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Gatecon 2002 Day Three: Guest Panels and The Banquet |
Vancouver, B.C. Canada
September 12-15, 2002
Last Updated 02/16/2020
All photos are copyright to Ann
Wortham, All Rights Reserved. Do not copy, reuse, alter, or manipulate in
anyway without prior permission. Permission is given to link to the main Gatecon 2002 page
but not to individual photos. Please do not link without a proper credit.
Please do not repost elsewhere without permission.
I
often get asked if reprints of my photos are available. If you are interested
in Photo Reprints, the details can be found on the main Gatecon 2002 page.
Photos with code numbers on them are not cropped or changed from the original
print.
Remember to click on the small
pictures below to bring up a larger version of the photo.
Warning!
From this point on, there will be Season 6 and even movie and/or Season 7
spoilers to be found in the guest talks. These reports were written during the
convention, for the most part, although I have tweaked them here and there with
comments, corrections and/or updates and the like for the web page.
There
are over 100 pictures on this page, so even with most of them as thumbnails,
the graphics may take a little time to load.
Friday
was action-packed. I'm tired, sore, and my shoulders are already protesting a
day of almost non-stop photography. But it was worth the pain. I can only cross
my fingers that some of the fun photos I took turn out! (Boy, did they! 35
rolls worth!)
By
the way, we met some great people waiting in line today, including a couple of
gals who were attending Gatecon for the very first time. Cindy and Janet, it
was great to meet you and I hope you enjoyed the rest of the day as much as the
morning sessions! There do seem to be a large number of "newbies" at
the con this year and I hope all of them are having a fun time.
The
day began with Colin Cunningham joining us on stage. There has been very heavy
guest security at the con this year. It's been kind of a laugh because, for
instance, Alexis Cruz walked past the line of people waiting this morning twice
without anyone really noticing him until he said hello and smiled
and waved at all of us...then suddenly the third time he was surrounded by
security people. JR came by a time or two before anyone noticed he was
unescorted, as well. During one of JR’s passes, I hollered out “I love your
hair!” and everyone who was at Sekh’s Party the night before snickered.
Colin
Cunningham when he came on stage first thing, was making jokes about having
been surrounded by security from the moment he arrived and being strip
searched, etc. He talked about it quite a lot to the audience at various points
and to JR Bourne and Alexis when they came on stage later. At one point, Colin
said "Screw this! I'll come to you!" and he jumped off the stage and
charged into the audience. The lights came up and huge beefy security guys went
stampeding after him. Colin stopped and turned around whilst shaking people's
hands and growled, half laughing, at the men to "STAY!" and then he
told them to back off and leave him alone. He made some comments about how he
didn't think there were any chainsaw murderers in attendance at the con. He actually
came down into the audience several times after that to give hugs or for
various other reasons.
I
mean no disrespect to the security staff or the convention staff (all of whom
have certainly been very pleasant and friendly in any dealings I've had with
them), please be aware. They were just doing the job they had been asked to do,
I'm sure, but I will tell you that by the afternoon, Colin no longer had any
security whatsoever -- by his direct request. The last we saw him, he was
happily chatting with fans in the lobby of the hotel.
Anyway,
back to the panel. After the security staff recovered from their heart attacks
and Colin gave lots of fans a quick thrill with a hand shake or a word, he went
back on stage and talked to us. I've only made a few notes from the various
panels throughout the day since my hands were mostly occupied with the camera
rig, but I'll try to make sense of my jumbled notes for you.
One
young lady in the audience stood up to ask a question and Colin recognized her
as someone he had met earlier this week in Stanley Park! She had apparently
recognized him and asked for his autograph. He told a funny anecdote about a
Japanese family sitting nearby that had been ignoring him up until that point
and they suddenly began looking at him and chattering in Japanese. Later in the
session, someone from Japan stood up to convey their admiration to Colin and he
asked them how the Japanese "fake" an English accent. He gave several
examples of how English speaking people tend to "fake" Chinese or
Japanese accents while speaking gibberish. He was told by someone else in the
audience in no uncertain terms that most Asian people learn English so they
don't have to "fake" English. Perhaps you had to be there. But
Colin's babbling about the languages really was a hoot.
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Someone
asked him what he might know about Major Davis that we don't. (In other words,
has he created a history for the character in his mind?) Colin blinked a moment
and then said, "He wears pantyhose." He blinked again. "So does
General Hammond. You know, sometimes they stop and share a look and that's what
they're thinking about."
“Military Secrets”
Colin
then seriously answered the question by saying that he conceived of Major Davis
as a person who is very alone. Very dedicated to his career and at the end of
the day he goes home and is alone. He also said later on that he thought Davis
had a "thing" for Sam. He was warned in no uncertain terms about how
dangerous that could be! (Witness Chance’s “Black Widow Tour” t-shirts on the
previous web page!)
