Awakening

Waking up on Saturday morning was kind of bizarre. About a nanosecond after I became conscious of my consciousness a flood of impressions passed in front of my eyes and my brain synapses were trying frantically to put them in some meaningful order and assign names and other memories to them. FedCon Friday had generated a massive information overflow. Looking at the pictures I had taken so far gave me proof that I really had seen Bruce Boxleitner, Brent Spiner and the other celebs the day before, but still I couldn’t wrap my brain around that. Too surreal. Seeing those people on TV and suddenly come face to face with them, sometimes even at arms length takes a moment to comprehend. It has nothing to do with being star struck, it’s just … weird. At some point I gave up on my brain and decided that the only thing to really bring me back to my senses was a nice, long shower - and it worked.

My report of Saturday will not be chronological but rather thematically structured so don’t get confused. For a quick overview just scroll down and have a look at the headings. Since this is gettin very long, I will split it again (the second part will have more goings-on, the Bruce Boxleitner & Peter Jurasik panel and the FedCon party).

Convention Goings-On

Ready for another FedCon day the Apple-Friend and I - we shared a hotel room at the Best Western Kaiserhof about seven subway stations from the Maritim - went back to the convention. I took the chance to have my memory cards read out and the data burned to DVD. Though I had the Nexto OTG 2300 Express with me, a card reader with a hard drive, I felt safer this way. I mean, those pictures were the most important thing for me about the convention (I am a visual person, I remember things by looking at pictures or thinking in pictures) so I wasn’t taking any chances. Thanks to the people at the booth for offering this service, please do so again next year!! *hinthint*

Tempting as though they were, I refused all the »Babylon 5« merchandise. The costumes didn’t really look good enough to spend any money on them and I gathered that most information from the various magazines was available on the internet anyway. I was sorely tempted by the cardboard stand-up figures of Sheridan and G’Kar though and tschilai didn’t help by offering to take them back on the train with her as I would probably have some trouble to get them on the airplane as hand luggage - but common sense saved me again. After all, I really don’t have the room and I wouldn’t want them to become dust catchers and lay forgotten in a corner at some point. But still, a life-size G’Kar and a life-size Sheridan … who wouldn’t consider that? (Don’t answer if you’re not a B5 fan!)

Once again I was standing in awe in front of the dealer’s table of Lightspeed FineArt. It really is art and it is absolutely beautiful! They had a huge lithography of the »Babylon 5« main cast, signed by everyone but Bruce Boxleitner (how convenient ). And by everyone I mean it had the signatures of Andreas Katsulas and Richard Biggs as well. Who ever will buy it will have a very special memorabilia. And that person must have a filled bank account as well because you can go into the four-digits with that piece. Out of sheer curiosity I asked what the piece would be without the signatures (as I prefer to get those myself, makes it more personal) and was surprised that it was only about 145 Euros. Now, I know, that’s a lot of money, but considering the quality of the lithography I would have paid it if I a) would’ve had the money and b) hadn’t already made a poster by myself.

Another treat during the convention were the fans, especially the costumed ones. While on Friday I was surprised again and again when suddenly coming face to face with a ferocious looking Klingon, a rather cold and distant Vulcan or fully armed SG1 personnel it became sort of normal on Saturday. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to stand in line with a Borg, pass Star Trek officers, lock eyes with PSI cops (ok, those made me feel uncomfortable, they had that annoying knowing look in their faces) or to make room for a Ranger. A really neat thing were the Storm Troopers who stood at the entrance where we had to show our FedCon tickets. I still have no idea if they were really checking the badges or only the guys in the staff shirts were supposed to, but the Troopers were intimidating enough that I decided to point my badge in their direction every time

My favorite costume though was the biggest one at the convention: a Star Wars AT-AT, so huge it took two people inside to have it moving and since they couldn’t see sh$$ they had Storm Troopers all around them to guide them. The most hilarious part was when they needed to “park” the AT-AT when they weren’t using it. Since the two men inside had no idea about their position one of the Troopers (I think) imitated a parking system and happily beeped away, getting faster the nearer the AT-AT’s butt came to the wall. That made more than one fan double over in laughter … beeep-beeep-beep-bebebebeeeeeeeeeeeeep

Costume Contest and Grand Prix de Federacion de la chanson

After having heard so much about the costume contest and having seen all those gorgeous costumes all day around the con I enjoyed the costume contest a lot. Everyone who showed up in a costume could participate and presented him- or herself to a jury who picked their favorite.

