therefore a great guest to have, with all her little tales and sketches to amuse. Lovely lady, hope Novak appears on one of the SG's again because she's just too fun.
Ivy Isenberg - casting director for SG-1 and SGA, as well as Dead Like Me and Jeremiah. Very hyperactive, even early in the morning, hard to imagine what she'd be like if she'd got her coffee...
Also, the extra guest star was....
Aaron Douglas - who's had bit parts in SG-1, I think this is him from Redemption Part 2 and if so I have to laugh slightly at the sleaziness of him as a Jaffa. These days he's better known for his role in the new Battlestar Galatica series, as Chief Petty Office Galen Tyrol.
I'll start with the boring stuff first. Get it over with. A hectic day for me. I had a 9pm seminar only to wake up and blink my sleep away to find the clock read 9.45pm. Cue madly rushing to university with my suitcase... Left Norwich at 1.30pm, 2 hrs travel later and I had fun getting lost at Heathrow Airport looking for the, in hindsight fairly obvious, Hoppa buses to the hotel. Finally got there, joined the long queue at registration, immediately finding someone friendly to chat to while I waited. After that the search for Angie commenced, with a minor detour to peek in the dealers room which wasn't so exciting as I thought it'd be but definitely tempting to spend in massive amounts in with all the DVD's, tshirt's, autographs, pretty pictures etc.
Eventually found Beanie, tarzan and a few others from GateWorld forums and ended up trekking to the nearest eating establishment, i.e. McDonald's. There aren't many alternatives near the Thistle sadly, but it did. After that I still had the slight problem of finding my room with no key nor number, but reception were friendly and helped there. Got my stuff stored away in the room I was sharing with the very fun combination of strivaria, beaniesheppard and gwene.
Anyway, let's talk about the meet and greet - I know it's a tad more exciting than me getting lost in various ways. If you were in the lucky - or shall be say, forward planning since you also get rewarded with paying less for the privilege of buying it upfront along time in advance - first 300 ticket holders then you get to sit in on the meet and greet with the guests. 8pm or around about, you pick your table, plonk yourself down and basically chat amongst yourselves until one by one the guests arrive and start to make their rounds.
I sat at a table along with Angie, her Rodney bear, and quite a few others. There was a fair bit of waiting until the guests arrived, made me wish for a drink since I was nervous and I'm not overly chatting at the best of times. First in was Ellie Harvey, who started off with the Jedi Chef's table. Then we got the gorgeous Craig Veroni starting off at the same end of the room. Big cheers for Joe Flanigans entrance and then there was the surprise guest - probably the best surprise since nobody could possibly have been expecting him at an Atlantis convention - Aaron Douglas, who randomly appeared on stage. One of our group pointed to him and I was thinking “No, that's not...no, it can't be...” but oh yes, it was. Poor Aaron didn't get a great reception though, with half the room seeming uncertain who he was, or oblivious to him being a guest.
Next to arrive was Jason, who completely ran over to Joe and gave him a great big hug and crazy body shake. More cheers kind of spurred his enthusiasm on and he did this one sided hug lift with Joe, as if it was effortless! Jason was like an overexcited puppy, and I really do mean that in the a nice way. So cute and such a cool guy. Then he popped off to get a drink and came back for his official announcement with a round of massive applause. A little while later Rainbow arrived, too - sneaking in with his cap and shades on, looking like a cool cat.
Our table waited pretty long before getting any guests but first up was the amazingly sweet Craig Veroni. He said hi and asked us all where we were from, very personable guy. I had my custom badge on so GW members could identify by username (Purpleyin) and I was pretty shocked when he said he recognised that name. Could just about manage a squeak back of “You do?” I didn't really manage to say much after that but the conversation with him at our table was mainly about how long he was here, how he wanted to see more of London it being his first trip there and all, but was going back on the Monday. He seemed so happy when the woman next to him complimented his British accent on the show, because he'd been worried he'd come to the convention and people would correct him on how to speak; aw!
