We were able to get up a bit later this morning (15 whole minutes!) for dog walking (and Tucker even got a few minutes on the deck to bark at non-existent cats) before leaving for downtown. Went to the same parking lot as yesterday, passing people hefting lawn chairs and water bottles to start lining up for the parade, to find out they jacked up the price $10. ::sigh::

After breakfast at Cafe Momo, I walked James part of the way back to the truck (he forgot his hat, not to mention his pills for the day), then went to the "Doctor Who: The Dormant Years" panel in the Sheraton. This featured the four Robs (Robert Bowen, Robert Ray, Rob Levy, and Robert Lloyd—plus Alan Siler) talking about the years between the cancellation of the classic series and the reboot: Virgin novels, missing adventure books, audio plays, fanfiction, Usenet and bulletin boards, and more.

Wanted to make the Wild Wild West 50th anniversary panel, but the parade was still wending its way down Peachtree Street to turn on Andrew Young and end up between the Hyatt and the Marriott. I was going to go through the bridge and Peachtree Center, but it's a good thing I didn't because later I found out they were stopping people from doing so. Instead I girded my loins, because Andrew Young is a steep hill, and trudged as far as Peachtree Center Avenue, where the parade made the final turn, and stopped dead. Only one way around it; wormed through the crowd on the corner and walked another block, and then trudged up Ellis Street on the opposite side of the Westin. At least a nice breeze was there to greet me. James went another way and got stuck and ended up watching the parade instead.

The West panel talked about if it was the first steampunk story (no, because things like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Great Race came first), but it had more of an impact because it was a four year series. There were five men on the panel, so as favorite character Jim West came in first with one holdout for Artemus Gordon (bet you would have gotten different answers if there were some women on the panel). Plus no one watched it first run. I feel old! :-) Of course, talk about favorite characters (yes, besides Dr. Loveless) and episodes (yes, besides Dr. Loveless episodes). (No one mentioned "Night of the Colonel's Ghost," darnit.)

And then, the parade mess gone, I was able to walk freely back to the Marriott to join James at the 50th anniversary panel for Lost in Space. It was a typical Saturday at the Marriott, which meant it looked like a mob scene, and the same people stopping in passages to take pictures. Stop blocking traffic, you yoicks!

So we had some talk about the series, about the movie, about the animated "movie" no one remembers (and with good reason), and the emo pilot for a new series with the main character a teen, then cast appearances, how the pilot differed from the series and the scenes reused, and the upcoming Blu-Ray anniversary edition (some of the episodes will contain genuine 60s-era commercials).

We managed to get James out of the Marriott by the simple expedient of going all the way to the back and using the garage elevator; with the cheek-by-jowl crowd in the hotel by 2 p.m., his going up two levels in the elevator to get back to the skybridge to the Hyatt was impossible. So he basically got back to the hotel by just riding the chair up the sidewalk next to both hotels.

I went to the Sheraton to get in line for the Sleepy Hollow panel; waited from 2:30 until they loaded the room at 3:30, and then we had to wait until after four. Since Sleepy Hollow is now filming in Georgia, they didn't have to go far to get Tom Mison and Nicole Beharie as guests. Interviewer John Ichabod Anderson (yes, that's his name) opened the panel with Tom Mison, and I totally have forgotten the first question because the next person who came up to the microphone made a couple of nice comments, then asked "Did anyone ever tell you that you look like a smokin' hot Jesus?" He turned red and made a motion to "text his Mum" (this became a running gag the moment people mentioned something embarrassing), and then "smokin' hot Jesus" and its permutations became another running gag, the one Nicole Beharie walked in on a few minutes later—you should have seen her face!—along with Corey Castellano, who designs the monsters. (When asked how much lead time he gets on monsters, the reply was a wry "Not enough!") I was quite heartened to hear that neither of the cast members wishes a romance between Ichabod and Abbie ("Ichabbie" as the 'shippers call it); Tom Mison said he loved the show for that, that they are just friends. Nicole Beharie looked sternly at the audience and added, "We read your fanfiction, you know!"

Other questions were about most scary villains (he said the Sandman and she said the coins that brought out your evil side, since anyone can be evil), monsters they would like to face or fantasy elements they would like to do (she wants to be a mermaid). Corey Castellano said he sometimes gets very vague descriptions of the monsters in the scripts; my favorite he mentioned was when the writer said it was his first monster and he didn't know what it looked like, but make it took good! Anyway, an outstanding and often hysterically funny way to spend an hour, and definitely worth the wait.

Headed back to the Hyatt where James was attending a Military Science Fiction panel, but wasn't interested myself, so decided to check out the dealer's "room" which is down the street in Building 2 of the America's Mart. I couldn't figure out why there was a line to get down there on the second day of the con until I got down to the doors and realized you had to cross the street to get there—people were waiting for the light!

I didn't stay long. The place is huge and complete cacophony, plus you have to walk past a huge foyer with escalators going up to the second level, then the food court, and only then you get to the exhibit halls. I found the McFarland booth and looked at the books, and bought a button apiece from a nearby booth, and then got the hell out of there. Too loud, too warm, and just creepy. Like shopping at Walmart before Christmas.

Found James back on the Embassy level at the end of his panel, but the room was full, so I stayed out for the remaining time of the panel talking to Jake Skidmore. Jake had a stroke over a year ago, but is sounding and looking so much better.

We could have stayed for a book publisher's panel, but we were both tired, so we came home and as a treat stopped by Tin Drum to get supper to go. (We'll probably be leaving the same time tomorrow since James has to work on Monday.) We came home to find "The Day of the Doctor" replaying on BBC America with Ingrid Oliver (Osgood) being interviewed during the breaks. We watched that through to the end (and Peter Capaldi's eyebrows) before turning on the news.

Labels: conventions, friends, television

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