Wolf Events - SG-4
Heathrow
Park , London..
UK - Feb 1st - Feb 3rd 2002
Reporter: Elaine Palmer Lawler
Friday
Keith and I arrived in London on the Friday afternoon. We were staying at the Sheraton (the Heathrow was full by the time we tried to find somewhere to stay) so we dropped off our stuff first and then went over to the Heathrow Park. We got there about quarter to three, and the queue for registration was already growing as reg was due to start at three. I suggested to Keith that I stand in the queue and register for us both while he went to see his friends on the tech crew. I'd only been in the queue for about five minutes when Keith reappeared and told me to come help the tech crew and register later - seemingly the equipment had only just arrrived - late - and they needed extra help unloading and setting up, especially since four of the crew weren't due to arrive for another couple of hours as they had to finish at work first. Sounded like a better plan than queuing, so I went along with it. As a result of that I ended up being drafted into the tech crew for the whole weekend as well as Keith, which suited me fine since it's fun. Hard work, but fun. <g>
So, we helped with the set up, I just followed orders from the others and it seemed to be sufficient. When we arrived only the main part of the gate and the rear of the stage had been assembled. The rest of the stage was still folded up and the UAV was resting on chairs. We had to help unload the lighting equipment, sound and video stuff from the van and then start to set it up. There were cables all over! Tea was from McDonalds as we had no time for anything else. Eventually most of the tech set-up was done, but the folding partition wall and the still folded stage sections had to be rearranged to block the stage section of the hall from the area being used that night for the disco.
Once that was done we went back to our hotel room for a short while and then came back for the disco. In the end we didn't actually spend much time in the disco. Out in the foyer area we met up with Kris, he then spotted Lisa and we all ended up in the upstairs bar with her, Ankh and a few others who had been up there for the exclusive cocktail party earlier that evening. It was really good to get the opportunity to chat in person with a couple of people from the newsgroup. I think we called it quits about half past twelve.
Saturday
We arrived in the hall at around half past eight, and were pleasantly surprised to see that we didn't need to do anything as the others had finished setting up the remainder of the tech gear. Other people had finished the set, and it looked really good.
I found that I would be mic running during the weekend, but unlike at Blackpool for the Voyager con where we stood at the side of the hall with mics on stands, this hall was too small and too full for that and we would actually have to run around the hall to the attendees with microphones. Ookaaay. Buffy explained how it worked in this situation and said that just she and Di would normally have done the first talk but . . . the hall was too full for only two question mics and really they could do with three. So, I said no problems, I'll manage fine. <g>
As it happened I mic ran for every talk and it was only for the last ten or fifteen minutes of the last talk on the Sunday that I was actually able to stand at the side and watch and listen to a talk. Even so, I really enjoyed the weekend.
Saturday's programme began at around 9:30 with the opening ceremony. Bryan Cooney introduced the guests, Lexa Doig being the first. Amanda Tapping and Michael Shanks followed her. Steve (tech crew leader) had informed the rest of us that he'd been speaking to Bryan and been told that there was a surprise guest - whose identity he hadn't bothered to find out! Aarrgghhh, Steve! So, when the gate effect kicked in again as Bryan announced a surprise guest, I was just as eager to hear who it was as the rest of the audience. Much to the everyone's delight Tom McBeath (Maybourne) appeared. He said that the attendees had met the light side, at previous cons they'd met the dark side, and now they had met the weasel side. :-)
The first guest talk of the day was Amanda Tapping's. She didn't waste time prattling on <g> but instead got straight into the questions. To summarise points that I can remember she dislikes the episode ÒEmancipationÓ, was miffed about Michael Shanks' feedback after her close up shot in ÒDouble JeopardyÓ and she would like to see Sam have a boyfriend who doesn't die (although Jack his her preferred boyfriend for Sam - she knows that he is not an option). She also thinks that Sam is a really cool person but told us that the motorcycle scene in ÒThe CurseÓ was originally written as a gardening scene but as 'Sam has no life outside her work' it was changed to the scene we saw. She told us that the motorbike was only borrowed for that scene and said that she wanted to ride it, but at the mere mention of that suggestion the owner practically had apoplexy! :-)
At one o'clock it was the charity auction. Bryan auctioned three signed scripts which I think went for £360 each and a Stargate film crew jacket which went for £200. Amanda Tapping auctioned off a pair of Sam's BDU trousers but for how much I can't remember, and her series 2 to 5 dog tags, which I think went for £710. Michael Shanks auctioned one of Daniel's t-shirts.
