Fire Alarm Bad, Gareth & Jason Pretty!!! (Polaris 22 Report)

Polaris 22 Convention Report July 11-13, 2008 Report

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I have said it in the past but in bear repeating, brevity is NOT one of my strong points, but I will try and make this report as short as I can.

I attended my 3rd annual Polaris Convention and had a blast! While in a lot of ways it is a smaller convention than most, it is also one that always has something to do and keeps you busy the entire weekend.

The Guest Actors for 2008 were:

Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto Jones from Torchwood & Doctor Who)
Jason Dohring (Josef Konstantin from Moonlight & Logan Echolls from Veronica Mars)
Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
Ellen Muth (George Lass from Dead Like Me)
Rachel Luttrell (Teyla Emmagan from Stargate Atlantis)
Rainbow Sun Francks (Lieutenant Aiden Ford from Stargate Atlantis)
Cliff Simon (Ba'al from Stargate SG-1)

Also Polaris had some really great Guest Authors this year, they were:

Jim Butcher (The Dresden Files)
Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens (Star Trek: Federation)
Kelley Armstrong (Women from the Otherworld series)
Tanya Huff (Blood Ties)
Peter Watts (Blindsight)
Kelly J. Compeau (The Black Tower)
Derwin Mak (The Moon Under Her Feet)
Erik Buchanan (Small Magics)
Julie Czerneda (Reap The Wild Wind)
David Nickle (The Claus Effect)
Kenneth Tam (The Forge Fires)
Shannon Butcher (No Control)

It also has panels, panels and more panels to keep everyone busy!

Friday July 11, 2008:

I arrived at the Dobletree Hotel (Toronto) where the convention is held just after 6:00pm and check in, even though this is a locate convention for me, the hotel is kind of out of the way and it also runs really late and starts really early so we find staying there just easier. As I was checking us in, my roommate/friend Maggie happen to arrive as well. We went up to our room dropped off our stuff, ate our complementary warm chocolate chip cookies and headed off to pick up our badges for the convention.

Once we did that we head to the dealer room (who said we don’t have our priorities in order). I had spent $160.00 in stuff before I even got there, since I ordered it from my locate dealer (I swear she just got me hooked and now I have a serous problem) but I picked up the new Sideshow Tooned up Buffy and the Firefly/Serenity Blue Sun Travel posters as well as the Serenity Blueprints Reference Pack.

Then we headed to get something to eat, since it would the only time that night we had any time. Because at 8:00pm I had my first panel, it was Dollhouse, when I first suggested the panel I didn’t know if anyone would be interested in talking about a show that hadn’t aired yet, but it was very well attended and a lot of people who didn’t know that much about it came to find out more, at the end we also had a little talk about Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and since some people hadn’t heard about it, it was good to pass along the info.

The next panel I attended was Buffy Season 8, it was the only Whedonverse panel all weekend that I wasn’t on, so it was a nice break and it went well, as we discussed the comics and what people thought about them. Once that was over I headed up to change for the Vampire Ball, I was going as Drusilla complete with Miss Edith. I was told I looked good and was freaking people out with my impression of her. However the ball was not well attended nor was the music good. So we didn’t stay too long, we went to our last panel at midnight it was Torchwood Season Two Retrospective (yes the panels went on until 2:00am, so did the dance). It was a good panel, but a lot more PG then a midnight panel should have been (if you ask me). After that it was off to bed.

Saturday July 12, 2008

We were not up too early but still early for me (I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON!). Maggie was kind enough to go across the street to get Coffee and Bagels for breakfast while I took a shower and got dressed. Then we were off to see Gareth David-Lloyd Q&A. He was really great, seems like an old pro already and he was really funny! He did mention he was still “pissed” from the night before. He talked about his role on Torchwood and answered questions. I got to ask him 2 questions the first was if he was aware & what he thought about the fact that the kiss between Ianto and Jack had been voted best gay kiss. He said he was aware of it and that he took it as a big complaint because he wasn’t gay and he didn’t want anyone to think he was just faking it. My second question was about the fact that he and James Marsters were going to be at Dragon Con in Atlanta together and if they would consider doing another concert together? He said that he would love to, but it would depend on if they could get it worked out and if they could get any practice time before hand. He was also asked if he would be seeing John Barrowman while he was in Toronto and he said that he hadn’t been sure John was in Toronto and not Vancouver. Also that he had just gotten a new phone that he was assured would work anywhere and yet ever since he got here he couldn’t get a signal so he wasn’t sure if John had tired to contact him, because once again he couldn’t get a signal. I wasn’t able to attend his Q&A on Sunday, but I was told he was just as good and during that he was asked what he looks for in a women? His reply; “usually the clitoris”. Now that’s my kind of guy!

After Gareth’s Q&A, I had my first panel of the day (I had 3 on Saturday). It was called Cavemen VS. Astronauts, it was about Spike VS. Angel, while it went well it wasn’t as well attended as the Spike only panel I did the year before, hmmmm interesting. That was followed by my second panel Whedon’s Witty Wordplay. Which was held at the other end of the hotel (it seems that no matter what, the next thing I wanted to do/attend was always at the other end of the hotel, I think I lost 5 pounds running the halls to get to things on time!) Whedon’s Witty Wordplay, was a fun panel where we got to discuss our favourite lines from all 3 shows. It also was well attended.

