Hot Nerd Girl

Tag: star trek

  • HNG Podcast #9 – These Are the Voyages

    John DF Black promoting the book with Balok

    John DF Black promoting These Are the Voyages with Balok

    I’m a HUGE Trekker. If you don’t know this about me than you’re probably new around here. It was my introduction to nerdom and I’ve literally been watching it since the day I was born. So when I saw a booth at Comikaze advertising a Star Trek book called These are the Voyages: TOS, Season One I was intrigued and I had to buy one of the signed copies.

    About a month ago at Comikaze

    Written and assembled by Marc Cushman, it was being hailed (pun intended) by many as the best Star Trek book ever written. Now, I’ve read many, many Star Trek books on topics ranging from physics to gagh, including reading each edition of the Star Trek Encyclopedia cover to cover and most of the continuing universe sagas. I’ve loved every one of them but this claim was something I had to experience for myself.

    Author Marc Cushman

    I was not disappointed. If anything, I was enthralled. Quite simply, if you’re a Trekkie or a Trekker or a Trekken, you have to read this book. The forward is written by John D.F. Black, the last surviving Producer of Star Trek, and Mary Black, his lovely wife who was his secretary and who read every script and note that landed on John’s desk.

    While at Comikaze I exchanged business cards with the lovely folks running the booth and when the opportunity arose to interview Marc, John and Mary on the podcast, Darcy and I jumped on it. What follows is one of the greatest moments that has happened to me since I started HNG back in 2010. The chance to discuss Star Trek with people who were there and with someone who is, in mine and I’m sure many other people’s opinions, one of the foremost authorities on the subject.

    I really hope that you enjoy this podcast because I had soooo much fun recording it!

    Enjoy 🙂

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    And be sure to purchase These are the Voyages: TOS, Season One HERE.

    These are the Voyages: TOS, Season Two will be out in February!

  • HNG Podcast #6

    HNG podcast Sept 2013

    What up, y’all! Sorry I’ve been a bit MIA. I seem to have very little free time these days. Soooooooper lame. I’ve got a few posts in the works though so expect some more activity very soon. In the meantime, Darcy and I managed to find some time for a podcast earlier this week and Hayden aka Geek Outlaw was kind enough to join us.

    We talked about Ben Affleck as the new Batman, Darcy’s first impression of Game of Thrones, hipster Spidey, Star Trek: Into Darkness, and some other random nerdy tangents. At one point I mention the “Honest Trailer” for Star Trek (2009) and I say that I’ll post the link so HERE YOU GO. Watch it and weep tears of hilarity.

    Big thanks to Darcy and first-timer Hayden. Hope you enjoy the podcast!

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  • Star Trek Into Darkness Reviewed

    HNG Star Trek Into Darkness

    So many nerdy posters but not a single Star Trek one to be found

    I know that this review crazy late but I’ve been dealing with some stuff that I might write about later so… c’est la vie, mes chers amis!

    There isn’t much in this world that I love more than Star Trek. It excites and inspires me like nothing else. I managed to see Star Trek Into Darkness twice before opening day. My coworker convinced me to enter a costume contest that a local news station was having so I submitted this picture at the last minute and ended up winning the grand prize. No one was more surprised than me, let me tell you! My prize was VIP tickets to a Wednesday night showing, $80 in concessions, and a gift bag full of Star Trek Into Darkness goodies like a sweatshirt, t-shirt, poster, fake tattoos, cups, and some kind of Bluetooth device that I haven’t figured out yet. So I took my Mama and stood at the concession counter while two employees ran around collecting $80 worth of Red Vines and Junior Mints. Then I saw it again with my friends at a Thursday night preview. Both times were in 3D and I will probably see it again in 2D just for the heck of it.

    *WARNING: I usually try really hard not to spoil things but I can’t help it when it comes to anything Star Trek related and I spoil the shit out of this so beware. Also, it’s been out a week so you should have seen it by now.

    [youtube:http://youtu.be/QAEkuVgt6Aw]

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    A brief synopsis: Starfleet’s been doing pretty swell since Nero got knocked down but a new threat has emerged and no one seems to know how or why, just that he’s blowing shit up and they want him to stop. It’s up to Kirk and his crew to stop this one man Army using whatever means necessary. They think they’ve accomplished this task until Robocop shows up and turns out not to be such a good guy after all. 72 Augmenticles, 2 starships, a few thousand lens flares, and a half-naked baby mama later and our favorite alternate reality crew is finally off on their five year mission and a third movie.

