Con report Burbank, July 8-10
Jul. 11th, 2005 06:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tenayaI had a fun time chatting with friends, listening to interesting people and enjoying the scenery. Or, if you want the long version:
This was a three day Creation convention that featured guests from both SG-1 and Atlantis. I found it well run with the programing starting on time and everything that was promised, delivered. The con staff were helpful, relaxed and low key. I heard a fan complain that 'security' was difficult to get past, but honestly, if you're trying to approach an actor to give him something or get a hug, you should expect to be halted. Also, I didn't take notes, so I'm sure I'm missing plenty of detail, but I bet others will fill in the blanks. Since I took no notes, this is to the best of my recollection and quotes are mostly paraphrased. This is going to down and dirty; I just want to get it written. Prettiness isn't a priority here. Feel free to correct me if I got it wrong. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!!
Friday the guests were Peter Williams and Dan Shea. Unfortunately, I missed PW. Shea told some interesting and humorous stories, such has how he was a comedian with props originally (a la Carrot Top.) He said the first stunt he did was in an RDA movie and he ended up with a broken foot. When asked about who was the bravest in doing their stunts, he all the cast was equally brave and said in an aside he still had to work with these guys (in other words, we would not be getting the skinny on this at all!) Then he said how Ben Browder was keen to do all sorts of stunts. He said people started calling RDA Big Boy during the first season of SG when they were sucking up to him ("Hey Big Boy, do you think you'll be coming back for another year?") He described some of the stunts from the show, like how in Message in a Bottle, it was actually himself who did the stunt where it appeared that Jack got impaled through his shoulder and stuck to the wall, and that they CGI'd RDA's face over Shea's head. I think he said he had been a pro in hockey for a while, but I might have gotten that wrong. Someone asked who was better at hockey, him, RDA or Shanks. He went on a long spiel about how just because someone skated better, handled the puck and stick better, had a sight of the playing field and more thorough knowledge of the game (plus a lot of technical hockey jargon I don't understand) it didn't mean they were actually "better." It didn't guarantee they were "better" man etc., (all very dry humor) but I think he finally admitted during this ramble he was a better player. He said RDA would go out on the ice and just slam into some ordinary guy and then everyone would have to hold back that other player from RDA so the face wouldn't be damaged. He also said the Shankster had a chip on his shoulder when it came to playing (I took it to mean he would do the same sort of shenanigans as RDA would do.) He also said at one point to a question I couldn't hear, "have I inferred the Shankster is a Bad Boy? He's not; he's a Good Boy." Shea doesn't do any extreme sports as they are dangerous. He mentioned how once his cell phone went off during one of RDA's scenes (a very serious offence.) Nine months later, Shea had a few lines to say, and everytime he started to film them, RDA's phone would start to ring and the other cast members just stood around and silently laughed at the practical joke. He also received two phone calls total from his wife about the progress of his daughter's teams in the Provincial championships of...I forget the sport but it used to be called softball. He was quite proud of her.
After autographs, there was a quick break for dinner then the cabaret. Dan Shea was first. He didn't have anything prepared but kept up a running monologue, sometimes 'helped' (or not) by comments from the audience. He told some funny stories about a hair raising ride one fan gave him to the wrong airport, plus more annecdotes from the show.
Don S. Davis was next and he read some stories and such. They were humorous or poignantly sad. One story was about an old dog, another was about the day in a life of an older gentleman, where he keeps getting distracted from one task to another until at the end of the day, he'd been busy but had accomplished nothing. It was a gentle humor and he has a very pleasing voice to listen to.