Next up, and sometime later, was Joe, who I ended up sitting next to somehow after everyone shifted around to accommodate him. He was so nice, saying a very friendly hello and asking where everyone was from, how far they'd travelled to come. And then he looked at my then very blue hair, lifted it up to look at the blueness LOL, and asked how long it took. Not expecting that I can tell you, so I ended up blurting out about an hour (ignoring how long the bleaching had taken, but then who has time for intricacies of hair dying at a convention?). The main thing he asked was how much of Atlantis had aired in the UK, if it was as well known as SG-1 and which was preferred - basically how Atlantis was faring as a show in the UK. Don't ask me how but from there we got to the tongue in cheek matter of how he'd like more hot women on the show, making it like Baywatch in Space. Not too long after the table got onto that topic, Joe got shuffled over to another table by his minder - those who had the duty of poking the guests when their time was up in one place - wishing us goodbye very politely, standing up and taking his pint with him.
Now I'm not a huge Shep fan and Joe as a guest wasn't my main reason for attending Pegasus One, but I found myself mentally squeeing when I ended up with his hand on my shoulder as he was standing up to leave and saying his goodbye. Unexpected fangirling from myself at that, in an “OMG Joe's hand is on my shoulder” moment. I didn't really anticipate getting excited to be so close to the stars of a TV show I watch, more so than the opportunity to listen and even talk to them. About that sort of time I was mostly nodding and grinning and thinking “They're people from on the TV - in the same room as me!” Yes, it's a little pathetic, made me feel silly but it's actually a kind of amazing the experience. You see them on the screen and even when you know you'll be there as well as them, it hitting you is rather different.
The fourth guest at the table was Jason, who was a tour de force. He has a sheer presence, and he's like a big cuddly lion with those dreads of his. He sat down with his drink and said hello to the ladies - then to the guy, since we had one bloke with us - and asked us how much we'd seen of S2 since people at other tables hadn't had a clue who he was, poor thing! He mentioned his con virginity and there was talk of the fact he didn't seem the least bit scared about crowds of fans, which prompted discussion of how women were yet to fling themselves at him, making him jokingly sit back and fling his jacket open with the addition of, “...yet, table 21” wink wink. Jason decided to call one of our table members mom (because she had grey hair and looked motherly according to him), asking her how much she liked Ronon. Once again things turned to touching hair, only this time me and a few others touching Jason's dreads as he let them loose. They're just so solid it felt bizarre to feel them. Of course then time was up once again, Jason whisked away, the steward moving his pint to the next table to get him to follow it.
Another while later came Aaron, quite relaxed, saying hello and explaining come he'd just come along on the spur of the moment because he'd always had fun at con - ready to hop back on a plane if no one recognised him at all, bless. He was another one for asking how much we'd seen and my reply sort of gave away my sources, him playing comedian, doing a whole speaking into his collar mock microphone “Ahhh, we've got a downloader over here. I repeat, a downloader at table 21.” He's a pretty funny guy, even when he was making light of how it wasn't too far away from contract renewing time before filming starting, when he'd possibly get a phone call any day of “Yeah you're back but only for 4 episode” i.e. “We're killing off your character”. Is great to see the character of Tryol is still kicking about on BSG this year.
Then we go Ellie Harvie joining us, who was lovely, bubbly and very friendly - first thing she asked was if her eyeliner was smudged, since she'd been making the rounds for some time and I can only deduce someone had made her laugh so hard she'd cried or the like, quite possible with the Jedi Chef's about I'm thinking. She asked which show we liked best if we HAD to choose one, plus favourite character - McKay being the majority answer. She talked about how her first episode was with Michael (Shanks) and it wasn't hard on the eyes working on the show, Michael batting his long eyelashes all the time. She also mentioned how she loved filming “Critical Mass,” too, and told us a story - complete with sounds- about Torri making dolphins noises when she makes a mistake, not necessarily knowing she's doing it, completely surprising Ellie on her first day on the SGA set. It sounded so cute though, especially getting Ellie's impression including hand flipping up with the noises.
