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The 2nd Annual Farscape Convention in Burbank, Ca.
Burbank Airport Hilton, September 1-3, 2001
Day Three
12:00 PM - Doors open. It's apparent from the start that there are way more people here today than over the weekend. The auditorium is completely full for the first time. The little sign above the door said room capacity was 955 people. I'd say that was probably about right.
1:00 PM - Some more music video submissions. And they saved the best for last. One guy (didn't catch the name, unfortunately) did a superb job editing together clips that perfectly matched with "Higher" by Creed. It was really, really good. One moment in particular that stood out was the lyric "the only difference is to let love replace all our hate" as John and D'Argo shook hands for the first time after a confrontation early on. I would have paid to have a copy of that video. (if the creator of that video is reading this, please contact us so people can view that awesome entry!)
1:15 PM - DK comes back out for a Q&A, but had to be replaced by Carleton Eastlake and Andrew Prowse mid-way through. Apparently he suffers from nosebleeds when he flies too frequently, and he said that he'd been on about 12 flights in the last two weeks. Over all, Eastlake and Prowse gave us more good stuff. The common theme all weekend long was that the last four episodes of season three are going to blow everybody away. I did have the chance to ask DK what the direction the show would be taking since he'd hinted that it would last 5-6 seasons, and he implied we'd all have a much better idea by the end of the season.
1:45 PM - The radiant Claudia Black addresses the crowd. She received up to that point the longest and loudest standing ovation of anybody after a truly heartfelt intro by Kemper. And she was full of great stories - things ranging from her vacation in Mexico with Gigi to the sex scene with Crais in "Green Eyed Monster" (which was not her, btw). She mentioned her involvement in Pitch Black at one point, which of course drew many cheers, to which she inquired, "What are you applauding? She didn't stay down! 'Shazza, stay down!' But instead, she gets up and gets eaten." She also talked about many of her favorite moments between John and Aeryn, and surprisingly she said the one that moved her the most was when the doomed Crichton first told her character about the radiation. She said that when she saw it replayed through the monitor she felt a great sense of loss for Aeryn, and was almost moved to tears. She also echoed the rest of the cast in saying that they have no real idea about the show's popularity in Australia, so it's a real shock to come here and actually be recognized and have fans. And does she ever have fans. There were at least four of five girls aged 18-23 dressed up like Aeryn Sun.
3:00 PM - Blooper reels. Again, the same ones. But there were a lot of people here just for today, so it still got a lot of laughs.
3:15 PM - The Costume Parade. About 20-25 people came out in full gear vying for gift certificates and fame. There were a pair of nicely done Delvians, a Furlow, many PK officers, a couple of Crichtons, and an adorable little redheaded girl dressed up as Jool. She won the junior contestant prize and the 2nd place prize overall. The winner was the female Delvian, whose make-up was pretty damn accurate. As a bonus, four people dressed up as Stan, Xev, Kai and Prince from Lexx. Most people thought it was funny, but there were one or two "get the Lexx people of the stage!" comments.
3:30 PM -- The big moment - Ben Browder comes on stage. Of course, for those who'd been there all weekend, he'd been spotting milling about and popping up on stage every now and then, but this was his big address to the crowd. His standing ovation was even longer than Claudia's, if only by a few seconds. There's so much I could say about this guy. Simply, he absolutely loves the show, loves science fiction, and loves being around the fans. He just couldn't get enough of it. I think he was on stage for just over an hour telling stories and taking questions. He joked about how upset he was that the lucky Crichton got killed off, because there wouldn't be any of that going on aboard Moya. And of course, people wanted to know if the remaining John and Aeryn would get together, to which he replied, "Honestly, I don't even know that yet," as he gestured his nose growing a la Pinocchio. He did allude to a "secret scene" that was shot for 3.22 that only he and Claudia and the some writers know about. He even acted out his part of it for the crowd, as he said, "you can't stop me Kemper!" So he gets into the part, and stares straight ahead blankly for about eight seconds. So we have the next four months to contemplate whatever that means...
