DragonCon Day 3 – The Tams, Dealer Tables, and a Babylon 5 Blowup
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We started our Sunday out with the panel featuring Sean Maher and Summer Glau, Simon and River Tam from Firefly. It was nice to see them together, and they were clearly very fond of each other, as they discussed how their brother-sister relationship during the show extended even off the set. As they have always seemed, both were rather shy and soft-spoken and seemed a bit overwhelmed.
We hadn’t yet done much more than glance into the dealer and exhibit halls yet, so we headed into the mass of people to have our look around. I continued to fail in my search for a tiny tophat to go with my steampunk costume, but I did get an autographed copy of the Browncoats: Redemption DVD and (once again) tried to convince the BF that he would look wonderful in a utilikilt. (He does have the legs for it!) We went over to look through the Walk of Fame again, and happened upon a huge costume photoshoot while we were at the Hilton, so I went out to take (lots) of pictures. While we were wandering around, we also had an encounter with K-9 and about six incarnations of the Doctor. Unfortunately, I never did find the Matt Smith lookalike again to get a good picture, though I kept seeing him at a distance. (Seriously…this guy could be a body double.)
We went to a Babylon 5 panel that was supposed to feature Claudia Christian and Jason Carter together, discussing the relationship of Marcus and Ivonova. Unfortunately, even we did not avoid Celebrity Drama this weekend (after hearing how the Star Trek: The Next Generation panel fell apart). Claudia Christian seemed to have decided to use the panel to plug for her current projects and didn’t want to share the stage with her co-star. Initially, it seemed that the back-and-forth between the pair was just good-natured teasing, but about 15 minutes into the panel, Claudia Christian picked up her things and left (apparently completely baffling the audience and Jason Carter about what had been done to piss her off). It seemed like a completely unexpected bit of prima donna-ish behavior from her, because nothing particularly insulting had been said.
Jason Carter, however, saved the panel and managed to turn it into one of the funniest we’d seen this Con. He didn’t seem to think it a chore to discuss Babylon 5 or his character and was quite happy to answer questions put forth by the audience. He was hilarious and kind and appreciative of the fans.
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- The 2010 Dragon*Con parade (cnn.com)
I've been googling for 10 minutes, and all I can find on the Star Trek panel is that John Frakes said "fuck," and Denise Crosby apparently walked off stage at some point for some reason. This blog post is the first google result which isn't a list of what "will" happen at the con.
According to multiple reports from people who were in the panel (we couldn't see it and James Randi, and Randi was more important to us) Crosby was entirely justified in walking out. Frakes was being horrendously insulting from the moment the panel started, on subjects ranging from her acting ability to her career choices, and they were amazed that she stayed as long as she did.
This does not seem to be the case with Claudia Christian, however, where, except for a few fanboys, all of the observers seem utterly baffled at her behavior, considering that she started the quarrel, which never rose above what seemed to be good-natured teasing and was certainly not as insulting as what people had described happening in the Star Trek panel. It seemed the thing that really made her angry was the fact that Jason opened a bottle of water in the hearing of his microphone, which made a slight noise while she was talking. Honestly, I thought it was all a joke that had been planned between the two of them and that she would come back…except she didn't. Her posts to "explain" the situation on Facebook only make her sound more like a diva who was upset that she wasn't allowed "her half-hour" to plug her own stuff (this is not how the panel was advertised or how any other panels at DragonCon have ever worked.) This was extremely disappointing to me, as I'd grown really fond of the character of Ivonova and would've liked to hear her discussed in greater detail.
Two entirely different circumstances, and yeah, I didn't witness the Star Trek panel, but from many accounts I've heard from people at the Con and blogging afterwards, Crosby was entirely justified in her behavior. Frakes was breaking the Wheaton Rule. And we all know you should never break the Wheaton Rule.
But…but…Commander Riker can do no wrong! D=
;_;
It has actually always annoyed me a lot that Denise Crosby is considered worth having at conventions. She abandoned the show before the end of the first season, and only returned for guest appearances after the show proved to be a massive, lasting success. I don't know what prompted her to leave, or the details of any of her time with the show. But, as a fan, her character was only a a part of the show during the absolute *worst* season. The one that I avoid watching. So I really don't care about her much at all.
That doesn't excuse Johnathan Frakes from being a dick, if that is indeed what happened.
Who is upvoting all these comments? >.>
(I'd also like to add that my further annoyance with Denise Crosby is that Tasha Yarr was the only female character on that show who had the potential to be interesting. Troi and Crusher are easily my least favorite characters.)