FedCon 18 - Richard Hatch and the Opening

FedCon 18 (2009) – Richard Hatch and Opening Ceremony (3)

7 May 2009 719 views 7 Comments

Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica)

The first panel I attended on Friday was that of the original Apollo and now Tom Zarek of the BSG. Took me a while to bring those two together, but eventually even I got it.

Richard Hatch on stage at FedCon 18 in Bonn, Germany

Richard Hatch was an energetic performer on stage. Only after a conversation with a fan I knew that he was now 63 years old – he neither looks or acts like it. He’s full of energy and humor. Right from the start, when he came on stage, he promised:

“If you have the guts to walk up to the microphones to ask me a question, I will answer it honestly.”

Now, that was something I just couldn’t pass up on. During the press conference earlier on Friday, Hatch had mentioned that BSG had changed his life and the way he looked at things. That came close to what Edward James Olmos had said at the United Nations about his experience working on the show.

Hatch offered the chance for questions before showing some video footage he had brought. While another fan jumped right at the opportunity, my feet suddenly developed a life of their own and brought me up right behind that fan, waiting for my turn. With my pulse going off the scales (don’t ask me why, I don’t know), I asked Richard Hatch in which way the show had changed his outlook on things, referring specifically to what he had said earlier about his emotional distress in playing certain aspects of his character (SPOILER: for example executing the complete quorum).

Very energetic and humorous, Richard Hatch answered the fans’ questions patiently and thoroughly

Due to the length of his answer, I don’t recall any details (yes, and I was nervous), but in effect he said that the mere fact that he had to play the role, that he had to get into the emotional state for certain scenes, made him think about these things more than he had done before and changed the way he looked at certain things. Hatch sees his character as a man who desperately wants to do the right thing, but just fails miserably and makes things so much worse.

Afterwards, Richard Hatch went and showed a number of different clips from the old and new BSG. Since I already knew all of them, I left the panel early and returned to my duties at the DVD stall.

For more great images in larger resolution, please click on the photos above.

28 Minutes of the new Star Trek Movie and Night Goggles

The grand event on every FedCon Friday is the Opening Ceremony where all guests are presented on stage and are officially welcomed. To make sure we didn’t miss any of the fun, we closed the DVD stall at 6 pm and packed everything up before going to the Mainbridge. In addition, during the press conference both Richard Arnold and our Master of Ceremonies Marc B. Lee had asked to be early for the ceremony since a very special event was to take place.

This year, Marc let us know, more than thirty countries were in attendance and he called out all of them. It was funny to hear the cheers from groups of the different nationalities go off from everywhere. Many laughs caused the fellow from Belgium who was alone.

Marc: “Belgium!”
Fan: “Present!”

After welcoming the crowd of about 2,000 people gathered in the room, with people even lining the walls, Marc asked the technicians to bring up the light in the Mainbridge. Usually it’s dimmed to help create a wonderful atmosphere, but our Master wanted to see us all and asked everyone who had a cellphone on them to hold it up. Since I knew what was coming, I shut mine off, put it in my camera bag and stuffed the bag beneath the table which held all our camera equipment.

The rest of the fans held up their phones, only to be told by Marc to switch them off and put them away. The same with any cameras, stills and video. When many people looked confused, he revealed what it was all about: thanks to J.J. Abrams, Paramount and probably some behind-the-scenes-string-pulling by Richard Arnold, FedCon 18 would be the only convention world wide to show 28 minutes of exclusive footage of the new Star Trek movie, one week before the official theatrical release!

The crowd went wild with excitement!

Marc brought an official from Paramount out on stage and they both explained the rules to the fans, Marc in English and the official in German. No photos, no taping, no recording of any kind – and the doors to the Mainbridge would remain shut for half an hour. No entering or leaving the room. Over the murmur of the fans, Marc pointed out that they were taking these security measures extremely seriously and any attempt to record would not only result in the immediate expulsion from FedCon, but also have legal consequences. To ensure that no one was recording, he announced that Paramount security personnel would be monitoring the room with night vision goggles during the entire 28 minutes.

When the fans laughed and brushed it off as a joke, Marc very pointedly pointed at some men in suits (unusual in itself at FedCon) which waved with some strange looking binoculars. I swear, you’ve never seen a crowd become quiet that fast. After they realized that this was not a joke, everyone put their stuff away (and to honor the fans: not one was escorted outside afterwards).

The preview of the movie was awesome. For one, there was this incredibly feeling of watching it together with 2,000 Star Trek fans who whooped when Leonard Nimoy appeared on screen, laughed at the puns and jokes only a fan would get and applauded hard after every clip. The other reason was that the movie itself looked very, very promising.