People pressed him for what he might like to do after Farscape, and he couldn't even answer. He said that he was just having way too much fun right now to think about anything else. He also spent a lot of his time on stage giving credit to lots of unsung heroes behind the show. His modesty throughout was pretty incredible. Probably one of the coolest moments was when the little Jool girl came up to ask a question, but all she actually wanted was a hug, so he picked her up and brought her to the center of the stage and talked to her for a few seconds. He also said that he thought Farscape would lend itself very well to the big screen and would jump at the chance, but joked that it probably wouldn't happen unless Brad Pitt expressed interest in the Crichton part, which of course was met by a chorus of boos. Oh, another point of interest -- somebody asked Ben when he thought John went from the bumbling human to the unspoken leader of the group - the more 'take charge' kind of guy. His response surprised the crowd. He said that if there was one episode where a transformation took place, it was "Jeremiah Crichton" in season one. In that episode, Crichton spends three months away from Moya stuck on a distant planet, and Browder said that gave the character time to think and re-assess things, so much so that he came out of it a different man. I can't say enough nice things about the guy. I did get an opportunity to ask him a question from about 7 or 8 feet away, but ultimately, I still haven't really met him. I guess I have to wait at least a year to make up for my idiocy on Saturday.
4:30 PM - Farscape DVD commentary for 3.08 "Green Eyed Monster" with Browder, Claudia Black, Lani Tupu, Tony Tilse and David Kemper. They weren't totally clear on this, but I think they were going to play to the episode and record the commentary track for the eventual DVD. Unfortunately, there was a technical problem, and the episode couldn't be played. But it didn't matter. The five of them simply talked about the episode and various other tangents for about an hour. Stories like Lani's love scene with the Aeryn-double, and how his wife and kids just happened to come by the set that day. And of course a scene like that is always closed set - only the necessary crew allowed in. But of course people will find a reason to be necessary for scenes like that. Even the sound mixer was there, despite the scene being M.O.S.! (muted, in industry lingo) Ben also said he knew he that he wanted some kind of cool visual trick for the Talyn/Aeryn vision sequences, which he just labeled Tilse-vision in the script. For that effect, they actually just used Sony miniDV Handycams! Apparently, that's not the first time either. They used them for the nightvision sequence in "Liars, Guns & Money" as well. And speaking of that sequence, it was pretty chaotic - two people who couldn't see at all (Claudia and the actor playing Bakesh) running around with pyrotechnics going off. Claudia actually got a fat lip for Bakesh accidentally hitting her in the face. There were scores of funny anecdotes like that, and I'm probably forgetting the best ones. I would have taken more notes, but all too often I simply found myself having too much fun and just sitting back, and taking it all in.
5:30 PM - Finale and close. Damn... all good things... The sad culmination of three days of nonstop living and breathing Farscape. The entire cast and crew from the whole weekend, except Anthony Simcoe (he was needed back in Australia), took the stage one last time - Ben, Claudia, Gigi, Tammy, Wayne, Lani, Tilse, Prowse, Kemper, Manning, Eastlake and Henson. I don't know how people can clap, scream and take a million photographs all at once, but they seemed to pull it off quite well. It was a truly great moment.
5:40 PM - Ben and Claudia come back to sign autographs for about two hours. Most people (myself included) stuck it out until the bitter end hoping for an autograph, but the stars were clearly wiped-out by about 7:45 and needed to leave. I think they were catching a flight to New York for the upcoming one-day convention there. (btw, I guess this does prove that L.A. is three times cooler than N.Y... ) But as a piece of advice for those hoping for autographs in the future, nobody got one if you didn't purchase the gold tickets. There just wasn't time.
Final Thoughts
What can I say? While I think I'm still pretty normal by most standards, I am a total fanboy at heart, and I had three amazing days. It was everything I hoped for. And even though I didn't win that poster, acting out the best scene of my favorite episode on stage was a memory I'll have forever. "Nobody has margaritas... with pizza!" There was also a real sense of camaraderie amongst the fans here this weekend, and I made a lot of new friends. Even met some people from the scifi.com Farscape bulletin boards. Next year, I'm sure I'll see the same folks, and hopefully even more as the event continues to grow.
That's it for the 2nd Annual Farscape Convention in Burbank, Ca!
-- Ultra Magnus
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