He
commented (I can't remember if this was in answer to a question) that his favorite
people in the world are Texans, Mexicans and the Irish. Since I'm a Texan, I
was happy to hear this. ;-) He was of the opinion that Mexicans are just Irish
people with a tan.
Someone
said that they were very sad Daniel had left the show but that if he had to go,
Colin would have been their first choice as the new member of SG-1. Colin
thanked them and said that, of course, no one could ever replace Daniel! Since
there are a lot of Daniel fans in attendance, this was a popular answer, of
course.
He
was asked if he could play any other role on SG-1, who he would like to be. He
immediately said "Major Carter so I could go to bed with myself every
night." Ahem.
When
asked what kind of role he would like to play that he hasn't done, he said he'd
love to be in a slasher type movie. He waxed poetical about how much fun this
would be for a while and ended with "I want to eat someone's
eyeballs." Ooooookay, Colin.
About
this time, JR Bourne and Alexis Cruz joined Colin on stage and mayhem truly did
ensue. For anyone who doesn't know, I believe that JR and Colin are good
friends and they were merciless to each other. JR held a charity luncheon
yesterday and he told the story about how one of the auction winners didn't
really know who he was, who he had played on the show and could have cared less
about him. She leaned over to him and said "Do you know Colin? Do you
think you could get him here?" A lot of ribbing back and forth began from
there, including much discussion of the fact that Colin no longer owns a cell
phone and his voice mail box was full so JR couldn't even leave him a message
when he tried to call from the restaurant. Alexis began miming Colin calling
himself and leaving messages and talking to himself on one phone, with JR
joining in... it's really hard to describe but trust me it was outrageous. JR
also kept ragging on Colin about seeing him out and about town in his
convertible and about how Colin seemed to be having serious conversations with
himself in his rearview mirror!
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JR
adjourned to sell and autograph copies of his sister's new children's book in
the dealer's room (proceeds to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Society) and Colin
left, as well, leaving the stage to Alexis. Alexis chatted with us for a few
moments and said that he has gone back to school to study a double major of
psychology and anthropology. He's also filmed more Touched by an Angel and he
will be in an upcoming episode of Stargate. He thanked the fans for perhaps
helping to bring him back as Skaara as he said he hadn't expected to ever be
back on the show again. I'll print a spoiler down below for those of you who
want to know a little more (although the information wasn't from Alexis' talk).
It
wasn't long, however, before a voice came from backstage and Alexis happily smiled
and said "Is that my Poppy?" Sure enough, it was Peter Williams
(Apophis, father of Klorel, of course!), who then joined him on stage. Someone
asked if they could touch Peter Williams' hair (which is growing out in little
ringlets now -- if you've seen my Dragoncon photos, you know what it looks
like). Alexis jumped out of his seat and ran over and began ruffling Peter's
hair immediately! Peter didn’t really answer the lady’s question, by the way.
He just said “Thanks for asking first because some don’t!” (Hence Alexis’
impromptu hair ruffling.)
I
asked Alexis and Peter to please read the hieroglyphs on the wall of the stage
because I was of the opinion that they were different this year from last (last
year Alexis had told us they said "Don't Feed the Abydonians”). Alexis and
Peter had a bit of fun making stuff up including "This way to the ladies
room," "Do Not Litter," and the fact that Steven Spielberg was
in the credits.
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Since
Alexis is back on SG-1, the question was asked if Apophis was coming back.
Peter played coy and said "I don't know" and said to ask him on
Sunday. (But if you've read my Dragoncon report, you know part of the answer.)
He said he saw Anubis at breakfast this morning and thought "I could do
that." I hollered out "Did you?" <g> He claimed no and
said that the person in the costume was female, actually. The question was
asked about Apophis' make-up after his face was disfigured and Peter told us
that the disfiguration was lessened because of the extreme cost of doing the
make-up and the length of time to apply it. He was inducted into the "Dead
Guys Society" and given a certificate and a special t-shirt that said
"Dead Man Walking" on the front and had photos of Apophis, Kawalsky
and Martouf on the back. (See the Day Two web page to view a close-up of the
t-shirt, front and back. I’ve been told that the Dead Guys Society and the
t-shirts were actually produced by two totally unrelated groups. Great minds
think alike!) He made a quip at one point that the memento he had kept from the
show was Apophis' harem of women! A question was asked whether Chris Judge is
more like Jack or Teal'c in real life? The final answer given by Peter boiled
down to: a cross between Charlie Sheen and Ice Cube! He then went on to say
that Chris was like Teal'c in some ways because he was at heart a very gentle,
kind man.