Following the costume contest was the Grand Prix (for non-Europeans: there is a real music contest every year in which every European country can participate - please don’t ask why Israel, Russia and Turkey are in it as well, I have NO idea - with one performer and then people can call in and vote, but not for their own country. The contest’s real name is Grand Prix de Eurovision de la chanson. We changed it a little to fit the occasion ). Those performances must have been some of the funniest I have ever heard … a Cardassian singing to a romantic tune about the annihilation of Bajorans, Lord Voldemort delivering carefully rhymed lines and the Ghostbusters dancing away with a wide-grinning green monster … wow!

Panels

Rene A.

I can’t spell the name right and I can’t pronounce it, so I won’t even try. You know whom I am talking about - “Odo” from “Deep Space 9″. A fan wanted to know how it felt to kiss Nana Visitor on the show and Rene A. had to admit that with all the crew around on the set it couldn’t be less romantic. Adding to the weirdness of having to act so intimately with a friend was all the makeup on his face which prevented him from feeling anything at all. Though, as he told a laughing crowd, Nana Visitor was off far worse, getting smeared by all his makeup and looking more than just a little ugly after the scene. I guess they didn’t shoot that one too often then …

Nicki Clyne and Leah Cairns

****THERE’S A HUGE SPOILER FOR BSG 4.03 COMING UP SO IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THAT EPISODE YET, DO NOT (!!!!!) READ THIS PART BUT JUMP RIGHT DOWN TO KEVIN SORBO****

Having read and heard a lot about Nicki Clyne I was looking forward to her panel, especially since she’d be sharing the stage with Leah Cairns who’d left a really good impression with me from the previous day.

Those two were really funny on stage and probably every BSG fan in the audience was delighted when Cairns went into a fit of giggles when the inevitable question (“Have you ever seen Jamie Bamber naked?!?”) came up and Nicki Clyne had a look of complete confusion on her face until her friend explained the story. Nicki immediately confessed that he had not seen her colleague naked but promised to correct that until the end of the convention.

Of course the fans also probed the two for possible developments of their characters in the fourth and last season of »Battlestar Galactica«. The ladies actually put their heads together on stage, holding their microphones as far away from them as possible to not give away anything accidentally. To me it seemed that they couldn’t remember properly what took place in which episode and for that reason had to decline that fan request - to the applause of most of the audience. I mean, hey, who likes spoilers?!

Speaking of which … there is one coming up now, so this is your last chance! Come on, think! Have you seen 4.03? Better check. Okay, you wanted it that way, remember that and don’t you blame me. Ready?

I was sort of disappointed because Nicki Clyne didn’t really meet my expectations of her in terms of being funny and energetic, but considering that (really, you should jump ahead now, very last chance!) her character dies in the third episode of the fourth season it all became clear to me a couple of days later. Ironically, this very episode had aired just the night before, but none of us had had the chance of watching it, considering where we were. So Nicki actually did a great job of not letting slip anything and not giving away the drama.

Well, of course, if you look at it from a logical point of view: her attendance was never in questions as it was the case with the other BSG cast so that was a clue already but who thinks about that?

Kevin Sorbo

Hello to everyone who was wise enough to skip the section above and hello to those of you who are probably still in shock … well, I TOLD YOU SO!

