Arriving

FedCon 17 was my first ever convention and it is still difficult for me to put everything into writing. Since my memory has not yet fully returned to me, but I have the strong urge to write down the little that I remember, I will give you a report on the things that stand out clearly for me. So, no blow by blow account but rather highlight after highlight – come to think of it, that amounts to the same thing. Since this is getting very long already, I will split the Friday-report in two parts … for all our sake ;)

While The Girl That Knows Everything About B5 and Batch arrived on Thursday already, I rushed to Bonn on Friday. I was absolutely delighted that for a change I did not set off any alarms on the security check at the airport, since that has become a bad habit of mine, but then a security guard wanted to check my camera bag. As it turned out, there was nothing suspicious, he just wanted to have a look at my equipment since he was like me a hobby photographer … go figure.

I didn’t get to see much of Bonn, since I ran to catch the next airport shuttle and subway, dropped off my bag at my hotel and then rushed to the Maritim (hotel and conference center). Arriving there was a shock in the most positive sense: there were people dressed in Star Trek uniforms (from all the various ST incarnations), real (looking) Storm Troopers, numerous aliens including Klingons, Vulcans and Narns and hundreds of other fans like me.

Hadn’t it been for The Girl That Knows Everything About B5 (tschilai) I would’ve been completely lost, but luckily she put me in the right lane to get my con-ticket (I am exaggerating, for my ticket number there was no lane at all and I was done in about a minute) and gave me a drill down on the most important things I had to know. When the con finally opened at noon, I felt like in heaven: there were sellers everywhere with gorgeous pictures, uniforms and many other merchandise that just screamed at me to be taken home. But, I am proud to say, I resisted all the temptations. All I bought was a FedCon 17 lanyard to attach my ST-board name badge and my confish badge.

Yeah, I volunteered to be a confish. The word is a combination of “convention” and “babelfish” and we offered translation services to everyone in need. Granted, we couldn’t cover all languages of the 26 (!!!!!!!!!) countries attending, but still. Marc B. Lee, our master of ceremonies who’d come from Florida, USA, had brought us blinking wrist bands that we should wear if we were available for translation services. The idea was pretty cool, though many attendees of the convention didn’t realize we were actually there to help. Now we have one year to figure out a new strategy to improve our visibility.

Being new to everything, tschilai led me around. I was so overwhelmed that I didn’t even see whom I walked past and only after tschilai’s casual remark I spun around and saw Julie Caitlin Brown disappearing in the crowd. A few steps later I was rooted to the spot after realizing that the people sitting on the long tables to my left actually were some of our star guests: Kevin Sorbo and W. Morgan Sheppard were already signing.

It definitely had a surreal touch to it and I couldn’t shake that feeling during the whole weekend. Being told by tschilai, who has attended (I think) 11 FedCons so far, that the actors mix with the fans is one thing, actually running into them another. The best encounter of that kind happened about 1 hour later when I was just strolling through the main lobby and had to squeeze past a group of fans. The person passing me in the opposite direction looked vaguely familiar and it took me a couple of seconds to realize I had just passed Bruce Boxleitner. That was a highlight for me, even more since it came as a complete surprise. Having just finished watching season 5 of »Babylon 5« the same night (I did the whole season in 48 hours!) it was kind of a relief to actually see him walking around ;)

Later that day when the Apple-Friend and I were copying down the times of the photo-sessions, we were passed by John deLancie, who’d just finished his photo session. Well, I stepped aside, but my friend didn’t notice him and he had to squeeze past her. When he was walking away, she looked after him with a frown and wouldn’t believe me when I told her she’d just been touched by the almighty »Q« …

W. Morgan Sheppard

The first panel I attended was W. Morgan Sheppard, whom I knew mainly from his role as “Soul Hunter” and warleader “G’Sten” in »Babylon 5«. He talked a little about himself, but since not many questions were asked during his panel, his answers were very elaborate and he included many, many anecdotes and stories of his long acting career. Most noticeable for me was his voice and I’ve heard from many other fans that they were captured by it as well. Most interestingly, Peter Jurasik attended the panel as well, sitting in the audience and even asking a couple of questions. After the panel had finished and I was heading out to grab something to eat, Peter Jurasik was walking right in front of me, but I was way too shy to talk to him.

Not that he was intimidating, I just didn’t know what to say. Many, many fellow FedCon attendees wrote already that Peter, who attended FedCon for the very first time, made a huge impression on them being as nice, open, funny and charming as he was. During the photo-session he was great and I still have the feeling of his arm around me. *blush*

The photographer was incredible as well, shouting “Give me more!”, “More sex, baby!”, “Centaaaaaaaaaauriiiiiiiii!” all the time … maybe that’s why I am grinning from ear to ear on the photo.

Leah Cairns

Following Batch’s advise that guests one doesn’t really know can be surprisingly entertaining in their panels I stayed to watch Leah Cairns, who has a part in “Battlestar Galactica”. As far I understood, she hadn’t been to too many conventions before and was absolutely thrilled to be at FedCon. To make a long story short: she was adorable! Very funny, very smart and definitely worth the time. Adding to the entertainment value were the wallpapers made by fans which were shown from time to time on the big screen behind the actress. She had the whole room break out in laughter when she demonstrated how hard it was for her to play her parts in BSG’s Raptors. Since those props were designed to also accommodate Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), who is slightly taller than Leah Cairns, she could never reach the controls. Her challenge was to move her hands through thin air when being filmed, slouched in the huge seat, and pretend to be flying the Raptor. ;)

During her panel the question popped up:

“Have you ever seen Jamie Bamber naked?”

He will probably deny it, but I think it was our Master of Ceremonies who “inspired” the question, since Leah had supposedly actually once walked in on Jamie while he showered (if I recall the story correctly). The reason I am highlighting this is that this question quickly became the running gag amongst BSG fans and I think every actor from the show was asked this. Whenever someone started a question with the words “Have you ever…”, the whole room went into hysterical laughter. Michelle Forbes declined, Nicki Clyne said she’d do her best to answer the question with a “Yes” until the end of the convention. While it was very funny, it became a little too much in my opinion. Mary McDonnell laughed when being asked while she was on stage with Jamie Bamber, but also pointed out that he was much more than just this and praised his skills as an actor.

There’s something else worth mentioning: due to the writer’s strike the filming schedules of BSG and many other shows had to be re-arranged and until shortly before FedCon it was not certain that any of the BSG cast would be able to attend. Only about a week before FedCon we finally received the news that Jamie Bamber, Mary McDonnell, Leah Cairns and Nicki Clyne would be attending for sure.

There were two reasons: one was Jamie Bamber, who must’ve told the production company that he really wanted to go to Germany to meet the fans and thank them for supporting the show. It is rumored that he was quite persistent. But that wouldn’t have helped hadn’t it been for Mark Sheppard, W. Morgan Sheppard’s son, who plays Romo Lampkin on BSG. Although being invited to FedCon as well, he offered to stay behind and shoot his scenes on the weekend to keep the production schedule on track. Only because of this the other cast members were able to come at all – in Jamie Bamber’s case meaning he got off the plane on Friday and left Saturday night or Sunday morning to shoot again on Monday. I think Mark Sheppard made a lot of BSG fans extremely happy and I am sure the fans will remember that when he manages to come to FedCon, maybe next year? :)

Coming up next: Bruce Boxleitner’s panel, the opening ceremony, Brent Spiner’s panel and Michael Shanks.

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