Galactica Four
I reached Heathrow with minimum incident, the travel rant shall be saved for the end.
I got to the sigh Thistle about 4pm on Friday so there was plenty of time for relaxing and what not before the Meet and Greet, which amazingly did not run the obligatory four hours behind schedule.
We got Callum first. A very cool guy. After the ‘lets kill a couple of minutes with names and where we’re from’ we talked about Californication as he said he’d just finished filming a show in LA and two and two was put together. His recommendation is watch it, it’s dirty. Rick was up next, and given he came in wearing an Iron Man t-shirt, we liked him immediately. The main gist of the conversation I remember is NCIS. *shrugs*. Rick is just a lovely, enthusiastic guy. We chatted to Luciana about London and she was very excited to see all the shows, again, a very nice, sweet, woman. Then it was the party, which we actually stayed at for quite a bit. There was of course, no con dancing from me, but it didn’t take much persuading to get me up for Jump Around and Footloose. Shut up, they’re classics.
Because it was just the three guests on Saturday, it was a very relaxed, chilled out day. Both Callum and Rick talked about seeing their characters on BSG sympathetically and not necessarily as villains. (Don’t agree, but I understand how for an actor, you need to do that, the actions need to seem perfectly valid to the character and it’s always interesting to hear an actor’s motivation for their characters actions). Callum told several anecdotes that are not suitable for children, fortunately, none were there. He was apparently offered Krycek on X Files but for various reasons, turned it down. He talked fondly of his time on Due South and joked he still didn’t understand Memento. What I remember mostly from Rick is, the enthusiasm he had for Magnificent Seven and Eyes. Eyes especially sounded like a great concept and he talked about the challenges of the role and took a lot of pride in playing a black gay lead on a network show. He has a lot of love for Christopher Judge because Judge was a complete class act and took Rick under his wing when he guest starred on Stargate. His last question on Sunday led to a solemn round of applause. He talked about an episode of Touched By An Angel he did about the Civil Rights movement and how he got to meet Rosa Parks as a result. I’m not ashamed to admit, there were tears in my eyes at the end of it. Luciana knows who the final cylon is, but wouldn’t tell us. She likes playing feisty characters and loves Josh Hartnett, and really, who can blame her? She was sad when Kat was killed but is grateful she got a proper exit and wasn’t just blown up.
Saturday night is something of a blur. I hardly ate anything on Saturday and of course, drank wine in the evening. I’m assured I didn’t disgrace myself though, I just became really loud and adamant apparently.
We had to get up at ridiculous o’clock on Sunday because Jamie Bamber’s photo shoot was at 9am. As Jamie was a very last minute addition and was stepping up to the bat after Trucco had to cancel he could only do three hours on Sunday morning before he had to go to a prior engagement. Sunday morning therefore was 100% undiluted Bamber. Not that I minded. Photo shoot was first and as photo shoots usually are, were over in the blink of an eye. I didn’t trip up, so I was happy although I may have replied ‘pfish guh’ when he said ‘thanks for coming’.
Next was the talk, and given it was 9.30am on a Sunday, he was on cracking form. He was asked first of all if Ioan Gruffudd had taught him any Welsh, the answer was no, even though he seemed to know a Welsh word and did an impression of Ioan’s answer machine (basically, blah blah blah *welsh accent* answer after the tone). He said he and the family were back in the UK till next year while he films Law and Order: London and that the scripts look good. He, much to princess_s ‘s and I’s surprise, as we were sure he’d be the young Oxbridge guy partnering the salt of the earth older guy (cause, you know, it’s British TV) said his character was from an Irish immigrant working class background. He talked about accents and the differences between working for US and UK TV.
Specific BSG stuff was he thinks the finale is the best episode they’ve ever done. I asked him about the scene in Revelations between Lee and Adama and he talked about how Adama has been falling apart all season and that’s the point Lee has to grow up and take the baton. He also said Adama and Tigh were basically married, and Tigh being a Cylon was like him cheating, only even he didn’t know it. He talked quite a bit about Eddie, sorry, “Uncle Eddie” and like pretty much everyone else who has ever met the man, seems to adore him, even if he did scare the shit out of him when they first met. He was asked how he felt about having Laura Roslin as a step-mother and said he pretty much thinks she has been from the start anyway. There was also discussion of the word, and many uses of, ‘frak’ and some good natured teasing of fellow cast members like Aaron and Tahmoh when asked what their call signs would be. The Grinch and the Pout if you’re wondering. Eddie, of course, would be ‘Uncle’ and no one word could ever sum up Callis.
The morning ended with autographs. He thanked me for my question and asked if I’d had a good time when I went up for mine. I managed to form complete sentences in my reply. *punches air in victory* He was lovely though, took a minute to speak to everyone in the autographs and thanked everyone for coming out both in the photos and at the talk.
princess_s and I planned on having a relaxing, and early night on Sunday. At 5.30, we were still cackling. The neighbours checked out. Although I’m sure that was just coincidence….We decided to have a nap when it was coming up for 6am and then were back awake, cackling some more, at the back of 7am. Alas, around 10am, our cackling stopped, till next month anyway when we have plans to go drink Portsmouth dry. I then headed over to Heathrow. *cue ominous music*
I was flying BMI from Terminal 1. Which, compared to five, where you can buy fat free frozen yogurt, is a shit hole. BMI also don’t separate check in for their international and domestic flights and therefore I had to queue for an hour and it was total chaos and I was not amused and had on my Persian kitty face. So much so, that security asked me if I had enjoyed myself and I had a bit of a rant. I felt bad afterwards as they seemed a bit hurt I was insulting their terminal….. Thankfully the flight wasn’t delayed. I got to Glasgow though, and it was equally chaotic. I had to wait ages for my taxi to turn up and there were too many people and they were all getting in my god damn way and arrgggh!
Still, home now. *takes deep breaths and counts to ten* :P