I’m not a Sorbo fan, I never liked “Andromeda” or “Hercules”, those shows just weren’t up my alley. But Kevin Sorbo is a really nice person in real life (and he looks loads better than on TV) so I thought I should give him a chance. My Apple-Friend is a huge Sorbo fan and he had been really nice with her the previous day when she got her autograph from him. Since he didn’t know how to spell her name, he had her write it down on a piece of paper and then pronounced it a couple of times until he got it right. He did some small talk with her and when she left the table she was hovering a couple of inches above the ground

Most of the things he talked about during the panel I didn’t understand, never having followed his shows much. But he got my attention when he started to speak about something called “force lance”. In the ST-board any threads mentioning that particular piece generated loads of smileys and I was curious to find out why that was. As much as I gathered this “lance”-thingy is something from “Andromeda” and while the idea of the prop was great, in reality it looked more like a dildo (Hey, don’t beat me, I am quoting Sorbo here!). So it became a running gag on the set that Kevin Sorbo asked every actress if they had ever seen his force lance … I don’t even need to leave that to your imagination, there’s a YouTube video which will help you visualize the comedy of the situation.

Answering a fan’s questions what the best reaction was he ever got to those proposals he described one of his female colleagues reply “No, but let me take a look” and slowly, with a lascivious look into the camera, slide downwards in front of him and dropping out of the frame. Since he kindly re-enacted that occurrence he had the whole room shaking with laughter.

Michael Shanks

“Dr. Daniel Jackson” was greeted with a long applause but just after he started talking a long, long (!) line of Stargate SG1 fans marched into the room (maybe about 20-30), all in uniform.

Shanks was completely non-plussed when they stopped in front of the stage. By now the whole room was on its feet and cameras went off like crazy. Then a voice shouted “Left turn!” and the SG1’s turned to face the stage. “You know, that’s how it starts with firing squads”, Shanks remarked. After the fans saluted military style he added, “Now, can we take down the weapons, please?”, but he clearly enjoyed the stunt. The whole room roared with laughter when the command “Left turn” was given again, but a couple of SG1’s turned right instead. Their comrades put them on the right track and they exited the Mainbridge to thunderous applause. (Image Copyright: Trekzone)

Another great moment occurred when a couple of fans presented Michael Shanks with some special gifts (I think this might even have happened on Friday … but that report was already too long ), namely a Speedo (well, Daniel Jackson could really use it on Atlantis, right?!) and an Atlantis survival guide. He read the first rule of the guide out loud - “Don’t feed Rodney!” - and commented over the roaring laughter “That must mean something…”

One question I liked in particular and my Apple-Friend of course as well was: “So, Michael, what is it? Pc or Mac?” After declaring himself completely ignorant when it came to technology he admitted that his wife had begun to switch their home equipment from PC to Macs (insert loud cheering of the Mac fans here) and that he now felt a lot safer when being online … apparently he’d introduced viruses to the home computers on a regular basis

Julie Caitlin Brown

I didn’t stay to watch the complete Shanks-Panel since I really looked forward to see Julie Caitlin Brown (JCB), who portrayed Na’Toth, the ambassadorial aide to G’Kar, in the first season of B5 and Captain Sheridan’s lawyer in one episode of the second season (“Where all the Honor lies”).

The panel took place on the “Holodeck”, which was a smaller conference room, seating about 200-300 (?) people, but far less fans attended. This made for a very intimate and relaxed atmosphere which I enjoyed and I promptly took the chance of asking a couple of questions (not all at once, though ).

I wanted to know how she got the role and she promptly went into a hilarious explanation (loved her gestures and mimics): she’d actually auditioned for the parts of Ivanova and Delenn, but had had no luck there (though I can sort of picture her as Ivanova). Then she suddenly got a call to report to the set immediately because she had a job, her agent said - not an audition, but a job! So she went to Sunvalley and was promptly send to the makeup trailer. No one said anything, but the atmosphere was tense and it turned out that the actress who was supposed to play Na’Toth had had a panic attack when the makeup was applied and just ran away. JCB did not feel comfy at all with the makeup but gritted her teeth and went through with it - and got the job.

