WormholeRiders

My Fellow Fans,

This past weekend I attended the annual Stargate convention – colloquially referred to as “VanCon”  – held in Burnaby, British Columbia by Creation Entertainment. This was the first convention I have attended, and it was quite the eye opener for me. It was different than I had been expecting – less hectic, more organized, and, most of all, the panelists were extremely entertaining. I was granted a press pass by Creation Ent., which allowed me to get some great close-up shots during the panels, and so my report will mostly focus on a photo-journal approach, so to speak, of the weekend’s events.

I spent a lot of time chatting with other convention-goers as I had only purchased General Admissions tickets myself; that is, I attended the panels, but didn’t do any of the photo op or signing sessions. Thus, it could be argued that I didn’t quite get the full “convention” experience, but for more on that you can read the reports by my fellow writer Stephanie (aka ValaBlack).

Saturday, April 17, 2010

My first panel on Sunday was with Michael Shanks – Dr. Daniel Jackson of Stargate: SG-1. Mr. Shanks spent most of the panel taking questions from the fans, and a more detailed write-up of his panel will go up in the next several weeks. Some instances in particular from his panel stand out in my mind. One of them was when he talked about really getting into role for his work on Andromeda, and how it was very much a “chore” given that that was when he started seeing the lead actress on the show, Lexa Doig – now his wife.

Another tale that had the audience laughing was when a fan asked about something called the “puff and ruffle”. Apparently Mr. Shanks’ costars Amanda Tapping (Col. Samantha Carter, SG-1, SGA, SGU) and Teryl Rothery (Dr. Janet Frasier, SG-1) used to get upset with the ‘boys’ (Mr. Shanks, Chris Judge, and Richard Dean Anderson) on set because they had a ritual, of sorts, when there was an “attractive” female guest star. Mr. Shanks, of course, said he has no idea what they were talking about. But he did a demonstration for us, pretending that there was a guest star in his chair, and demonstrating how exactly they might act toward her.

Probably my favourite part of Mr. Shanks’ panel started when certain fans – including yours truly – realized that his wife (the aforementioned Lexa Doig) was on Twitter (you can click on her Twitter avatar on the right to check out her Twitter page) to coincide with her husband’s panel. Lexa wanted us fans – affectionately referred to as her “minions” – to do her not-so-evil bidding and bug her husband about something for which she had volunteered them: the M.S. Society of Canada’s Walk on April 25.

If you would permit me a quick aside, M.S. (Multiple Sclerosis) is a degenerative disease for which there is currently no cure, given that doctors and researchers still don’t really understand the cause or even underlying mechanisms of the symptoms. The MS Walk aims to raise money for researching this disease, and it is a cause about which the Shanks’ are known for being passionate.

If you follow the link in the banner above it will take you to the “Team Shanks” page where any donation would be greatly appreciated.

This interjection by Lexa prompted a discussion of the raccoons which have been destroying the Shanks’ lawn because they recently resod the lawn and every night the raccoons come in and roll up the sod. Unfortunately, their cats are of no use as one of them seems to have made friends with a raccoon. Mr. Shanks likened this to a dog who makes friends with a burglar in your home.

Mr. Shanks mentioned the movie How to Train Your Dragon (by Dreamworks Studios) – and if I may offer an opinion, if you haven’t seen it yet, add it to the list! – and right before leaving the stage he did a Viking impression, involving a sort-of-accurate Scottish accent which definitely made me laugh.

My next panel was Chris Heyerdahl who was in SG-1, SGA, and is now in Sanctuary as John Druitt and ‘The Big Guy’. Mr. Heyerdahl touched on several aspects of his various characters in the Stargate franchise – notably his time as Todd the Wraith in SGA.

Mr. Heyerdahl discussed what it is like to have to wear so much make-up and prosthetics for various roles. If you recall Todd, Mr. Heyerdahl likened that make-up to having hot acid poured on his face – especially after a long day when the make-up artists come to do touch-ups.

Mr. Heyerdahl also did his “Todd the Wraith” voice with a line from the series finale “Vegas” in which he tells John Sheppard that he knows his destiny. He also talked about being surprised to be recognized for his role in Atlantis given that he wasn’t in make-up.

After Chris Heyerdahl, my next panel was with David Hewlett and Joe Flanigan, of SGA. In a word, this panel was hilarious. Toward the end of the panel I actually had to stop taking pictures because I was laughing too hard to hold the camera up.

Mr. Hewlett started off, rather befittingly, some might say, with a debate over the distinction between dorks, geeks, and nerds. Someone offered the suggestion that there is actually a chart which can help you with the distinction, to which Mr. Hewlett replied that if you have a chart, you’ve pretty much got your answer right there.

The discussion segued into tech support, with Mr. Hewlett discussing his various technology and recent forays into editing with Final Cut Pro ™. He then prompted people to start asking questions given that he could spend the whole panel discussing various computer issues.

One thing I found particularly interesting was when Mr. Hewlett discussed the challenges of directing versus acting, and how he has been enjoying directing and editing for the problem-solving aspects. He discussed his movie “A Dog’s Breakfast” and how Mars (his dog, and one of the movie’s stars) has gotten as fat as a sofa – his words.

He also talked about some of the recent challenges in shooting his new movie – as yet unnamed – for SyFy in Bulgaria. A particular moment involving an interesting solution was when they were supposed to shoot a snow mobile stunt scene, but when they went to shoot they didn’t actually have snow mobiles. The solution: sit the actors down and have them shake and bounce on their own while the crew and others threw snow at them to make it look like they were moving. Mr. Hewlett did a rather humourous demonstration of this.

When Mr. Flanigan and Mr. Hewlett were on stage together it was pretty much non-stop laughter. The two of them shared memories from their work on Atlantis, and generally teased and ribbed one another. When Mr. Flanigan was up on stage on his own, he mentioned his recent work on Warehouse 13, and that one of the reasons it felt quite odd to him was that he didn’t get a gun. The two actors playing the lead Agents on the show would pull out guns and he would be reaching for a non-existent one.

