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Sunday

Next day, I was determined I was going to make it for the first Q&A (Ethan Phillips) this time... but it didn't happen! I didn't say before, but I'd had a sore throat and been sneezing since Friday. I'd hoped it was just hay fever, but it was no longer possible to kid myself. I'd also got a nasty blister from those too-tight boots the night before. So I was now very tired, limping, sneezing and wincing when my bag strap hit the sore parts of my sunburn. But, honestly, once I got going I really didn't care. I have quite a high pain tolerance, so I wasn't going to let any of that stop me enjoying myself!

By the time I arrived I'd missed both Ethan and Vaughn Armstrong's panels. I was a bit guilty about the latter, since I'd spent some time with him the night before! Ah well... Anyway, once again my day was not going to be one of simply settling down to watch Q&A's. On Saturday I'd several times gone to the table where they had the pictures from the photo sessions, taken one look at the queue and walked away again! But Sunday morning it seemed quieter, so I decided to pick up any that were ready. So I fished out the tickets with the roll numbers for the sessions with Robbie, Tim and Alice, and got those that were ready... but I couldn't find my ticket for Ethan. There was a bit of a queue at that point, so it was agreed I'd come back later when it was quiet to go through the stacks. Back in the hall I saw an announcement that said they were doing retakes for Ethan and Robbie's sessions from Friday... So I decided to go hover at the table and see if I could spot my picture. Then someone came up for a photo from Ethan's Friday session, and they had their roll number on their autograph ticket! No wonder I couldn't find I couldn't find the right photo session ticket! It turns out the sessions on Friday had been test runs for the rest of the weekend, and they'd realised that writing the stuff on the back of the autograph tickets was not going to work and had changed the system. Anyway, a quick check, and guess what? My photo was one of the ones that hadn't come out. Cue mad dash to retake sessions... I was one of the last few in, with no time to do my make-up! Ethan was friendly enough, but noticeably not as friendly as on Friday. No complaints, he wasn't rude or anything, and I guess he must have been getting tired, the poor thing! I also had my photo session with Keegan later. He was polite and pleasant, but I can't say I had any great 'moment' with him.

Well, with all that going on, I didn't get to see that much of the first couple of Q&A's! I have noted down a few bits and pieces though...

Rob LaBelle

Rob talked about how when you are working in latex you can get a character from the makeup.

He said he loves doing conventions, they are a 'total gas'. For one thing he gets to hang out with a bunch of actors he's worked with and known for a while.

He confirmed that First Wave has been cancelled.

When he was cast for Star Trek, he was not allowed to use the fact that he already knew, and was friends with Time Russ.

Q: Have you ever scratched and realised that you've got to go back to makeup?!?

Yeah! You are especially screwed if you scratch your head. There is one makeup person assigned to each guy in makeup. They have to have straws to drink through etc. Often production is stopped to repair cracks, problems with sweat, etc.

Rob also talked about him and Richard Herd being on the directorial board of the Screen Actors Guild. He said people don't realize that there are only 2-3 stars in a TV show or film. All the other people are trying to eke out a living.

Tim Russ

For some strange reason I don't have any pictures of Tim for this session.  I think I may have started deleting blurry ones to make sure there was space for Kate later on and gone and deleted every one I took of him...  Ah well.

Q: Acting or music?

T: Music

Q: After seeing Chase, Bob and Tim performing the night before: have they ever considered doing a CD together?

Yes, he would like to do a compilation with all the singing actors from Star Trek. He has duet-ed with Bob, but not with all three of them. He would if they found the right song. Probably one of Bob's parodies.

Q: A request to tell the story of his first Vulcan mind meld, where apparently he sang James Brown...

In the episode where Paris is convicted of a murder, and his punishment is to re-live the crime ('Ex Post Facto'). 'I wanna have some fun here' he said to LeVar Burton (who was directing), that being code on the set for joke time! So, he went through the scene up until the point where he did the mind meld with Paris, putting his hands on his head... then he started singing 'I feel good! I knew that I would now!' Of course Robbie didn't know that he was going to do it, and had to do the re-takes with that in his head...

He then went on to tell his version of the Pon Farr scene with Ethan Philips. It was supposed to be just a Neelix reaction shot, but he told them to keep the camera rolling. He ran into the shot and proceeded to sexually molest him. It stopped production for 10 minutes.

(As to whether that film exists, well, of course, the execs would have gone mad if they'd have seen it, since they were in uniform... they'd have had to have sneaked it through processing another day...)

Q: About working with 4 captains, including on 'Generations'

For the shaking scene on the bridge they had rotating drums under the stage so that it really did shake. A screw came out of the railing, and Bill Shatner fell onto 5 other people. He had no injuries and was pretty cool about the whole thing.

Avery is very intense, enigmatic, philosophical, serious. Very gracious and a very good actor.

Patrick Stewart. (On Starship Mine?) It was just him and I. They talked about the differences in their culture. A wonderful experience.

Katie Mulgrew - What can I say? Wonderful, intense actress. She very rarely messed up lines. May be 4 times in the whole run of Voyager, which is unbelievable, physically impossible. Supernatural. Scary. She has a good sense of humour and cuts up sometimes.