After both of those I headed to get my picture taken with Gareth, it started a little late but went quick once he got there. When it came to my turn, I asked for a hug for the picture (I always do with the guys) and he smiled said sure and really hugged me, my face was pressed up against his chest, NOT THAT I AM COMPLAINING!!!

Once the photo was done I headed over the autograph area (where was that you may wonder, AT THE OTHER END OF THE HOTEL!) I was going to get Terry Farrell autograph, but when I got there the line was hug and I had another panel in an hour that I had to attend. At the same time I found out that they had changed both Gareth David-Lloyd and Jason Dohring to an hour earlier, which sucked because it meant they would end an hour earlier as well and that last hour was the hour I had schedule to get them. BUT THANK GOD FOR GOOD FRIENDS!!! My friend Christine let me in line in front of her and even held the place while I ran to once again the other end of the hotel to go to my room and get my posters to signed. I was able to get Terry’s autograph and once I was in the autograph room I just headed to get Gareth autograph. I told Gareth that I was looking forward to seeing him in Atlanta as he signed my Torchwood poster, and then lined up for Jason Dohring autograph. Jason hasn’t done many conventions so he is not as comfortable yet, but he was sweet, looked me in the eyes asked about my posters and the spelling of my name (only one "g" in Magie). He took his time with everyone and made sure he thanked everyone, would came to see him.

After the autographs, I actual had a few minutes and was able to grab a sandwich and drink on my way back to the other side of the hotel for panel # 3 (the hotel has tables set up so people can grab some food on the go, just stuff like sandwiches, pizza, or hotdogs, but still great when you have no time to anything else). My third panel was Angel Season 6 and it was the only one of the panel I suggested that I wasn’t a Moderating as well as being a part of. It was a good panel but not as well attended as the Buffy Season 8, but still it went well.

Once that was done, I headed back to the dealers room because that was where Jim Butcher was signing. I had been super excited to meet him since I LOVE the Dresden files, since line for signing was really long and some people brought every book he ever wrote to be signed, so it went a little slow. I brought 2 books a hard cover copy of Storm Front (given to me by my friend Christine) and Small Favour, which I had signed for James Marsters as a gift for his upcoming birthday. Jim wrote, “To James, Thank you for lending your voice to the Dresden Files” which I thought I was nice. I can only hope James likes it.

After the signing we headed to the Video room to watch the episode of The Dresden Files – Storm Front which was written by Jim Butcher. Jim was doing a commentary for the episode, he was a little late in arrive since he had so many people to sign for. The commentary was great and Jim is really funny, he told us some interested stories and added some unknown facts. I had to leave the commentary a little early because I wanted to get a seat at the Whedonverse Geek Off. What Polaris does is have trivia panels for the different fandom’s, there is a Star Trek, Doctor Who, Stargate, Whedonverse and so on. I was last years Whedonverse camp and I wanted to defend my title. Now the secret to winning is have a cheering crowd there to give you support! I had a bunch of friends who were great in cheering me on, so once again I won, that and I have no life outside the Whedonverse so…

Once Geek Off was done Maggie, Christine, Paul and I went to dinner at a restaurant across the street. It was nice and one the few times all day I was able to relax and not feel like I was missing something. After dinner we went back to hotel where I changed into my second Drusilla outfit, but I left the vampire make up off this time (just too much trouble to apply). We headed to watch the Masquerade. Which once again was fabulous! All the people who enter go on stage one at a time, do a little skit and so one. The last act on stage was the best (in my view) it started off who the first Doctor Who, then the second came out and was shocked to see the first, then the third and so on, until the last doctor came running past all of them, who by then were all standing in a row and stopped suddenly, ran backward slowing as he went over all of them then shrugged and took off running again, followed by the rest of them. It was great!

After the Masquerade, we headed to a Torchwood panel about Ianto Jones, called “Not just the Tea Boy” since this was a late night panel, we thought it might be rated “R” but in all honestly it wasn’t I was a little disappointed, not enough discussion about cute boy kissing in it for me. Then Maggie and I then went to our last panel of the night, it was called Dear Disturbed Dexter. We met up with our Ali again. I have to say this is the only panel, I did not enjoy. First the panellist were not great, one of them took over most of the conversation, their views weren’t that insightful and what was worse one of the panellist had brought his drunk as a skunk brother to the panel and he was just being an idiot. We ended up leaving before it ended. And off to bed we went.

