JanJans Blog

Once upon a time.... After three wonderful days of FedCon - this year it seemed more like FrakCon - I'm still in "English Mode", so I should probably take advantage of this and write an English blog entry. (...as long as I turn on the auto correction this shouldn't be such a big problem.)

Actually it was four days, since we - Pete and Jörg and Jana and I - met on Thursday to go to this Italian restaurant (or is it a fast food thingy, I don't know) to get our "last supper" before a weekend of muesli bar diet. Most years it takes about a week after that for my stomach to stop hurting afterwards.

But I'm getting ahead of myself: Thursday we met Gowron himself while waiting in the check-in line. He was a bit more linty than I remembered him, but nonetheless he was just as drunken bloodthirsty as we all remember him! As always the check-in line for Con numbers 1 through 498 was the longest - with about 1.000 people in it. We thought it would be shorter than the years before because this was the first time we were able to check-in the day before the con, but obviously all the other people with numbers under 300 - and their friends and family - had the same idea. The first shock of this years FedCon was that we were supposed to be sitting in seat row A8, right at the main entrance to the hall, which we thought was not so good.

After eating we went home for a short night sleep. At 3:15 in the morning the frakking cat woke me and since we were wide awake after feeding her we decided to go and sit in the line for next years ticket. Some time after 4 o'clock in the morning we arrived and were pretty sure to be the first ones there, but, alas, "same procedure as every year, James", there were already four other persons waiting! The same people as last year, by the way. So, next year we will be numbers 5 and 6, not 43 and 44 as this year. I WANT TO BE NUMBER ONE!!!1 (Did I say this out loud? Sorry.) After that we were as tired as a dog, as we say in German (dict.leo.org says there is a similar expression "dog-tired" in English, is that true?), we could barely keep ourselves awake by laughing about the replacement guest star named "BLABLA" in the FedCon Programme Guide. Not even seeing all the stars coming from the press conference could really wake us up.

Richard Hatch held the first panel. Did he wear the same leather jacket as on the show? It surely looked like it. He talked about BSG - the old one and the new one and the differences between them. I can't remember much of it, because I was so tired.

Same goes for Max Grodenchik, who was next. He is one of the few actors who speak German at least a little bit, so he sang us a song about Leeta and Rom to an old folk tune (to which the name I can't remember at the moment). He is a funny guy who talked about how he and Armin Shimerman got the Ferengi roles on DS9 ("Have you looked around? We are the only short persons around!") and the way Rom was oppressed and exploited by his brother Quark but finally was able to overcome that and end up Grand Nagus.

The next was Richard Arnold's obligational FedCon panel. He answered all the usual questions about the franchise and showed us a short film on the live of Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, who sadly passed away in December last year, which was made for her memorial service. He, too, talked about the new movie scheduled to be released this week, and it looks like he has been a bit more involved than in the Star Trek incarnations before that. (BTW: Every single person who talked about the movie said it will be great. Weather that is because the studio told them all to say that or...? But I think it is interesting that no one said anything bad about the film, so we are all hoping for the best!)

The panel after that was Marc Alaimo's, who shared his opinion on Dukat and how he was not an evil character per se but that he had tried to give him enough depth to understand his motivation for all the bad things he did.

Next up was Jeffrey Combs, who has much to tell us because of his various roles on Star Trek (Brunt, Weyoun, Shran...). The one story I particularly remember is the one where he fooled Marc Alaimo with his Brunt-Ferengi-Mask.

The opening ceremony was a very special treat for all of us, because Paramount allowed FedCon to show the new trailer and about 25 Minutes of footage of the new movie! (There was so much security all over the place looking for cameras and people trying to take pictures or film the screen, that it was almost overkill - like, more security than actual attendees (Well, ok, I exaggerate, but you get my meaning) -, so I'd be surprised if someone actually managed to do it!) After that the opening was almost nothing more than a formality, because nothing can top that!

...except maybe for Edward James Olmos, the Admiral. He was one, if not the main reasons I was so excited this year. His entrance was accompanied by shouts of "So say we all!" and much applause. He talked about the attendance of himself and Mary McDonnell as well as series creators Ronald D. Moore and David Eick at the UN on March 29th. I have to say that EJ is a very charismatic actor with a long history of roles in TV series and movies, e.g. Miami Vice, to which there were a lot of questions.

The other top act(ress) of this years FedCon followed: Nichelle Nichols. She told us the (well known) story about her meeting Martin Luther King who told her to keep playing Uhura when she was considering quitting Star Trek. (Actually that was during the opening ceremony.) Then she talked about her passion for singing and sang us a little song ("When I grow up I want to be an old woman" - does anyone know who sang this originally? I only know the version by Michelle Shocked...) For a woman of 77 years she is a remarkable fit (and chatty) person who possesses the aura of a real star. She also talked about how when she was cast for the role of Uhura she was over here in the old world (there is something about skiing in Kitzbühl stuck to the back of my head) and that her agent actually had to convince her to come back to LA for the casting by buying her a first class ticket.

To lighten the mood, the last panel of the day was John Billingsley, who seems to need a knew pair of pants after this weekend. As always he had his wife Bonita Friedericy with him who tried to keep him in his pants but - sadly - she did not succeed. In the end they even managed to get Marc out of his pants.

By the end of the panel it was about 11 o'clock and we decided to skip the party to catch up on sleep we missed that morning. (Because of the fireworks - Rhein in Flammen - on Saturday we were expecting heavy traffic; so Saturday would be our party day.)

PS: Did I mention this was the first FedCon I dressed up for? About a month ago - after it was almost certain that the Admiral, as well as other BSG actors would be attending - Jana and I got ourselves an BSG outfit, consisting of olive trousers, a grey sleeveless t-shirt combined with a black tank top worn the other way around, so the backside is in front. As soon as I get the pictures from Steffi I'll post them here.

Well, now I have to get to the university, so the entries for Saturday and Sunday will have to wait 'till tomorrow.

PS: Pictures are online.