At half past one Tom McBeath began his talk. One of his entertaining anecdotes concerned the pronunciation of his surname. It turns out it's pronounced McBeth, not McBeeth. However, he told how at school one of his teachers (a Mr Gillespie) persisted in pronouncing it McBeeth until he refused to answer to it. When his teacher asked if McBeeth was present, Tom answered that yes he was Mr Gill-ess-pye. Most amusing. :-) He also told us that his acting background is in theatre and that there are not that many film or television parts for someone with his build and appearance. With reference to the final scene in ÒChain ReactionÓ with Maybourne in a Hawaiian shirt, he said that the script called for him to hang up the phone, and that was it. However, one of the extras grabbed him so he went along with it and the shot was the one used in the final edit. He pointed out that although it looks like Jamaica in the scene, it was actually filmed in English Bay in Vancouver.
Tom's talk was followed at two o'clock by Lexa Doig's. Ironically I think that her talks were the ones which Keith enjoyed most since he has actually seen every episode of Andromeda whereas he's only seen maybe a quarter of Stargate SG-1 eps. Even so, naturally someone asked her what it's like to date Michael Shanks, but at least it wasn't among the first questions. She said how much she likes cats and how she would like 40 of them, but Michael says 2 max! <g> She wants to have a cat on the set with her and has told other members of the cast that she will have one living in her trailer since work is where she spends most of her time. With respect to Stargate she said that she told Michael that should Bast (one of the Egyptian Gods - the cat one?) ever be included she wanted to play her and was miffed that when Bast did appear she wasn't offered the role - although she admitted that the shooting schedule for Andromeda wouldn't have allowed her to take the role anyway. It also turns out that she is a major Lord of the Rings fan and even told how she had dragged Michael around three different Burger Kings in an attempt to collect all of the figures from their promotions. Knowing what Keith is like for such promotions I found that my sympathies are definitely with Michael. <g> She thanked everyone for making her welcome, and even showed us her tattoo. Oh, and she said she'd read all of the Harry Potter books in a couple of days!
Her talk was followed at three by Michael Shanks' own talk. Amazingly the programme continued to run to schedule which I am told is most unusual for conventions. Anyway . . . Michael talked about directing and gave his version of the Amanda Tapping close up for 'Double Jeopardy', said that Lexa will be on her own with the cats if she gets forty of them. Somehow he moved onto the subject of 'Danny Whumping'. For those who don't read fan fiction Danny whumping is popular with some hurt/comfort authors for whom the 'hurt' bit is Daniel getting injured/beat up/whatever. However, he said how when he first heard about this he asked 'don't they like the character' and was very suprised to be told that 'no, they really LIKE the character!'. <g> He also considers Daniel to be the Shaggy of SG-1 in Scooby-Doo terms (so does that make Teal'c Velma?), answered a question about Daniel's really strong glasses which seem to be unbreakable, and said that his most magic moment during his time on the programme was totally unrelated to the programme and was in fact his daughter being born. During the questions a young girl asked if she could give him a gift - he said that she could, so she took him a jester's hat with a Union Jack on it, and got a kiss from him.
The final question was from Amanda Tapping who asked him about the ruffle 'n' puffin' (or at least that's what I think they called it). He gave a brilliantly funny depiction of this (which is the male reaction to new female actresses on set) and the reaction to that by the existing women, known as the wounded lamb.
After that I think it was videos in the hall whilst the guests signed more autographs.
