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stargÅtefan.com : fun stuff > conventions > gatecon 2000

Well, we went on a tour bus ride of Vancouver and not only saw the beautiful city but the parts of Stanley Park where the tree scenes such as in 1969 and The Nox were filmed. (It looks just like it does on tv.) Saw the observatory from 1969. In fact got out and played in the street in front of it and such (it too looks exactly like it did on tv with the exception that there's a rather largish park area behind it). And the café area that has the bronze bird on the steps from Secrets and Foothold (this is actually a café, but it is very much crowded between two buildings and so looks more like it does in Foothold than in Secrets). The yellow sulfur dunes from Cold Lazarus (no blue crystals though). The beach from Fire and Water. The playground from Singularity. The golf course from the scene with Hammond and friend meet over the "quid pro quo" in the episode whose name suddenly escapes me. And the alien planet buildings from the beginning of Bane. Also, a site where the driver said they were filming "just last week" tried to memorize it but other than it could be a vaguely futuristic building on some planet or perhaps a government building I haven't a clue as to what it will be.

Also, one of our guides was an alien in the episode One False Step and shared some of his experiences with us. Besides the notes I mentioned somewhere above, he made a few comments about the fact that yes the cast and crew were very nice. That those suits were very VERY tight and that that really was them singing in the episode. And, yes, they did indeed shave their heads for the role.

What else? Friday night there was a cocktail party and Don S. Davis, Teryl Rothery, Peter Williams, and J.R. Bourne all attended. I honestly, had never been to anything like it before. The actors were all in the banquet room and mingled with the fans. Admittedly they were each at the center of groups of people who were all a bit star struck asking for autographs or pictures. Yuma and I hung back and sort of people watched. It was our first glimpses of the cast members in person and it is always interesting to see how they compare to on screen. As I mentioned in above, I hardly recognized Teryl since she was so petite and her hair was so much lighter than I expected. The highlights are either new or don't show up that light on film. But everyone seemed to have a good time. Teryl mentioned that she definitely did the next day. I personally thought things went better in the panels and at the auction and in later one on one meetings because by then we were all a bit more relaxed by then. I think that evening the fans and the cast members were still playing their roles a bit since they'd literally been thrown together to sink or swim.

Now, the charity auction was something else entirely. It was like a huge bachelor/bachelorette party. Amazingly so. The banquet hall was set up and we all ate dinner (chicken, what else). The cast members were at their own table towards the middle front of the room but weren't up on a dais or anything. And I admit after the dinner Yuma and I were planning to leave. Charity auctions being notoriously deadly dull and neither of us able to afford anything truly expensive like the 2010 script. But from moment one they managed to grab our attention. First up the convention personnel reminded us that the charity was for the Make A Wish foundation which helps grant wishes to children with terminal illnesses. Then the convention lady introduced one of the Make A Wish children who had been helped. It was a young girl in her early teens (she looked about 14 although I have no idea what her real age was). She read an incredibly moving letter about her experience with Make A Wish. Seems that her wish had been to have her dog become famous. (She loves animals and especially her dog and seemed taken with the idea that his life and fame would live on after her.) Well, they had contacted Kawoosh Productions and her dog was written into a scene in the end of the episode of Singularity. Her letter went on to say how nice everyone had been to her on the set and how her dog was nearly famous now and did get recognized at times. And I can't describe it but there wasn't a dry eye in the house after this letter. I was crying. The room was crying. Amanda Tapping was crying. Teryl Rothery was digging out Kleenex. Jay Acovone was next up as the first auctioneer and although he was choked up managed to make a joke about how they'd all gone through the gambit now (how throughout day they'd laughed together, shown their underwear together, cried together, and stuff). Which broke the tension.

