Serenity2 Convention - 18th-20th November 2005
Friday
The journey down actually went pretty well for us (Rod and me). Although our train was over ten minutes late into Doncaster, leaving us just two minutes to find which platform we wanted for the connection, we actually caught an
earlier London train that was running late and so got in on time - sorta. Met Mary in the loo at King's Cross, and Jo later at the hotel.
Next, find the "Radisson Edwardian Heathrow Hotel", venue for the con. Nice and easy tube trip on the Piccadilly line first - King's Cross to Heathrow. I had never previously noticed how many young men of Middle Eastern appearance and carrying rucksacks travel by tube... Our carriage seemed full of them.
At Heathrow bus station, we had to find the departure point for the recommended Hoppa bus to the hotel - £3.50 each. I spotted a couple of bus station staff and asked where the Hoppa bus picked up. They said we could pay £3.50 if we liked, or we could take a local bus for free. 8-) We took that option which wasn't actually mentioned on the info sheet...
We arrived in good time and checked in. The Radisson - can't be bothered with the rest of it! - is a very impressive hotel, all marble, mirrors and gilding with lots of statuary and real palm-type trees.
It is also, as Nathan said, 'too fucking cold!' (He might have been referring to the weather though.) Don't know if is normally the case, or if the sudden cold snap caught them by surprise, but I haven't felt to cold for such a sustained period since I was a child in the days before central heating. 8-( It didn't help that pretty much the entirety of one wall in our room was window. The curtains were pretty thick but weren't as effective as lot more brickwork for keeping out the cold.
We signed in and collected our convention badges, then went for something to eat in the Brasserie early as Mary and Jo said the service was very slow. The food was very good when it arrived, though at those prices, so it should.
And on to the opening ceremony which took place in the Commonwealth Room. To reach this room, you go up about four sets of ornamental stairs with much wrought ironwork and gilding. These take you from the ground floor to the third storey.
Once there, you come to a large area of water flowing down a series of shallow drops. There are frosted glass koi which are just above the water level. Two illuminated bridges lead across the water to the Commonwealth Room. It's all very swish, but we would cheerfully have passed up on it for a ten degree increase in temperature.
The Commonwealth Room is a huge, high-ceilinged hall with another of those walls of glass all the length of the hall on the left-hand side, and hung with orangey-red curtains. To the left at the front was a projection screen (upon which appropriate comic quips appeared from time to time). In the centre was a low stage area for the guests. It had a black backdrop which had alternately flashing starry lights, erected behind it. The guests came and went from the doors to the right - or stage left if you're theatrically inclined.
One of the first things you noticed among the audience was the number of 'Jayne hats' - ya know, the knitted woolly hat with the orange pompom, a yellow band, an orange band and bright red ear flaps, that Jayne's mother had sent him in 'The Message.' LOL!
Sean Harry, the organiser and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones lookalike, ran through the dos and don'ts, then introduced our M.C. for the weekend, Neil Roberts. He played the recurring role of the art dealer, Rex Buckland, in 'Charmed' and is quite a live wire, drifting somewhere between suave and comic.
He introduced all the guests individually with a big - and sometimes misleading - build up. I can't remember what the exact order was, but let's pretend that I can. ;-) First up was Jonathan Woodward who played Tracey in 'The Message.' He is more of a live wire than Neil, and began by lamenting that he and Nathan had broken up, and that the break-up involved a Bulgarian midget. Than gives you an idea of the tone of the weekend. {BFG}
Next on was Christina Hendricks who played Saffron, a.k.a. Yo-Saff-Bridge, in 'Our Mrs. Reynolds' and 'Trash'. It was her first con., and she was very initially very nervous. She'd been told that all she had to do was come on, say 'Hello' and come off, so that was pretty much exactly what she did. Fled the stage, in fact! {g}
Sean Maher, another (main guest) con. virgin was introduced next. He's much better looking than he looks as the rather serious Simon Tam, and has a really beautiful smile. 8-) He was followed by Jewel Staite, who is a delight, then Morena Baccarin, a real beauty. Summer Glau is very sweet and seems a little shy.
