I read your review Doc, and thought it was very fair and well put.
MS was more or less as I thought he'd be, fairly interesting, quite funny, but since I am not a rabid fan of his, his appearance was just so so as far as I was concerned. However I can understand the MS/Daniel fans and their reaction to him. Unlike Amanda, who I like much better than her Sam character, I liked Daniel much more than I actually liked MS. There's just something about the guy which puts me off, and I have no real idea why. I could quite easily pass him in the street and not be concerned about it.
Lexa Doig I do not rate as an actress. She's too wooden for my liking. I thought she was awful in the New Professionals and to a large degree was bolstered up by actors like Edward Woodward, who is very very good. However, she's young, even at 28, and she'll learn, and hopefully improve. But Judi Dench she definitely ain't, which is okay, not everyone can be as astounding an actress as that lady! She has a lot of 'cute factor' going for her and I felt particularly sorry for her when on the second day, she was asked by a breathless MS fan 'how did you feel about working with Michael on Andromeda, he's such a big star!" And I thought WHAT, in whose universe??? and my thought was mirrored on Lexa's face. I wanted to stand up and say that Lexa was in fact a lot better known internationally and among general audiences than Michael was! MS has only really done Stargate and might be a star among Stargate fans, but to the rest of the world it's 'who the heck is Michael Shanks?'
Give her her due, she answered politely and professionally and without wittering on about the great Michael Shanks. She treated his appearance as that of a fellow professional which is right.
AT was pretty much the way she was at Gatecon, entertaining, amusing and much more able to create an intimate rapport with the audience than the others. Even from a distance you felt that she was talking to everyone on a one to one basis. But...... it's a great pity that this did not translate into one to one encounters. I met her outside by accident when I was sitting with a Wolf staff member who I had met at Gatecon. We were introduced and I was rather shocked when she responded to my greeting with quite a cold expression on her face, no smile. She actually looked at me up and down as though I had crawled out from under a rock. So I was a bit taken aback, but in trying to be fair to her, she was probably tired from her performance and travelling and was probably thinking "Oh no, not another bloody fan, my feet are killing me, I need a cup of coffee". So I will give her the benefit of the doubt here, we probably caught her at an off moment. She is a consummate performer, there is no doubt, but as a human being? Hmmm well, my jury is reserving judgement.
I thought Tom McBeath was a rather delightful man, but he was very very overwhelmed and tongue tied.
The comments you made about the hotel were totally right. I stayed there last time and this time opted for the Sheraton, where the service was second to none, the rooms were huge with cable tv and minibar, the staff were wonderful and the food was delicious. The venue for the con is far too small and that hall was dangerous from a health and safety point of view and no medics on hand. There were at least three women who left the hall because they felt unwell. My main complaint about the con is not the guests, or the organisation which is a lot better than Gatecon in my view. I would like there to be more activities and I am not talking about the autograph and photo queues. I would love for there to be discussion panels. I think it would work better than these Q & A sessions where the actors get asked the same banal and idiotic questions. All the old chestnuts cropped up and you could see that AT was resigned to answering them. When someone actually did ask an intelligent question, she perked up and thanked them for doing so, which spoke volumes to me. How tedious must it be to constantly have to reiterate the ****?
I will not go to another Stargate con. I have been to three and that's a lot more than enough for my liking.