We managed to duck out to our hotel room for tea - Pot Pasta! Well, at least it wasn't McDonald's - and I changed into my Sunderland shirt for the evening. I wore my 'alt.tv.stargate-sg1@SG4' t-shirt (designed by Keith of course) each day, but I find that a football shirt is obligatory for the Saturday night - even when we've been hammered 4-1 by Man Utd earlier that day. :-(
Anyway, getting back to the point, the evening's entertainment began with the fancy dress competition. For this the hall had been rearranged by the hotel staff to have tables and a clear dance floor. This wasn't enough capacity for all the people who wanted to see the fancy dress, so half of the dance floor was for people to sit on and the other half for the entrants to parade. Three of the tables were between the dance floor and the stage, so the judges (ie the guests) had the table to the left of the hall, and the members of the tech crew nabbed the one nearest to the tech area. Cool - we got chairs! <g> I managed to run into Kris and Lisa outside the hall prior to the start, and told them where we would be sitting and to nab a bit of floor space near us. Which they did. :-)
There were many good costumes in the fancy dress, and some *really* good ones. Some of the entrants were also very funny. The child as Chaka (the Unas) was jolly good, and I think threw a chocolate and cereal bar to Michael Shanks - this elicited a comment about coals to Newcastle from Bryan Cooney. :-) The Urgo entry did a performance, another threw the judges some rhubard and custard flavour snake sweets, but I can't remember who. There were a lot of child entrants - one entry was the three Brewster girls (Diane's daughters) for whom Diane had made all their costumes. Way to go Diane! Keith had decided not to enter this competition, he hadn't had the opportunity to put a costume together so had to give it a miss. He can't seem to get Crocodile skin for his Scorpius... of course he wouldn't turn up at a Stargate convention in a Farscape costume any more than he would turn up at a Star Trek convention in a Star Wars costume...
At this point there was a break so that the judges could confer and decide the winners. During the interlude Bryan announced that a couple of videos would be played. The first was a Daniel music video (a compilation of clips from various episodes set to appropriate music) which reduced the guests to tears, well three of them anyway. I think Lisa described the whole thing very well, so there's no point in me duplicating. The video ended with thanks to Michael Shanks and a line saying that Daniel will be missed. This was followed by a Sam music video.
Finally, the guests composed themselves sufficiently to decide the outcome of the competition. The Unas got the child prize, third place was 'Urgo', second place 'Lya' and the winner was an excellent 'Nem' (from 'Fire & Water'). Bryan announced that all of the children would receive certificates. The winners were presented with their prizes by the guests and then the guests disappeared and the disco kicked in.
I was very surprised by how well behaved the audience were towards the fancy dress contestants and even the winners. I commented in my Voyager report last year that the 'con paparazzi' descended on the winners and other entrants, but at SG4 everybody appeared to me to be very well behaved and polite in getting photos of the entrants and their costumes. I missed getting a decent photo of either 'Lya' or 'Urgo', but I did manage to get a really good photo of 'Nem'.
At this point Steve activated the 'Stargate' so that people could have their photo taken in front of the ripple effect - the image was projected onto the screen and I chatted to Diane for a while as she was standing in the queue waiting to take a photo of the girls with the gate - see what I mean about well mannered, the queue for the gate photos was extremely orderly. :-) Mind you this weekend they all certainly had a lot of practice. (Apparently Diane told her daughters that cons are all about queueing, but I'm not sure they bought it!)
Keith and I had an enjoyable evening as Diane & daughters, Lisa, Kris and Lesley & Mike who all hang out on the newsgroup hung out with us at the tech's table. Poor Lisa got banished elsewhere when she wanted to smoke since none of the techs like cigarette smoke - gotta admit that I'm with them on that - but it wasn't a problem and Lisa seemed to be on the dancefloor most of the time. I don't dance, but Kris and Lesley and Diane's girls also spent a fair bit of time on the dancefloor.
Keith and I called it quits and left around 11:30.
Sunday
The morning began with another showing of 'Meridian' before Michael Shanks kicked off his Sunday talk at 10:30. As Lisa says, he seemed more relaxed for this talk. All I can remember him discussing is Peter DeLuise's direction and the appeal of Star Wars.
Oh, and he walked on stage carrying a teddy bear he'd been given the previous day, and everybody had to take photos of him with the bear. As far as Peter DeLuise's direction is concerned he talked about the episode 'Urgo' when Peter DeLuise directed his father Dom, who played 'Urgo'. Apparantly Peter would say 'Dad, just walk out and say something funny'. :-) Michael says that he still has all of his original Star Wars figures and that he and his brother were really big Star Wars fans as children. He's looking forward to Episode 2, but I'm sure he said he'll burn all his action figures if N'Sync do feature in the film as has been rumoured. LOL! I think it was the Sunday when he told about how he scared Christopher Judge regarding bears when they were filming on location, but hopefully I can find a link to a transcript to save me having to type all of that story.
