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The 2nd Annual Farscape Convention in Burbank, Ca.
Burbank Airport Hilton, September 1-3, 2001
Day Two
10:00 AM - The charity breakfast. Pretty much just breakfast for the first hour, but then around 11:00, the stars came in - Ben, Claudia, Lani, Wayne, Gigi and Tammy. (Surprisingly, no Anthony Simcoe.) For the next hour, they mingled with each table in the room, chatting, giving autographs and posing for pictures. Ben was especially cool, stopping many times to take photos of the cheering fans themselves. It's obvious he's loving the world of fandom. Give him another four or five cons before he becomes jaded... Nah, seriously, he seems way too cool to ever stop enjoying things like this. Maybe it's because this is new to all of them, but all the stars really seemed to be having an amazing time. And with them having so much fun, it made it that much more memorable for the fans.
12:30 PM - Scorpius Montage. A cool intro for the next guest.
12:40 PM - Wayne Pygram enters. Fans go nuts. Especially when they see what shirt he's wearing - the ultra-rare "Scorpy-Kenny" t-shirt. He gave away three of these babies, and man, was I envious. He talked about tons of things, including how he got the part, how the part expanded after the initial few episodes, and the duality of playing Scorpy and Harvey. He admitted that while he does do many stunts, it was a double who got thrown into the dumpster. He also told a funny story about the roller coaster sequence in "Infinite Possibilities, Part 1: Daedalus Demands." Wayne had never been on a coaster before. Ever. And after riding it a few dozen times he was getting a tad nauseous and headed for the nearest bucket. Well, due to work regulations down under, you can't go back to work after being sick, so Browder had to film all his close-ups on the coaster with a Scorpy stand-in, who was forced to read from the script as he rode! He also touched on the similarities that Crichton and Scorpius share, and their mutual respect for one another. And it seems unlikely that Scorpy is going anywhere. Wayne implied he'd be around for a while...
1:30 PM - Writer's Forum with Carleton Eastlake, David Kemper, Richard Manning, Andrew Prowse. Basically just a Q&A with the writers and Prowse about the process of going from idea to script to film. Pretty good stuff. At one point, somebody asked how Wynona was officially spelled. DK went on to say that there is no 'official' spelling because it's never in the script - jokingly implying that nobody else likes it but Browder keeps adding it in. At that point, Browder sent the crowd into an eruption of cheers and applause by storming onstage with a chair and joining the forum. Remember, most people weren't at the charity breakfast or cocktail party, so this was their first Browder sighting all weekend, and it was completely unexpected. A lot of interesting stuff was discussed, especially the odd situation of Farscape having anywhere from 12-18 producers at a given time, and how one gets to become a writer on the staff. Throughout the hour, and especially when somebody would ask about spoilers, they just kept saying how the next four episodes are going to blow everybody away. Oh, and a note on Stark - much like Virginia Hey's departure, Paul Goddard needed to be excused. His leave of absence is only temporary, however, as he's currently performing on stage in Sydney. The writers did promise we haven't seen the last of him.
2:10 PM - Francesca Buller speaks. For those who don't know, she's the actress also known as Mrs. Ben Browder who's been on Farscape as three different aliens - M'Lee from "Bone to be Wild", Ro' Na from the "Look at the Princess" arc, and most recently, Raxil from "Scratch n' Sniff." Because not everybody knew this, they ran a series of her clips just before she came on. She was a good speaker, but unfortunately too many of her questions were along the lines of "does Ben snore?" and the like. She did say though that she would be in episode 73, the next one that Browder is writing, and that she loves the creative freedom that being under all that alien make-up gives you. Ben sat in the front row the whole time she spoke.
3:15 PM - Farscape Trivia Contest. For the first time in my life, I felt like I knew relatively nothing about my favorite show. Rest assured, there are people out there that can name all five of Zhaan's physiological components. Yes, really.
3:45 PM - More Music Video Contest submissions. Again, good stuff here. The best entry was definitely a montage of Chiana clips set to "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks.
4:00 PM - Farscape Bloopers. Same ones as yesterday, disappointingly. Still funny, though.
4:15 PM - Lani Tupu enters. Teaches the crowd the secrets to screaming well. Also talks about the evolution of Crais throughout the three seasons, from villain to ally, and the ups and downs of playing two roles on the show. (Crais and Pilot's voice) He also reminded the crowd that Crais has a scientific background since he was integral in designing Talyn. Unfortunately, he was forced to field a barrage of dumb questions from what seemed like a legion of obsessed female fans. I had no idea women found this guy so irresistible. All in all, he had a great sense of humor, and truly seems to enjoy the direction his character is taking.
5:00 PM - Charity auction of authentic props from the show. Now what I'm about to tell you will defy belief, but I tell nothing but the truth. One person paid $675 for a "Mambo" shirt signed by the entire cast. Another paid $1200 for a "Bone to be Wild" script signed by the entire cast. $2000 was paid for DK's own Claudia Black autographed TV Guide cover from last summer, which was also signed inside by everybody else. And last but certainly not least, one fan purchased an official pulse pistol for $3000(!) Other items sold were artwork, the "little yellow bolts of light" gun, and the Charrid torture device. All in all, over $14,000 was raised. Browder even came back out and kissed a woman in her 50s or 60s after laying down $1200 for a Rockne S. O'Bannon PK doodle, signed by some producers and himself.
5:30 PM - The Making of 3.16: "Revenging Angel" with commentary by David Kemper, Andrew Prowse, Gigi Edgley, Tammy MacIntosh and Wayne Pygram. These people absolutely love this episode. And after hearing about everything that went into making it, I could see why. They're justifiably proud of this episode since the crowd was pretty much rolling in the aisles the whole time as clips from the episode keep playing in the background. They were extremely pleased with the animation, which they thought successfully captured the look of 40s and 50s Warner Bros. Just in case it hadn't though, they filmed a lot of footage that ultimately got left on the cutting room floor. Characterization-wise, they discussed how many relationships evolved here - John and D'Argo, Jool and D'Argo, Jool and Chiana, and mainly how much Chiana has matured and is taking on more of a take charge position these days.
6:30 PM - Autographing with Wayne, Lani and Francesca begins. To appease all the waiting fans, they played "Revenging Angel" in its entirety, which pretty much had the crowd's full attention.
That's pretty much it for day two. Another fantastic day. At least I recognized Browder this time... still haven't met him for real though.
-- Ultra Magnus
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