Gary Jones was next and he had the quick patter of an experienced comic. Very fast. He talked about his character and how the poor guy just gets to sit in the same chair, pretend to work a couple of toggle switches (oh, how very 1960ish for such a modern control room!) and look puzzled at the gateroom. Apparently Norman Davis aka Walter Harriman (once Hooper?!) has gotten a promotion and new flightsuit. He has no contract with the show and just shows up when they need him. He is lucky that his character is needed so often, and instead of being killed off, his character just gets renamed. Originally, his character was Norman. He thought the Davis was a button on the keyboard and when in doubt, you could just hit that key and name a new character Davis (as there were other Davis' on the show.) Walter came from RDA's line in 2010 where he tried to remember what Jones' character was called (so they renamed him Walter) and Harriman came from a line DSD said, something like "Airman, what is that?" They thought he might have said, "Harriman" so they renamed him again. Once he went out to his trailer and found a name plate said something like "Walter Davis, formerly Hooper." He has no idea where that came from. He also told a funny story about playing for Bill Gates' Millennium Party, and all the security (guards talking into the cufflinks, "we have the comedians and are moving towards the house.")
Actually, part of the above was from Gary's panel on Saturday. There was some repetition in a few of the funnier routines between his panel and his bit at the cabaret.
Don S. Davies answered questions. His art still isn't on the net because he wants the domain name of donsdavies and a squatter has had it since Year 2 of the show. He talked about his military career, and his education and training. He became a stunt man/double for Dana Elcar, found the money was good and kept to it, before becoming a full time actor. He told about meeting people such as Charlton Heston, who he found to be a nice man.
Joel Goldsmith was next but I was unable to catch his talk. He is a composer for the show.
Joe Flanigan was next. He looked good (with a lot of dark stubble) and was relaxed and laconic. He said he was from the area between Reno and Lake Tahoe and his folks still have a ranch up there. He went to a bording school near Santa Barbara and that is where he learned to surf. He has done a number of extreme sports (helicoper skiing, scuba diving, sky diving...) He retold the story of Mr. Rainier and how his cornea froze up while he was near the top in a lenticular storm, it was below freezing, very windy and he wasn't sure he would be surviving the experience. Since his wife was home and pregnant, he just kept calling himself a jerk as he climbed down the mountain. He says he calls the new guy, Jason, his wookie. He said he was going this week to Las Vegas with Brad Wright and the USAF would be taking them up in F-16s, the Thunderbirds. He said the USAF asked if he'd cut his hair, and when he asked, what would he get in return, they said a ride with the Thunderbirds, and he thought that would be a fair trade. So, even though he was willing, Wright (or Cooper) said they weren't going to allow them to dictate stuff like that. They're still getting the flights, though. He talked about about David Hewlett and how he has a nose/profile of Bob Hope and how funny it'd be to have a Road Show type of thing going. He mentioned it to the writers and they were interested in playing around with that at some point. His favorite show this season is a recent one where he morphs into a Wraith Bug. When asked how he got the part, he said his manager knows Hank Cohen.
During the autograph session, personalizations were allowed if you wanted it, like at the day before. After a break for dinner, there was the Dessert Party. The issues of Vancouver have been resolved in a good way. Once the guests come in, they stand at the front of the stage and the room goes up one half a time and takes pictures in a paparazzi type of way for a couple of minutes. Cameras are then put away, that guests go to each table, one a time and spend 5 to 10 minutes chatting with everyone. Peter Williams spent much longer than that, though. It was very nice to be able to ask them questions in a more relaxed manner. PW talked about Bob Marley and the London scene, and music. Gary Jones was asked if there were special screenings where the crew could watch new eps as they were finished, and he stressed he didn't watch the show as he and his wife were busy raising their children. It was just a job and his wife didn't like S.F. anyway. Dan Shea was asked more about his daughter. I can't remember what my table asked Flanigan, but a couple of the ladies there (after he left) stressed how "penetrating his eyes were as they looked right into your soul." Personally, I didn't notice that myself, but there you go. When DSD was at our table, I asked him what was Hammond's status now that Jack was head of Homeworld Security. He was pretty sure Jack didn't have Hammond's job and laughed. I must be confused, but when I just went to the SciFi site, they have both Jack and Hammond listed for that job. I think I'm not the only confused one around here! The desserts were sundaes with all the trimmings and a selection of pastry types of things. After most of the guests had left, the DJ turned up the volume and people went out onto the dance floor.
