Friday September 4th, 2015:
The first full day of the convention started…later than last year for us. Left the hotel at 10:20am in search of breakfast. Tried Krystal Burger first, but left after close to ten minutes in line after discovering the five people in front of us were all wanting refunds and that none of the people already seated had food yet!
Heading for our Marta station we found a: “Dwarf House Chick-Fil-A” to eat at. True, it was now past breakfast time, but that wasn’t going to stop us! I had a chicken sandwich and Beka had nuggets. Chicken really does make a tasty breakfast!
Arrived at DragonCon at 11:15 and headed to the Hyatt for a 1pm event: “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Death Star” which was a Star Wars Puppet Musical! The line had already started by the time we arrived, which took us outside to wait for over an hour. We had fun company though: a Jim Henson cosplayer complete with Kermit The Frog Muppet! Some of the best commitment to character I’ve ever see from a cosplayer.
Finally saw the puppet show and it was amazing! Very well done and only “A New Hope”, despite the entire Original Trilogy being scripted. Super funny and very inside jokey towards the making of Star Wars.
Walked for a bit to the Sheraton for a 4pm panel we’d been looking forward to all year: “Sylvester McCoy: The Seventh Doctor”! We saw Colin Baker (Sixth Doctor) last year so this wasn’t to be missed by us Whovians.
Got pretty close to the front of the line at 2:45 due to a previous panel getting cancelled. Had an amazing 7th Doctor cosplayer join us in line. Wonderful man, who I sadly didn’t get his name. He was from England, but lives in Texas. We were joined by an older woman dressed as a Minion who’s husband was at another panel. We all had a lovely time talking about Old Who vs New Who, Anime, and dubbing vs subs for foreign media. It pleased me that the Doctor cosplayer was a Big-O fan! An R. Dorthy fan to boot!
Beka and I managed to get front row seating once inside which ended up being the best seats in the room. Turns out Sylvester McCoy doesn’t like to sit on a stage and answer questions, he likes to wander the room (and in between the rows) to look you in the eye as you ask your question! This was a fun surprise.
McCoy was amazing! His entire panel was funny, insightful and just a joy to be apart of. Beka and I agreed that anytime he’s at a con we attend we HAVE to see him.
I still can’t believe how short he is! HIs appearance was very Doctor-ish: Kaki porkpie, black silk shirt, dark grey sport coat with red flower scarf, dark dress pants, tan crocs and holding a dragon’s head cane! Like Tom Baker, I believe Sylvester really just IS the Doctor!
Talked about his very first convention was in 1987 before he’d even filmed for Doctor Who. It was part of a press tour he was sent on mere weeks after being cast. The location: Atlanta, Georgia! It was pre-DragonCon, but he enjoyed himself, despite thinking the man who’d been sent to retrieve him from the plane was dressed in full Tom Baker Doctor garb…in the summer. McCoy said he thought this man was crazy, but his lady friend dressed as Leela was worth it!
Spoke about his friendship with Sophie Aldred who played his companion Ace. It’s said their pairing was one of the best Doctor/Companion pairings because from the get-go they seemed like old friends. His explanation was that they agreed politically and she laughed at all his stupid jokes! He joked about not remembering Colin Baker’s name because he “didn’t show up to regenerate.”
Things turned a bit sour when the subject of the “DOCTOR WHO: THE MOVIE (1996)” arose. Sylvester gave the impression he wasn’t happy about having to give up the role to Paul McGann in 1996. To top it off, he told us he’d wanted a Steampunk-style TARDIS console for the bulk of his run, finally getting it for the TV Movie, but everyone thinks of it as the McGann TARDIS! Seemed a bit petty to me.
His panel ended amazingly too! His Doctor was known for a talent Sylvester has: playing the spoons. So when time was almost up {and a interesting story about him playing his spoons on Honor Blackman’s cleavage at a party}, Sylvester picked up a tiny guitar case containing two, metal spoons and asked for a volunteer. He selected a young buy named Tray, handed him the microphone and told him to keep up with the spoons. Seems easy right? Well Sylvester played high, played low, spun several times took a small run, and circled Tray before ending by playing on Tray’s head! Magical stuff!
Post McCoy we got back in line for the same room to see Terry Farrell, Jadzia Dax from season 1-6 of STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE. Got to sit down in the room again pretty quick, but much further back than before.
Let me take a moment to talk about one of the best things at the convention: DragonConTV. Playing in the hotels where the convention is held and in the panel rooms between presentations is a TV channel set up like Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim”. Mostly black screens with text answering questions about the con in funny ways, making silly geek culture jokes all set to groovy music! There are also skits, decently produced by the DragonCon staff for the entertainment of the con goers. It’s a real treat to see, and most of it is available on YouTube!
The reason I mention this was while waiting for Terry, we were treated to a music video/skit/parody of Frozen’s catchiest track “Do You Want To Build A Snowman”. The appropriately done: “Are You Working On Your Costume”! The entire audience got sucked into this little video that a little over halfway though was cut off to start the panel, drawing a heavy and loud “awww!” from everybody in the room! Don’t worry, the full thing is on YouTube so we were able to finish it later…check it out!
Terry started her panel with some news. She’s been signed to play a major part in the “STAR TREK: RENEGADES” web series! This announcement was recorded by a Dax cosplayer from the audience for Terry to use in the upcoming Kickstarter video for the series. She rewarded the cosplayer by being in a selfie before sitting down to answer questions. This is where her panel fell apart.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but you as a celebrity of a famous piece of work are invited to do a Q&A at a major Sci-Fi convention ABOUT YOUR WORK, you know like you’ve done several time a year…every year since you were IN THE SHOW how can you justify giving the answer: “I don’t know”, or “I don’t remember”? True, some of the questions were of a nerdy caliber I have no desire to achieve, but these are your fans, if you don’t know/remember MAKE SOMETHING UP! They’ll eat it up and if it’s about the on-set time (most of the questions) there’s no way to fact check you!
By this point i was glad i had decided not to ask about her time making HELLRAISER III…I could guess her answer!
Up to this point, this has been the most disappointing panel.
She did have one topic of expertise and she enjoyed speaking about it: her chemistry with actor Michael Dorn, who played the Klingon character: Worf. And at first it was very charming, but by the end of the panel, after the many references to it, she began to come off as an creepy obsessed stalker. Like a “I-want-to-ruin-his-marriage-and-make-him-mine” sort of way!
She talked about how hard it was to learn all the Trek Tech Talk, and how pleased she was that her girl-on-girl kiss in DS9 wasn’t sensationalized. Funny at times, a bit too flirty which wasn’t helped by the pink with flowers dress she wore that a tad too short and tight for her age.
Once her panel was over at 6:30, Beka and I made our way back to find food. Unlike the morning Krystal Burger was empty upon our arrival! We feasted on chicken sandwiches, cheese burgers and fires until we had our fill before returning to our room for the night. A great day overall, ready for more fun tomorrow!
~_M.H._~
Follow Me on Twitter: @MHSmith22
The Pork-Chop Express 