    Kirk (Chris Pine) has the Enterprise. Kirk loses the Enterprise. Kirk gets the Enterprise back. Enterprise loses Kirk. Enterprise gets Kirk back. Some would call this a better love story than Twilight. But I digress. Kirk is riding pretty high at the beginning of this movie. He pretty much thinks he’s invincible and it’s up to Admiral Pike to knock him down a few pegs (or Peggs…?) Just as soon as the message sinks in he’s thrust back into being a rock star and has to save the day from enemies on two fronts. You’d think being thrown out of a trash chute with a genetically engineered superman would humble the dude. It doesn’t, but he learns a lot and by the end of the movie he gets a bit philosophical, saying “revenge is not who we are.” A nice little twist of the “revenge is a dish best served cold” bit of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Speaking of twists…Kirk and Spock’s little sacrificial switch-a-roo kind of annoyed me the first time I saw it. The second time I saw it I appreciated it more even though…..

    ……Spock’s redux of the famous (and infamous) “KHAAAAAAAAAN!!!” call was only slightly less cheesy than Kirk’s original. Is it just me, or was Spock way too emotional in this movie? Don’t get me wrong, I lurv me some Zachary Quinto, missing earflaps and all, but the crying and the talking about the feelings and the anger were all very un-Spock-like. Like everyone else, I applauded when Spock Prime (Leonard Nimoy) Skyped in to break his own rule and discuss how his crew defeated Khan “at great cost.” I hope he shows up in every post-JJ-era Star Trek flick. Spock got some of the coolest scenes in the whole movie. In addition to fighting with a volcano, Khan, Uhura, and some Klingons, he got to use all his Vulcan tricks: nerve pinches, mind-melds, and leaping great distances in a single bound. His moments with Kirk were especially comedic.

    Uhura (Zoe Saldana) got to be pretty badass in this movie. She stood up to the Klingons and swooped in to save the day when her boyfriend (who she also fought with) was taking a beating. Alternate universe Uhura is turning into the mama bear of the crew. She’s got a fierceness and a gentleness about her that exist in relatively perfect harmony. Her feistiness probably wouldn’t fly in a real-life military but for the movies it’s entertaining to watch her throw her earpiece across the bridge’s console.

    McCoy and the metaphors! Bones (Karl Urban) spit out so many that it was almost – ALMOST – too much. He’s lucky I love metaphors, bad puns, and cheesy lines. I drew the line at “Damnit Spock, I’m a Doctor not a torpedo technician!” That was, in fact, too far. However, the scene where he’s trying to examine Kirk on the sly was absolute perfection.

    Scotty (Simon Pegg) is running. He just thought you should know. Pegg is an absolute and sorely underutilized gem. He’s got more to do than he did in Star Trek (2009) but he needs more scenes to chew on because, my God, the man spits out gold every time he opens his mouth. He’s a little pissed off in this movie. First his ship is submerged in salt water, then transporter technology that he created is being used and abused, then he’s forced to resign his commission over a morality dispute, then “One day he’s been off this ship. One day!” and it’s falling apart. Still, he plays a huge part in saving the day and Kirk declares him “a miracle worker.” Poor guy needs some scotch and a foot massage. His friend Keenser (Deep Roy) pulls a Major “King” Kong and straddles a torpedo but disappears before the real action begins.

    Sadly, Sulu (John Cho) doesn’t have much to do in this movie, with one major exception. He gets to sit in the Captain’s chair for a while and deliver an announcement to Khan full of truly epic badassery. It’s intimidating and unexpected enough that Bones (having previously underestimated him) looks over and says “remind me never to piss you off.”

    On the other hand, Chekov (Anton Yelchin) gets slightly more to do. When Scotty resigns, Chekov gets promoted (?) to Chief Engineer and looks truly aghast when Kirk orders him to “put on a red shirt.” He spends most of his time running around with a nifty pair of goggles on (I don’t remember seeing anyone else in Engineering with goggles, but meh).

    The good guys are rounded out by a new addition, Dr. Carol Marcus (Alice Eve). She’s the daughter of Admiral Marcus and the future mother of Kirk’s son, David (if this timeline follows the original timeline). She’s got a gratuitous but not at all offensive (not to me at least, I thought the scene was funny) moment in her underwear and a scream reminiscent of a velociraptor.

