As Day Two of the Con loomed snowstorms, hailstorms and thunderstorms beset Southern California while the east coast was enjoying record highs. Saturday is traditionally a crazy day at a three-day event like this.
On Friday, people are generally working and they program “lesser” guests and on Sunday many of the guests pack up and leave early. Creation is nothing if not savvy and they tend to leave one or two heavy hitters to the bitter end on Sunday.
As I mentioned previously I enjoyed Grand Slam because it offered more than just “Trek.” Saturday’s major events included a few “Trek” guests but the really big ones were from “Firefly,” and “Lost,” two of my favorite shows.
This would also be the first time people from “Lost” would appear at Grand Slam and they included Evangeline Lilly (Kate and soon to be seen in "The Hobbit"), Ian Somerhalder (Boone) and Naveen Andrews (Sayyid). An added bonus for me was the fact Ian and Naveen did not sign through the mail (unlike most of the cast) and today was my chance to grab their autographs.
Nathan Fillion (Malcolm Reynolds in “Firefly”) was originally slated to appear but cancelled about a month prior. They replaced him with Adam Baldwin (a great guest and friendly guy) but I had met him at last year’s GS and have never seen Nathan in person. Such is life.
Adam was joined by Morena Baccarin (Inara) and Summer Glau (River) and their panel was the first big one of the day. They didn’t disappoint and as with Adam and Alan Tudyk last year this was further proof of how well these castmates get along.
Adam basically took the lead for most of the Q &A but the girls eventually warmed up to it and had fun. I had hoped there might be some nuggets of information as to “Firefly’s” future but there was nothing except to say it all hinged on the DVD of “Serenity” (we all know how that went!)
Prior to the panel I had pics taken with all three. The autograph session was great as all of them were happy to personalize for me.
By far the day’s biggest draw was the “Lost” panel. I scrambled to get a photo taken with Evangeline while the “Firefly” autographs were going on, but I made it in plenty of time. She was obviously awestruck by the breadth of the convention but still super friendly.
During the panel she noted a little apprehension about coming but she was pleasantly surprised and glad she did (I’m sure the money didn’t hurt either!) Their Q & A was energetic as well, with Ian playfully grousing about being killed off a hit show.
The day was far from Trek-less though as Gary Graham (Soval on “Enterprise”) and Jeffrey Combs (Shran, Weyoun, Brunt, you name it) appeared on stage together. Their pairing grew out of a scene they did together on “Enterprise” wherein Shran tortured Soval and they had fun playing off that. I also neglected to mention in the previous post that Garrett Wang was on hand Friday and while I wasn’t a huge “Voyager” or Harry Kim fan, I enjoyed his talk.
Wang returned Saturday with former “Voyager” co-star Tim Russ for a panel about their ultra low budget short film “Déjà vu,” and appearing with them was the ever-present Chase Masterson (who co-stars in the film) as well as the producers. It was a fun discussion but nothing earth shattering.
The day ended early for me since I didn’t care about the star of “Supernatural,” Jared Paledecki, and just had some “Lost” photo ops to get through.
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