Mr. Flanigan mentioned that the episode of WH13 in which he guest starred was one of the highest rated episodes ever for the network. Of course Mr. Hewlett jumped all over that one. Mr. Hewlett kept imitating Mr. Flanigan in a rather high-pitched voice throughout their whole panel together.

Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Flanigan got asked a question about pranks on set and Mr. Hewlett’s discussion of something Jason Momoa did had Mr. Flanigan doubled over in the chair laughing. Another one involved someone (Mr. Flanigan, I gather) planting some rather…distasteful magazines in Mr. Hewlett’s trailer, which Mr. Hewlett then tucked inside Mr. Flanigan’s laptop. And of course he was the one stopped going through customs. Apparently the Customs lady was so disgusted that she just waved him through, while Mr. Flanigan was protesting all the while that it wasn’t his magazine. The end of this back and forth, by the way, was when I was laughing too hard to continue taking pictures.

Joe Flanigan and David Hewlett were my last panel on Saturday and a great way to wrap up my first day at a convention.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

If I could sum up the theme of Sunday in a word, it would be family. The day started off with Mr. N. John Smith who has long been involved with the Stargate franchise. Mr. Smith discussed how he came to television from a boating background and went on to become an executive producer on the Stargates.

Mr. Smith also discussed how they ended up filming at the North Pole for the SG-1 movie Continuum. A fan, Barry Campbell, approached him, Martin Wood, and Andy Mikita at a convention and gave them a picture of himself next to the tower of a L.A. class nuclear submarine. Through Mr. Campbell and working in conjunction with the United States Navy, a select crew and several actors flew up a base-camp on the ice. If you’d like to hear more details, and watch the videos, you should check out the special features on the Continuum DVD – there’s a great featurette on their time in the Arctic.

After Mr. Smith my next panel was with Rachel Luttrell of SGA. Before fans started to ask questions, Ms. Luttrell talked a bit about some things she has coming up, one of which is a CD which she will be recording soon. This, of course, prompted a request for a demonstration, and so she performed a short little piece (of which I don’t know the name, sorry) on the spot. She was very, very good – which shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone who watched SGA as she herself sang in an episode.

In answer to a fan’s question about whether she kept anything from the set with her as a memento after the series finished, Ms. Luttrell said that the only thing that she wanted was her chair from set: the one with her name on it. However, when she went to find it on the last day it was nowhere to be found. This topic came up later (over a New Year’s, if I’m recalling correctly) with Jason Momoa (her costar on SGA) and he apparently got quite the sheepish look on his face and admitted that he had taken it. It all worked out fine though, since Ms. Luttrell did end up getting the chair after all.

She also discussed some of the stunts that they did on Atlantis, and how she practiced a lot to be able to pull off the fight scenes herself. One fan asked whether she ever accidentally hurt someone, and she laughed then told a story about the episode “The Lost Boys”. In the episode Teyla is fighting Ronan, and Ms. Luttrell said that during one take she accidentally actually punched Jason Momoa in the eye, giving him a black eye. She said that he was quite the baby about it too, and that she had to buy him flowers the next day because he was still upset.

Relating to the family theme of the day, Ms. Luttrell’s two and a half year old son, who was also at the panel, decided about half-way through the panel that he wanted to go see his mother. Entirely unphased by the audience, lights, or cameras, he climbed up with Ms. Luttrell and sat with her for the rest of the panel, happy as can be. Ms. Luttrell also discussed her relationships with her costars, and how they really are like family, brothers, to her and that they still see each other as much as possible, schedules permitting.

Following Ms. Luttrell’s panel I had a rather long wait until the next panel, but it was entirely worth it. The SGU panel was one of the ones I was most looking forward to this past weekend, and it certainly did not disappoint. This panel, the largest that I attended, featured Brian J. Smith, David Blue, Elyse Levesque, and Mark Burgess, all of Stargate Universe.

One of the reasons I enjoyed this panel so much – aside from the fact that all 4 panelists were pretty awesome – was the way they played off each other to answer questions and relate stories to us about their times working on SGU so far. One topic that came up close to the beginning was how dog-friendly the set of the show is. One of their costars Louis Ferreira (who plays Col. Young) has two himself, and Brian has a King Charles Cavalier spaniel named Cassie. David and Elyse were ribbing Brian about the dog and how he’s always fussing and worrying about her.

When people started asking questions one of the first ones was about which shows they themselves watch. Elyse said that she doesn’t watch much, but watches Mad Men and True Blood. David said that he watches, well, far too many to list (and I can’t recall most of them). He said that it’s one thing he has in common with Eli, that he watches almost everything. The ones which stood out in my mind are Lost, Fringe, Big Bang Theory, and, of course, SGU. Brian said that he doesn’t watch much currently, but that last year he went through Battlestar: Galactica in about four months after prompting from David, and that he watches Dog the Bounty Hunter. Mr. Burgess said that he watches Flashpoint, Sanctuary, and several cooking shows – he used to be a chef.

Another fan asked the panelists who from the other Stargate series they would like to swap bodies with via the communications stones. Brian said that he would swap with a Furling – to much laughter. (If you aren’t familiar with SG-1, the Furling were an alien race who were mentioned near the beginning of the series but never actually met, much to many fans’ chagrin). Elyse said that she would like to swap with Amanda Tapping (Sam Carter) because she is “awesome”. David immediately said David Hewlett (McKay), but changed his answer to Michael Shanks (Daniel Jackson) because Dr. Jackson has become a “super ninja spy” and because he wants to do a scene with McKay and Eli going back and forth. To gales of laughter, Mr. Burgess contributed that he too would swap bodies with Amanda Tapping. Apparently they actually went to the same university back in Ontario together – small world.

At one point Elyse discussed an “accident” that happened on set at one point when they were filming at a quarry. She was trying to clamber over a gravel pile and Brian was trying to help her over when she slipped and sliced her shin open. Apparently blood went everywhere, and there was an ambulance called in; she was “scarred for life”. While she told the story Brian, to much laughter from the audience, mimed out parts of the story: from an exaggerated sad face, to an ambulance driver, to an exaggerated happy face for the ending. He joked that “that’s what four years at Juilliard gets you”.