    Benedict Cumberbatch can do no wrong. Even his name is amazing. I’m a MAJOR Sherlock fan (though I draw the line at Cumberbitch fangirl status thankyouverymuch) and while, yes, BC is very handsome, I’m far more attracted to his fantastic acting chops. He definitely does not disappoint here. He relishes every line of dialogue and every facial expression. He expresses more in a sideways glance then some actors do in an entire movie *coughcoughKristenStewartcoughcough* I’m seriously considering referring to him as Benedict Skullcrusher from now on. Also, did anyone else notice that he turns into Emo Khan when he’s fighting?

    In the movie Khan declares that he’s better than everyone in every way. But he doesn’t really explain why. So if you’re a Star Trek virgin, you’re probably wondering why he’s so much better. Allow me to fill you in: way back in 1992 (you remember, right?) genetically engineered super humans developed a superiority complex and decided to take over the world. They managed to take over about 40% of it with Khan Noonien Singh as their absolute ruler. This resulted in a series of conflicts called the Eugenics or Great Wars. The normal old boring humans managed to defeat the “Augments” in 1996 but about 80 of them, including Khan, went missing until they were discovered in suspended animation aboard the SS Botany Bay by the crew of the USS Enterprise about 200 years later. Here’s how they are “better”: The Augments were designed to be remarkably agile, five times stronger than, and twice as intelligent as a normal human, resistant to sickness and with enhanced senses, possessing heart muscles twice as strong and lung efficiency 50% better. Their blood contained platelets capable of regenerating from any disease or toxin, which could be used to cure or revive medical subjects via transfusion. They also had twice the average lifespan. Even their resistance to energy weapons was improved, as it took multiple shots with a phase pistol to stun one. In combat, they were even capable of resisting a Vulcan nerve pinch and mind meld. Unfortunately, along with those awesome abilities comes a massive increase in aggression, ambition, and all around douchebaggery.

    Speaking of douchebags…Admiral Alexander Marcus (Peter Weller) is one. Can’t quite figure out where you know him from? It’s Robocop. Sure, he’s been in a few things since then, but trust me, it’s Robocop. You’re welcome. You start off liking Admiral Marcus. He’s no-nonsense and doesn’t mind hearing what the youngins have to say. Then he goes and tries to start an intergalactic war with his brand new supership and you start to change your mind a little. Then he reveals that he’s been planning to murder craploads of innocent people just to further his agenda and you start to understand why Khan squeezed his head until his skull cracked open like a walnut.

    To many folks Thomas Harewood (Noel Clarke) may seem like a minor character. Sure, he gets the action started by blowing up Section 31, but why should we care about him? Because he’s also Mickey Smith, former Companion to the Doctor who was, at one point, thrust into a parallel universe. He did make his way back to our universe eventually but who’s to say he didn’t get a hold of a vortex manipulator and find himself trapped in the 23rd century??

    A few final notes:

    I like the warp signature effect, even though it reminds me of “the more you know” NBC thing from when I was a kid, what with all the sparkles and tinkling and stuff.

    When did the Starfleet uniforms get hats? I don’t ever remember hats but in this movie they were everywhere, especially when paired with the grey dress uniforms. Must be an alternate timeline thing.

    The USS Bradbury. I can think of no greater honor.

    42 people died when Harewood blew up Section 31. I just always feel the need to point out when the number 42 is used in anything.

    The ash rain on Spock at the Daystrom Institute. It was very poetic.

    Miss Jeanette (Aisha Hinds) from True Blood took over Navigation from Chekov. Every time I saw her I pictured a voodoo ceremony.

    What happened to the red shirts who went with Kirk, Spock, and Uhura down to Kronos? They swapped out their red shirts for some generic leather jackets, made it to the surface and then were never seen again. I’m assuming they perished in the fight with the Klingons but when?? I like to know/see when Ensign Ricky bites the dust.

    Carol mentions her friend Christine Chapel who got as far away from Kirk as she could and became a nurse. This is the second time Nurse Chapel has been mentioned in the new films but we still haven’t seen her.

    Spock: “Our options are limited. We cannot fire and we cannot flee.” I LOL’d.

    Khan’s speech on board the USS Vengeance was very in keeping with the original Khan.

    The shot of the Enterprise regaining it’s thrusters and slowly rising through the clouds was GORGEOUS.

    Whudda thunk that a noble Tribble would help to save the day? The shirt I wore the first time I saw it turned out to be very appropriate. Sometimes I’m psychic that way.