The one thing I think Creation ought to change is the number of hours between the end of the Dessert Party on Saturday night (we left at 10:30ish) and the Breakfast at 8am on Sunday; they're just going to have to get the Hilton to insert extra hours between 3 and 4 am! In other words, we hauled our sleepy behinds out of bed too darn early! Breakfast was you're usual buffett sort of set up (and the fruit was particularly good.) After we ate for a while, the guests came in about 8:45, did the paparazzi thing again, had a quick meal and started to circulate. Today, it was Michael Shanks, Chris Judge and Torri Higginson. There was a few stray steath volley's of mini-muffins, one airborne sauage, and CJ poured a bit of ice water somewhere on TH. She tossed a couple of things around; our table was strafed by a muffin when MS was sitting with us. MS told us a little about his new daughter (that she was loud and stubborn, and he had wanted her first name to be Tabitha, while Lexa was wanting Mia. After the 'birth process' he figured Lexa had enough collateral to win the debate. Mia is pronounced Me-a. He said all mornings were tough. He also talked about the difficulties of playing a character for so many years. Torri, well, I can't really repeat the stories our table told TH, or what our table taught her in sign language. I'll just say she's a quick learner and we had 'girl talk.' CJ spent part of our time stalking his prey and sneaking behind Torri to pour a little bit of water on her.
Michael Shanks and Christopher Judge were on together for 2 hours and it went fast. Both looked in great shape and were dressed in black shirts and jeans. For those that care, MS wasn't wearing a hat, his hair looked good and he wasn't bearded! First off, to promote a project that they co-produced, they showed a film of the behinds the scenes of photographing a new calendar called The Women of Sci Fi. If you haven't seen CJ's photography, it is very stylish, striking , eye catching, bold and sexy. The film showed the ladies in various revealing or fantasitc outfits, with wild makeup on. Andromeda was represented by 3 of their actresses (including Lexa in a dominatrix type of outfit), and Teryl Rothery in some sort of Southern Belle gone naughty sort of thing. The images were so striking I had a hard time IDing the actresses. Amanda Tapping was not included due to her pregnancy. Anyway, it looks very exciting (more so for the men.) Later in the Q&A, CJ was asked how he was going to do MS's centerfold, and he said, "two words: leathers and feathers. Leather motorcyle pants and a feather boa. This was after much joking around about slashy stuff and topics (all just silly good fun.)
Boy, there was so much that was said, and I'm too tired to get to all the details. Suffice to say, they have a great comedy routine going with MS as the 'pragmatic' one that tends to do short answers and the bubbly and enthusiastic CJ. CJ couldn't say enough nice things about how good an actor MS is, and how hard he works, while downplaying his own talents. MS finally had to asked the crowd, "do you think Chris can act?" There was loud applause and MS said, "Thank you!" They were asked about Puff and Ruffle and got Torri to come out to prove they didn't do that to the new guests stars, but she up and said they did and pretty strongly, too. MS looked stunned and just said they were "Busted." CJ tried to salvage it, but it was hopeless. When TH left, she gave them each one of those hugs where you climb onto the person with your legs wrapped around them (MS looked MIGHTY surprised!) They also talked about flatulence and bathroom humor practical jokes. They talked about how Ben Browder likes to give away his lines to anyone. He wanted Teal'c to take, "Roger that." He also tried to give his lines to an extra. They went on about BB wants to do his own stunts even the ones the stunt men should be doing. MS said BB really should have a Dialogue Double as BB would enjoy that. (edited to add: CJ and MS talked about BB just wanting to get to the action. MS looked at the very chatty CJ and said he thought it was funny that the two people (CJ and BB) who were looking to say less on job were very talkative in real life. They said BB's nickname was White Noise. Michael said sometimes during a scene he felt he was surrounded by mutes.---end of edit)
MS thought a couple of the early eps in this season were the best yet. When asked about what was their favorite scenes, CJ said that walk in the park with DJ from The Changeling. MS said that was probably the longest scene he and CJ had ever had together and how sad was that that it was in a dream, Teal'c wasn't Teal'c and Daniel wasn't Daniel and he was dead and he wasn't even in that season! He was excited to hear that the new season would be around their characters but he didn't realized the characters would be seperated that much. Someone asked if Corin Nemec would be on SG-1 and Chris said, No, and after CJ tried to explain further, MS pragmatically said there were no plans at the moment for that. CJ obviously had strong opinions about the subject but just as obviously felt he couldn't speak freely about it.