So,
those are some tidbits from the morning sessions. Here's the spoiler I
promised... Alexis is filming Stargate right now and the episode is Full
Circle, the last episode of the season (perhaps the series).
Continuing
on from before, after the morning guest panels, the VIP ticket holders could,
if they wished, have their photos taken with some of the guests. Leah and I decided
to go ahead, so we joined the line when our numbers were called while some of
our friends kindly waited for us so that we could all go to lunch afterwards.
First
up, we had a picture of me and Leah with Jay Acovone and Peter Williams. Peter
said "Oh! You guys again!" and was laughing when he saw us. Leah told
him to behave or she'd cartoon him again. We had a wonderful fleeting moment
squeezed between "Kawalsky" and "Apophis." When we walked
away, Leah could hear Peter telling Jay about us and saying 'Those guys"
but she said he was smiling when he said it. (Those who have read my Dragoncon
reports will remember that Peter had asked Leah to autograph a copy of the
Apophis cartoon she drew a while back. We later heard from a staff member that Colin
wanted to know when Leah was going to cartoon him. <eg> Uh,
see above, Colin.)
We
next walked over to where Richard Pascoe was taking the pictures of people with
Frida and Colin Cunningham. We told him what we wanted and he was very pleasant
and agreeable to our requests. We both posed with Frida Betrani; she was a
lovely pixiesh little woman who wanted to stop and know our names and just chat
a moment. Very very sweet lady and so tiny that I wondered if she'd even show
up in the picture sandwiched between me and Leah! After that, I wanted my photo
of just me with Colin because I've really liked him since seeing him at the
convention last year. He jumped up from his chair, ran up to me, threw his arms
around me, drew me into a big bear hug and gave me a big, noisy, sloppy kiss on
the cheek!!!! I was stunned. I stood there with my mouth hanging open while he
cuddled me for a photo. Leah was standing to the side laughing her ass off. I
talked to Colin for a few minutes about my photos. The head of his fan club had
given some of them to him last year and used some on his official site and he
had mailed me a personalized autograph as a thank you. (In fact, I donated one
of these photos to the Sekh's Party charity raffle -- a very funny pose of JR
and Colin when Colin had made his impromptu appearance at JR's panel last year.
You can see it at: http://photos.ashtonpress.net/gatecon.htm
We
finally left and I was still in a daze.
Cindy
was waiting for us outside and told us that while we had been in line, at one
point Colin came running out looking for the men's room and he begged the
people in the room not to tell security where he had gone. Shortly after, the
security people were flying down the hall after him! I guess they figured out
where he'd gone...
Our
merry little band of Daniel fans decided to sample the food at the Cronos
restaurant across the street. I'd wanted to go there last year and never made
it. Of course, we had to take a few pictures and we later joked that Cronos
wasn't really dead but now working as a cook in a Greek restaurant! Who knows?
Since Ron Halder later showed up at the convention…well, maybe Leah will be
inspired to do another cartoon! The food was quite good, by the way, and I hope
we get a chance to return. I had some chicken souvlaki that was nicely seasoned
and very tender and I'd swear that the pita bread was homemade.
After
lunch, it was time for the afternoon panels. Frida Betrani was first up and was
warmly welcomed to Gatecon and Vancouver. She talked about the arduous hours of
make-up required for her role as Lya and also some about how she had gotten the
role. She said it was raining a lot when they were filming and she had to wear
huge knee high rubber boots most of the time. She told a funny little anecdote
about how she had been heavily coached on the proper pronunciation of
"Goa'uld" and demonstrated how she had practiced it at length...and
then she said RDA would come on and say "Goold" and just pronounce it
any old way he wanted.
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JR
Bourne joined her on stage by saying off-stage "There's an earthquake in
New York." Apparently, they did a film together called
"Aftershock" and this phrase had some meaning from the film.
JR
and Frida began a bit of bantering and the fact that Martouf and even Lantash
are dead came up, of course. Frida pointed out that the Nox have the power to
bring people back to life so he'd better behave and be nice to her! He was
quite taken aback. He told the story of how long it took Martouf to die and how
they worked it out so he would fall slowly enough that Sam could get to him
from across the room to have him die in her arms. He claims that everyone shot
him, even the make-up lady Janet who came out and shot him because he just
would not die.
He
also talked about a movie he and Amanda Tapping have made together recently
called "Stuck." He claimed a portion of his ass shows in the film. Oh
my. He and Amanda's character apparently make love in an elevator that is
stuck. There is going to be a special preview showing of the film for ten lucky
fans who can bid on the seats during the charity auction Saturday night.