Not only did they talk about some of their experiences shooting episodes, but they also talked a bit about some of their costars. Apparently Mr. Ferreira, utterly unlike his serious character, is quite the joker on set and has played a couple pranks on people, Robert Carlyle for one. Mr. Carlyle, Bobby to his costars, was very highly spoken of. I actually bumped into him myself while grocery shopping a couple weeks ago, and he was extremely nice and very friendly. Elyse and David talked a bit about how Elyse has her own “Scottish” accent – which she says isn’t that great – and that while helping David read through lines from Divided he kept cracking up because she would read Mr. Carlyle’s lines in her “accent”.

The cast also talked a bit about their experience shooting in the desert for the pilot down in New Mexico, and how they had been joking about the tan/burn lines that they would have when they got back, only to actually look like that when they returned. David mentioned that they actually had burns like they do in the pilot. Mr. Burgess, to much laughter, passed on words of advice from someone who was advising him about the desert: “If you did not drop it, do not pick it up”. Which he then went on to say is probably good advice for anything.

One thing which really struck me while watching this panel is that while these guys (mostly) play friends on the show, that dynamic is far more pronounced off screen and they seem like great friends, not just coworkers. Peter Kelamis (who plays Brody on SGU) and Mark Savela (the visual effects supervisor for SGU) were also there to support the panelists, and I, for one, had a great time visiting with both of them again.

I had a great time this past weekend watching all the panelists, and I would happily see any of them again. There is only one change I would make to the SGU panel: I want to see even more of the cast up there next year!

If you have any questions or comments about my time at VanCon, feel free to email me at the link below, or click on the image to follow the link to my Twitter page.
NaddyCat

Thanks for reading!

Nadine Ramsden

Hey guys!

This is officially my first report for WormholeRiders News Agency! How exciting, right? Well, for me it is, anyway. Right after the convention I was scheduled for extended travel, but I am BACK! . First off, this is a largely personal report. I talk a lot about what happened personally to me, during my photos and autographs. 

And I’m sorry in advance for rambling. I’m detailed out of habit when it comes to conventions. I feel like I can’t miss anything out. *nods* So yeah… this report might be slightly different to what you’re used to.

Okay, down to business. First off all our thanks to PaganX (Lisa W) and ImWebGurl (MaryAnne), friends of WormholeRiders, for their assistance in taking and providing photos at Hub Con’s Stargate 2010 convention for my report.The picture above is mine!

In an arrangement with WHR, all the photos provided Lisa are linked to her Flickr page and those Maryanne provided are linked back to her Twitter account. Hover text is provided in each instance.

Please visit and follow Lisa and Maryanne on Twitter by clicking their avatars as they are wonderful people and I thank them for their help!

The Hub Productions held an event called “Stargate 2010” over a single weekend in two different cities. Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. I only attended the Melbourne event.

Now, on the day the guests were due to fly in to Melbourne, a mini cyclone hit. A lot of the venue had been flooded, but the management team had chosen not to cancel, and tried to make the best of the situation.I guess Australia can’t handle RDA. Heh. (I’m from New Zealand. Australia/New Zealand = Canada/America, if you know what I mean.)

The event started late, due to the lovely weather, so everything had to be reorganized. Photo ops took a while to get sorted, but everything worked out. My first photo op was with Claudia Black. Claudia Black Online was the first fan site I’d ever joined, and it was how I found WormholeRiders aka WHR. She was one of my absolute favourites. I’d heard she tended to be a bit distant, so I was pretty nervous.

I walked up to her and shook her hand (totally formal, I know! But everyone was doing it and there was a no hugging rule… and the guest actually seemed to appreciate the politeness) and smiled and said “Hi!” She smiled back and replied with a “Hello! Nice to meet you!” I told her I was a mmmber from Claudia Black Online, and we had a little mini conversation about the site.

Then we posed for the photo, and the photo snapped. Obviously something messed up, and the photographer went about fixing the camera.  I’d seen a lot of Claudia’s photo ops, and she looked pretty much the same in every single one, so I wanted to be different. I perked up and said “Oh yeah! Can you do one of those massive Vala smiles?” She thought for a while. “Uhm… noooo.” I kind of stared at her and went “Noooo?!” in the same way someone would say “Excuse me?”

I mean, how hard can it be to smile, right? (apparently my reaction was hilarious… everyone started laughing. Aaand apparently she was totally messing with me, but of course, I had no idea at the time.) And then she started laughing and said “Naah I’ll do it.” So we posed, and the camera made some snappy sound, so I thought the photo had been taken, and I stopped smiling.

Then it flashed. I freaked. “NOOOO I DIDN’T SMIIILE!” Claudia started laughing. “Hahaha whaat?” I pouted and whined “I thought it’d been taaaken! I stopped smiling!” and she kept laughing at meeee. The photographer sighed and said “okay, ONE more.” And we took it.

Claudia then took notice of my top, which she apparently really liked. “Oooh I love your top! Is it [insert famous sounding brand name here]?” I didn’t hear the name properly, so I was a bit confused. “Uhm… I uhh… I don’t know. I just bought it?” And she smiled and said “Oh okay. Well it’s nice!” and I said “aw, thank you!” And I was leaving, I thanked her again, and she called back “You’re welcome! Oh… and I don’t do that for everyone… just so you know.”

Let me just say I love how she looks in my photo op!

Anyhow, next up was Ben Browder! I was amazingly excited for him. I was told to go up to him right when the guy in front of me was about to leave. He was still shaking the other guy’s hand, so I kind of didn’t know what to do, so once he was done, I piped up “Hi!” And this is where it got weird.

As soon as he saw me, his eyes went all soft like they would if I was a little girl. I shook his hand and smiled a little awkwardly, and he grinned and said “hey honey!” before hugging me to him. I was feeling rather awkward. I mean, it was really nice, but… I’m not used to being treated like I was ten? He kind of half faced me, and looked like he expected me to say something, so I blurted “I’m Zoe, by the way!” and he nodded and said “Zoe?” I nodded back. “Zoe.” And we went back and forth, repeating my name in about twenty million different tones before he finally said “Okay, I think I got that.” And I said “yep! Just so you remember.”