In fact, I had been very skeptical when I heard about it at first, but the preview was so hilariously funny and action packed that I decided to watch the movie – and did so today. I don’t want to spoiler you, so let me just say this: I LOVE the new Star Trek movie. I will probably watch it again. Zachary Quinto as Spock is breathtakingly perfect and … why are you still here? Get to the next movie theater and watch the movie!

Opening Ceremony

It is customary at FedCon to call the guests on stage one by one and give them the chance to greet the fans. This year, the incredible line up started with the “EUReKA” main cast Colin Ferguson and Jordan Hinson, who were both completely speechless by the deafening welcome. Robert Picardo easily did the funniest introduction ever ¹.

He came on stage, looking intentionally somber and holding a slip of paper from which he read in very good German a little prepared speech. In effect, he said that he had played both on ST: Voyager and SG: Atlantis, shows that had been cancelled. Now he was looking for another show to take him on, one that needed to be cancelled. To his sorrow, Battlestar Galactica was not an option anymore. But maybe we knew of some German show that needed his acting skills and could be shut down?

RP: “Jetzt suche ich eine neue SciFi Serie, die ich ruinieren kann. Für Battlestar Galactica ist es leider zu spät. Ich wäre gerne der letzte Zylone gewesen. [hysterical laughter from the crowd] Kennen Sie eine deutsche SciFi Show, die ich ruinieren könnte? Nein? Dann kann ich ja aufhören, Ihnen in den Arsch zu kriechen.” // “Now I am looking for another scifi show that I can ruin. For Battlestar Galactica it’s too late. I would have loved to be the last cylon. Do you know a German scifi show that I can ruin? No? Well, then I can stop sucking up to you.”

Suffice to say, the whole room was in hysteria by the time he had finished.

Michael Hogan, Saul Tigh of »Battlestar Galactica« did the most unselfish act I’ve seen so far. Instead of saying something about himself, he walked up to the front of the stage, gave us his best (really, best!) grumpy Saul Tigh look and whispered into the microphone:

MH: “So say we all.”
Crowd: “So say we all.”
MH (louder): “So say we all!”
Crowd (louder): “So say we all!”
MH (yelling): “SO – SAY – WE – ALL!”
Crowd (shouting): ”SO – SAY – WE – ALL!”
MH (turning away, smiling): “Now get the Admiral out.”

And Marc wasted no time in announcing the ‘old man himself’, Edward James Olmos, who gratefully accepted the mic from his colleague and hugged him tightly. I cannot even image how he must have felt standing there, with 2,000 cheering fans in front and the Battlestar theme song playing in the background. Let’s just say that he appeared to be very deeply moved by the warm welcome.

Then, finally, it was time for the last guest to be announced. A guest who was not just an actor in the scifi genre, but she had written history with the original »Star Trek Enterprise«. It was, if you allow me the broad scope, in part due to her that we all were gathered there. The last guest was the wonderful Nichelle Nichols.

There are no words to adequately describe the welcome the grand old lady of Star Trek received. If I had thought that the crowd had been loud in greeting Christopher Judge or Michael Hogan or Edward James Olmos, I was mistaken. The roar that almost lifted Nichelle off her feet must have been heard in Cologne still. Better yet, the entire room got to their feet, giving Nichelle Nichols, Lt. Uhura, a four minute standing ovation.

I kid you not. I am not making this up. Four minutes of standing ovation for a woman that stood entranced on stage, discreetly wiping away tears when the love of the fans didn’t give her the chance to speak for what must have seemed to her like a very long time. There was no lull in the applause, there were constant four minutes of pure joy and ecstasy on the side of the fans. Nichelle tried to speak up a couple of time, but we wouldn’t have it. After all, she – at the age of almost 80! – had taken on the long and exhausting journey from the US to come to visit us in Germany. She had earned every second of the applause.

Finally, she managed to calm the crowd and get some words out, before lining up with the rest of the actors, hugging Edward James Olmos who lend her a supporting arm. She was not frail, but she seemed emotionally overwhelmed and gladly accepted his gentleman’s offer.

After this emotional introduction, the stars left the stage to make room for highly anticipated panels - Edward James Olmos, Nichelle Nichols and John Billingsley were up that evening. Read more in the next report.