MS was asked about his Highlander ep. He said he was real green and probably didn't know where to stand or not get in the way of lighting folks. He said Adrian Paul was very helpful to him. He also thought Daniel died too much, but then it was brought up that his character in HL died as did a number of other characters, so he began to wonder if it was a Daniel thing or a Michael thing. When asked what role he would like to play, MS said, James Bond; great cars and clothes and the women never get older.
When asked about Daniel and Atlantis, MS said he thought it very odd that after working for 7 years and dying a few times, this stubborn man would not go to Atlantis just because Jack said, "no."
They talked about lots more but I just can't think of it right now.
Torri came out and answered a few questions. I thought she was doing pretty good, but MS threw a muffin at her. She ran back and said something to him and he came out. He said he was hiding because Chris was walking around squirting people with a beer. He left briefly to get a microphone, and then sat down on her director's chair while she paced back and forth as she answered the questions. Someone gave her a 'con book' (filled with messages from the fans) and MS read if for the longest while. He was obviously listening to Torri and would chip in to help the flow or make a joke. At one point Torri said the fans were nice people, and MS agreed. My opinion of all this is that Torri was feeling insecure and asked or was happy that Michael came out to steady her and give her a sense of security. If she was nervous, it didn't really show up. I thought it was very sweet of Michael.
Torri said a number of flirtacious things about Daniel. She said she wished her dog could be on the show and on Atlantis. I forget the dog's name, so I'll just use Lassie. "Lassie, Lassie! Come quick! Little Joey has fallen into the well!" She said David Hewlett was a grump to work with (obviously saying the opposite of what was true.) She also quite like the moral delimma her character faces. She thought there was one ep where she gave in to Geneva Convention violations WAY too easily. She said Brad Wright has said Weir will never pick up a gun. She did have to go to some hand to hand type classes though and was intrigued about how that would be used.
No personalization was allowed for this set of autographs, though I noticed a few of my friend's photos were personalized (in other words, no one was being the badguy and stopping it if the guests felt like doing it. CJ had a plane to catch and started working the line to get them all done as fast as he could. Torri said my T-shirt was quite handsome (it had a photo of Daniel Jackson on it.) I asked MS if the restaurant in Threads was a location or a set. He said it was a set for Dead LIke Me and when they were just about to tear it down, they said, "wait, wait, wait!" and used it in Threads.
(Edited to add this:
When I was getting JF's autographed I asked him if the watch he was wearing was the one he wore on the show. He said, yes, he wears it all the time. It was the Suunto with the teal accents. In the Q&A, when a girl asked him for a hug, he said to be fair she also needed to hug the security guy, too, which she did. The security guy on the other side of the stage waved his hand and said, "Joe, what about my hug?" JF said something like *he* wasn't going to give him a hug.
In the autographed line, I asked Dan Shea how many episodes was RDA going to be in this year. He said two, then added he just really needed to take a year off.
A question was asked of Michael and Chris, was their something they didn't like about their characters. Chris said it's the eyebrow thing. Now they are writing that in the scripts instead of giving him lines. Michael laughed and something like, "instead of giving you lines, indeed." He lowered his voice and said indeed like Teal'c would. For Michael, he said there was a moment when he was six weeks into the show and still having to walk past the teamsters in hospital clothing and have them joke about what sort of pajamas he was still having to wear. He made some comment about white (his clothing) not photographing well and CJ laughed. MS said, what? CJ said, well, dude, you were born that way. MS went on to comment on all the times Daniel has died and that it was getting a little old now. There was much laughter as he talked about this and how often Daniel gets shot, especially in Lockdown. And Michael and Chris were a riot. They are such a great team and extremely entertaining together.---End of edit)
Strangely, I thought there wasn't much difference in attendance from Friday to Saturday, but Sunday had noticably more fans.
After that, we retired to a friend's room and chatted about the con and plots for stories. I didn't leave until 1:30am, and now I'm doing this! Actually, I'm falling asleep, so I'll stop here. As I said, I'm sure I've forgotten stuff.