And he smiled and said “Yeah, I think I will.” Then we took the photo. He STILL had his arm around me, so he bent down and said “okay… so… Zoe?” I smiled and said “oh look! You got it right!” And he laughed and said “yes, I did!” The most amazing feeling in the world is when one of your favourite actors finds you funny. He kept hugging me to him, which was sweet. And he kept smiling! Aw. I really didn’t want to leave. He smells really good… you know that? And I love how he actually tried to make conversation. Well we said our goodbyes, and he called me by name, and it was sweet, and then I was off.

And guess what? During his and Claudia’s panel, instead of Chloe (referring to Uncharted 2), he said Zoe. HAHA. I like to think that was because of me.

Next up… the absolutely AMAZING Richard Dean Anderson!

He was pretty much the reason I’d begged so hard to get to this convention. I mean, he’s done like four in his lifetime, and I wanted to meet him! You can tell he’s just really funny and down to Earth. And he is! He was sitting down for his photo, wearing a fisherman’s hat, which made everyone kind of go… “huh?” But we understood. He’d also lost a bit of weight from when he first had surgery. He had a huge line, which was understandable. It meant they were rushing the photo ops.

I hung around a bit when the lady told me to go ahead, since I didn’t want to get cut short. I walked up once he finished talking with the guy in front of me. I smiled, and made sure to make eye contact and shake his hand firmly (apparently it was very important to him.) “Hi Richard!” He looked up (I was standing, he was sitting) and said “Why hello there!” I sat down next to him and said my name was Zoe. I wasn’t sure WHY I did that, exactly, but I’m glad I did. “Zoe, huh? That’s one of my favourite names!” (Going all grandfather on me) And being genuinely surprised, I was like “wow, really?” He replied with a “Yeah! Oh… uhm… don’t take this the wrong way… but my dog’s name is Zoe.” (Switching from grandfather to Jack O’Neill in two seconds) I was thanking God that my parents had named me Zoe at this point. “Oh really? That’s cool!”

And he smiled and said “Yeah, I like the name!” And I was like “well… I’m born in the year of the dog… you know… Chinese Zodiac.” And he kind of lit up and said “Oh cool! So in a way, you’re kind of like my dog!” giving me the biggest smile ever. I kind of sat there, blank, because I had NO idea what to say to that. But he laughed, and put his arm around me. I leaned slightly on his shoulder and we took the picture. The photographer kind of went “Aww… how cute” in a slightly sarcastic way. I felt like throwing something at her but I just grinned.

The photo actually got printed three times, funny that. He looked so cute! Well anyway, I stood up and said “Thank you! It was super nice meeting you!” and I shook his hand again, just because I could. He said it was super nice meeting me too. He has this way of saying things that makes you want to show off about it for the rest of the day. Probably because he’s Richard Dean Anderson. He’s amazing.

So that was the three major guests done, according to the Hub.

Next was David Nykl. Little Zelenka! Who was taller than me. Yeah that sucked a little bit. Haha. And his last name is pronounced like “nickel.” I’d always said “Nye-kill” So weird.

Anyhow, walked up, smiled, shook his hand, said my name was Zoe (after Richard Dean Anderson… well, no harm, right?) He smiled and said “hey Zoe!” Really didn’t know what to say, so I decided to go with small talk. “Did you survive the cyclone?” He put his arm around my shoulder and posed for the photo. I wondered if he was actually going to answer the question. Once we were done though, he said “Actually I did! Flew right through it. Woooh. Is weather like that normal here?” I shrugged and said “you tell me! I’m from New Zealand.

Flew all the way here for this little thaaang.” He was like “Oh yeah? I’ve been there!” I like to make sure I know every single SG person that’s been to NZ, so I know when they might come back, but I had no idea he’d been here. “Whoa really? When did you come?” “A couple of years back. Nice place.” “Yeah… I think I only like it because I was born there. I have an attachment.” He nodded. “Yeah I know what you mean, that’s like me and my country. But New Zealand is a really nice place.” And I was like “Well, glad you liked it!” and then I got stared at again, so I said “thanks for everything!” and he said “no problem!” before waving, and I was off to Connor’s photo.

Connor Trinneer. How cute is he!? He is adorable. He just has really soft features and it’s just adorable. I’d seen a bit of him in Star Trek, and of course as Michael, and I just thought he was so cute! So I was really excited. I went up to him and said “Hey!” and he was like “Hi! Oh I really like your shoes!” Connor Trinneer: Fashionista. Who knew? I grinned and said “thanks! I like your t-shirt!” He looked at it and said “thanks! I like your top too! And your hat. It’s a nice hat.” And I was like “Awww thanks! I like your… shoes!” and he looked for something to compliment. “Thanks! I like your… uhm… jeans.” I grinned and said “OH I LIKE YOUR WHOLE OUTFIT.”

He laughed and we posed for the photo. He did his half arm hug thing. It actually makes up for the no-hugging thing. They keep their arm there until you leave. I adore it. Anyhow, when we took the picture, my hair fell in my face, causing me to turn AWAY from him. I wasn’t facing a couple of the stars in my photo ops. No idea why. The camera was taking my bad side? Haha. So I photoshopped it to make it look closer. Heh.

Once it’d been taken, he looked and me and said “so… they are really nice shoes!” and I was thinking “aw! He’s trying to make conversation!” I love stars who do that. I smiled and thanked him again. He told me he really liked my style. I was seriously getting SO flattered! He’s so sweet! Haha. I said “aw thank you!” and he said I was welcome, and he smiled the cutest smile ever. I mean, he’s just adorable. So then I had to leave, so I waved and said bye, and he smiled again and waved.

He complimented me so much! I did kind of lie… though. His shoes weren’t the best. But they looked comfortable! And anything would look good on Connor. I bet he was bluffing about my jeans. Haha.

