I just love going to Comic Con. It's all about playing, people watching, and panels. Now technically panels count as more people watching and they certainly lead to a lot of work in my case. But, honestly, the fans at Comic Con can be as much fun to watch as the movie and television events. Groups of teenagers, families, little kids, big kids, and a few people I really had trouble labeling... All there!

There is something really awesome about being surrounded by 125,000 like-minded individuals of every shape, size, race, and age group. A lot people wear costumes. Most wear jeans and t-shirts. The one thing we all have in common is that we are all appreciate science fiction and fantasy. The amount of creativity, time and money that it takes to make some of these costumes must be staggering! I overheard one man being interviewed by someone who wanted to know how much it cost to create his Elvis storm trooper costume. He wore a jet black Elvis wig, white cape with the gold sparkling trim, a bright white storm trooper uniform and blaster. The man said there's no price to cover the energy he put into his creation. I believed him.

Every July the San Diego convention center is filled with buyers, sellers, producers, and admirers of many different forms of "popular arts". Self-important mainstream reporters sometimes portray fans of the genre as socially inept mouth breathing dorks with low self-esteem and no romantic prospects. But I find that Comic Con proves that we should say I’m a scifi geek and proud of it! Hollywood has discovered (and some would argue is changing) this large gathering of people who have a deep appreciation of video games, comics, movies, and television shows. Who are also more than willing to spend their time and money on their passions. Every year more and more major movies and television shows are promoted and/or previewed at Comic Con long before mainstream entertainment media starts the buzz. And each year more reporters are assigned to cover the event and find out what people in the know have to say about upcoming projects. How ironic is that?!

Thursday

First rule of surviving Comic Con is to go through the schedule so that you can make choices ahead of time. For me, it’s very easy because I focus on Ben activities and whatever else I can do in the time remaining is icing on the cake. I spent the morning exploring the vendor’s area because I knew the rest of the weekend was going to be all about Ben Browder and Stargate Continuum. This year I had even less time to explore because of the special addition to my schedule with the premiere of Continuum. Still, Thursday morning was a good opportunity to walk the main floor, check out the exhibits, look for some hard to find items, and do some major people watching! It is a bit like walking into a giant hall filled with toys. The fans wearing costumes are as much fun to see as a lot of the displays. It’s nearly impossible to check out the big studios’ expensive displays and every “mom and pop” booth. And I must admit to being slightly annoyed to find the Cam Mitchell action figures were sold out on the first day at two different booths. The first day?! Aaaaaargh... Comic Con is loud, packed with people, a little hard to navigate, and exhausting to get through because there is just so much to see. I had a ball but my time was limited due to special plans I had that evening. For me it was all about the premiere of Stargate Continuum. I’ve been to movie premieres before but this was extra special

(Premiere interviews)

Friday

 

 

 

The Stargate Continuum panel was a blast! It was held in a huge ballroom with 4,500 seats and several large screens strategically placed so that the panelists could be seen well from anywhere in the room. To get a seat close to the front of this panel requires planning. For me, it is one of the few times that I will force myself to wake up before sunrise so that I can try to get a good place in line. There's no choice because the line for the Stargate SG-1 starts forming a couple of hours before it's due to start. But I’m a night owl so getting up before sunrise really sucks. I don’t even like the smell of dawn. But if that’s what it takes to get good seats to see Ben in person, well, a Benaholic's gotta do what a Benaholic's gotta do. The one hour panel started with an introduction of everyone on the panel. Ben’s applause-o-meter may have said Chris Judge’s entrance was the loudest, but it was the way he kissed Michael Shanks that seems to have the internet buzzing.

(Clip 1)

From the minute he hit the stage I was surprised to find out how truly funny Richard Dean Anderson can be. I’ve heard a lot about how RDA has a great sense of humor but you really don’t know until you see him in person. Call it irreverent, dry, or dead pan delivery. Whatever you call it, RDA is very funny! Chris Judge has a reputation for being completely out of his mind at conventions because he’s got a childlike (notice I didn’t say childish) sense of humor. He has little shame and I like that about him. At the start of the panel Chris was practically dared to drop his pants but he decided against it because this was RDA’s first Comic Con panel and Chris wanted to “break him in slowly”. Uuuum… yeah. RDA was willing to compromise and suggested that Chris “Just drop one pant.”

