CCEE 2012. A full weekend report.

[locker_monster]

I really do enjoy the local comic book and entertainment expo. I don't have to go anywhere to see many of the actors I enjoy watching on TV and in movies. This year was insane, but in a good way. Well, I suppose that depends on whether you got in or not. As someone who had no idea what was going on with the fire marshal, I had a good time. It was super busy, though, so a serious lack of pictures this year.


- So, Friday. I was a smart geek and took the day off from work. I was lucky I could. It really helped when Saturday rolled around. The main reason I wanted to go on Friday was to get stuff done. I got my photo-op with Adam Baldwin and his autograph, too. He is a tall, tall man. When I got my photo with him, they had to adjust the camera so we were both in the shot. :-) As I was the first one in, he made a comment about my Jayne hat. I bet he saw many Jayne hats after mine. But I had a chance to chat with some people while waiting in line. A lady was there with her daughter and she had come all the way from France. That blew my mind. I get that other people from Canada would come, but France is so far away.

One more autograph for the comic. Four down, five to go!



The first TNG panel was also on Friday, with Denise Crosby and Gates McFadden. I was late to the panel, so I really didn't catch too much. Trekmovie.com had someone at the Expo, though, so head over there if you're curious about what was said. With the panel done, I left for the day.

- Saturday. Or, the day everything went wrong. It started out fine. I got in, saw half a panel about Fringe while waiting for another TNG panel. Actually, I kind of want to watch Fringe now. With the show ending next season, I can just sit down and watch it without getting sucked in to more seasons. John Noble talked about the cow they have on set sometimes and it sounded like it was a hilarious and horrible experience at the same time.

The TNG panel for the day was Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton, and Wil Wheaton. It was pretty good. Wil Wheaton was the clear favourite since his geek cred is so high these days. He made a reference to not having enough XP while he was on the show and all the RPG players in the audience went nuts. It should also be noted that LeVar Burton has a Tim Horton's addiction. He tweeted about it. He also sang the theme to Reading Rainbow, and got the crowd to sing along, and I had a flashback to my childhood. I want to watch episodes of Reading Rainbow on YouTube now.

I attended Amanda Tapping's panel afterwards and it was mostly a panel about Sanctuary. That's another show I want to watch now. I watched the webisodes and maybe the first five episodes of the first season, but I stopped after that. The panel was supposed to be just Amanda and Christopher Heyerdahl, but then Ryan Robbins just randomly showed up after texting Christopher. I'm pretty sure Amanda didn't know Ryan wasn't coming. He was booked at the Vancouver Stargate convention, which was happening at the same time, so I think he flew from Vancouver to here to make it to the panel. And here's something I didn't know. Amanda left Stargate Atlantis because she wanted to pursue Sanctuary. She wasn't fired nor was she unhappy nor was it a ratings thing.

I hung around for Adam Baldwin's panel afterwards and it was all right. Someone tried to get him to sing "The Hero of Canton" but no luck. He talked about being on Castle and the audience suggested his character, Detective Slaughter, should get a spin-off. I think it would be pretty awesome.

So, the panel ended and I headed off to meet up with my sister and her husband. They had wanted to see an improv show with Mark Meer, the voice of male Commander Shepard in Mass Effect. I made the show. They didn't. I wondered why, but mostly I was too busy laughing my head off. Mark Meer is awesome. I want to see him do more improv now. But anyway, it was after the show that I heard about the gong show going on outside. Thousands were turned away and some who had made it and exited the building for whatever reason couldn't get in again either. It was such a big deal that it made the local news. Suffice it say, there were a lot of angry geeks.

I capped off the day with the TNG cast panel, which I already posted about. It felt more like a family reunion for the cast. The fact that there were 50,000 people hanging around over the weekend didn't matter to them. I'm starting to realize how lucky I was to be there. There are millions of Star Trek fans, it's safe to say. The Corral, where the panel was held, holds about 6000. That's 6000 fans out of millions. I've been reading comments and people sound so jealous, so it was a huge deal that our barely known comic book expo managed to get the original nine cast members of Star Trek: the Next Generation. Oh, and Aaron Douglas, from Battlestar Galactica, crashed the panel (he was a guest at the Expo that weekend; he didn't just randomly show up). He's friends with Wil Wheaton, though, so it's not a big surprise. A couple even got engaged at the panel. It was so cute. It was before the show started and suddenly people started cheering for no reason. I couldn't figure out why, but then I saw the couple and everyone was taking pictures of them. Aw.

Oh, and Patrick Stewart mentioned he's neighbours with Lalla Ward. So Picard and Romana live on the same street. ;-)

If anyone's interested, here's a post with video of the entire panel. Whoo, YouTube!