And that made me realize he was not completely honest when we talked on the elevator. He got in and said “Hallo, ich spreche nur ein wenig Deutsch.” Wanting to be polite, I talked to him in English, about where he had learned German and stuff, while John Billingsley looked on. After hearing him at the Opening, I realized I could have easily had that conversation in German with him. ↩

7 Comments »

Isisgate said:

Wow! What an amazing thing a convention must be. I so have to go one day.
How do you get to talk to them in an elevator?! Cool. Ja, I’m going. I’ve been muttering “ins Kino gehen” for a week at work just so that no ones knows how big a geek I am.
My German isn’t good enough to have a conversation in, just cobbled bits from my Deutsch Actuell 1 book in highschool. Google translator probably isn’t too accurate but…
Lange Leben und gedeihen.

Reply

Starstuff Reply:
May 7th, 2009 at 10:08 pm

LOL, Isisgate! Your German ’sounds’ fine.

Well, I had the pleasure of staying at the convention hotel, where all the guests lived as well. Lucky me, the producer of the DVD paid for the whole team, otherwise I couldn’t have afforded it. And only if you are a hotel guest you get a chip card that enables you to ride on the elevator.

I got in with Robert Picardo twice, John Billingsley once and Marc B. Lee a couple of times. Almost got one with Edward James Olmos and his wife, but decided in the end I wasn’t brave enough for that and waited for the next. And I am eternally grateful Mark Sheppard didn’t ride on the same elevator as me. Or Colin Ferguson. I probably would have fainted.

Whenever you get the chance to go to a con – GO! I was surprised last year (my first con) how great an event it is. You get to meet lots of really cool people, get to see your fav actors, and you generally have a blast. There’s not much that can beat such a weekend.

And please, please, please go and watch the new ST movie as soon as you can. It is frakking awesome!

Reply

# 7 May 2009 at 9:50 pm

Luna said:

Ach je, jetzt sind mir bei Deiner Beschreibung der Opening doch glatt nochmal die Tränen in die Augen gestiegen, weil es auch für mich einer der übrwältigsten Momente meiner Convention “Karriere” war. Keine Opening, die ich bisher erlebt habe, kommt auch nur ansatzweise an das heran, was ich in diesem Jahr erleben durfte. Und überhaupt war es eine hammergeile Convention, von der ich keine Minute missen möchte Warum mußten die drei Tage so schnell vorbei gehen?

Danke für die Reports…wirklich schön, alles nochmal zu lesen. Ich bin ja für sowas immer zu faul *sigh*

Reply

Starstuff Reply:
May 10th, 2009 at 2:21 pm

Dankeschön :) Welcher Teil meines Berichts hat dich denn zu Tränen gerührt? Ich musste ja selbst auch schlucken, als ich ihn geschrieben habe, es war wirklich ein sehr emotionales Ereignis. Mehr Berichte werden folgen, ich versuche im Moment nur, alle Bilder online zu bekommen. Aber es juckt mich schon in den Fingern, über Billingsley, Olmos und Nichols zu schreiben, die Panels waren einfach nur Klasse.

Reply

Luna Reply:
May 10th, 2009 at 4:49 pm

Der komplette Teil über die Opening. Wie die Stimmung da so war, als Nichelle auf die Bühne kam. Und überhaupt diese ganzen kleinen Einzelheiten, wie das Aufrufen der einzelnen Länder (Belgium: present) und so weiter. Von den Panels hab ich ja nicht so viel mitbekommen den Abend. Im Nachhinein bereue ich es, Billingsley verpaßt zu haben. Freue mich also schon auf Dein nächstes Posting.
Nu werd ich mich aber erstmal fertig machen fürs Kino. Heute seh ich mir endlich Star Trek an *yay*

Reply

Starstuff Reply:
May 10th, 2009 at 5:35 pm

Noch mal Danke! Ich freu mich, wenn ich es halbwegs anständig rübergebracht habe. Ich war so mitgerissen und begeistert, da fällt es im Nachhinein schwer, die passenden Worte zu finden.

Ich wünsche dir bei Star Trek viel, viel Spaß. Meiner Meinung nach ist der Film absolute Spitze und ich bin noch am Überlegen, ob ich ihn mir noch mal ansehe. Das passiert mir nicht oft. Bin schon gespannt, was du davon halten wirst.

Reply

Luna Reply:
May 10th, 2009 at 10:04 pm

Bitte, bitte :)

Komm grad frisch aus dem Kino und bin etwas enttäuscht. Ich meine, der Film ist ganz okay, aber mir war er einfach zu actionreich. Ich hätte mich über die Vertiefung der zwischenmenschlichen Geschichten eher gefreut. Aber immer, wenn es im Begriff war, diese Seite zu beleuchten, wurde die Sequenz von Action abgelöst. Naja, wie gesagt, nicht schlecht, aber auch nicht ganz, was ich mir gewünscht hätte. Ich warte auf den 12. Teil mit Spannung :)

# 10 May 2009 at 11:54 am