This was a three day Creation convention that featured guests from both SG-1 and Atlantis. I found it well run with the programing starting on time and everything that was promised, delivered. The con staff were helpful, relaxed and low key. I heard a fan complain that 'security' was difficult to get past, but honestly, if you're trying to approach an actor to give him something or get a hug, you should expect to be halted. Also, I didn't take notes, so I'm sure I'm missing plenty of detail, but I bet others will fill in the blanks. Since I took no notes, this is to the best of my recollection and quotes are mostly paraphrased. This is going to down and dirty; I just want to get it written. Prettiness isn't a priority here. Feel free to correct me if I got it wrong. THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!!
Friday the guests were Peter Williams and Dan Shea. Unfortunately, I missed PW. Shea told some interesting and humorous stories, such has how he was a comedian with props originally (a la Carrot Top.) He said the first stunt he did was in an RDA movie and he ended up with a broken foot. When asked about who was the bravest in doing their stunts, he all the cast was equally brave and said in an aside he still had to work with these guys (in other words, we would not be getting the skinny on this at all!) Then he said how Ben Browder was keen to do all sorts of stunts. He said people started calling RDA Big Boy during the first season of SG when they were sucking up to him ("Hey Big Boy, do you think you'll be coming back for another year?") He described some of the stunts from the show, like how in Message in a Bottle, it was actually himself who did the stunt where it appeared that Jack got impaled through his shoulder and stuck to the wall, and that they CGI'd RDA's face over Shea's head. I think he said he had been a pro in hockey for a while, but I might have gotten that wrong. Someone asked who was better at hockey, him, RDA or Shanks. He went on a long spiel about how just because someone skated better, handled the puck and stick better, had a sight of the playing field and more thorough knowledge of the game (plus a lot of technical hockey jargon I don't understand) it didn't mean they were actually "better." It didn't guarantee they were "better" man etc., (all very dry humor) but I think he finally admitted during this ramble he was a better player. He said RDA would go out on the ice and just slam into some ordinary guy and then everyone would have to hold back that other player from RDA so the face wouldn't be damaged. He also said the Shankster had a chip on his shoulder when it came to playing (I took it to mean he would do the same sort of shenanigans as RDA would do.) He also said at one point to a question I couldn't hear, "have I inferred the Shankster is a Bad Boy? He's not; he's a Good Boy." Shea doesn't do any extreme sports as they are dangerous. He mentioned how once his cell phone went off during one of RDA's scenes (a very serious offence.) Nine months later, Shea had a few lines to say, and everytime he started to film them, RDA's phone would start to ring and the other cast members just stood around and silently laughed at the practical joke. He also received two phone calls total from his wife about the progress of his daughter's teams in the Provincial championships of...I forget the sport but it used to be called softball. He was quite proud of her.
After autographs, there was a quick break for dinner then the cabaret. Dan Shea was first. He didn't have anything prepared but kept up a running monologue, sometimes 'helped' (or not) by comments from the audience. He told some funny stories about a hair raising ride one fan gave him to the wrong airport, plus more annecdotes from the show.
Don S. Davis was next and he read some stories and such. They were humorous or poignantly sad. One story was about an old dog, another was about the day in a life of an older gentleman, where he keeps getting distracted from one task to another until at the end of the day, he'd been busy but had accomplished nothing. It was a gentle humor and he has a very pleasing voice to listen to.
Gary Jones was next and he had the quick patter of an experienced comic. Very fast. He talked about his character and how the poor guy just gets to sit in the same chair, pretend to work a couple of toggle switches (oh, how very 1960ish for such a modern control room!) and look puzzled at the gateroom. Apparently Norman Davis aka Walter Harriman (once Hooper?!) has gotten a promotion and new flightsuit. He has no contract with the show and just shows up when they need him. He is lucky that his character is needed so often, and instead of being killed off, his character just gets renamed. Originally, his character was Norman. He thought the Davis was a button on the keyboard and when in doubt, you could just hit that key and name a new character Davis (as there were other Davis' on the show.) Walter came from RDA's line in 2010 where he tried to remember what Jones' character was called (so they renamed him Walter) and Harriman came from a line DSD said, something like "Airman, what is that?" They thought he might have said, "Harriman" so they renamed him again. Once he went out to his trailer and found a name plate said something like "Walter Davis, formerly Hooper." He has no idea where that came from. He also told a funny story about playing for Bill Gates' Millennium Party, and all the security (guards talking into the cufflinks, "we have the comedians and are moving towards the house.")