A fan asks about what each person was doing now that Stargate is done. One of the fun parts about Comic Con is being in the audience when something new is announced. Brad Wright and Martin Wood told the crowd that a new Stargate movie is in the planning stages! Stargate Universe is also moving forward. Whatever that means... RDA has been focusing on being a single parent of a nine year old little girl and building a house with his own hands. How cool is that? He’s recovered from a couple of recent surgeries and he’s planning to attend a convention in Canada next month in Vancouver.

Amanda Tapping is as talented as she is beautiful. And now she’s got long brown hair which makes her eyes stand out even more. Every group has a “straight man” and that might be Amanda's place in this crew. But in all fairness it must be exhausting to be the only woman in the group of nut jobs! Scenes from her new project, Sanctuary, were shown this weekend. Even at a glance, the differences between this new character and Samantha Carter are obvious and they go way beyond the color of her hair. During the panel, Amanda said they’ve filmed eight of thirteen episodes of Sanctuary. It will premiere on Friday, October 3rd, at 10:00pm. This is a project that I’m going to keep an eye out for when it airs.

Michael Shanks said he’s been hanging at RDA’s house. He’s also done some work Stargate Atlantis, writing with Chris on a project called “Rage of Angels”, and he did some work on “Burn Notice”. Ben says he’s looking for work. He might take up sub-contracting for Rick on his house in between coaching pole vaulting and coaching football. Chris says he’s currently working as Rick’s cabana boy. He had been working as a new bad guy on “24” for a short time but he got fired for not being black enough. Huh??!! What is wrong with the people in Hollywood? Beau Bridges has been playing Earl’s dad on “My name is Earl”. He just finished filming a movie called “Max Payne” and he’s enjoying the time he’s getting to spend with his family. His daughter and wife were sitting in the audience. Beau also shared one of his bird calls with the audience. He recalled how General Landry spent some time in a cabin in the woods with Cameron Mitchell where Landry did some bird calls for Cam. Then Beau did some bird calls for us. It was fun.

(Clip 2)

There was a video tribute to Don S. Davis that was very touching. Being relatively new to the Stargate world I liked Don Davis, but I really didn’t know much about him. I was touched by the clips but, for everyone on the Continuum panel, there was a far different reaction. There was not a dry eye on that panel and Chris Judge seemed particularly effected by the video. The loss of Don Davis is deeply felt by his friends. And judging by the reaction of the audience, he had a lot of fans too.

When these people say they enjoy working together, I believe it. (Clip 3)

Every one of them is funny. I already knew that Ben and Chris would be funny from seeing them at a past Comic Con panel. Michael Shanks’ reputation preceded him from of playing around so much with Chris. But RDA was a real surprise for me. He has an incredibly dry and irreverent sense of humor. The panel shared some of the favorite Arctic stories. Amanda Tapping told us about the amazing experience of talking to the people who lived in the Arctic, traveling by puddle jumpers, and making snow angels with Ben. Martin was struck by the magnitude of what they were filming up there. Richard Dean Anderson was apparently traumatized by the toilet facilities. Where Ben has told many stories about dealing with going to the bathroom in the Arctic, he’s always managed to avoid being too descriptive. RDA has no such misgivings. With his voice heavy with sarcasm, Rick described what it was like to have his bladder wake him up at 4:00am and to get geared up to go into the blistering winds. “And wake me up when you went by to see if I had to go to”, adds Martin Wood. Rick goes on to describe the toilets as being covered with ice and snow. “This is my favorite part. The poop would freeze. So that was good. And that was my favorite part." The audience was in stitches laughing at his totally dead pan delivery. Ben's response was not a direct response. It's part of his charm.
(Clip 4)

When the panel ended I stayed in the ballroom to watch a panel on the new online game Stargate Worlds (I have some cool dog tags to take home from the con.) Then I watched the Stargate Atlantis panel. There are so many changes on this show! It was hysterical to see how many people kept calling Jewel Staite by her Firefly character’s name, Kaylee. When asked what she thought was the biggest difference between her Firefly character being a mechanical geek, and her Atlantis character who is a medical geek. Jewel responded perfectly with there were fewer “shiny” things on Atlantis. Browncoats loved that response! And Robert Picardo proved to be nothing like the serious pain in the butt bureaucrat he played Stargate SG-1 and now Atlantis. He was very funny and looking forward to the future episodes of the show. It looks like viewers are going to get some insight into how Woolsey came to be … such a Woolsey. Once the Stargate events were finished I took some time to do more people watching. It’s a great way to end a Comic Con adventure.