Wow, this is long. Sorry for dragging this out. I just like to be detailed.

Chris Judge was next! I actually really wanted to bear hug him, but it’s cool. He’s actually really soft spoken. Or maybe it was just me. Apparently I’m ten.

I walked up and shook his hand, said hi and introduced myself. He was like “heeey!” I asked how he was. He said he was good. With his head nods. He kind of nods his head a lot. Then we posed for the photo, he put his arm over my shoulder, and apparently (I didn’t see this) he side-stepped massively so he could lean down to my level. Everyone watching was like “awww.” I was oblivious, but according to the people there, that’s what happened.

I didn’t even notice. I was too busy dwelling on the fact that he was BALD again! I saw him on Jace Hall, but I didn’t expect him to still be bald… yes, well I said thank you, and he bowed his head, like Teal’c does, and grinned and said I was welcome. And he thanked me too! Strange. And away I go. Really sweet. And his smile is so cheesy. Haha.

And last but not least, David Blue!

As you guys probably know (and if you don’t know… well, you can learn now.) I’m not the hugest fan of SGU. I mean, I don’t mind it, just not obsessed yet. I just see it as “another show.” But ever since the beginning, I thought Eli was amazing. I also saw David on Ugly Betty. He was just so cute! Not a lot of people went to see him… poor guy. He’s so cute! How can you not?

So I walked up to him, didn’t shake his hand (didn’t actually cross my mind. Strange. I just walked up and started talking.) I said “hey! I’m Zoe!” with a smile on my face. He smiled back… he actually smiled the whole time. He stops smiling to talk, but then he goes right back. It’s so cute! He was like “Oh Zoe huh? Hey!” and I was like “yeah, what’s your name?”

OH. MY. GOSH. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW DORKY I FELT AFTER SAYING THAT. OMGWTFBBQ WHY DID I SAY THAT!?

He took it well though. “Oh, I’m David. Hi.” Big smile.

I said it was nice to meet him. He said “you too!” We took the photo. Then I turned to him and I was like “oh I totally follow you on twitter! You like… don’t tweet me.” And he replied with a “yeah? What’s your username?” I told him it was “superhuman.” He thought for a little while, and then he said “oh yeah, I’ve seen your tweets. with two R’s, right?”

HE RECOGNISED ME FROM TWITTTTEEEEERRRRR! HE HAS LIKE 180,000 FOLLOWERS AND HE KNOWS ME! And I don’t even tweet him that much.

I was thrilled, so I happily confirmed it. Then his handler I think it was, yelled “CARAMELMONKEY!” and I was like “OMG! YEAH THAT’S MEEEE!” and she was like “I FOUND YOUUU!” and we had a mini ten second reunion. Then I turned back to look at David, who was kind of lost. I just said “usernames.” And he nodded. Mutual geek understanding right there. Gotta love it. Anyhow, I had to leave, then, so I said “bye!” and he smiled and said “Oh we’ll talk later! On twitter! Bye!” AHHHHHHHHH. And he actually kept to his word! I got home and he’d tweeted me. How nice of him.

So that’s what my photo experiences were like. I’m content with them. Rather epic, I like to think. Squeezed in so much more time than twelve seconds. *claps*

PANELS

These were epic, let me just say. We also weren’t allowed to record, at all, and if we were caught, we’d be screwed, so sorry if this seems a little vague. Just based on the notes I took.

Dan Shea, Chris Judge, David Blue

As Dan Shea was being introduced, he jumped out of no where, ran off stage, and started high fiving everyone he possibly could, running around the hall a bunch of times. He has a lot of energy. As he was about to jump on stage, he pretended to get stuck, and requested some audience help. The whole time his mouth was running like a motor.

Once he got on stage, Chris Judge was introduced. Dan Shea bowed down as Chris walked up to him. Dan stood up and threw his glasses off, and ripped off his shirt. The day before, he and Chris had a push-up contest, and evidently he wanted a rematch. Chris just sat down. Dan tried to get him to join in. “I wonder if David will do it…” Dan kept trying to get Chris to rematch, even though Chris just sat and refused, laughing at the same time. “Come on! Let’s go! NOW!” Dan put his legs up on the seat and started doing push ups on his knuckles. Chris finally got up, only to sit himself down on Dan’s back as he did the push ups. Ouuuch.

David Blue was originally supposed to have his own panel, but time was cut short. He had to leave at 4, and the cyclone just didn’t help at all. So he was stuck with two guys from SG1. When he came on stage, he fistbumped Dan, who challenged him. David asked how many they had done. Two answers were given at the same time. “Uhh… 2.” “147.”

David politely declined, but offered to take his shirt off instead. Laughing at the cheers, he changed his mind. “You’ll pay me to put it back on. Trust me.”

As David sat down, Chris turned to look at him. “So… who are you?” David looked mock hurt. “I was your stunt double for THREE YEARS! Then you started working out.”

Dan was asked a question. He exclaimed “You’re not just asking me a question because you feel SORRY for me, are you?” Chris piped up. “I have a question for you!” He pointed at Blue. “Who’s he?”

Dan spent the rest of the panel looking depressed and ignored.

Answering his question, Dan told the audience about the time Amanda Tapping almost caught on fire. He said that there was this one extra, who was ‘very pretty’… and who he did NOT have a man crush on… although he hired him at every possible opportunity, causing the audience to laugh. He accidentally set off an explosion, which set him on fire. He started screaming and yelling (as Dan so kindly demonstrated) and started running towards Amanda, who started running away from him. She had a ton of hairspray in her hair, which is highly flammable, but he was put out before any serious damage was caused. As dangerous as the story sounds, Dan made it sound hilarious.

Chris was asked about his new show, ‘Rage of Angels.’ He explained what it was about, then turned to David, smugly asking what his show was called, to which David replied ‘Rage of Demons.’

Someone asked them all what their favourite episode was. Chris looked at David and said “We aren’t talking about your show. We’re talking about SG1!” David jabbed a finger at him and half yelled “Hah! I thought you didn’t know who I was!”