Actually, part of the above was from Gary's panel on Saturday. There was some repetition in a few of the funnier routines between his panel and his bit at the cabaret.
Don S. Davies answered questions. His art still isn't on the net because he wants the domain name of donsdavies and a squatter has had it since Year 2 of the show. He talked about his military career, and his education and training. He became a stunt man/double for Dana Elcar, found the money was good and kept to it, before becoming a full time actor. He told about meeting people such as Charlton Heston, who he found to be a nice man.
Joel Goldsmith was next but I was unable to catch his talk. He is a composer for the show.
Joe Flanigan was next. He looked good (with a lot of dark stubble) and was relaxed and laconic. He said he was from the area between Reno and Lake Tahoe and his folks still have a ranch up there. He went to a bording school near Santa Barbara and that is where he learned to surf. He has done a number of extreme sports (helicoper skiing, scuba diving, sky diving...) He retold the story of Mr. Rainier and how his cornea froze up while he was near the top in a lenticular storm, it was below freezing, very windy and he wasn't sure he would be surviving the experience. Since his wife was home and pregnant, he just kept calling himself a jerk as he climbed down the mountain. He says he calls the new guy, Jason, his wookie. He said he was going this week to Las Vegas with Brad Wright and the USAF would be taking them up in F-16s, the Thunderbirds. He said the USAF asked if he'd cut his hair, and when he asked, what would he get in return, they said a ride with the Thunderbirds, and he thought that would be a fair trade. So, even though he was willing, Wright (or Cooper) said they weren't going to allow them to dictate stuff like that. They're still getting the flights, though. He talked about about David Hewlett and how he has a nose/profile of Bob Hope and how funny it'd be to have a Road Show type of thing going. He mentioned it to the writers and they were interested in playing around with that at some point. His favorite show this season is a recent one where he morphs into a Wraith Bug. When asked how he got the part, he said his manager knows Hank Cohen.
During the autograph session, personalizations were allowed if you wanted it, like at the day before. After a break for dinner, there was the Dessert Party. The issues of Vancouver have been resolved in a good way. Once the guests come in, they stand at the front of the stage and the room goes up one half a time and takes pictures in a paparazzi type of way for a couple of minutes. Cameras are then put away, that guests go to each table, one a time and spend 5 to 10 minutes chatting with everyone. Peter Williams spent much longer than that, though. It was very nice to be able to ask them questions in a more relaxed manner. PW talked about Bob Marley and the London scene, and music. Gary Jones was asked if there were special screenings where the crew could watch new eps as they were finished, and he stressed he didn't watch the show as he and his wife were busy raising their children. It was just a job and his wife didn't like S.F. anyway. Dan Shea was asked more about his daughter. I can't remember what my table asked Flanigan, but a couple of the ladies there (after he left) stressed how "penetrating his eyes were as they looked right into your soul." Personally, I didn't notice that myself, but there you go. When DSD was at our table, I asked him what was Hammond's status now that Jack was head of Homeworld Security. He was pretty sure Jack didn't have Hammond's job and laughed. I must be confused, but when I just went to the SciFi site, they have both Jack and Hammond listed for that job. I think I'm not the only confused one around here! The desserts were sundaes with all the trimmings and a selection of pastry types of things. After most of the guests had left, the DJ turned up the volume and people went out onto the dance floor.
