| Generally speaking, it takes a little while to get over conventions, so strictly speaking going to a convention the weekend after Cult TV, which is four days of partying, could be seen as an insane plan. But… that has never stopped me going to a convention in the past! And I wasn’t the only one – Corinne, Will and RJ also went to the event in question – SG3! |
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| We decked ourselves out in our Stargate gear and headed on down to both meet Will and get acquainted with a few people we knew through the Internet. It was nerve wracking meeting them face-to-face, but well worth it – they know how to party! The people in question are SG5 and members of UK SG1, and it was a pleasure making their acquaintance! |
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| On Saturday morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed !Then it was on to join the queue to get into the main hall for the opening ceremony. As with the previous Stargate convention the guests made their entrance through a Stargate with moving inner wheel and glowing chevrons. The guests for the weekend were Jay Acavone (Kowalski) wearing a very interesting hat, Don S Davis (General Hammond), Frida Betrani (Lya the Nox), Vatiere Bandera (Sha’re), Tony Amendola (Bra’tac) and Alexis Cruz (Skaara). Jay Acavone opened the weekend’s talks with a humorous and very entertaining talk, where he revealed that between acting jobs he ended up with a very clean car, and also that as underwear he favours long boxer shorts! Frida Betrani provided insights into the wonders of being made up as a Nox, as well as her latest movie project, "the Last Wedding" that has received high acclaim. Don S Davis talked about his artwork, and Tony Amendola did something a little different with is talk. He did an exercise with 8 volunteers to demonstrate the more technical side of acting. Another point of interest revealed during the talks was the power of Christopher Judge’s bodily functions and how he can not only clear a room, but also is not the best person to stand behind after a meal… |
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| Saturday night saw the fancy dress parade, as well as a UK SG1/SG5 meeting around a table which involved eating Jaffa cakes and having a good laugh. The fancy dress parade produced some fine entries, including a mastage, a man dressed up as a well-endowed version of Sam Carter and a pretty convincing Serpent Guard! After the fancy dress competition, it was straight onto the evening disco, where the DJ proved that he knew what convention music was all about. We were treated to practically every convention classic under the sun – Joe 90, The Time Warp, Dr Who, Star Trekkin, and the kind of songs where you just have to grab a chair, bring it to the dance floor and pretend to surf on it! |
| There was drama when the Stargate ended up sporting an odd looking attachment bearing a message saying "This Stargate has been clamped – release fee – RDA at SG5!" We already know that Michael Shanks is appearing at SG4… But were Richard Dean Anderson ever to appear at a convention in the UK, it’s a fair bet to say that he would be more than welcome! |  |
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The next morning, myself and Corinne knew just how much partying we had done the night before – neither of us could get up and we were as sore as hell. I was dependant on the hotel’s coffee to revive me enough for the first talk of the morning, which was Alexis Cruz. It was interesting hearing what he had to say about his experiences learning the finer points of the ancient Egyptian language for the movie and how the film compared to the series. He also talked about his interest in gaming, his theatre group and continuing his studies. He was also quizzed by one particularly eagle eyed attendee about a little known appearance in the Cosby Show… |
| There was a bit of a lull during the day when they showed Enterprise, which begged the question, what was there to do if you didn’t want to watch it, had nowhere in particular to go and were not doing the photo session. The problem with the Heathrow Park hotel is that it can be hard to find anywhere to sit and relax, and there are no other events to be going on with. But that is the difference between Cult TV and a more media orientated event. |
| During the weekend, we were also treated to screenings of the latest episodes of Stargate with a twist. They were shown in Gate vision – the Stargate on the stage had a screen behind it, and the episodes were shown on that. |  |
| The dealer’s
room was small with the usual array of items including some beautiful
prints that were sadly way out of my price range. However, I treated myself
to a couple of t-shirts during the weekend. The prices in the dealer’s
room were nothing compared to the amounts that items went for in the auction
– which was raising money for a good cause. There were quite exceptional
items on offer which included Richard Dean Anderson’s combat trousers,
a prop from the Curse, some rare cast photos and a script from Wormhole
X-Treme signed by everyone which went for £700!
It was a memorable convention, with the disco making up for the lack of convention classics played at Cult TV the previous weekend. I now have a few more autographs for my collection, and was very relieved I had booked the day after the event off work. |
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