Firefly

More from Cubed

Okay, I’ve managed to sneak some time to do some more words about my experience at S3. I’m going to structure it a bit more this time so if my rambling is boring you, you can skip to the next bit of interest, you skipperer person you.

Guest talks.

Having seen every talk at the first one and not even one at the second one, this was more of a happy medium. I saw Michael Fairman and Mark Shephard first. Mark is incredibly relaxed at these things, very friendly and definitely has a stage presence. He loves talking about the show, his career, his family and all such good things. He also was apparently the reason Michael was there as well, having worked with him on an episode of Medium a couple of weeks previously. He explained to Michael that these conventions weren’t about being geeky, they were full of love and that was much in evidence. For what was clearly a new experience, Michael took to it amazingly well, giving intelligent answers, not just giving the crowd what they wanted or expected to hear (for one thing, they think movies are more interesting and experimental than television - providing you go see independent films) and also, after Mark commented how straight faced everyone looked after a serious question, Michael turned the mood by getting up and dancing. Points of interest: both Mark and Michael struggled with the props that were going to be transformed by CGI (the newspaper and the map respectively); Michael decided to make Niska respond in an almost sexual manner to the torture scenes, even having to be pulled back a bit as it was a little over the top; Michael thought Niska was the most delicious character he’s played and expected him to return many more times.

Jewel and Sean: they seemed a little nervous and Sean even commented how out of it they were. The session started slowly with just a few softball questions, including some very familiar ones (what do they think will happen to the characters? Which directors would they like to work with?) but then the session livened up, particularly when someone asked Sean on behalf of his sister (yeah, sure, whatever you say :) ) whether he wore boxers, briefs or thongs. This cracked everyone up, especially on Sean’s admitting that he didn’t wear underwear. Hmm, Sean doesn’t, Nathan doesn’t... anyone going to ask Adam, Alan and Ron? There was also a hilarious moment when someone asked them if they had read any fanfiction. Sean was bemused but had it explained to them then Jewel said she’d heard a rumour that there was one story with Kaylee and Jayne getting together. She was slightly horrified when it was explained when there were hundreds. Sean was amused then heard there were similarly hundreds of Mal/Simon stories. He jokingly remarked that there couldn’t be any Simon/River stories... they really don’t know how dark our imaginations can go, do they? I decided to ask them a question but noticed to my horror that Eric was in front of me. Eric, for those of you who don’t know, does for good manners what his country has just done to Lebanon. He’s a perpetual pain in the ass and just about everyone I’ve spoken to has a story about him being rude to them or the guests. Even Sean recognised him with a look of slight horror, one that widened when he announced he had three questions. He doesn’t have questions, he has diatribes which go on forever then the guests have to ask "Sorry, what were you asking?" and this prompts another very long ramble which still doesn’t contain a question.

It’s like torture. However, he obviously was being/had been told to be restrained so he then said he’d just ask one question. The inevitable monologue followed for a few minutes then Sean just looked blank so he rephrased it into... what do you think will happen to the characters. Groan. However, I think Jewel’s brain must have entered catatonic shock at this point as she then divulged a bit about what Joss has said to her about Serenity 2. The plan is to start it off with a very shocking first five minutes and then the rest of the movie is a flashback to show how we reached that point. Now this seems a nifty idea, particularly as it means we can spend some quality time with both Book and Wash without this being being the standard sappy blurry memory shots that such scenes normally are. Of course now I’m hyper curious as to what the shocking scene would be. Serenity exploding? Someone getting shot? One BDH shooting another? River and Inara being caught in flagrante? Anyway, intriguing possibilities. However this did rather step on my question which was to ask if they’d still appear in the sequel if their character was to be killed on page 1. Jewel looked a bit shocked at the idea and Sean was equally bemused, even when I clarified that it would be opening titles and then him going *splttt* (told you I made a farting noise in front of them). Sean said yes, he’d appear even if it was just to be squished; Jewel was still keen to survive till page 101.

Meeting people:

I met a fair few new people which in turn led to me not really catching up with old people that I wanted to. I saw Jaina, Alison, Ryan et al briefly but they were going to one thing, I was going to another... I find it hard to do the whole "catch-up in thirty seconds" well. Plus I was frequently scheduled elsewhere and some people I did want to talk to were otherwise engaged in other conversations or stewarding duties. So if you saw me and thought "Why didn’t he say hello again?", many apologies, I’ll catch you next time. On the other hand, if you saw me and thought "Christ, please don’t let him talk to me?", you were lucky this time but I only have to be lucky once. :)

I didn’t really get to spend as much time with those I did see as well. It’s always a pleasure to see guys like Sean and Karl but when you get once in a blue moon opportunities like being able to chat to Serenity and Cozen, you want to take more advantage of them. But I can’t blame them for wanting to go see London. It is a lovely city. So once again I vow next time will be different and I’ll try to chat to more people, perhaps even more random strangers, spread myself around a bit. Be warned.

Next time... yeah, I think there’s going to be a next time. But I’m not 100% sure that’s going to be S4, even though I love going back up to Scotland. We’ll see, still plenty of time yet.

Okay, that’s it for now. I’m sure there’s other bits so I’ll just add them as addendums (addenda? addendi?) beneath this paragraph. Must get on with other stuff now. Ah, post-con blues... well, mild blues anyway. (Heh, this reminds me of a question to Sean: "What’s your favourite colour?" "Blue." Jewel: "What kind of blue? Sky blue, deep blue, ocean blue, light blue..." "Ocean blue." Same question to Jewel: "Well, I quite like to get into colours when I get new shoes, I’ll go for more clothes to suit them. Like I bought some mauve shoes and so I had to get mauve outfits to go with it... though mauve is so over now. But lately I’ve gotten into red." In an incredibly sarcastic voice by Sean: "What kind of red?")

Onwards.