When it came down to actually answering the question, David replied with the name of an episode, and Chris looked at him smugly, answering for himself. “Oh I think it was episode 161… no, episode 197…” emphasizing the success of SG1. Dan said his favourite was 200, since he got ‘to die cool’. “If you die cool, YOU ARE COOL.”

He said he’s practised this for the longest time. It was going to be perfect. He ran, in slow motion, perfect timing, falling dramatically, with a perfect landing (we saw this. On stage. I swear, everlasting energy) and lay there, waiting for the applause. He had pulled everything off as planned.

He only ever heard one voice. Martin Wood’s. “WE WEREN’T ROLLING, A__HOLE.”

Chris was asked why he suddenly had hair mid season. He suddenly dropped his smile. “Well MAYBE the guy who plays Teal’c is a REAL HUMAN BEING, who liked his hair like that! Maybe that human being wanted change! MAYBE…” and he was drowned out by audience laughter. He cleared his throat. “Sorry, I just have some issues with that…”

When he’d first been cast, the producers asked him whether he’d been bald before. He answered “well yeah… when I was born…” and the producers had asked him to shave his head, only for the first three or so episodes. He agreed. He ended up staying bald for quite a while.

He mentioned that in the early seasons, he liked to drink. So he would come to set hungover, on some days. So sometimes, he would fall asleep during takes. One day, a producer asked him “Chris… what are you doing?” He panicked… then started off tentatively “Well.. uhh… you see… Teal’c… would not… be… concerned…with these… human matters…” The producer started to look interested, so he got bolder. “I mean, why would Teal’c worry about these dumb human matters when he has a wife and child to take care of? HUMAN MATTERS DO NOT CONCERN TEAL’C. TEAL’C. IS. MEDITATING!”

Thus, Kel’no’reem was born.

Then it was time to leave, so they said their goodbyes, Chris patting David on the back in a friendly matter, and Dan running up and down, high fiving people again.

Ben and Claudia

As Ben was introduced, he ducked under the screen, as all the actors did to get on stage. He missed. He hit his head, making the audience wince. Still, he smiled and waved. Just to check how many scapers there were in the room, he yelled “CAN I GET A HELL YEAH?”

Surprisingly, he got a large response, although there weren’t many scapers in the room. Claudia was introduced right after that, and they hugged each other, which was absolutely adorable. She turned and yelled “AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!” Which got a huge response of “OI OI OI!” Of course, I said nothing, but it was cool. Ben fist pumped the air, like he had to do something. They both sat down. Claudia started recounting when she had lived in Melbourne, getting all these “oohs” and “ahhs” from the locals, but I was kind of lost… so I zoned out for a bit. She mentioned that the Melbourne audience was the most fashion forward audience she’d ever encountered.

Ben recounted Claudia’s casting. He’d already been cast, and the producers wanted someone else as Aeryn, but after running lines with Claudia, he refused to budge. “No! She’s the one! It’s her! She’s the one!” which made the audience “awww”… I mean, how cute is that?

Someone asked Claudia about her outfits on SG1, which made Ben grin and go “YESSS.” The designer had seen Farscape, and wanted lots of leather, but Claudia wanted to make Vala different from Aeryn, so Vala got a uniform, with baby patches. Aw. She also said she liked Vala wearing a lot of bling, which made Ben roll his eyes. “Black Ops! We’re in the bushes, the sun will catch on your ‘bling’ and the enemies will see us!”

They bantered for a bit, ending with Ben muttering about how much he liked her bedroom ‘jammies’ and her courtroom outfit.

They started talking about ass kicking, and Ben claimed Claudia broke his finger by jumping on him. Claudia insisted he broke his own finger. “Yes, it was my fault. You jumped me and I broke my own finger!” Claudia sighed. “When you say it like that, it sounds dumb, but it’s true! How was my bum supposed to know it was going to land on your fing… “ She broke off laughing at how wrong the conversation was sounding. Ben recovered first. “Well how was MY finger supposed to know where your bum landed!?” making the audience laugh even harder. Even the kids were laughing… although that was probably because Cam Mitchell just said ‘bum’…

They moved on to talk about Uncharted 2. Ben mentioned that his kid had a really big crush on Claudia’s character… “He’s always saying ‘I really like Zoe!’ and I’m like ‘You have a crush on Zoe?’ and he was…” Claudia cut him off. “Ben. It’s Chloe.”

I actually kind of hope that was my fault.

He amended himself “Oh, Chloe Chloe Chloe. I got it.” And he told how his son would text Claudia for cheats.

Claudia randomly complained “I’m sitting so far away from you!” and dragged her chair closer and leaned on his shoulder. Awwww. She was very touchy feely during this panel, by the way. Always touching Ben’s knee, or shoulder, or leg… not that I blame her at all.

Someone asked Ben what the difference was between working in Australia and Canada. Ben said Canadians were much more polite. If you didn’t do too well, they would apologise for you. “ I’m sorry… but can we do that again?” Whereas Australians would say “Oh that was terrible! Do it again.” He also stressed how upset he was that Australia never got properly introduced to Farscape. “It was made by Australians, in Australia and it never got it’s chance.”

Claudia told us that in Sydney, someone had asked her why her accent in the Dresden Files was so… “kids, it rhymes with ‘it’…” She took it well though, but she had no idea how to answer that. What, did he want a technical reason?

Apparently, when Ben had been sitting up on stage, chatting with everyone, someone had yelled out “YOU KNOW, I REALLY PREFER O’NEILL” making him, and everyone else cringe. Rude much? Ben said he didn’t take that too well, since he tried really hard not to be like O’Neill.

Claudia was asked if she’d like to do any other genre. She asked “what other genre is there?” Claudia then recounted a story of an interview she’d watched, where the actor (she said she thought it was Hugh Jackman, but it was actually Nathan Fillion…) who pointed out the three faces you need if you’re going to work on a soap opera.

“Did I leave the stove on?”

“…I think I left the stove on…”

“…No! I turned the stove off!”

