More Convention Hijinks

Wednesday, May 4, 2005 5:06 PM

By all rights, the blog should consist entirely of the words LIVERPOOL! LIVERPOOL! LIVERPOOL! LIVERPOOL! LIVERPOOL! LIVERPOOL! However, I can see how that would become tiresome after the first three hundred pages so instead, I thought I'd try and describe a few more bits with the aid of my pictures and the programme.

In fact, I was so busy during the weekend that I've only just today had time to read the programme; that's how much stuff they had organised. Friday consisted of meeting a few random people and some familiar faces from the preview screening (congrats to everybody for not blowing any spoilers, I felt sure someone would reveal that River was made of chocolate and that Mal died in the third scene). There was also a chance to get in early for booking photo sessions and pick the cast photos to be signed (really nice ones actually and you didn't feel they were gouging you on price).

Then there was the opening ceremony as the lovely and perpetually enthusiastic Clare Kramer introduced each member of the cast. This was also where most of us found out that Mark Sheppard was joining us and also for the slower ones (like me) that Ron had joined as an replacement guest. They all seemed pleased with their welcomes which were loud and sustained, particularly Alan and Summer. Nathan milked his, raising and lowering his hands for more and less appreciation from different sections of the crowd before insisting that he should come in again, which he did to even more applause.

Then we all disappeared to get into costume for the Old West theme. There were plenty of cowboys, cowgirls, Chinese dresses and such like. There was a delightful girl whose name I didn't catch but I'm sure half the people here will know, who had a cavegirl outfit, chain mail and a rabbit costume that really caught the eye. The media stereotype of a sci-fi convention consisting of either 15 year old boys with glasses and 35 year old nerds was completely blown away. In fact there was no stereotype to be drawn, there was a great mix of young and old, male and female, British and from overseas.

Some random bits from the panels: The questions ranged from the ones we all want to know "What is Book's past? Sequel? What's with the needle?" (although naturally they had no answer to give), to the bizarre to the ones that weren't questions at all, just overly long statements of what one particular fan thought. Ron was particularly happy talking about Barney Miller and fleshing out his character on that, you could tell he would have been just as devoted to making Book as three dimensional as possible over a 7 year run. Unfortunately Barney Miller wasn't really shown over here so we have no context. However on another question about technology Ron revealed that he'd gone to Best Buy (think Dixons) and asked for a typewriter and the staff laughed at him. (Moments later the video screens displayed a picture of Ron in front of a typewriter; those tech guys were ready for just about anything).

Summer also said how she loved receiving fan mail, particularly hand written letters. I don't know what percentage of fans write to their stars but even if it's a very small one, when you have 20m people watching you, that soon adds up. If you wanted to pitch a script to her, a story where a shy girl opens up by expressing herself through dancing would be the way to go.

Nathan is very comfortable with the Harrison Ford comparisons, even to the point of saying he'd like to star in a remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Morena is a big fan of actresses like Meryl Streep. Jewel takes a size 10 in some brand of shoes (presumably that's an American 10). Mark helped Summer with her accent (they were both so complimentary to each other about it: "Mark taught me everything", "I just gave the confidence that she was doing great") Summer loved performing when she was a little girl, including going out in the freezing cold wearing just a bikini and a feather boa to do a show for a non-existent audience.

Jewel really enjoyed doing the Hallmark movie with Natasha Henstrid

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