The one thing I think Creation ought to change is the number of hours between the end of the Dessert Party on Saturday night (we left at 10:30ish) and the Breakfast at 8am on Sunday; they're just going to have to get the Hilton to insert extra hours between 3 and 4 am! In other words, we hauled our sleepy behinds out of bed too darn early! Breakfast was you're usual buffett sort of set up (and the fruit was particularly good.) After we ate for a while, the guests came in about 8:45, did the paparazzi thing again, had a quick meal and started to circulate. Today, it was Michael Shanks, Chris Judge and Torri Higginson. There was a few stray steath volley's of mini-muffins, one airborne sauage, and CJ poured a bit of ice water somewhere on TH. She tossed a couple of things around; our table was strafed by a muffin when MS was sitting with us. MS told us a little about his new daughter (that she was loud and stubborn, and he had wanted her first name to be Tabitha, while Lexa was wanting Mia. After the 'birth process' he figured Lexa had enough collateral to win the debate. Mia is pronounced Me-a. He said all mornings were tough. He also talked about the difficulties of playing a character for so many years. Torri, well, I can't really repeat the stories our table told TH, or what our table taught her in sign language. I'll just say she's a quick learner and we had 'girl talk.' CJ spent part of our time stalking his prey and sneaking behind Torri to pour a little bit of water on her.
Michael Shanks and Christopher Judge were on together for 2 hours and it went fast. Both looked in great shape and were dressed in black shirts and jeans. For those that care, MS wasn't wearing a hat, his hair looked good and he wasn't bearded! First off, to promote a project that they co-produced, they showed a film of the behinds the scenes of photographing a new calendar called The Women of Sci Fi. If you haven't seen CJ's photography, it is very stylish, striking , eye catching, bold and sexy. The film showed the ladies in various revealing or fantasitc outfits, with wild makeup on. Andromeda was represented by 3 of their actresses (including Lexa in a dominatrix type of outfit), and Teryl Rothery in some sort of Southern Belle gone naughty sort of thing. The images were so striking I had a hard time IDing the actresses. Amanda Tapping was not included due to her pregnancy. Anyway, it looks very exciting (more so for the men.) Later in the Q&A, CJ was asked how he was going to do MS's centerfold, and he said, "two words: leathers and feathers. Leather motorcyle pants and a feather boa. This was after much joking around about slashy stuff and topics (all just silly good fun.)
Boy, there was so much that was said, and I'm too tired to get to all the details. Suffice to say, they have a great comedy routine going with MS as the 'pragmatic' one that tends to do short answers and the bubbly and enthusiastic CJ. CJ couldn't say enough nice things about how good an actor MS is, and how hard he works, while downplaying his own talents. MS finally had to asked the crowd, "do you think Chris can act?" There was loud applause and MS said, "Thank you!" They were asked about Puff and Ruffle and got Torri to come out to prove they didn't do that to the new guests stars, but she up and said they did and pretty strongly, too. MS looked stunned and just said they were "Busted." CJ tried to salvage it, but it was hopeless. When TH left, she gave them each one of those hugs where you climb onto the person with your legs wrapped around them (MS looked MIGHTY surprised!) They also talked about flatulence and bathroom humor practical jokes. They talked about how Ben Browder likes to give away his lines to anyone. He wanted Teal'c to take, "Roger that." He also tried to give his lines to an extra. They went on about BB wants to do his own stunts even the ones the stunt men should be doing. MS said BB really should have a Dialogue Double as BB would enjoy that. (edited to add: CJ and MS talked about BB just wanting to get to the action. MS looked at the very chatty CJ and said he thought it was funny that the two people (CJ and BB) who were looking to say less on job were very talkative in real life. They said BB's nickname was White Noise. Michael said sometimes during a scene he felt he was surrounded by mutes.---end of edit)
MS thought a couple of the early eps in this season were the best yet. When asked about what was their favorite scenes, CJ said that walk in the park with DJ from The Changeling. MS said that was probably the longest scene he and CJ had ever had together and how sad was that that it was in a dream, Teal'c wasn't Teal'c and Daniel wasn't Daniel and he was dead and he wasn't even in that season! He was excited to hear that the new season would be around their characters but he didn't realized the characters would be seperated that much. Someone asked if Corin Nemec would be on SG-1 and Chris said, No, and after CJ tried to explain further, MS pragmatically said there were no plans at the moment for that. CJ obviously had strong opinions about the subject but just as obviously felt he couldn't speak freely about it.