They were asked if they would drop everything they were doing to go film more Farscape. Claudia joked “oh yeah, even if it’s a baby. Sorry baby! Gonna film more Farscape!” But they both agreed that If the chance came up, and all their personal needs were accounted for, they would definitely do Farscape or SG1 again in a heartbeat. But family comes first, they made that clear.

The MC came up to tell them it was time, but Ben told her to freeze. “You might not have time, but we do! Now… back! Back back back back back!” But he caved, and they said their goodbyes. As they were leaving, Ben yelled “THANK YOU AUSTRALIA!” Claudia said she’d always wanted to do this, then yelled “GOODNIGHT AUSTRALIA!” Leaving the stage, Ben made sure Claudia didn’t bump her head like he did. Aw. So cute!

David Nykl and Connor Trinner

David came out first, jumping about and throwing random karate kicks everywhere. Connor entered the room calmly, looking at David a little strangely, causing a lot of laughter. David mentioned that he and Connor had never actually worked together, even after being on the same show for so long.

The audience was rather quiet at the beginning, so David suggested they just throw a mic into the audience, with Connor pretending to throw a mic. Once the questioning finally started, Connor was asked how he got ready for the day. He informed the audience he would get to work at 4 in the morning, and be reading for filming at 7:30. He was then asked who he preferred to play, Trip or Michael? Good or Evil? He said he preferred Trip, since he was more layered, but he loved playing Michael too.

The next question was for David. David grinned smugly, happy to finally get a question, jeering at Connor. He was asked about the origins of the Zelenka/Rodney banter. He told the audience that Brad had been looking for someone to help Rodney with the technobabble. He recounted fondly, that Rodney and Zelenka’s relationship had developed a lot towards the fifth season, but then THE SHOW WAS CANCELLED! Neither of them were happy at all that it was cancelled, and brought it up a lot during the panel.

The guy who asked the next question asked about Zelenka speaking Russian (niiicely done, Australia.) The entire audience yelled “CZECH.” The guy paused, and continued, referring to Zelenka as Russian. David rolled his eyes and muttered “Russian, Czech, same thing…” The guy asked if Zelenka was actually talking rubbish, or if he was actually speaking real words. David said the character was actually meant to be Russian, but they changed it after finding out about David’s background. David confirmed it was definitely real, genuine swearing, which had the audience in hysterics.

A little boy bravely stood up and asked “What’s the funniest thing that’s happened on set?” David put on a childish voice and replied “the time Ronon farted!” He said he was kidding, then told the audience about him and David getting into all sorts of trouble. The next guy asked if they had ever gone home in their costumes. Connor said he’d been busted for drink driving once, when he hadn’t even been drinking! “You are in no shape to drive, sir. Look at your eyes!” Speaking of his eyes, Connor mentioned there was no peripheral vision, so he had to be led around. By the hand. You see this big ol’ scary wraith being led around by the hand. And being fed.

Connor was asked why they killed Trip, and how he felt about being killed again on SGA. He replied with a “you guys do this in Australia, right?” and flipped off (stuck up his middle finger). Yes, it was hilarious.

David was asked whether he could swear in Czech. He thought for a while, then rambled something, which Connor gasped at and put on the most horrified face.

Someone then asked Connor what he would like to create if he was Michael again.”A Teyla clone! Come on… aw, Teyla, you don’t wanna come? Lemme have a fingernail…”

They finished up, and thanked the audience. It was longer than it sounded. They both turned and yelled “AUSTRALIAAAA” before leaving the room.

Richard Dean Anderson

Rick ran on stage, turned around, stared at the screen, and looked back at us. He raised the camera in his hand and yelled “SMILE!” before taking the picture. He whipped off his sunglasses and said “hello everybody!” He takes off his hat, fixes his hair, and apologised for his lateness. He said he’s fallen asleep in the hotel, and apologised in advance for possibly falling asleep in the middle of any conversation. “Take it… not personally.”

He greeted everyone, then seriously apologised for being late. He said he didn’t want to make us wait more than we had for the whole day (aw!), but he had earplugs in and no one could get in the door. He pretended to freshen up a bit more, checking out his hair via the screen behind him, and kept fixing his pants, complaining about how baggy they were. He said this was the first time he’d been to Australia, and said he adored the place, causing a cheer to erupt throughout the crowd. He said his daughter was very jealous that he got to be here. “Daddy! You’re SO lucky! You get to miss Monday, and that’s the WORST day!”

He apologised again for being late, and thanked us for waiting, saying he was very rude to show up late. “So… uhh… if you guys haven’t noticed. If you’re… well… blind, I’ve gained a bit of weight. When you get your pictures, you’ll see what I mean.” He looked back at the screen, trying to make himself look thinner. He said he had a little heart problem, and a feet problem, and he was also dead lazy. He announced that he’d turned 60 in January, causing a round of applause. He grinned and said “Aw, it was easy! Just… surviiiive.”

The mic was finally handed to someone. “Did you prefer playing MacGyver or O’Neill?”

His answer? “Yes.”

He explained that MacGyver was his first gig, so it was a lot of fun. He was a little more experienced playing O’Neill, and once he’d sucked up to the writers, they let him do whatever he wanted. Which is probably why RDA = Jack O’Neill…

He said he was very grateful to the cast for supporting him, and he couldn’t do ANY of it without Dan Shea (who was sitting at the corner of the room, watching.)

As someone began to ask a question, one of the staff brought in some coffee for him, which he placed on the ground, crouched down, and stared at it, fiddling with the lid and testing the heat. After a while, he looked up, saw everyone staring at him, and asked… “what was the question?”

The question was about a MacGyver movie. Rick said he couldn’t grow a mullet, so it was impossible. He said an old guy trying to act like a young guy wouldn’t work out. He went straight back to playing with his coffee. He set the lid down, tested the temperature again, and bent down to sip it. Bending down on his hands and knees, he crawled behind the lecturn, and started to talk to his coffee. “How hot are you?” and he held his mic out to the cup. “Oh yeah, so hot.” He then crawled back out from behind the lecturn, and saw people staring, which seemed to shock him. “What?”