Then she had to meet Andreas Katsulas, with whom she’d spend most time interacting (starting off with the scene where she beats the crap out of him to disable the paingivers … isn’t that a nice way to start work with a new colleague? ). Answering the second part of my questions she confessed that Andreas wasn’t really thrilled at first. After all, she was the third actress assigned to the role of the aid and he obviously had doubts she’d last long. But then they discovered that they both approached their characters in a similar fashion - not necessarily through the costume but through the history of the character. Needless to say, they worked together well.

But JCB did not only speak about her part in B5, but also about a book she wrote and about her music (she sang in her second panel on Sunday). I have to admit that she left a huge impression with me; her talks about being self-conscious, believing in oneself and being willing to change were inspiring and I wish she’d had more time to talk about that. All in all, this was one of the most fascinating panels for me and proved once again that this event was not just about science fiction but could go much deeper than that. And the fans appreciated it.

Marina Sirtis

Wow, this woman is a bundle of pure energy! Not at all the considerate, modest person she plays in Star Trek, but eloquent, fresh and quick witted - a complete surprise in short. We learned that she is still looking for a wife for Michael Dorn since he’s cleaning out her fridge on a regular basis; that her pride in ST-TNG made her turn down roles she considered not interesting enough after having played on Star Trek and that her agent now made her play everything. She had turned down a role in “Flipper” - “I played with Patrick Stewart, I won’t play with a FISH!” (she knows it’s a mammal) - and rejected another role because the script just seemed too weird to her and she was sure the movie would be a complete failure. That was “Men in Black”.

Jamie Bamber and Mary McDonnell

Coming up after her were the two Battlestar Galactica icons: Jamie Bamber, who I’d already seen the day before and the “other” President (to get the joke, look here) herself, Mary McDonnell, who has an incredible presence on stage. Absolutely amazing how she captivates the audience by just being there. I had gotten an idea of that after almost running into her around noon (yes, I am really that clumsy. I cannot pass by people, I almost always run into them. Anyway, Mary McDonnell looked awesome from up close and had a radiant smile for everyone.).

McDonnell greeted the audience with the same sentence she’d used in the opening ceremony (“Es ist so geil hier zu sein”). Well, at some point a fan pointed the various meanings of “geil” out to her (it can mean cool, nice, awesome, but also something very … vulgar) which made Bamber grin (after all, he’s got a degree in modern languages but obviously he hadn’t felt the need to say anything) and McDonnell giggle … but it sure did not stop her from using the word again

Which promptly led to another fan question: if they use the now famous word “Frak” in their everyday language (I do!). That question resulted in Bamber and McDonnell enriching their every sentence for the next minute with the word “Frak”, much to the amusement of the crowd. Did anyone count by any chance how often they used it?

The both of them also stirred the interest in James Callis (Dr. Gaius Baltar): when asked whom they’d love to play on the show if they could choose their character both answered simultaneously: “Baltar!” Both had only praise for their colleague and also told the story about him impersonating “Eddie” (it took me forever to realize they were talking about Edward James Olmos). So, what about inviting James Callis to next years con? Dirk? Marc? Pretty please??

They also suprised many fans by stating that the actor who’s least like his or her character is Tricia Helfer (Six) and the one most like his character is Aaron Douglas (Chief Tyrol).

Once again, the time went by too fast and the inevitable smoke was blown on stage. Mary McDonnell was just answering a fan question and was confused when the audience started to laugh (like I said, it really looks funny). When she turned around, Jamie Bamber said in an exasperated voice “Oh, Mary!” and sent his colleague into a fit of giggles, she only managed to get out “I think I don’t agree with the German cuisine” … and The Girl That Knows Everything About B5 will confirm that those were the very same giggles we got to see on BSG. They are infectious. Had the whole room break out in laughter. Forever. Great, great panel.

Short break here, stay tuned, your favorite program will return with a special report on the Bruce Boxleitner and Peter Jurasik panel as well as on the FedCon party … read part 2

For pictures please check out my galleries.