- Sunday. The avoid being locked out, I got there early. My sister wanted to get there early, too, which kind of threw a wrench into the works. On Friday I had pre-purchased Patrick Stewart's autograph with the intent that I would get a photo signed as a gift for my sister's birthday. With her wanting to meet up early, I was forced to tell her about the gift. Despite spoiling my plans, she still seemed pretty excited. It gave her a chance to talk to Patrick Stewart and how often does an opportunity like that come along? She has a history of saying stupid things to sci fi actors (she once told Wil Wheaton that American money "smells funny"), and I kept teasing her, saying she should tell Patrick Stewart that he has nice arms, which he does. Sadly, she didn't mention his arms. As we were waiting in line, we were told that Patrick Stewart might not personalize the autograph. I was kind of bummed since I wanted him to write something on the photo, but when we got up there, he was nice enough to sign the autograph to my sister. So, always arrive early and catch the guest first thing. Later in the day, Patrick Stewart probably wasn't personalizing stuff because he had been signing hundreds of items.

With that done, we caught a Futurama panel with Billy West and John DiMaggio. It was so awesome to hear them do the voices live. The panel also proved something wonderful about fandom. The first question was about Fry's dog and if you watch the show, you know which episode I'm talking about. With just those two words, Fry's dog, all of the Futurama fans knew what the person was talking about and they were instantly depressed at the same time. From two words. Fandom has such a great short hand.

The next panel was definitely my favourite from the entire weekend. Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis, and Michael Dorn. Unmoderated. I mean, no offense to the guys and gal from InnerSpace, but you don't need a moderator. The three actors did fine on their own and the panel was way better because they didn't have a host directing them. They were free to do what they wanted and boy, did they do that in spades. Throughout the entire weekend, Michael Dorn had been taking photographs to commemorate the reunion and he didn't stop when he got up on stage. He took pictures the entire time, much to the annoyance of Marina Sirtis. I doubt these photos will pop up anywhere, but man, if they did, it would be so awesome. Michael Dorn was also impressed with how polite Canadians are. :-)

So yeah, a family photo with Patrick Stewart. That was next. We made a dash from the panel room to the line-up. Now, my mom has attended the Expo before, so has my sister and her husband, but this was the first year my dad attended. At first, it was just the TNG panel he was going to see, but then my sister had the idea for the photo, so I ended up buying a weekend pass for him, because he had to get in to take the photo, obviously. And it was so weird having my entire family at the Expo. But I got the feeling that cons aren't for my dad. Funny thing was, as we were waiting in line for the Patrick Stewart photo-op, the line for the full TNG cast photo-op was snaking by and we saw some family friends in that line. They didn't strike me as con goers, either, so the cast clearly brought out even the most casual Trekkers.

The Expo rushed people through the photo-ops, so we had, like, two seconds top with Patrick Stewart. Just before our photo, Jonathan Frakes and Michael Dorn showed up and Jonathan asked Patrick to sign something, which was kind of funny. But then, as we're gathering around Patrick Stewart, Michael Dorn wanders in front of the camera so Patrick Stewart, jokingly of course, says, "Michael, get off the stage!" So we can say that Michael Dorn nearly ruined our family photo. :-D

And thank god the Expo fixed how they did photo-ops. Photos were printed right away this year! No waiting, or almost no waiting. We did see this photo while waiting in line and it made me laugh. Also, you can see how bizarre the full cast photo-op was set up. Fans had to stand behind the cast, like they were photobombing or something.

With mission accomplished, I went off to sit in on a panel with Mark Meer. He doesn't sound that different from Shepard, but it's still strange to see this slim guy voicing this beefy character. But what I love about Mark Meer is that he's a gamer, too. He actually plays Mass Effect, which must be very strange for him. Now the Expo just needs to bring in the voice actor for female Commander Shepard, Jennifer Hale, and I will be a happy gamer.

Last panel of the day was, naturally, Sir Patrick Stewart. I bet he was so tired and ready to go home. I saw him last year in Las Vegas, but I could listen to that man forever. He related the story of how he learned he was nominated for a knighthood and he found out in a nowhere hotel room of all places. And he's getting back into films! Of course, that means he won't be in a play while I'm in London... *grumblegrumble* And he got to out geek one of the InnerSpace hosts. She made a reference to X-Men Origins: Wolverine when she should have said X-Men: First Class and Patrick Stewart totally called her on it. Well played, Sir Patrick. ;-)

I wish I had more time to wander around, but there was just so much to do this year. So no one really saw my costume, though I did see a lot of Elevens walking around, a family made up of a River, a Centurion!Rory and an Eleven, and a cute kid dressed up as the TARDIS. My hope is that they get some Doctor Who guests next year for the show's 50th anniversary. Then I can wear my costume again and there will be lots of Whovians walking around. With Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill leaving the show, that leaves them open to do cons. It's the only upside I can think of.


I really can't see the Expo topping this year. More cast reunions would be cool, but there aren't many casts that I can think of that have the same level of camaraderie as the TNG cast. I would be up for a Stargate SG-1 cast reunion or a Firefly cast reunion. Ooh, a Buffy one would be cool, too, but most of them have jobs so that one would be hard. Well, whatever happens, I'll totally be there next year.

Comments

[newnumber6.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a lot of fun! I'd forgotten Adam Baldwin was there, glad he liked your hat!

Thanks for the report!

[locker-monster.livejournal.com]

I saw a lot of Jayne hats that weekend. The Alberta Browncoats had a booth and were selling them, so maybe that's why. No one randomly started singing "The Hero of Canton", though. That would have been fun. :-)