Ellie was simply such a laugh, you could tell like Jason that she give a fantastic talk - both of them were constantly entertaining. After Jason had moved on to the next table, he'd started shedding clothing a bit and ended up doing Maori dance - the Haka - to which Rainbow stood up and pointed to him in a “Dude” sorta way, plus Jason got the whole room going to “Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi” at another point and made lifting up chairs haphazardly with one hand look easy peasy.
Last guest was Rainbow, but by then our already quiet table was, like his jetlagged self, rather weary. We weren't much fun to talk to I don't think, not deflated as we were with it being 10.30 on a long day. He did a little impression of us sitting there all meek, asked us how we were without much reply and he said how he'd have to start this all over again in 60 seconds (how long we had until he moved to the next table, him being told to keep it quick) and wouldn't really get anywhere, or get to know anyone much. It was sad that we hadn't been that enthusiastic with him, I wish I'd at least told him I enjoyed his character, said something supportive. Meh, tiredness got in the way, it sucked but it's hard to be upbeat and cheerful when you're just so tired from travelling and then the waiting around for ages before and between guests - we were one of the last tables he got to, with several of the other guests having finished going around by then. Predictably I wasn't up for the party that night, going for sleep in preparation for the 6.15 rise to queue for our virtual tickets the next day.
Why so late? It got put off for other responsibilities like essays etc and then I lost my notes after moving house, and moving house again. Finally, I found them and so here is my long overdue report. No pictures to go with it since my camera sucked and couldn't focus on anything further away than the guy/gal sitting in front of me's head.
I've also collected together links to other reports and photos. A masterlist of sorts.
Other Reports/Photos
Beanie's reports ( here and here) and public photo posts (watermarked but pretty to look at) - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
Strivaria's reports - part 1 and part 2.
GateWorld goer's reports - MattG, alfirin-kirinki & mazzmatazz
Other con reports and known photos
http://gambits-rogue.livejournal.com/188079.html
http://neth-dugan.livejournal.com/101318.html (keebler elf explanation in it! Now I know too!)
The Guests ...we had the following:
Joe Flanigan - most people don't need telling who he is, but just in case, it's the man behind John Sheppard. Quite lucky he came since he had to cancel going to the Battlestar Atlantica con the week before and he was in demand at the con for photo ops and signatures, hence very busy.
Rainbow Sun Francks - dually talented actor and musician, who plays Lt. Aiden Ford in SGA. Recently been in new Canadian comedy “This Space for Rent”, and has got a number of albums out (see the website Oddlyenough).
Jason Momoa - the Season Two newcomer that many people were oblivious to given that a lot of the UK fans hadn't seen any of Ronon Dex yet. His first proper con, but he is a con virgin no more; plenty of fan interacting on his part, he got down and danced, did the Haka and generally was really great guest despite the fact he proclaimed he was nervous.
Craig Veroni - the lovely Canadian who's responsible for the British scientist Dr. Peter Grodin, who was sadly killed off at the end of Season One. He's been in a new film “Two for the Money” (official site here).
Ellie Harvie - actor and stand-up comedian, therefore a great guest to have, with all her little tales and sketches to amuse. Lovely lady, hope Novak appears on one of the SG's again because she's just too fun.
Ivy Isenberg - casting director for SG-1 and SGA, as well as Dead Like Me and Jeremiah. Very hyperactive, even early in the morning, hard to imagine what she'd be like if she'd got her coffee...
Also, the extra guest star was....
Aaron Douglas - who's had bit parts in SG-1, I think this is him from Redemption Part 2 and if so I have to laugh slightly at the sleaziness of him as a Jaffa. These days he's better known for his role in the new Battlestar Galatica series, as Chief Petty Office Galen Tyrol.
I'll start with the boring stuff first. Get it over with. A hectic day for me. I had a 9pm seminar only to wake up and blink my sleep away to find the clock read 9.45pm. Cue madly rushing to university with my suitcase... Left Norwich at 1.30pm, 2 hrs travel later and I had fun getting lost at Heathrow Airport looking for the, in hindsight fairly obvious, Hoppa buses to the hotel. Finally got there, joined the long queue at registration, immediately finding someone friendly to chat to while I waited. After that the search for Angie commenced, with a minor detour to peek in the dealers room which wasn't so exciting as I thought it'd be but definitely tempting to spend in massive amounts in with all the DVD's, tshirt's, autographs, pretty pictures etc.