Finally Nathan Fillion was introduced. He was sporting a moustache and neat beard along his jaw line. I'm not usually one for the facial fuzz, but it kind of suited him - or he suited it. Whatever, he was looking very good. 8-)
Chiwetel Ejiofor who played the Operative in the film didn't come as his shooting schedule on his current film didn't allow it, which was a shame as we thought he was a very cool 'bad guy'. Nathan said later that Joss let him live as everyone expects the bad guy to die at the end of the film. 8-)
We were lucky enough to have ticket numbers low enough for the cocktail party which took place in the Newbury Suite. This was presumably based on an Edwardian conservatory with yet more marble, statues, palm trees, glass walls and roof, and a waterfall. Chilly, much.
There were small high tables for standing round or putting glasses on - no seats. There was also a bar, sort of, set out across the middle of the main part. The crush bar at the Royal Opera House it wasn't. Service wasn't exactly slick, but then, at the prices they charged, it didn't have to be. I had a glass of tonic water. It cost me £2. This is clearly the answer to binge drinking!
So we all wandered around, drinkless for the most part, and chatted to the guests. I somehow managed to miss Jewel, 8-( but had a few words with all the others who were really great. Christina had got over the nerves and was very friendly. Morena is incredibly slender and has a delicate beauty. Summer is very sweet and was clearly having a good time meeting people she'd met before. I didn't see much of Sean; he really does have a wonderful smile. Finally, Nathan. Mm-mmmm! He is just gorgeous and a natural at socializing. I asked him if the tatt. we saw in 'Trash' was genuine, and - um - it certainly is... ;-)
Saturday
This was my twenty-third convention. I am used to them running on Convention Time which is usually somewhere between 30 minutes and 2½ hours behind schedule. It's not a problem. What I do have a problem with is when the timetable is revised
forwards and nobody frickin' tells you...
It's the first time I've ever encountered this. It was done because someone had organized for guests to be in two places at once, so it was decided that getting photographs taken and autographs signed took precedence. Fine. I don't have a problem with that - gotta keep the punters happy and all that. But was it beyond the wit of man to write a notification of the changes on the display boards in the atrium?
I particularly wanted to see Nathan and Summer's panel and headed for the hall half an hour early to be in good time and found they were half-way through already. 8-( I was not a happy camper at that point.
In the evening, some bright spark had come up with the idea of removing the rows of chairs (800-odd) and replacing them with
large round tables each with about eight or ten chairs around them. The
rest of the chairs were stacked up around two sides of the hall and taped up with instructions that they were not to be moved. Which meant lots of people standing around the sides and back and even more sitting on the floor.
Filler entertainments - 'Cleopatra 2525' and 'Doctor Who' - were cancelled for some reason and replaced with a guy showing his home-made budget horror films which used local people from his home town for the cast. They were very well done, but difficult to keep track of when a) everyone's talking and b) you have your back to the screen and don't want to be rude to the rest of the people on the table by turning your chair round and ignoring them.
We were now back on normal Convention Time. {g} The next item was the Fancy Dress Parade which was excellent. The ones which stood out in my mind were a little girl of about ten, dressed as River from the movie, complete with double-headed axe and scimitar. She struck the pose from the poster and the guests, who were judging, all took photos off her. Actually they took
lots of photos of all the entrants. 8-)
There was a girl with a model of the 'tenth member' of the team - the Firefly class ship, Serenity. It was at least six foot long and very detailed. That won a prize too. There was a group of people dressed as reavers and Alliance soldiers who fought a battle for our entertainment.
The deserved winner's 'costume' was brilliant. It was called 'Taking out the Trash' (I think). It was one of those one-person-being-two-people kind of things, and
looked like a naked Mal Reynolds carrying a small wheelie bin in front of him with Saffron sitting in it. The girl was the upper half of Saffron and the bottom half of Mal - if you see what I mean, and no, she wasn't half-naked. {g} She was standing half in a full-sized latex model of Mal. It was very clever. 8-)
Then it was on with the party and Rod and went back up to our ice box for a cup of (complimentary) tea. Oh, forgot to mention that Sunday was Jonathan's birthday, so we all signed cards and he was presented with them plus a couple of birthday cakes on the Saturday night.