Sunday July 13, 2008

6:30AM – The alarm goes off, Maggie jumped up and went for the phone or the alarm clock. I on the other hand knew it wasn’t either and that it sounded like the fire alarm, but knowing it and saying anything other then Hmmmmhhhhgrrrr, is a whole different story. But I finally we got out of bed and started to dress in case we had to leave, we weren’t sure since there was no announcement, I ended up calling the front desk and before I could say anything the person answered with “everything is all right, it is a false alarm”. The alarm stopped and we went back to bed. It took me a little while to fall back to sleep, but since it was a full 2 hours before I had to get up I wasn’t getting up. Just after 8:30am, THE FIRE ALARM GOES OFF AGAIN. Maggie was already up and dressed. I was still asleep, but once again I got up, started to get dressed, when the alarm increased and an announcement telling us to evacuate came on. So a grumpy and still in her PJ’s Magie, left the room and went down 10 flights of stairs, at which point Maggie (the other Maggie) informed me that next year we were getting a room on a lower floor. We ended up outside, we and a bunch of other people still in their PJ’s all looking just as grumpy and sleepy as I was. Luckily it has stopped raining, because that would be all we needed. We finally got the OK to go back in and as we all stood around waiting for the elevators (only 3 out of 6 were working) to take most of the people staying in the hotel back up to there rooms, when the FIRE ALARM WENT OFF FOR A THIRD TIME!!! At this point, even though we were told to evacuate, my friends and I decided to go and get breakfast. Funny even though people were being asked to leave the restaurant was still severing people and so we went and got breakfast, me in my messed up hair and PJ’s. But at this point I didn’t care, and I was a little more dressed then some people. I had hoped that I might see either Gareth David-Lloyd or Jason Dohring in their underwear, but no such luck.

After eating breakfast I went back to my room, showered and got dressed. I was in line for photos with Jason Dohring at 11:00am, where I met up with Ali and Elizabeth. We all got our Photo taken and though I am once again grinning like an idiot. If happens when I am around very cute men that give me hugs!!!

After the photos, I went upstairs to get our stuff and check out. Since it was close to check out time. Once we did, we were able to store our stuff at the convention (they offer storage for anyone who is checking out of the hotel). We then went to the Kelley Armstrong singing, I had just started her books and I really liked them. I told her that she was completely responsible for me going into work half asleep because I kept staying up late reading, since I couldn’t put down the books (which was true). She was very sweet and even told me that she had sunk into one of my panels (Angel Season 6), gulp… glad I didn’t know that at the time, would have made me too nervous.

Since the signing was held in the dealers room, I looked around a bit bought some books, a licence plate cover that said “This is a cleverly disguised Firefly class transport ship” which I thought was super cool. After I headed to the first of 2 of my panel for Sunday, luckily they were one after the other and for once in the same part of the hotel. I stopped and got a bag of chips and a pop, since I thought I didn’t have time for anything else. Turns out I was wrong, but oh well. While I was waiting for my panel to begin I ran into Ali, she had just come out of a panel called Make your own Reality Show, she advised that one of the winners (of the panel) was “So you think you can Fly”. That had me laughing so hard, I almost had pop come out of my noise.

My first panel was the only non Whedonverse one, it was called: I WANT IT! GIVE IT TO ME NOW! And was about collectables from TV and movies. Actual at one point I thought we would have to cancel the panel because there was no one there. But a few people came in later on and we had a very small group one about 7 people. Also one of the panellist talked too much, the only reason I didn’t shut him up is because if he wasn’t talking then there would be no one talking. I guess people just were not that interest in talking about there collections this year.

My last panel was by far my largest, it was the only Firefly/Serenity panel called Big Damn Anti-Heroes about the characters of Firefly/Serenity. I was a little concerned because I was the only panellist of the 4 to first show up, one of them came in a little later (she had to come from the other side of the hotel) but the other 2 never showed. Though to be honest we were hardly required, since it was such a lively discussion and the room was full. It was great to see so many people that are still interested in Firefly.

Once that was done, we headed to see Jason Dohring Q&A. Jason is still new at all of this so he wasn’t as lively as some. He also appeared nervous. But he slowly warmed up and even cracked some jokes. I got to ask him a few questions, the first being if he had been surprised at Logan’s (from Veronica Mars) popularity since he wasn’t a nice guy in the beginning. He said that he didn’t believe people liked him until after the 6th episode when they found out more about his background. In my second question I asked what had been his most memorable convention experience so far. He talked about a convention he did with the rest of the Veronica Mars cast in Texas and how the energy was just great and how he had a lot of fun.

After the Q&A, I was off the Geek Off Championship, this is where the 1st and 2nd place winners from all the fandom’s compete to win for the right to be super geek. I hadn’t competed last year because I was in line getting Katee Sackhoff autograph, and I wasn’t expecting to do well, since my knowledge of the other fandom’s is limited to say the least and while I didn’t embarrass myself too much (coming in 4th) I did get my ass handed to me a couple of times. The questions were super hard.

The last thing of the convention was the closing ceremonies which we caught the last part of and then it was all over… SAD…

A few of the Browncoats actual held a Shindig after the convention, and that was cool. By then I was so hungry I could have started crewing on my own arm. With the hungry and the fact that I was super tired, I am not sure how much fun I was, but it was still a good way to end the weekend.

Oh… and have I mentioned that both Gareth David-Lloyd and Jason Dohring are sooooooooo pretty!!! Just in case I haven’t well… they are!!!