    I happen to like the lense flares.

    I got really excited by stuff like Section 31, pregnant Gorns, and a reference to the “Mudd Incident.”

    It was nice to hear Chris Pine give the Star Trek shpeel with the “5 year mission” added back.

    No one knew what to expect from the 2009 reboot. Thankfully, it turned out to be magical with just the right amount of inside Trekkie jokes for those in the know. They attempted to recapture that magic here and, to be honest, they just tried too hard at times. They are definitely focusing more on action than substance, which in some ways is a shame because that’s not what Star Trek is all about. It’s about diplomacy and exploration first and violence as a last resort. The conversation between Kirk and Scotty over the torpedoes addressed that which I was grateful for, but the big explosions and fighting cheapen it just a little. That being said, I’m a big fan of action and it’s also helping to attract a crowd that normally wouldn’t give Star Trek the time of day so I appreciate the contribution it’s making to the fandom. The more fans the merrier! It means that much more Star Trek for me in the future 🙂

    And so ends my review of The Wrath of Khan 2.0. What did you think of the movie?

    4 out of 5 Sci-Fives! (for once my Sci-Five graphic is 100% appropriate)

     

    If you like pictures like this:

    Then don’t forget to buy a calendar! It’s got every nerdy holiday you can imagine, plus a super handy convention calendar, and some never-before-seen pictures that will never, ever be seen anywhere else. I know it’s May but it’s worth it to get the 2013 calendar. Besides, if I don’t sell these, then there probably won’t be one next year so, ya know…buy one  Since it’s May, they’re super discounted (I promise you I’m not making a fortune off of them) and the price includes taxes and shipping within the US and Canada (if you live outside of the US/Canada then email me at princesstrek@hotmail.com). AND I’ll sign it if you want.

  • “The Best of Both Worlds” on the big screen

    Aw yeah, that’s a baby Borg on my t-shirt!

    Aw yeah, that’s a baby Borg on my t-shirt!

    Star Trek is my first nerdy love. Without it, I would not be the nerd I am today. I’ve said before that I literally have no memory of my life without Star Trek. Watching The Original Series with my parents on Saturday nights is one of my earliest memories and, although I was very young when The Next Generation came on the air, I was not so young that I don’t remember watching it for the first time very clearly. In my humble opinion it is, quite simply, the greatest franchise ever created.

    The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Best of Both Worlds” is arguably one of the greatest cliff hangers in the history of television. So, when my friend Mike reminded me that it was going to be playing in movie theatres across the country this past Thursday evening in all its remastered glory, I immediately bought my ticket.

    Me and my friend Mike before the show

    I love seeing stuff from my childhood on the big screen. In a relatively recent phenomenon, they’ve started bringing movies back to the theatres for limited runs.  Movies like Star Wars, Top Gun, Jurassic Park, and The Lion King. It’s so much better than remaking a movie and introduces them to a whole new generation. When I lived in Los Angeles, they would have events where they would play a movie on the big screen for the first time in decades, then have people who worked on the movie do a Q&A panel afterwards. My NerdBFF Geek Outlaw and I went to one of these for Ghostbusters and LOVED it. Events like that are one of the few things I miss about living in LA.

    The lights went down and we were immediately treated to a behind-the-scenes look at the making of “The Best of Both Worlds, part I & II” that included interviews with the people involved and fan reactions to the season three cliffhanger. Some highlights:

    –          Patrick Stewart recalled how a woman pulled up next to him while driving, rolled down her window, and shouted “You ruined our summer!” and a guy walking past him in the NY subway, paused in front of him momentarily and said “You’re keeping it real.”

    –          The late, great Michael Piller wrote the episode thinking he’d be leaving the show and someone else would have to figure out how to get the crew out of this mess. Of course, he ended up sticking around and had to clean up after himself.

    –          For some reason, I never put two and two together that Elizabeth Dennehy (LCDR Shelby) was Brian Dennehy’s daughter. Which is weird because I LOVE Brian Dennehy. Turns out he didn’t really want her to do an episode of Star Trek. Elizabeth didn’t really know anything about the franchise. It was one of her first auditions after moving to Los Angeles and she didn’t know enough about it to be intimidated. She also didn’t realize that it wasn’t like working on a soap opera (where you apparently get several hours to just sit around and learn your lines) and was completely unprepared the first day of shooting. She learned quickly and never made that mistake again.