I swear, that man is Jack O’Neill.

The question was about his fishless pond. He told us that yes, it was indeed a real pond, and the fish that weren’t there were props. He said he actually did have a real cabin in Minnesota, but it wasn’t the one shown in the series. He had to refer to Dan Shea to remember where it actually was…

Someone then asked who some of his greatest co-stars were. He named about two, then asked the audience to name the rest. When someone yelled out Chris Judge’s name, he smirked. “Did he keep his shirt on?” Someone indicated he’d shown a little bit, and RDA smirked again. “And what does that mean? OH HE TOOK HIS PANTS OFF.”

A little kid asked him what his favourite season or episode was, and why. Rick thought for a while, then questioned “…in the world?” The kid replied “In SG1!” He seemed to be clueless, so people started shouting episode names. “Stop shouting, I won’t know what you’re on about…” He said he liked the episode where he got to be the 100 year old man. It meant he could get away with anything, including grabbing a girl’s butt. “One day kid, you’ll learn to grab a lady’s butt.” *pause* “And get sued for it.”

The next question was asked awkwardly. “Was it your idea to make O’Neill seem so…” Rick cut in. “Dense? THICK? Yep, pretty much.”

An obvious shipper asked the question everyone wanted to know the answer to. “What’s happening with Sam and Jack?” He paused, then just shrugged and said “I dunno!” He informed the audience that nothing would happen, since they’d been trained to control their feelings. They deliberately teased viewers on screen, but apparently it would never happen. With a sly look, he asked “Why? What did you want to happen?” Someone yelled “MAKE BABIES!” causing everyone in the room to laugh.

Rick then made a random discovery – that the sound from the mics echoed through the speakers. He stared at the speaker, looking at it carefully. It was hilarious.

He was asked what his reaction was to Michael Shanks leaving. “Oh… he looked the same when he came back.” On a more serious note, he said he really enjoyed working with him, and was glad to see him back. He respected Michael’s decision, but was definitely glad to see him back.

Someone asked, with a sly look to Dan Shea, whether or not he did his own stunts. Rick took credit for all the MacGyver ones, but asked Dan about the Stargate ones. “No sir, you did them all.” Which led to some hilarious banter between the two, including nicknames being thrown around. “Big Boy” and “Coat Tail…”

Rick then started talking about his dogs over the years. He listed all his dogs, and then mentioned that most of his dogs were dead, including Zoe, which meant everyone I’d told turned to look at me, and started laughing. I was kind of like… “oh”… which made them laugh even harder. Sigh.

The screen behind him shut off as soon as he was about to begin his farewells. He turned around, shrugged, and announced “It’s all gone! Let’s start over!” gaining applause from the audience. The MC gestured for him to finish up, and he took one last picture of the audience, asking us to pose, before saying goodbye and leaving the stage.

That was all the panels. Amazingly funny, I have to say.

Autographs

These were kind of lame. I was actually getting them for someone, since I was out of cash. And my amazing friend Ben (not Browder) had an extra auto token, which I SHOULD’VE used on Shea since I hadn’t met him, but I was kind of infatuated with Connor. And I couldn’t use it on Ben, Claudia  or RDA. So I was going to see Ben, Claudia and Connor at the autographs!

Management made it very clear that no personalizations were allowed. Ouch to everyone that bought autograph tickets. They were expensive! Although Chris, Connor, The Davids and Dan were allowed to personalize.

So my Claudia experience was lame. I put the photo down, she signed it, I said thank you, she said I was very welcome, we exchanged smiles and I was off to Ben.

Now, with Ben, I’d planned to ask him about the whole Chloe/Zoe thing. I was curious. But the guy in front of me had a MILLION autographs he wanted signed. So Ben’s handler just took mine and handed it over, and Ben thought it belonged to the guy in front of me. Ben didn’t even look at me! I was like… so disappointed! I wanted to go beat up the old man who took my Ben time, but instead, I waited for my friends to get theirs signed, feeling totally gutted. Ben went to shake my friend Kat’s hand after signing her autograph, and I was standing next to her, so after he’d shaken hers, I piped up “Oooh can I shake your hand too?” He said “sure” and then shook my hand, really slowly, looking at me like he was analysing me. I thought he was just weirded out that I’d kind of jumped out of no where, but people watching said they said he looked like he remembered who I was. So that made me happy. I LOVED the gang I was hanging out with, by the way. Mwah. So yeah, Ben held my hand for ages, and then we said bye, and left.

Next up… Connor!  I bounced up and half yelled “Connor! The guy that liked my shoes!” He grinned and said “yeah! They’re great shoes. And I liked your top too!” And I was like “and I liked yours!” He looked at me for a bit and said “wait… didn’t you have a cute scarf too?” I was so lost. “Uhm…no?” And he looked really confused, but then pointed to the chick right next to me, who was getting Dan’s autograph, and said “Oh wait, no I think it was her.” I kind of smirked and said “oh yeah, because we look SO much alike.” The most innocent expression appreared on his face. “Oh, I meant you have a really cute style, I just assumed the scarf was yours too.” AW! By this time, the stranger with the cool scarf was listening in. I was like “well maybe I should just do this then!” and I took hold of her scarf, and she held it across my neck, and we randomely started posing, making him laugh. So when it came to actually signing the autograph, he wrote “To Zoe…” and paused, not knowing what to write. Usually he just scribbled “best wishes” or something like that, so it made me really happy that he actually put thought into this. I piped up “you liked my shoes?” He grinned and scribbled “you have great style.” And then I left.

So that was me for the day! Oh and I should mention that Julie person who was there. She was an actress/manager? Yeah she was doing a lot of organizing on the day. A lot of people got really annoyed with her but… I don’t know. She was nice to me! Haha. Although I think she thought I was ten, too… seriously. “Sweetie” “Honey” “Darling”

Well that was me for the day. It was epic! I loved it. And this is really long…  hm. Hope I did okay! Glad this one is done. *rubs hands together*

Zoe aka SuperrHuman