I can't even begin to describe this event. It was insane. And as the night went on it got crazier and sillier and funnier. Whoever filmed it with their camcorders has enough blackmail material for decades! Now this is going to sound all wrong and raunchy and egomaniacal but actually it was like a roomful of little kids having the funniest time. Or maybe a very drunk party. And there wasn't even any drinking that I really saw. Anyway, to encourage people to bid higher and higher each of the cast members did outrageous things. Admittedly it was Amanda Tapping and Teryl Rothery who started it all. Amanda was modeling a crew jacket for some show and was doing the JC Penny's walk around the room when Teryl started catcalling and yelling that she need to "work it". That's when Amanda started to vamp it up. She rubbed the jacket all over her chest. And she and Teryl took turns calling out how it had now been worn by …deep pause…"Sam Carter". It smelt like… Sam Carter. It was being rubbed against …Sam Carter and to please bid because she didn't have much up there and it was going to be worn away pretty quick. Not to be out done, Jay removed his shirt and put on the next vest jacket and strutted around the room and appealing to the audience that surely his chest was worth as much as hers. Then they got J.R. into the act. At first the guy seemed a bit shy with his jacket but by the end he'd undone the buttons of his shirt and was on top of a chair doing a little dance and encouraging people to bid higher and higher. When it seemed to have stalled out he yelled that the lucky winner could pull the jacket off with their teeth. At which point he got another flurry of bids. (PS And he kept to that promise and the lady winner did and I could NOT believe it, and I was there!) In-between these amazing events were several smaller items being auctioned off. The bids immediately going higher if Amanda Tapping kissed the picture of say Jack or pretty much anyone else, or if Teryl kissed a picture, heck, if Jay even kissed him. Or if the actors promised to sign their names to it. (It got to the point where it didn't even matter if it was a Stargate item the crowd and the actors were laughing so hard that both sides started trying to out do each other for what outrageous thing would they offer/or accept. And the joking and fun went way over time. It lasted past 12:30 at night and finally had to be cut off and restarted the next day. Which I might add was auctioneered by AT and Jay and was begun with a look that said "didn't we just leave you guys?".)

During this high sets of bidding that night, there was one item that started out really low. And that was because it was Peter Williams turn as auctioneer and he got the Ra movie watch. Well, he made a whole bunch of faces and said, who cared about Ra, he was yesterdays overlord. (He really played it like he and Ra had this rivalry going). He holds up this item and makes a sour face. "Shall we start the bid at say 30 cents?" He asks. Knowing everything else had been starting at 35 to 40 dollars. Course the watch ended up going for something respectable, but that was only after he and the others promised to sign it and stuff. The other three big items of the evening that really stuck out in my mind was the upcoming Stargate episode "2010" script which all the cast members had signed, went for something like $1,250 and a kiss from Teryl. Also, there was a script from, I think, Francis Ford Coppola, but there didn't seem to be much interest in it until Amanda and J.R. offered to kiss it in red lipstick and sign it. In fact they would kiss it together, their faces cheek to cheek while they did so they added. (This was the "real" beginning of the kiss everything to make it sell better idea.) It was very cute when it became obvious that J.R. had no clue how to put women's lipstick on and AT had to do it for him. Then they kissed together and made faces at their lip marks and signed the script. Now after this J.R. blotted his lips on a hotel napkin, a white hotel napkin, well later on around midnight things were seriously silly at this point and one of them, don't remember if it was Teryl or AT or Peter, or Jay, but someone raised up the napkin like it was a flag and said they were going to steal it from the hotel, have J.R. sign his lipstick kiss and sell it to us. The rest of the actors seemed to think this was a fine idea and one of them shouted that in fact they would all put lipstick on and kiss it and sign it. Let me tell you, you have not lived until you have seen Dr. Fraiser holding General Hammond's chin still while she puts scarlet red lipstick on him. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. Even more so since his degree of discomfort with this, being a southern gentleman type, was equal to what you'd see in the real General Hammond. Of course he was a good sport about it and the others were positively gleeful while they left their mark.

Anyway, all in all in this weekend I saw everyone kiss everyone else. Several people take off their shirts (namely Christopher, Jay, and J.R.) and both men and women kissing pictures of other cast members. I seem to remember AT even kissed a picture of MS and said all goofy grinning, "I kissed Daniel." And then sighing.

Oh, and all in all the auction raised approximately $12, 000.

And so to wrap it up ladies and gentlemen, that was what I did on my summer vacation.