LFCC Sunday 19th July 2015

It’s that time of year again for one of our convention staples. Showmaster’s London Film and Comic Con.

We’ve been attending these for years. It feels like that familiar family holiday we take together. But this year stands out. This year it was BIG!! There was some serious guest star pulling power happening.

We heard that it was going to be hot and that it was crazy busy (It always seems to fall on the hottest day of the year!).  We prepared ourselves mentally and physically for this away mission. Lots of water, tiny TNG skant dresses, water, we even bought new boots that were super comfy (sign that we’re getting old). Armed with this and psyching ourselves up for standing around in a sweaty moshpit, we were actually relieved to find it wasn’t as bad as we had imagined it to be.

When we got in were amazed how much the show had grown. Vendors everywhere, guest stars everywhere but also new calibre of vendors such as the SyFy channel…ohh fancy! We headed straight to find the Star Trek actors, naturally. Garrett Wang is always super nice whenever we see him. We’re not sure if he actually remembers us each time we talk to him but he is polite enough to suggests that he does.

We also say hi to Tim Russ who is such a lovely sweet man and again, he politely says he remembers us and we like to believe he is telling us the truth when in fact he is probably giving a coded signal to his handler to save him from the crazy ladies!

Nichole de Boer was too busy for us to interject so we gawked at how tiny and beautiful she is. She doesn’t seem to have aged a day!

Star Trek Talk

Time for the Star Trek talk in the Super Hall. It was super because it was cool in there! The talk was free which was nice and it was well attended. It was supposed to be Tim Russ, Garret Wang and Ethan Philips but Ethan cancelled.

Tim and Garrett did separate appearances which was fine because Tim wanted to promote Star Trek Renegades.

Tim was up first and there were some good questions from the audience. When asked what other Captain would he liked to have served under he replied ‘Sisko’ thinking Sisko and Tuvok would be an interesting paring. We can see that, the emotional Captain (much more so than Janeway) versus the rational man.

Tim said that from Tuvok he learnt patience, balancing emotional control through meditation. We suspect that’s from working with Neelix.

Tim also mentioned that he was going to be coming back to London next year for an event??…Are we getting a clue here!?

He then went on to talk about Renegades and how it harkens back to the days of pirates. There’s Section 31, an arc story that would be developed in a weekly series.

Tim finishes his talk with an actioned pack clip of Renegades which you can find on the Official Renegades site.

Time for Garrett….ohh Garrett. He is a funny man! We laughed all the way through his talk. He doesn’t hold back. When asked who he’d like to serve under he stated Picard. Good solid reasons and this got nods of approval all round. The he says said “I’d have to serve under Picard because Shatner is too…..Shatner!”. He then proceeded to tell the story of how he first met William Shatner. If you haven’t heard it, we won’t ruin it because like all Garrett’s stories you need to hear them with his delivery, otherwise we’d ruin them. But that’s what makes a good guest to these shows. One who comes armed with a pile of funny anecdotes from their time working at the show. They are able to take any question from the audience and by answering, they deliver one of their gems.

I (Sam) asked a question. With all the talk about Renegades, Captain Worf, Axanar, The Rikers in Space etc I wondered what Garrett’s pitch for a Star Trek spin off would be? It’s going to be funny isn’t it? And we weren’t disappointed. It was to be a Scrubs/Star Trek mix! But he also had an idea for an episode that involves the original Harry Kim. Remember, the Kim who came home with Voyager doesn’t technically belong in the prime universe. He was killed in Deadlock in a Vidiian attack. Well, what if he wasn’t killed? He was assimilated by the Borg and then sent on a mission later to get 7 of 9 back? So basically he gets it on with 7 of 9! After many belly laughs, the talk is over and we conclude that Garrett is indeed a changling who could infiltrate the highest level of Starfleet because his impressions are *that* good.

Time for a wonder around and say hello to friends we have made on the internet.

Sigorney Weaver

That’s right, SIGORNEY WEAVER! At LFCC. That’s like, super famous! The moderated talk was held in a rather nice theatre room and it was very civilised. We felt it was more in keeping with those interviews with celebrities you might see on the Art Channel where they talk about existentialism, method acting and whether you prefer curled leaf or Dino Kale. It was a skill on part of the moderator and Ms Weaver how they maintained elegance, grace and sophistication whilst talking about an alien bursting out of a persons chest cavity.

Unlike us who were sat there tweeting about how sophisticated we found this whilst our inner geek was screaming “TALK ABOUT GALAXY QUEST!!!!!”

Alas it did not take long for one of our kind in the audience to mention Galaxy Quest. Ms Weaver (She is so awesome, that’s how I feel we must address her!) said that originally they didn’t want to cast anyone with sci-fi experience but she felt those who had worked in the genre had a deeper understanding and were best placed to deliver it. We agree. We agree with everything she says.

Time to get some Autographs. Carole gets Hayley Atwell and Iain Glen. She’d got Virtual Tickets in the morning but one wasn’t up yet but with the scheduled talks the staff were very reasonable and as the queues weren’t too bad and let her in. It’s always worth asking the staff, it’s true what they say, they’re there to help.

Back To The Future Reunion

2015 marks the 30 year anniversary of BTTF and is the same year they visit in the future. How Showmasters pulled this off…? Well we hear rumours of Ceti Eels.

Somehow they got together practically the entire cast including Michael J Fox!

Seeing them all on the stage together was surreal. These are films are such a huge part of our upbringing. They are timeless (boom!).

Michael J Fox has hardly aged, it was as if Marty McFly were on stage. There was a wonderful rapport between Fox and Christopher Lloyd. In fact with all the cast, there was a strong sense of camaraderie. Harry Waters Jr wore his tuxedo jacket and wooed the crowd with Earth Angel. We tried to sing along but his voice was wonderfully deep.

harry

Overall it was an incredible day and as a Comic Con, it stands above the rest. Thank you to everyone who stopped to say hi to us and to Showmasters for permitting us access to this event.

In case you’re wondering how we picked which division we’d each wear for our skinniest, we picked which colour suited our skintones best. Not at all geeky but our individual skill sets are poorly matched for Starfleet unfortunately!

Credit @Carrcuss
Credit @Carrcuss

Highlight: Meeting all our friends, Seeing SpockVegas, Sigourney Weaver, Michael J Fox, Lunch!

Weird bit: Being asked at the train station if we were on our way to or from work! Ummm, Starfleet ain’t real you know!?

Not so sure about : Virtual Queuing. We know you all love it but unless you have big screens saying what numbers are up, why not just use time slots? That said, we had no problems getting our autos.

Funny bit: Carole and Sarah’s reactions when they saw how short I’d made their dresses! Mwa haha. And mistaking an actual monk at the station for a Jedi!