Michael's talk was followed by a behind the scenes look at Stargate by Robert Vogel, a German sci-fi journalist. He was doing a slide-show talk about his visits to the SG-1 set and his work for magazines. I only got to see the first five minutes before Keith and I were sent with three of the other tech crew to get our photos with the guests. We waited for a little while at the side of the room as the queues had already gathered. The queues started moving as those who wanted photos taken with individual actors were able to get their photos taken with Amanada Tapping and Tom McBeath when they arrived. We were all just about to leave when we were told that Michael and Lexa were on their way so we should stick around. We would be 'processed' as soon as they could manage. It did feel rather like a conveyor belt, but considering how many people they did have to process it must be very hard work for the guests and for the stewards. We did all finally get our photos done, Keith and I only got the one photo, with both of us and all of the guests on. When it was our turn there was the gap in the middle where we had to stand with Michael and Lexa on one side and Tom and Amanda on the other. I made a beeline to stand next to 'Maybourne', but Keith didn't mind since that meant he got to [he says cuddle - I say:] stand next to Lexa Doig. <g>
We headed straight back to the main hall after this, but I only managed to catch the last ten minues or so of Robert Vogel's talk, which was a shame as what I did catch sounded really interesting. The best bit I heard was when he was saying that he got invited to voice one of the characters in 'Wormhole X-Treme' for the German dub. I think he said that the script had his character down as Man #2, or something like that. However, when he did the dubbing he found out that he was dubbing Brad Wright, which he thought was really cool. I've only just realised that the Region 2 DVDs sold in the UK have the German dub on them, so maybe I'll have to check it out to hear that bit. :-)
There should have been a short break after this talk with the auction commencing at one o'clock, but the photo sessions were running way behind shedule so one o'clock came . . . and went . . . but no auction. Initially Simon (graphics and Wolf web person) got on the stage and filled time. He had people from the audience come up and sing, and finally one of them won a t-shirt for their efforts. Once Simon ran out of filler ploys, the remaining time was filled with videos and a quiz. I kind of skipped the videos, but Keith and I both sat and did the quiz. Yes, well . . . I needed Keith's help on a few of the answers... and he doesn't even watch the programme on a regular basis, but even with that I still only managed a paltry 65 out of 110. And I call myself a Stargate fan - Dismal!
The auction finally got underway at 3:00pm. Amanda Tapping auctioned a t-shirt she'd worn as Sam, Bryan Cooney auctioned off a variety of signed booklets from previous Wolf SG conventions and an Osiris jar (from the episode 'The Curse') which came with a signed drawing and a certificate of authenticity. The one item which really caught my attention, but very quickly went out of my price range, was the set of blueprints for the stargate. It occurred to me that there are a few people on the newsgroup who would love to have those. <g> I think the blueprints went for around £700, but I can't remember the prices of any of the other items.
Because the schedule had been totally shot, there wasn't enough time remaining for the guests to do the length of talks that were originally intended. Instead they did a sort of combined shortened talk. Amanda Tapping took to the stage on her own at first, and the hall was so crammed that once again there were three of us out there with mics for the audience's questions. After about fifteen minutes or so, Tom McBeath joined Amanda, and needed a mic, so Di's mic went to him, and we were down to two mics for questions. And then Lexa joined the other two on stage, and she got my mic, so there was only Buffy left with the one mic for questions. So if any of you were wondering why you didn't get a chance to ask questions during this part of the con, that's probably why. It was hard enough work with three of us, but with only one . . .
