CCEE 2019: Friday or Thank god it didn't snow
I don't know if someone at the expo made a sacrifice to the weather gods, but it didn't snow! By some miracle, the weather held. It was damn cold but no one had to walk in the rain and/or snow.
Since the weather put some people off, I was the only Whovian in the parade. Oh well. The TV section did get to walk right behind Catherine Tate's car, so that was fun. I was blasting Doctor Who theme songs from my mini speaker, but there was a bus playing loud tunes right behind us, so my music was drowned out. I really didn't see who else was in the parade, but I do know the Mayor was in it, as was Sean Astin and Anson Mount. Catherine, Sean, Anson, and another guest who I didn't know got white hatted at the opening ceremonies, which basically means they were given white hats and were made honourary citizens of the city. It's actually a pretty big deal.
I didn't do a ton today. I did get Jennifer Hale's autograph:
She voices female Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect series. She is my Shepard through and through and I managed to tell her that without sounding like an idiot. I wish she was doing a panel on her extensive voice acting, but instead she's doing a panel about money. Um, okay. I might check it out on the hope she does talk about voice acting at some point.
I only did two panels today. Catherine Tate's and Anson Mount and Ethan Peck's.
Catherine didn't have a moderator, which was awesome. I'm always glad when the guest can manage on their own. Catherine can definitely work the stage, much like John Barrowman. And as you can see, Catherine wore her hat for some of her panel:
And you can't see them in the photo, but Catherine is wearing snow boots. She bought them specifically for the expo, and dang it, she's going to wear them for the next three days. They will come in handy tomorrow since we're supposed to get 20 cm of snow. :-( Anyway, Catherine freely admits that she can't remember anything that well from Doctor Who and if you make references to other things she probably won't know what you're talking about. Case in point, someone asked her what Donna would do if Thanos burst his way into the TARDIS. Yeah, Catherine clearly doesn't watch any Marvel movies.
But man, Catherine is so funny. Someone brought up the "I've Got a Business" game they used to play on Doctor Who. If you've listened to the commentary for "The Doctor's Daughter" then you knew about the game, but she had to explain what it was so we got a few gems from her. She also told the story about how she thought the Sontarans were actually robots; she didn't realize they were being played by human beings. And it sounds like she and David have a new show in the works, something called Americons. She couldn't talk about it, but she confirmed it's a project. So keep your eyes peeled. I would love to see her do a panel with another Doctor Who person; I haven no doubt it would be hilarious.
Next was the Star Trek: Discovery panel. Now, Anson Mount used to film here for Hell on Wheels, so he knows the city very well. Heck, he met his wife here while filming the show, so he has Alberta roots now. So I think it was a big deal that he got white hatted. Being the gentleman that he is, he also wore his hat. Actually, he wore it all day. What a pro.
And he was wearing cowboy boots. He's like an actual cowboy.
I didn't know he's also a big Star Trek fan. He used to watch TOS as a kid and he loves TNG. His favourite ep is "The Inner Light" (though he thought it was called the Light Inside or something, so I had to shut out the actual title). And he had a cool insight on his portrayal of Pike. Since Pike was Roddenberry's original captain for the Enterprise, Anson wanted his Pike to embody all of the ideals that Roddenberry created for the show. I thought that was a neat way to go about it and a nice way to reflect the best of this universe. I do wish Pike was returning for season three of Discovery. Pike needs more canon stories. Oh, and I caught a quick interview that Anson did for the local CTV station and he said he had visited the expo before, back in 2012. I think that totally means he attended to see the TNG reunion.
And while I wasn't a huge fan of the idea of bringing in Spock to Discovery, Ethan Peck had some interesting insight, too. He admitted he was scared out of his wits taking on this iconic role. While Pike only exists in a few episodes, Spock has this incredibly long history. Ethan said he watched the first few eps of TOS, but he couldn't go any further. But he's not playing the exact same Spock as Leonard Nimoy so he had some room to put his own spin on the character.
Oh, and Anson hates working on sound stages. He said he loved working outside for Hell on Wheels. He needs to come back here to do Fargo or something.
