DVD Talk Feature - Dragon*Con 2005

Dragon*Con 2005

• Monday •

10:00am - Checkout

I checked out. No, not emotionally ... from the hotel. That's about all there is to say. I packed my bags, signed a bill, stuff like that. What more do you want?

11:30am - Marina Sirtis

Having seen Marina already and knowing how much fun she has with her panels, I looked forward to partaking in her final event. She did not disappoint. The great thing about Marina is that she doesn't hold back with her personality or opinions. A professional convention guest, she was not only prepared for all our questions, but she opened the panel with a 20 minute history of all the adolescent nonsense surrounding her various hairdos and outfits during The Next Generation. She joked about how flattering the 4th season outfit was and how once the female guest stars got a glimpse of it, they all demanded one of their own. She also had quite a bit of fun at Troi's expense, pointing out all the absurd situations into which the writers shoehorned the character, including how an empath would end up in crew poker games and why she would ever be giving technical advice to Geordi and Data.

For all her good-natured criticism of her most famous role, the hour ended on a surprisingly emotional and endearing note. There's something about these conventions -- a level of human interaction and interpersonal respect -- that just cannot be described in text, and to fully understand, you have to be in attendance. As the panel concluded and Marina sought to say "goodbye" to everyone, the emotion of reuniting with LeVar, reminiscing about a great life experience, and spending an extended weekend with some truly generous and wonderful fans welled up to the surface. Tears streaked down her cheeks, and her voice trembled as she thanked everyone for ... everything. It was a special moment and a reminder that events like this are much more than product promotion and autograph sales.

1:00pm - "Boobies!" - Jewel Staite

The 4th and final Serenity panel was more of the same but still very entertaining. The only drawback for me was that some loudmouth know-it-all -- who reeked of old Chinese food, by the way -- kept providing unnecessary and common knowledge commentary to the panel, as if those around her were supposed to be impressed with things she had read on the Internet. It was pretty annoying, but the panel was so entertaining that it was worth the annoyance. Adam Baldwin had left early, which actually worked out well, because it gave Morena a little more time to talk than other panels where she had shied into the background a bit. When asked what they thought of Dragon*Con now that it was almost over, Ron Glass raised a lone eyebrow and said quite simply, "I saw some shit I'll never forget." Jewel was a little more succinct: "Boobies!"

2:30pm - A Scarran Walks Into a Bar ...

... bartender says, "Why the long face?" With the final Serenity panel complete, it was time for a final visit with the Farscape representatives. Originally billed as just Gigi and Raelee, Virginia showed up as well, which worked out just fine. They were as ebullient as usual and talked about a great many things. One area that struck me as interesting was their social interaction with the animatronic characters. Each of them noted that as they worked on the series, the character of Pilot was so real to them that it broke their hearts to walk onto the set and see his limp body just sitting there in the dark when the camera wasn't rolling. They also talked about how difficult it was to film the miniseries, because everything was done in "TV time", which is much more frenetic a pace than a film would have. As the panel closed, they graciously stood in front of the stage and posed for everyone to take plenty of photographs.

3:30pm - The Mighty Rassilon Art Players

I had no idea what to expect when I stumbled into MRAP's "Shakepeare's Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter", which was already in progress. I had heard about their performances of "Buffy: Warrior Princess", "The Return of the King and I", and "Welcome Back, Potter", but I had not seen them in action until today. Initially I planned to just peek in and then make my way to another event, but their show was so much fun that I stayed for the whole thing. An epic musical comedy, "Romeo and Ethel" blended the classic Shakespearean tale with a swashbuckling pirate adventure and a healthy amount of pop culture thrown in for good measure. It was a good show, and none other than the flower-petal clothed acrobatic sword manipulator from "Miss Spat-Cave" and the Masquerade was starring as Romeo. I did not know what to expect, but this talented musical event made for the perfect way to close the convention.

5:30pm - Closing Ceremonies

OK, so "ceremonies" isn't the right word, but it was the final wrap-up, and for the first time since I've been attending Dragon*Con, I had the chance to check it out. Pat Henry, the man who organizes this mass insanity, introduced himself and the directors from his staff that do such an amazing job running the event. To my great delight, he mentioned their plans to expand to the Hilton next year, move the Art Show and Dealers Exhibition over there and bring the "Walk of Fame" out of the dungeon where it has existed in suffocating seclusion for so many years. He gave many well-deserved props to the folks at Dragon*Con TV, which sustains the massive crowds though many periods of downtime. I highly recommend you check out their website, because it's some hilarious stuff. Finally, plans were announced to bring Denise Crosby next year as well as an attempt to get both ... wait for it ... Anson Williams and Erin Moran!

6:00pm - Concluding Thoughts

Did you see that? Erin Moran!

- das Monkey (e-Mail)

Acknowledgements: I have no idea how they keep this thing running as smoothly as it does, so first and foremost I must give thanks to the entire Dragon*Con staff, who do a freakin' amazing job. Also, on a personal note, many thanks to CCH, Amy & Tom, Rousseau, Dave, Froggy, Pat, Star, Amy & Jeff & David & all the Browncoats, Shavon & Kenny, and everyone else who made this year another memorable one. See you in 2006!