DragonCon
Morgon and I have been going to DragonCon together for 4 or 5 years now, and this year was definitely the best ever for me. Partially it was because my friend Dan came into town for the con, and partially it was just because it was a really, really good con this year. Some highlights:
* The B-5 panel was pretty good this year. They had several major cast members (Sheridan, Ivanova, Lockley, Londo, and Vir), which is a step up from "normal" years when they tend to only have some of the minor guys. There were considerably more a year or two ago (forget which year), but they put the panel in such a small room that year that we couldn't get in. This year, it was in one of the big ballrooms, and it was great. Finding out what a geek Tracy Scoggins is was fantastic.
* The Farscape panel. Maybe it's because I wasn't paying attention, but I had NO IDEA that both Ben Browder (Crichton) *AND* Claudia Black (Aeryn) were going to be there this year. So we went into the panel expecting a lot of the minor characters thinking, "yeah, this'll be alright." Then They introduce Claduia Black, and Dan and I are looking at each other and thinking, "awesome!" Then Ben Browder comes out and we're just beyond ourselves. Great panel, too - they're very funny.
* The A-Team panel. Both Murdock and Face were there. This was our very first panel of the con, and we didn't really expect much out of it. But honestly, if it weren't for the other two panels I just listed, I'd be calling it one of my best con panels ever. Those guys had some HILARIOUS stories to tell about working on the A-Team.
* We had dinner on Sunday night at a table right next to Adam Savage of Mythbusters. No, we didn't talk to him (we chose to leave him alone and let him enjoy his dinner), but it was very cool.
One interesting note about all of the celebrities we saw this year: there's been a notable sea change. Once upon a time, some sci-fi celebrities (Shatner in particular, who was there but whom we did not see because we didn't want to wait) were famous for looking down on their fans as losers and whatnot. It was very interesting to note this year how "geeky" a lot of the stars themselves actually were. When fans would ask about details of particular episodes, rather than scoffing at them, they actually knew the answers. Some of them were actually correcting the fans. Upon having Farscape praised as the first show to use invented swear words, Ben Browder actually corrected the fan and informed him that other shows had done it first, including the original Battlestar: Galactica. And the story of the total geek-out question that Tracy Scoggins asked Walter Koenig the first time they worked together... it was priceless. My respect for both her and, oddly, her character on B-5 went way up after that.
A fantastic weekend, all around.
* The B-5 panel was pretty good this year. They had several major cast members (Sheridan, Ivanova, Lockley, Londo, and Vir), which is a step up from "normal" years when they tend to only have some of the minor guys. There were considerably more a year or two ago (forget which year), but they put the panel in such a small room that year that we couldn't get in. This year, it was in one of the big ballrooms, and it was great. Finding out what a geek Tracy Scoggins is was fantastic.
* The Farscape panel. Maybe it's because I wasn't paying attention, but I had NO IDEA that both Ben Browder (Crichton) *AND* Claudia Black (Aeryn) were going to be there this year. So we went into the panel expecting a lot of the minor characters thinking, "yeah, this'll be alright." Then They introduce Claduia Black, and Dan and I are looking at each other and thinking, "awesome!" Then Ben Browder comes out and we're just beyond ourselves. Great panel, too - they're very funny.
* The A-Team panel. Both Murdock and Face were there. This was our very first panel of the con, and we didn't really expect much out of it. But honestly, if it weren't for the other two panels I just listed, I'd be calling it one of my best con panels ever. Those guys had some HILARIOUS stories to tell about working on the A-Team.
* We had dinner on Sunday night at a table right next to Adam Savage of Mythbusters. No, we didn't talk to him (we chose to leave him alone and let him enjoy his dinner), but it was very cool.
One interesting note about all of the celebrities we saw this year: there's been a notable sea change. Once upon a time, some sci-fi celebrities (Shatner in particular, who was there but whom we did not see because we didn't want to wait) were famous for looking down on their fans as losers and whatnot. It was very interesting to note this year how "geeky" a lot of the stars themselves actually were. When fans would ask about details of particular episodes, rather than scoffing at them, they actually knew the answers. Some of them were actually correcting the fans. Upon having Farscape praised as the first show to use invented swear words, Ben Browder actually corrected the fan and informed him that other shows had done it first, including the original Battlestar: Galactica. And the story of the total geek-out question that Tracy Scoggins asked Walter Koenig the first time they worked together... it was priceless. My respect for both her and, oddly, her character on B-5 went way up after that.
A fantastic weekend, all around.