Eventually found Beanie, tarzan and a few others from GateWorld forums and ended up trekking to the nearest eating establishment, i.e. McDonald's. There aren't many alternatives near the Thistle sadly, but it did. After that I still had the slight problem of finding my room with no key nor number, but reception were friendly and helped there. Got my stuff stored away in the room I was sharing with the very fun combination of strivaria, beaniesheppard and gwene.
Anyway, let's talk about the meet and greet - I know it's a tad more exciting than me getting lost in various ways. If you were in the lucky - or shall be say, forward planning since you also get rewarded with paying less for the privilege of buying it upfront along time in advance - first 300 ticket holders then you get to sit in on the meet and greet with the guests. 8pm or around about, you pick your table, plonk yourself down and basically chat amongst yourselves until one by one the guests arrive and start to make their rounds.
I sat at a table along with Angie, her Rodney bear, and quite a few others. There was a fair bit of waiting until the guests arrived, made me wish for a drink since I was nervous and I'm not overly chatting at the best of times. First in was Ellie Harvey, who started off with the Jedi Chef's table. Then we got the gorgeous Craig Veroni starting off at the same end of the room. Big cheers for Joe Flanigans entrance and then there was the surprise guest - probably the best surprise since nobody could possibly have been expecting him at an Atlantis convention - Aaron Douglas, who randomly appeared on stage. One of our group pointed to him and I was thinking “No, that's not...no, it can't be...” but oh yes, it was. Poor Aaron didn't get a great reception though, with half the room seeming uncertain who he was, or oblivious to him being a guest.
Next to arrive was Jason, who completely ran over to Joe and gave him a great big hug and crazy body shake. More cheers kind of spurred his enthusiasm on and he did this one sided hug lift with Joe, as if it was effortless! Jason was like an overexcited puppy, and I really do mean that in the a nice way. So cute and such a cool guy. Then he popped off to get a drink and came back for his official announcement with a round of massive applause. A little while later Rainbow arrived, too - sneaking in with his cap and shades on, looking like a cool cat.
Our table waited pretty long before getting any guests but first up was the amazingly sweet Craig Veroni. He said hi and asked us all where we were from, very personable guy. I had my custom badge on so GW members could identify by username (Purpleyin) and I was pretty shocked when he said he recognised that name. Could just about manage a squeak back of “You do?” I didn't really manage to say much after that but the conversation with him at our table was mainly about how long he was here, how he wanted to see more of London it being his first trip there and all, but was going back on the Monday. He seemed so happy when the woman next to him complimented his British accent on the show, because he'd been worried he'd come to the convention and people would correct him on how to speak; aw!
Next up, and sometime later, was Joe, who I ended up sitting next to somehow after everyone shifted around to accommodate him. He was so nice, saying a very friendly hello and asking where everyone was from, how far they'd travelled to come. And then he looked at my then very blue hair, lifted it up to look at the blueness LOL, and asked how long it took. Not expecting that I can tell you, so I ended up blurting out about an hour (ignoring how long the bleaching had taken, but then who has time for intricacies of hair dying at a convention?). The main thing he asked was how much of Atlantis had aired in the UK, if it was as well known as SG-1 and which was preferred - basically how Atlantis was faring as a show in the UK. Don't ask me how but from there we got to the tongue in cheek matter of how he'd like more hot women on the show, making it like Baywatch in Space. Not too long after the table got onto that topic, Joe got shuffled over to another table by his minder - those who had the duty of poking the guests when their time was up in one place - wishing us goodbye very politely, standing up and taking his pint with him.