    –          I’ve never been one to notice hairdos, but once Elizabeth Dennehy pointed out how much hairspray was used in her updo, I couldn’t help but notice how it affected other people’s hair.

    That’s DOES look like it takes way more time than a Commander has in the morning.

    Especially Dr. Crusher’s, whose hair pretty much didn’t move when she turned her head. It was like a gloriously shellacked red waterfall.

    I never understood why one side of her hair was longer than the other

    –          They showed how they achieved many of the special effects and how they remastered them for the Blu-ray. The hardest part was the starship graveyard at Wolf 359, mostly because of their limited budget.

    –          I’m always struck by how the actors have to pretend like they’re being jostled around when the ship is struck by enemy fire. When I was a kid they had an attraction at Universal Studios in which members of the audience were called up to participate in some scenes from Star Trek. We got to see firsthand how they put together an episode, including having to fake being bounced around in your seat. So I‘ve always known that this is how it’s done. But it’s quite funny to see the actors do it over and over again, take after take, with a completely straight face.

    Then it was time for the episodes, which they combined to make a feature length presentation. In case you haven’t seen the episodes, here’s a little summary/background information:

    First seen in the 2nd season episode “Q Who” (thanks to Q playfully tossing the USS Enterprise right in the path of a Cube), the Borg have been on the Federation’s mind for years. None more so than Admiral JP Hanson and Lieutenant Commander Shelby who have been working tirelessly to develop weapons and defenses based on what they know from the Enterprise’s encounter. They assumed it would take the Borg a certain amount of time to reach the Alpha Quadrant but they severely underestimated the Borg’s capabilities and they arrived much sooner than planned. The Borg’s goal is to reach Sector 001 aka Earth. To do this, they need to tap someone’s brain, someone who has the knowledge they need to get around the Federation’s best laid plans. They choose Captain Picard, assimilating him into the Collective, making him their spokesman, giving him a killer mechanical six-pack, and dubbing him “Locutus of Borg.” To my knowledge, Locutus is the only Borg who is ever given a name as opposed to a designation (ie, Seven of Nine). Despite the friction in their relationship, Commander Riker and Lieutenant Commander Shelby must work together to rescue Picard and stop the Borg from reaching Earth.

    Mmmmm…Borg abs….

    When the third season ended abruptly with Picard as Locutus and Riker telling Worf to fire on the Borg Cube, a collective (heehee) uproar went up in the Star Trek community. No one knew what was going to happen or if Patrick Stewart would be coming back to the show, not even the showrunners. Speculation was so great that someone wrote a fake script in which the whole thing was a prank orchestrated by the Q Continuum.

    “The Best of Both Worlds” is critical in Star Trek cannon. It provides a major part of the back story for the TV show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and is the basis for the movie Star Trek: First Contact.

    After the ending credits, we were delighted to watch a blooper reel featuring outtakes from many different episodes. Some of the highlights included stumbles over the technobabble, forgotten lines, Worf blurting out that he never played with little boys, Guinan cursing, and Lieutenant Richard Castillo asking Tasha Yar to call him “Dick.” It was a lot of laughs that were missed by at least half the audience who walked out during the ending credits.

    Speaking of credits, I must say, it was amazing to see the opening credits on the big screen. Every time I ever watched them as a child, it was always on our little 1980’s-era tube television set. As an adult I’ve watched them on my nice flat screen TV but NOTHING compares to seeing it that big and whispering the words along with Patrick Stewart in movie theatre surround sound. They are some of my favorite words in the world and I’ve known them by heart since before I could read:

    “Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life, and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one as gone before.”

    Thanks to Mike for being my nerdy Star Trek buddy!

    One last note: folks have been asking me to put out a calendar for the last couple of years and I finally got around to doing it with the amazing artistic talents of my sister-in-law, Reba. It’s really an awesome calendar. It’s got every nerdy holiday you can imagine, plus a super handy convention calendar, and some never-before-seen pictures that will never, ever be seen anywhere else. I know it’s almost May but it’s worth it to get the 2013 calendar. Besides, if I don’t sell these, then there probably won’t be one next year so, ya know…buy one 🙂 Since it is almost May, they’re super discounted (I promise you I’m not making a fortune off of them) AND I’ll sign it if you want.