Richard Herd

Richard told us a story about riding his bike in the wind (when he first went to LA?) He rode one way, thinking it was easy. Then the time came to turn around… and he found he could hardly move! Because he had had the wind with him before…

He likes to do the odd play, but he has to have a burning desire to do one. They don't pay much and they are a lot of hard work.

Painting - he's been doing life class. He'll probably go back to landscapes though. (Richard had some of his paintings on sale in the autograph room. They were portraits of some of the people he works with. Not bad, but I prefer landscapes myself! So I didn't buy one)

He recently did a film: I think he said it was called 'Chequers'

He worked with Bill Shatner on TJ Hooker. Also with Scott Bacula on the final episode of Quantum Leap.

Q: About working on Seinfield

Jason Alexander is a huge Star Trek fan. He played Jason's boss. It was the best job. Nicest people. He has great respect for Michael Richards. It's the sort of work not done since Buster Keaton.

Last year Jerry was offered 140 Million to come back - his agent would have got 20%. The others were making 750 thousand and episode. They would have made a million.

Richard is very glad for what he's got...

He also extended his thanks to his wife, Patricia.

Keegan de Lancie

Keegan introduced himself by saying that he's not got any stories to tell us about his great career, because he's only 16 so he hasn't had one yet! In spite of that he has a terrific stage presence, and I think his Q&A ended up being one of the best and funniest of the weekend, though that was partly down to the technicians...

Q: Working with his father....

It was like being at home, except he had to do lines.

Q: Is he single?

Yes. What's your phone number?

I think the next question was about his ability with languages. He's currently studying French and Spanish.

He talked about how many people when they hear he wants to go into diplomacy, think he means a different kind of diplomacy... that is spying! But it's not. He just wants to help people, sort out problems.

Q: About a rumoured visit to a strip club the night before...

He didn't go. Manu (Icheb) was going to take him to one, but they didn't make it. They didn't realise everything in Blackpool closes at two! He thinks he's not quite ready at his age anyway.

Q: Here he is on a stage in front of 3000 people when he's only 16.... (Keegan hams... his eyes get gradually wider as if realising where he is... then he makes a run for the back of the stage... before turning back with a big grin!) ...What would his advice be to 16-year-olds who are not coping just with being 16?

'Great! My chance to be a role-model!' Choose something you are really interested in, even if it's drawing maps of somewhere that doesn't exist. Explore what you want to do, art, sports... Get exposure. Get your friends together and put on an art show in your local museum...

Q: Was his father an English soccer fan?

(I suspect this question may have been asked by someone I talked to earlier who wondered if his and his brother's names had anything to do with football players called Keegan and Owen)

I'm not really sure what the answer was! I think Keegan made some remark along the lines of 'should have seen the outtakes!). Anyway he went on to explain that all of the males in his family have the first name John. So he's actually John Keegan de Lancie, and his brother is John Owen. They have 3 Johns in the house. His father's father is also called John. I think he said that his mother's father was also, by co-incidence, called John, and there was another John in the family as well, by marriage.

Now a treat was in store... He told us that he'd needed something to auction... so he went up to his dad's room... He'd brought along a pair of his dad's underpants, fully signed! (His father, of course, being John de Lancie who plays Q). So commenced the auction. If it wasn't funny enough to start off with, the technicians decided to have a joke. Anyone coming into the hall at that point may have found themselves bidding on the wrong thing, because according to the message on the screen, the auction was for Keegan's bra! Bryan was helping with the auction, and as the bidding stalled, he pleaded with the audience... it seemed he knew the person holding the bid and stated his opinion that the thought of 'Jimmy' with Q's underpants under his kilt was not nice! The technicians joined in by putting up a notice that for an extra 50 Keegan would wear the pants on his head. Keegan had spotted the notices by then and seemed to find them as funny as the audience. Anyway, Jimmy got the pants! And Keegan did put them on his head just for a laugh!

I stayed just long enough to get a few pictures at the start of Alice's Q&A, then headed off for a break. I'd heard she was going to appear at Pages so I didn't feel too bad about it. Of course that has since been cancelled. Argh!  Anyway, lovely pictures...

Fintan McKeown

I missed the very start I think, but as he came in he was talking about how he'd moderated his Irish accent for Voyager. (Actually, I've heard quite a few people say they couldn't understand Fintan's Q&A!)

Q: Did he get any weird letters after playing Janeway's holographic lover?

Not really. People realized it was a romance.

Q: Did he get on with the cast or just walk off on his own between takes?

It depends. Sometimes you need a moment to walk off, sometimes you feel like fooling. It's a nice group. Fun to hang out with.

I didn't catch the next question, but the answer was about familiarising yourself with the stage: Walking around. I think he said you needed to do that, or you'd bump into people when you were acting?

Q: Coming onto the set, what were your impressions?

It was war! He had to plant himself. Say 'this is my scene'.

Q: What was Kate like to work with?

Committed, great to work with. The scenes they did together were really intense. They took to each other. There was a lot of trust.

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This page is part of The Borg Grail. If you have not already done so, please visit the Main Page for news and an introduction to my site.
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