MS was asked about his Highlander ep. He said he was real green and probably didn't know where to stand or not get in the way of lighting folks. He said Adrian Paul was very helpful to him. He also thought Daniel died too much, but then it was brought up that his character in HL died as did a number of other characters, so he began to wonder if it was a Daniel thing or a Michael thing. When asked what role he would like to play, MS said, James Bond; great cars and clothes and the women never get older.
When asked about Daniel and Atlantis, MS said he thought it very odd that after working for 7 years and dying a few times, this stubborn man would not go to Atlantis just because Jack said, "no."
They talked about lots more but I just can't think of it right now.
Torri came out and answered a few questions. I thought she was doing pretty good, but MS threw a muffin at her. She ran back and said something to him and he came out. He said he was hiding because Chris was walking around squirting people with a beer. He left briefly to get a microphone, and then sat down on her director's chair while she paced back and forth as she answered the questions. Someone gave her a 'con book' (filled with messages from the fans) and MS read if for the longest while. He was obviously listening to Torri and would chip in to help the flow or make a joke. At one point Torri said the fans were nice people, and MS agreed. My opinion of all this is that Torri was feeling insecure and asked or was happy that Michael came out to steady her and give her a sense of security. If she was nervous, it didn't really show up. I thought it was very sweet of Michael.
Torri said a number of flirtacious things about Daniel. She said she wished her dog could be on the show and on Atlantis. I forget the dog's name, so I'll just use Lassie. "Lassie, Lassie! Come quick! Little Joey has fallen into the well!" She said David Hewlett was a grump to work with (obviously saying the opposite of what was true.) She also quite like the moral delimma her character faces. She thought there was one ep where she gave in to Geneva Convention violations WAY too easily. She said Brad Wright has said Weir will never pick up a gun. She did have to go to some hand to hand type classes though and was intrigued about how that would be used.
No personalization was allowed for this set of autographs, though I noticed a few of my friend's photos were personalized (in other words, no one was being the badguy and stopping it if the guests felt like doing it. CJ had a plane to catch and started working the line to get them all done as fast as he could. Torri said my T-shirt was quite handsome (it had a photo of Daniel Jackson on it.) I asked MS if the restaurant in Threads was a location or a set. He said it was a set for Dead LIke Me and when they were just about to tear it down, they said, "wait, wait, wait!" and used it in Threads.
(Edited to add this:
When I was getting JF's autographed I asked him if the watch he was wearing was the one he wore on the show. He said, yes, he wears it all the time. It was the Suunto with the teal accents. In the Q&A, when a girl asked him for a hug, he said to be fair she also needed to hug the security guy, too, which she did. The security guy on the other side of the stage waved his hand and said, "Joe, what about my hug?" JF said something like *he* wasn't going to give him a hug.
In the autographed line, I asked Dan Shea how many episodes was RDA going to be in this year. He said two, then added he just really needed to take a year off.
A question was asked of Michael and Chris, was their something they didn't like about their characters. Chris said it's the eyebrow thing. Now they are writing that in the scripts instead of giving him lines. Michael laughed and something like, "instead of giving you lines, indeed." He lowered his voice and said indeed like Teal'c would. For Michael, he said there was a moment when he was six weeks into the show and still having to walk past the teamsters in hospital clothing and have them joke about what sort of pajamas he was still having to wear. He made some comment about white (his clothing) not photographing well and CJ laughed. MS said, what? CJ said, well, dude, you were born that way. MS went on to comment on all the times Daniel has died and that it was getting a little old now. There was much laughter as he talked about this and how often Daniel gets shot, especially in Lockdown. And Michael and Chris were a riot. They are such a great team and extremely entertaining together.---End of edit)
Strangely, I thought there wasn't much difference in attendance from Friday to Saturday, but Sunday had noticably more fans.
After that, we retired to a friend's room and chatted about the con and plots for stories. I didn't leave until 1:30am, and now I'm doing this! Actually, I'm falling asleep, so I'll stop here. As I said, I'm sure I've forgotten stuff.
