The Positively Positive

Creation’s Salute to Serenity and Firefly 2009. Los Angeles, California – November 21 – 22, 2009

I’ve been to quite a few conventions put on by Creation Entertainment and I’m beginning to find them almost a bit like “home” now.

The first one I ever attended was geared mostly towards Star Trek: The Next Generation, which I was into bigtime when I was a teen. More recently, I’ve been attending the Supernatural conventions and their Serenity/Firefly “cons”. Both times I have attended the Serenity/Firefly con I did so mostly as a vendor, working at the California Browncoats booth.

Going as a Gold patron (which is how I usually attend the Supernatural cons) is of course different than being a vendor, but I still found this weekend a lot of fun. Having been so many times now, I’m beginning to recognize a lot of familiar faces in the staff and getting to know the layout of the hotel.

As for the guests, they were (as always) wonderful. On Saturday I was lucky enough to get some time off from the booth to see not only Adam Baldwin, but also the panel with Tim Minear and Jane Espenson.

I was delighted and a bit surprised (given the often gruff characters he plays on screen) to find Adam very pleasant and often quite hilarious. Afterwards I eagerly waited for Tim and and Jane. I was very excited to get some info from two such amazing writers (both worked on many of Joss Whedon’s shows). They were full of lots of great advice and came ready with suggestions for budding writers, as well as taking questions from the audience.

I always love hearing from those in front of the camera and seeing how different (or similar) an actor is from their character on screen. But I also really enjoy hearing from those behind the camera as well, the ones who create the shows that I love so much. So that panel was a fantastic treat and I hope to see more of these kinds of guests at Creation’s events in the future.

On Sunday (when I wasn’t working the booth in the dealer’s room), I was able to see Jewel Staite and Alan Tudyk.

Having never seen her on stage before, I have to say that I instantly fell in love with Jewel. She was funny and I loved all her little stories about moving into a new home, etc. I especially dug the cute way she kept referring to her husband, showing how much fun they are having together.

As for Alan, I was both excited and a little nervous about his appearance. On Saturday I made a joke that I was thinking of asking Alan whether or not he had a quota for how many times he wants to die on screen (given his propensity for doing just that). I was encouraged to go ahead and ask my question and informed that Alan would most likely be giving out prizes to anyone who asked him a question.

So I did it. Yes I was terrified (I don’t like talking in front of crowds much), but I did it….and yes, my question got a great laugh. His answer was that he didn’t have one but if he did, he was sure he had met it by now. In the end I got a cool Hawaiian shirt from him and I couldn’t have been happier.

Overall I found the entire convention a lot of fun and there’s no doubt that I would want to attend again, whether I’m behind the booth getting to talk to all the great Browncoats, or if I’m just in the audience.

Wanna hear more about my weekend at the Con and get more details on the panels, etc? Then stay tuned to my Livejournal  for a detailed entry about the entire weekend.

Elizabeth Mitchell and Joel Gretsch in V, season 1, episode 2 “There Is No Normal Anymore”. Image from www.daemonstv.com

This week’s episode of V was all about trust. In the beginning, Anna and the rest of the Visitors are seen trying to get diplomatic rights to visit the countries of Earth. This brings up trust for us an entire race. Would we allow beings from another planet to do what they did? Then again, why wouldn’t we if they offered everything the V’s are offering? It certainly makes you think.

Later in the episode, as I watched FBI agent Evans walk through her precinct and Father Landry go back to his church, I was again struck by the theme of trust. After what they’d seen, these two people knew that they could trust no one and we as the audience can’t either. At this point, literally anyone we don’t know too well could turn out to be a Visitor. The fact that Dale (played so wonderfully by Alan Tudyk) turned out to be a V in disguise, proved that.

Unlike the original series, so far we haven’t seen any of the V’s sneaking around in dumpsters eating mice. Yes it was a rather silly way of showing us who the V’s were but you have to admit, it was effective. When we saw someone, who we thought was human, snarf down a cute little mouse (tail and all), we knew immediately that they were a V.

Not so with the new 2009 update. It gives the series a cool sense of mystery and I will definitely be watching every character carefully to see if any are hiding scales.

Overall a good second episode of the series, setting up what could be some great storylines to come.

More V….

V, season 1, episode 1, “Pilot”

Morena Baccarin in V “Pliot”. Image from www.daemonstv.com

It’s been a while since I saw the original series of this show so I didn’t remember a lot other than the fact that the Visitors came and eventually The Resistance was formed against them. I wondered what kind of changes would be made from the original and what part of the story would be the same.

This new version of the series has been made very relevant to current times, with references to the economy and even terrorism. FBI agents begin tracking a terrorist cell that turns out to be a cell of Visitors who have been hiding in our midst for years. When one of the FBI agents turned out to be a Visitor I was so surprised that I gasped out loud.

I enjoyed getting to know the various characters, from a mother who is part of the Resistance, her son who is enamored with the “V’s”, to the Visitor who disagrees with his people and is rebelling, to the priest who finds himself joining the Resistance.

The acting and writing so far are superb and I find myself very much looking forward to this series now.Overall a very strong pilot to what looks to be a good show.