Sunday
This began with 'Communion' presided over by Neil and Jonathan as the Rev. Jonny Wallet who looked like he'd had a good time the night before. 8-) The 'communion wine' was whisky and a long queue formed for a swig. I suspect some people went up more than once as it overran by quite a while. Jewel's set was cancelled - I think. I've kinda lost the plot a bit at this point as my guide - the Sunday schedule - was pretty well scrambled. During the break, I met up with Jill in the dealers' room, and shortly afterwards, finally found Jedinic and Danamaree, so it was great to see them all again. 8-)
Well, there was a charity auction at some point, run by Neil and Jonathan who were racing up and down the centre aisle, one on each 'side' and drumming up bids in competition. Among the items for sale there was a reaver full head prosthetic and a nose. Several props - a whisky bottle label, a coin, a communicator device and a reaver throwing star - were framed behind glass and autographed.
There were also a couple of hundred 'bank notes' which were put up for Dutch auction downstairs. If you wanted one, you made a bid and posted in a box and the two hundred people who made the highest bids got one. I got one 8-) and the guy that designed them was autographing the envelopes that the notes were in.
Overall, over £8,000 was raised for various charities, mainly cancer research.
After the auction, Summer and Sean were due for a panel, followed immediately after by Nathan, Morena and Christina. In view of the previous day's forward revision of the schedule, I wasn't about to be caught out a second time, so I just slipped out to the loo with a view to returning to the hall and sitting it out till the first panel began.
I was only gone a few minutes, but, bless your sweet life, when I came back, the first panel had already started! And Nathan and Jewel were there too... Nathan was very good in every respect, especially as, having been moved forward an hour - again - he had then been going for a break, but was sweet-talked by Morena and Christina into not leaving them on their own but to take up his leader's role again and keep them company. So he did two sets. Lufs. 8-)
He teased us about Book's back story, and also Inara's, which
they know but wouldn't tell in case there's another film. No news about that or a new series though. 8-( He'd told us he'd brought something to show us. It was something we hadn't seen before, so no, it wasn't him naked. {g}
This was a blooper DVD from the film, but his guns had been spiked on the 'something we hadn't seen before' as it had already been shown a couple of times already. {g} But that was okay, that was cool. 8-) Really, really, really hope it's included with the film when it comes out on DVD.
Summer always gets blamed when anything goes wrong, or someone cocks up, because she very rarely does. 8-) Morena is the one who swears the most, allegedly. She certainly told Nathan he'd fucked up. {g}
The funniest bit was from the chase after the aborted bank raid. The crew are being pursued along a little dry valley by a reaver ship pumping out clouds of black smoke
in the film. We saw the reality - no smoke, and the thing was rolling along on squeaky wheels like pram wheels. Suspect the squeakiness may have been added later, but that was so funny. 8-)
Then came the closing ceremony and more high jinks with Neil and Jonathan - who spent quite a while with his inside the fly of Neil's pants, to show that Neil was his bitch... Neil is married but played along happily enough and a little later, their positions were reversed. Much suggestiveness. {g}
They reintroduced the guests who came and sat around one of those round tables which had been swapped with the rows of chairs and back again several times over the weekend. Leaving the chairs as they were in the first place might've saved a bit of time.
I forgot to mention that at the end of the blooper disc was a dedication for Jewel from Nathan. A model head of Nathan as Caleb (with little red horns and a dog collar) from Buffy rose from the bottom of the shot, followed by a hand with the middle finger raised.
Sometime during the afternoon, a guy came round taking pictures of people making the same gesture. Later on, Jewel said she had a present for Nathan. All the pics. of raised fingers had been spliced together into a film and shown on the screen - hundreds of 'em - followed by the comment, 'Right back atcha - Jewel.' Much hilarity all round. 8-)
But I've saved the best for last. When Jonathan came on at the end, he claimed to have a petition, signed by
everybody, and all the guests were listed as signing too, for Nathan to get over all their problems and make them both happy by getting back together again. He hammed it up muchly. {BG} Finally, Nathan stood up, marched over to him, took Jonathan's face between his hands and laid one on him but good. They then slid into a long clinch. About the only time I'd felt warm all weekend! It went down a storm, I'm tellin' ya. So not Stargate... {BFG}
Monday - came home - got warm. 8-)
--