    Buy one here: http://hotnerdgirl.com/shop/

  • WonderCon 2013

    Mama Jedi, HNG, Geek Outlaw

    Mama Jedi, HNG, Geek Outlaw

    Hope y’all had a very happy and nerderific Easter! I apologize for the lack of posts recently. Between working full-time (yes, I have a “real” job!), out of town guests, and just plain old life, I just haven’t much time to blog. But I’ll try to be better.

    So, a lot of cool crap happened this past weekend. There was new Doctor Who, the season premier of Game of Thrones, and the season finale of The Walking Dead. And, of course, WonderCon.

    I mentioned in my wrap-up of last year’s WonderCon that WC was the first comic book convention I ever went to (back when it was in Oakland) and it holds a very special place in my hearts. It’s a nice combination of comic books and TV/movies. San Diego Comic Con is great, but it focuses so much on the Hollywood stuff that the comic books tend to get a little lost. A comic book vendor and I were joking on Saturday about the audacity of the people who actually buy comic books at a comic book convention! Inconceivable!

    After cosplaying as Thor for a day at SDCC last year, I honestly didn’t think I would cosplay in public again for a very long time. I’m quite shy, especially around large groups of strangers, and my instinct is to blend in. Cosplaying is the opposite of blending in. Because of the timing of the day, I didn’t spend much time at SDCC walking around as Thor. But in the brief times that I did, it garnered a lot of attention. Attention that I’m not used to and that made me a bit panicky. I was very uncomfortable and not just because of the corset. I’ve been putting together a Tenth Doctor costume for quite a while now. He’s my favorite of the Doctor incarnations (followed by Eleven, Four, Nine, and Five) and, if I’m being completely honest with myself, I was looking for an excuse to buy a sonic screwdriver. Because of last year’s experience, I almost didn’t wear it, but I’m glad that I did. It was comfortable and fun and was a great ice breaker (that and the flask of liquor I kept in my backpack *ahem*)

    Enough rambling, on to the panels I attended. Sadly, the TV show panel I was most excited about was the Vikings one and I missed it thanks to the traffic around the convention center. I was very, very sad because, as many of you know, I’m very proud of my Viking heritage. But I sat in on a bunch of really cool ones that made up for it.

    Allons-y!

    Geeking Out with the League of Extraordinary Ladies

    Panelists: Autumn Massey, Dina Kampmeyer, Emily Heyer, Geek Girl Diva, Jenn Fujikawa (Just Jenn), Sarah Kuhn, Stephanie Thorpe, Theresa Wollenstein

    These geektacular ladies are very much in line with my favorite motto: “nerd girls of the world unite.” They are a positive group of strong, independent, intelligent women who love to geek out together and support each other. As someone who can’t stand cattiness, these ladies are right up my alley. The first thing I did when I got home was to join their facebook group. I encourage everyone (men are also welcome) to join as well.  Unfortunately, we had to leave their panel early to make it to the next one. What I wouldn’t give for a time-turner so that I could go to multiple panels that are scheduled for the same time.

    Falling Skies

    Panelists: Drew Roy (Hal), Sarah Carter (Maggie), Seychelle Gabriel (Lourdes), Remi Aubuchon (Executive Producer)

    I’ve been a fan of Falling Skies from the get go. As my NerdBFF Geek Outlaw says, “if it’s got aliens in it, I’ll watch it!” And it keeps getting better. We got to see some clips from the first episode premiering June 9th on TNT, including a new baby girl, some more Karen, a badass new punk rock haircut for Matt, promotions for Tom and Lourdes, new alien technology, conflict for Maggie, and some pretty epic looking battle scenes. It definitely got me excited.

    Oddball Comics Live: Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n Roll

    Panelist: Scott Shaw

    I’ve never laughed harder at a panel than I did at this one. Scott Shaw has collected some of the most bizarre comic books imaginable over the course of the last 50 years. It’s filled with crotches, boobs, phallic symbols, crazy concepts, and hidden-in-plain-sight imagery (kind of like the dirty stuff found in every Disney movie made from 1989 to 1992). It’s hard to tell if they were done intentionally or unintentionally.  He’s compiled them into a power point presentation that he complements with witty commentary. It’s hysterical and I highly recommend checking it out if you ever see him on a convention schedule.

    Roddenberry Presents

    Panelists: Rod Roddenberry, Trevor Roth, Tory Mell

    As a life-long Trekker, I always enjoy checking out the Roddenberry Presents panel. I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with Rod and Trevor a few times now and even interviewed Rod at SDCC last year (I’m still perfecting my interviewing skills, mmmkay?) They are super nice and working on some seriously awesome stuff.