Tomorrow I have to grab Catherine's autograph and get a photo-op with her. I also knitted a Shazam doll for Zachary Levi, so I need to give that to him. Here's hoping he accepts gifts from fans.
Since the weather put some people off, I was the only Whovian in the parade. Oh well. The TV section did get to walk right behind Catherine Tate's car, so that was fun. I was blasting Doctor Who theme songs from my mini speaker, but there was a bus playing loud tunes right behind us, so my music was drowned out. I really didn't see who else was in the parade, but I do know the Mayor was in it, as was Sean Astin and Anson Mount. Catherine, Sean, Anson, and another guest who I didn't know got white hatted at the opening ceremonies, which basically means they were given white hats and were made honourary citizens of the city. It's actually a pretty big deal.
I didn't do a ton today. I did get Jennifer Hale's autograph:
She voices female Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect series. She is my Shepard through and through and I managed to tell her that without sounding like an idiot. I wish she was doing a panel on her extensive voice acting, but instead she's doing a panel about money. Um, okay. I might check it out on the hope she does talk about voice acting at some point.
I only did two panels today. Catherine Tate's and Anson Mount and Ethan Peck's.
Catherine didn't have a moderator, which was awesome. I'm always glad when the guest can manage on their own. Catherine can definitely work the stage, much like John Barrowman. And as you can see, Catherine wore her hat for some of her panel:
And you can't see them in the photo, but Catherine is wearing snow boots. She bought them specifically for the expo, and dang it, she's going to wear them for the next three days. They will come in handy tomorrow since we're supposed to get 20 cm of snow. :-( Anyway, Catherine freely admits that she can't remember anything that well from Doctor Who and if you make references to other things she probably won't know what you're talking about. Case in point, someone asked her what Donna would do if Thanos burst his way into the TARDIS. Yeah, Catherine clearly doesn't watch any Marvel movies.
But man, Catherine is so funny. Someone brought up the "I've Got a Business" game they used to play on Doctor Who. If you've listened to the commentary for "The Doctor's Daughter" then you knew about the game, but she had to explain what it was so we got a few gems from her. She also told the story about how she thought the Sontarans were actually robots; she didn't realize they were being played by human beings. And it sounds like she and David have a new show in the works, something called Americons. She couldn't talk about it, but she confirmed it's a project. So keep your eyes peeled. I would love to see her do a panel with another Doctor Who person; I haven no doubt it would be hilarious.
Next was the Star Trek: Discovery panel. Now, Anson Mount used to film here for Hell on Wheels, so he knows the city very well. Heck, he met his wife here while filming the show, so he has Alberta roots now. So I think it was a big deal that he got white hatted. Being the gentleman that he is, he also wore his hat. Actually, he wore it all day. What a pro.
And he was wearing cowboy boots. He's like an actual cowboy.
I didn't know he's also a big Star Trek fan. He used to watch TOS as a kid and he loves TNG. His favourite ep is "The Inner Light" (though he thought it was called the Light Inside or something, so I had to shut out the actual title). And he had a cool insight on his portrayal of Pike. Since Pike was Roddenberry's original captain for the Enterprise, Anson wanted his Pike to embody all of the ideals that Roddenberry created for the show. I thought that was a neat way to go about it and a nice way to reflect the best of this universe. I do wish Pike was returning for season three of Discovery. Pike needs more canon stories. Oh, and I caught a quick interview that Anson did for the local CTV station and he said he had visited the expo before, back in 2012. I think that totally means he attended to see the TNG reunion.
And while I wasn't a huge fan of the idea of bringing in Spock to Discovery, Ethan Peck had some interesting insight, too. He admitted he was scared out of his wits taking on this iconic role. While Pike only exists in a few episodes, Spock has this incredibly long history. Ethan said he watched the first few eps of TOS, but he couldn't go any further. But he's not playing the exact same Spock as Leonard Nimoy so he had some room to put his own spin on the character.
Oh, and Anson hates working on sound stages. He said he loved working outside for Hell on Wheels. He needs to come back here to do Fargo or something.
Tomorrow I have to grab Catherine's autograph and get a photo-op with her. I also knitted a Shazam doll for Zachary Levi, so I need to give that to him. Here's hoping he accepts gifts from fans.