Now I'm not a huge Shep fan and Joe as a guest wasn't my main reason for attending Pegasus One, but I found myself mentally squeeing when I ended up with his hand on my shoulder as he was standing up to leave and saying his goodbye. Unexpected fangirling from myself at that, in an “OMG Joe's hand is on my shoulder” moment. I didn't really anticipate getting excited to be so close to the stars of a TV show I watch, more so than the opportunity to listen and even talk to them. About that sort of time I was mostly nodding and grinning and thinking “They're people from on the TV - in the same room as me!” Yes, it's a little pathetic, made me feel silly but it's actually a kind of amazing the experience. You see them on the screen and even when you know you'll be there as well as them, it hitting you is rather different.
The fourth guest at the table was Jason, who was a tour de force. He has a sheer presence, and he's like a big cuddly lion with those dreads of his. He sat down with his drink and said hello to the ladies - then to the guy, since we had one bloke with us - and asked us how much we'd seen of S2 since people at other tables hadn't had a clue who he was, poor thing! He mentioned his con virginity and there was talk of the fact he didn't seem the least bit scared about crowds of fans, which prompted discussion of how women were yet to fling themselves at him, making him jokingly sit back and fling his jacket open with the addition of, “...yet, table 21” wink wink. Jason decided to call one of our table members mom (because she had grey hair and looked motherly according to him), asking her how much she liked Ronon. Once again things turned to touching hair, only this time me and a few others touching Jason's dreads as he let them loose. They're just so solid it felt bizarre to feel them. Of course then time was up once again, Jason whisked away, the steward moving his pint to the next table to get him to follow it.
Another while later came Aaron, quite relaxed, saying hello and explaining come he'd just come along on the spur of the moment because he'd always had fun at con - ready to hop back on a plane if no one recognised him at all, bless. He was another one for asking how much we'd seen and my reply sort of gave away my sources, him playing comedian, doing a whole speaking into his collar mock microphone “Ahhh, we've got a downloader over here. I repeat, a downloader at table 21.” He's a pretty funny guy, even when he was making light of how it wasn't too far away from contract renewing time before filming starting, when he'd possibly get a phone call any day of “Yeah you're back but only for 4 episode” i.e. “We're killing off your character”. Is great to see the character of Tryol is still kicking about on BSG this year.
Then we go Ellie Harvie joining us, who was lovely, bubbly and very friendly - first thing she asked was if her eyeliner was smudged, since she'd been making the rounds for some time and I can only deduce someone had made her laugh so hard she'd cried or the like, quite possible with the Jedi Chef's about I'm thinking. She asked which show we liked best if we HAD to choose one, plus favourite character - McKay being the majority answer. She talked about how her first episode was with Michael (Shanks) and it wasn't hard on the eyes working on the show, Michael batting his long eyelashes all the time. She also mentioned how she loved filming “Critical Mass,” too, and told us a story - complete with sounds- about Torri making dolphins noises when she makes a mistake, not necessarily knowing she's doing it, completely surprising Ellie on her first day on the SGA set. It sounded so cute though, especially getting Ellie's impression including hand flipping up with the noises.
Ellie was simply such a laugh, you could tell like Jason that she give a fantastic talk - both of them were constantly entertaining. After Jason had moved on to the next table, he'd started shedding clothing a bit and ended up doing Maori dance - the Haka - to which Rainbow stood up and pointed to him in a “Dude” sorta way, plus Jason got the whole room going to “Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi” at another point and made lifting up chairs haphazardly with one hand look easy peasy.
Last guest was Rainbow, but by then our already quiet table was, like his jetlagged self, rather weary. We weren't much fun to talk to I don't think, not deflated as we were with it being 10.30 on a long day. He did a little impression of us sitting there all meek, asked us how we were without much reply and he said how he'd have to start this all over again in 60 seconds (how long we had until he moved to the next table, him being told to keep it quick) and wouldn't really get anywhere, or get to know anyone much. It was sad that we hadn't been that enthusiastic with him, I wish I'd at least told him I enjoyed his character, said something supportive. Meh, tiredness got in the way, it sucked but it's hard to be upbeat and cheerful when you're just so tired from travelling and then the waiting around for ages before and between guests - we were one of the last tables he got to, with several of the other guests having finished going around by then. Predictably I wasn't up for the party that night, going for sleep in preparation for the 6.15 rise to queue for our virtual tickets the next day.