During
a conversation about the pacifist philosophy of the Nox, JR asked Frida
"Did you have any evil thoughts whatsoever?" She got a wicked look on
her elfin face and said "Only about you."
JR
told us that his dog, Scooby, has a slipped disk and because he has hardwood
floors in his apartment, the poor dog couldn't walk properly and was sliding
all over. Since he didn't want to pay to carpet his entire apartment (the dog
will apparently recover, btw), he went and got the blue foam padding that goes
under carpet and laid it down all over his apartment. He waxed poetical about
how much he loves the way it squishes under his feet now.
Jay Acovone
was next on the agenda and he was as silly and wonderful as ever. He really
seems to adore his wife and is always making little quips about her (but with
great affection). He pointed out that the shoes he was wearing were designed
for racing cars (a hobby he apparently sometimes pursues) and were, therefore,
fireproof. He said that as he was leaving for the con, his wife handed them to
him and told him to wear them in case the plane crashed. Words can't really
describe his wonderful expressions but he pointed out that although he would be
burned to a crisp, his feet would still look great...and he said he smiled at
her and simply said "Thank you, honey."
He's
got a part in the new Terminator 3 and said "Yes, I die, along with
everyone else in the movie except for Arnold." The first film he ever made
was "Cruising" with Al Pacino in 1979 (which was rather appropriate,
I think, since he had earlier said that the people who had inspired him to get
into acting were Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, The Three Stooges, and Jackie
Gleason).
He's
worked in a few projects, including Independence Day, for Roland Emmerich and
Dean Devlin, and he said that the duo have now parted ways, wanting to do their
own things right now, but they are still great friends. Emmerich is doing a new
project called "Day After Tomorrow" and Jay might be in it. Leah
asked if it was SciFi and Jay rather hesitated and said it was more of a
"what if" type story.
He
told an interesting story about how he got the part of Kawalsky in the pilot.
He said that they originally wanted John Diehl (from Miami Vice) who had played
Kawalsky in the film, Apparently it was going to be a regular or recurring
role. Diehl didn't want to sign for the series, though. MGM came back and
offered to write it so that Kawalsky gets killed off early on and under those
conditions, Diehl agreed to do it. When it came time to actually sign for the
role, however, Diehl changed his mind and backed out. (Pure speculation on my
part, but I wonder if it was because Dean Devlin was so adamantly opposed to
the series? I believe I remember Devlin mentioning that Diehl was a friend.)
Anyway, Jay got the role at that point and he said he'd love to be part of the
series ongoing and asked if they would consider changing it so that Kawalsky
lived. Unfortunately, he was told that all of the scripts were already approved
by MGM, yadda yadda yadda and so Kawalsky died.
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So, the
end of a long day of fun and photos and we only had a couple of hours until it
was time for the banquet.
On
the way back to our rooms, we passed Peter Williams in the hallway (surrounded
by security). We said hello as we walked past and he hollered out "Hello,
Leah! I love that necklace you're wearing!" Well, we knew were infamous
but we didn't realize it was because of our jewelry! (First Tracy
Scoggins at Dragoncon and now Peter Williams...) Somehow it seems appropriate
that “Apophis” would be interested in antique Egyptian jewelry.
There's
not too much to tell you about the banquet. We ate. The food was good. The
company was great. We were joined at our table by a couple from Belgium and a
couple from right in the Vancouver area (Burnaby). After dinner, there was a
costume contest with some wacky costumes and some beautiful costumes. A trio of
"Jaffa priestesses" were the winners. Sarah Douglas had arrived and
was one of the judges and Peter Williams made the winning announcements with
quite a funny quip or two. There was also a very nice Anubis which I think came
in in second place, “Young Sam” came in third because Peter said she looked so
much like Amanda Tapping, and there was an honorable mention for a fellow who
was dressed up in an Air Force Uniform with a print of General Hammond's face
as a mask (he was Hammond, of course). He was hilarious! We were pretty far in
the back of the room, so I apologize that I couldn’t get better close-ups of
the costumes.
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Signing
off for now...
Or
Featuring pictures of Brad Wright, Alexis
Cruz, Virginia Hey (from Farscape), Jay Acovone, Jay Brazeau, Tony Amendola,
Erick Avari, Gary Jones, Teryl Rothery, Don S. Davis, Dan Shea, Amanda Tapping,
Colin Cunningham, JR Bourne and more!
Featuring pictures of Michael Shanks,
Amanda Tapping, Tom McBeath
and Lexa Doig (from Andromeda)
Check out the Ashton Press home
page for more artwork, zines, links to photos from Highlander
conventions, pictures from Blakes 7 conventions, pictures of soap
opera stars, fan fiction and much more!
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