No Boundaries: Dragon Con

Good MORNING!

Ugh. Morning arrived way too bright and cheerily early.

On the other hand, we were PUMPED to get to the first panel. Why, you may ask? Simple:
Walter Koenig.
Yes, Chekhov from Star Trek was at Con this year, and having seen both George Takei and William Shatner (and Leonard Nimoy not going Cons, and DeForest Kelley and James Doohan both being deceased, and Nichelle Nichols tending to stay on the other side of the country...), well, this was an opportunity not to miss.

And oh boy, was it worth it. Koenig (and presenter Garrett Wang) were entertaining and informative through the panel. Koenig mostly answered questions from the audience (including one from Your Humble Reporter; to wit: With the promotions in the series of Sulu and Scotty to Captain, were there ever any discussions about creating that sort of story arc for your character? His answer was that yes, they had discussed making him an Admiral but he turned it down - you can take that tale with or without a Large Grain Of Salt), and Wang occasionally interpreted the questions.

Koenig didn't spend much time behind the table

Walter Koenig (l), Garrett Wang (r)

Answering my question - nice part of asking questions is the microphone was about 15 feet from the stage, and you could remain there until your question was answered, snapping photos.

Next, we hustled from the Sheraton to the Marriott, for a panel titled A Farewell To Matt Smith. We had HOPED that it would be a perspective on the Matt Smith years on Doctor Who, with different opinions being by expressed by panelists and attendees. There were, alas, a couple problems with the panel. First, the panelists were only peripherally connected with the show (a tv personality and pundit, a musician who puts on an annual Doctor Who convention, a successful novelist, and an illustrator) and yet presented themselves as experts; and second, the attendees were lectured to rather than being asked to participate. In the spirit of full disclosure, we left about 20 minutes into the hour panel, and therefore may have missed audience participation. However, there didn't seem to be any trend in that direction. And, frankly, the presenters were FANS, at heart - their opinions were no more correct or valid than those of the attendees, so why not throw the panel open?

That's not to say that we didn't do anything. No no no. We saw PLENTY of cosplay, visited the Walk of Fame (autograph and photo ops with writers and actors, or you can just stand in line to talk to them)(and we talked to Colin Baker, Richard Hatch, the cast of Land of the Lost, Jeri Ryan, and Erin Gray) - oh, and had lunch. Lunch is important.

And we stopped by Barfly Central, the central hangout for people who write for (or hope to write for, or are fans of) BAEN Books. Some cosplay photos (both in line before Koenig and later):

Sheraton workers having fun

Eleventh Doctor and River Song

Gandalf the White

Bad Wolf (l) from 50th Anniversary Special and The Impossible Girl (Clara Oswald)(r)

Ninth Doctor and TARDIS

Steampunkers

Colin Baker (Sixth Doctor) signing

Ninth Doctor (with Eleventh Doctor Puppet)

Ruby Rhod and bodyguard (Fifth Element)

Number Six (Head Six) from reimagined BSG

Come on you apes! Do you want to live forever?!

Captain Jack!

I'm Batman!

Okay, so lots of photography. That evening was a special evening - I had arranged for us to have dinner with Kevin J. Anderson and his wife, Rebecca Moesta. You can find their web site HERE, but he is best known in DragonCon circles for his Star Wars books, the continuation of the Dune universe (with Brian Herbert), and the Dan Shamble books. I had worked with him once before, helping him proofread a book he was publishing, and when he said that yes, his schedule would allow for dinner, I couldn't have been more thrilled.

He and Rebecca couldn't have been more charming or gracious at dinner. We spend almost two hours with them, and they are two hours which we will remember for years to come.

Our final event for the night was the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy 35th Anniversary: Arthu's Dent Pajama Party. We dropped in to check out the costumes, visited a panel that seemed it could be interesting (it wasn't so I won't mention it again), then staggered back to the hotel to sleep and recharge. Saturday would be insane.