I can't really remember much specific about that talk. I think I was too busy running around for most of it. <g> I do remember someone asking Lexa if she enjoyed working with Michael and if she would like to work with him again. She said that when he worked on the set the first day of work on the episode of 'Andromeda' in which he guest starred, she didn't recognise him as the person who played Daniel Jackson. She found him to be very different from DJ. She said that she'd love to work with him again, at which point Amanda Tapping chipped in that so would she. Aaahhhh! And Amanda was asked what her husband thought of all the bruises she sported as a result of filming the episode 'Solitudes' (in an interview she had said that it was physically tough and she ended up with a lot of bumps and bruises). She replied that her husband wasn't living in Vancouver at the time, so he missed out on seeing the worst of it, but regarding the bruises she gets as a result of her work he has moved on from 'What are they doing to you?' to 'By the way, you've got a bruise on your butt'. :-)
Once the combined talk was over I think the guests took a break before resuming autographs. We (ie the tech crew) all got to go and get our stuff autographed during this session. I had bought a Maybourne picture, and Keith had done two prints of his Star Park SG-1 toon - one for me and one as a prize for this site - so we took our stuff and got it signed. I felt that by this stage the guests were pretty much going through the motions, and I really can't say that I blame them. I heard that Amanda and Michael were ill during the weekend so they must have been finding it tough going. I have to say though, that however ill either of them were, it never showed when they were doing their talks on stage. Keith got a comment from each of the guests - Lexa commented that Keith is a good name but they agreed that he's rather different from the Keith she works with. <g>
After we got our stuff autographed we met up with Kris and went back to the hall briefly, but then we all agreed we really needed food - so off to McDonalds' we trundled. I *so* needed proper food once we got home! As we were eating Keith suddenly realised that the dealers' room, which had stuff he was still planning to buy, would be shutting in about ten minutes, so he bolted his food down and shot off to catch it. Kris and I continued to eat sedately and followed him over a little later. :-)
When we got back to the Heathrow Park and caught Keith, the hall was chucking out ready for the setting up by the hotel staff for the evening. Keith and I had to abandon Kris whilst we returned to the tech crew and waited there whilst the hall was set up. The hall reopened at around 8:00pm to let people in for the closing ceremony. About eight of the stewards formed a line behind which the attendees had to remain. Just like on the Saturday people had to sit on the floor. During this time Steve put some music on, and when Steps' 'Tragedy' came on, he, Di, Jo and Buffy of the tech crew formed another line behind the stewards and all of them danced in formation. Very good to watch. :-) A short while later Steve showed a couple of the compilation videos, and to the 'Kiss' video the Spice Bunnies gave their perfomance of the weekend, courtesy of Buffy and Di. It elicited a lot of cheers from the audience, I'm sure they were disappointed when it was time for the closing ceremony to begin. ;-^)
Bryan Cooney had only Tom McBeath and Amanda Tapping to announce for the closing ceremony. I think it was Amanda who told us that Michael and Lexa had had to leave early due to Michael being ill. Bryan thanked the guests, and then went through the list of names for the security, thanked all the stewards, thanked Martin for all his hard work in making the set (some of it from scratch as the hotel had chopped up and used the original backdrop which was stored there for a Hollywood sign for their Christmas party), Simon for his work including editing the teasers for SG5 and even namechecked the tech crew - which included us! <g>
Finally Bryan was handed a sheet of paper, and Amanda Tapping ran through the winners of the art competition. 'Shank's Pony' got an honourable mention (it was a sculpture of a horse). Keith (as Splik) got third place with his Star Park SG-1 Gateroom picture. Second place was a picture of the whole SG-1 team, and the winner was an amazing piece of needlework. Unfortunately Bryan didn't have the prizes to hand, so we didn't get to see the winners walk up and get their prizes.
So, the closing ceremony finished, the disco started up, we spent an hour taking down and packing up most of the tech gear, and then we sat down to enjoy the disco. During the evening Marwan (Con DJ maestro) instigated a paper plane challenge - to get the paper planes in the chandeliers, and then moved onto a paper plane war. We didn't last too long at the disco, once Keith got hold of his prize for the art competition at about quarter past twelve we called it a night - after all, we had an early start for the train the next morning.
Some final points to finish off . . .
Paul, Buffy, Ian and Di of the tech crew wore their fatigues during the day for Saturday and Sunday, but wore dress blues for the evening discos. I thought they looked really smart, which in a strange sort of way was a little out of place for a convention. :-)
Sometime on the Sunday, can't remember when or how, I got talking to a Dutch fan and commented how good I thought the Nem costume was. She said that the girl who'd done Nem was part of their group of Dutch fans, as was the third placed 'Urgo' duo. Most impressive.
The best thing about the weekend? I don't know. Getting to see all of the tech crew again, and to work with them was really good, but it was also great to finally meet in person people I've been chatting to for over a year in cyberspace. Strange, but fun.
All in all, a brilliant weekend. :-)
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