    Rod Roddenberry, HNG, Trevor Roth. I have no idea why I look bored in this picture, I SWEAR I wasn’t. I was probably wondering if Mama Jedi knew how to operate my camera.

    Things worth checking out right now: Days Missing, Mission Log podcast, and White Room: 02B3. Things worth checking out in the near future: Worth. We were teased about exciting new things TBA at SDCC this year. One of the highlights of the panel? Winning this awesome “Cool as Kirk” t-shirt for answering one of the trivia questions correctly.

    Geeks Get Published

    Panelists: SG Browne, Katrina Hill, Alan Kistler, Alex Langley, Dr. Travis Langley. Moderated by Jenna Busch.

    This panel was extremely informative. It was a panel full of geek-centric authors offering up free advice on how to get published. The main thing I took away from it was that I’d like to get a literary agent and that I’m doing the right thing by writing what I love. Afterwards, Alan Kistler found me downstairs and wanted a picture (he’s a big Doctor Who fan and is coming out with a Doctor Who book later this year.

    Alan Kistler and HNG

    He graciously stayed and chatted with Geek Outlaw and I for a good 10-15 minutes about writing while his friends wandered off to the bar without him. Thanks again, Alan!

    Here’s some of what happened down on the Floor…

    One of the first booths we noticed was that of Lion Forge Comics. It was a mighty impressive booth.

    Geek Outlaw oohing and ahhing

    They had a healthy line for the slot machine which we were talked into joining. It was manned by this lovely lady armed with a sonic screwdriver.

    Mama Jedi went first and won a giant bag.

    Then it was my turn.

    The machine didn’t seem to be working properly so I fixed it when no one was paying attention and won a bracelet.

    Then Geek Outlaw went and won a bracelet. I totally took a picture of him doing it but he didn’t send it to me so blame him for the empty space here.

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    Based out of St. Louis, MO, Lion Forge has a lot of projects in the works and were some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. We chatted with a number of the people involved, including the Creative Director, the YouTube channel host, one of the primary writers, and even the guy who’s in charge of Licensing who was kind enough to help me get Mama Jedi into the giant bag she’d won.

    It seemed like a good idea at the time

    There was a large “celebrity row” including Boomer aka Herbert Jefferson Jr. from the Classic Battlestar Galactica.

    Star Wars staple Chewbacca aka Peter Mayhew.

    The ghost of Richard Hatch aka OG Apollo and reboot Zarek.

    The Soup Nazi aka Larry Thomas, who’s decision to sign soup ladles convinced Geek Outlaw to buy an autographed one for his parents who LOVE the Soup Nazi.

    And then there was this guy who Mama Jedi made a beeline for. I still have absolutely no idea who he is or what he does besides sitting there shirtless.

    We ran into SDCC buddy Daniel who was holding down the fort at the booth of a friend.

    We also visited a buddy from this past Long Beach Comic Con. Artist Matt Stevens creates metal fan art. Last time I bought Tenth Doctor and Wash. This time I got an Eleventh Doctor and River Song bookmark. They sit right by my desk and I LOVE them. Not only is Matt a fantastic artist but he’s a super cool dude so you should definitely check him out HERE.

    That’s a mighty fine t-shirt you got there, Matt

    One of the ships from Oblivion.

    There was a parade of R2 units lead by a small child.

    Where were those brakes again?

    They got into a fight with a couple of WALL-E‘s.

    There was some spitting and at one point the Black R2 unit totally flipped off one of the WALL-E’s as you can see in this video I took:

    [youtube:http://youtu.be/gfu_uFi_W6E]

    .

    It wouldn’t be an HNG convention wrap up without the costume pictures!

    One of the very first cosplayers we ran into was Toni Darling, better known to the interwebz as Lady Thor. She’s a friend of Daniel’s and the artist who’s booth he was manning (see the posters and artwork behind him?)

    I have no idea why I’m making that stupid face

    On our way to the Falling Skies panel I time crashed into my future self in the form of a delightful guy with a very convincing British accent named Jack.

    Something’s up with the universe because we ran into each other again at the end of the night while Geek Outlaw and I were chatting with Alan Kistler and took some more pics.

    This is Alan’s friend who took off for the bar while we were deep in conversation about writing and stuff

    Jack even helped us out by taking the picture of our little group in front of the WonderCon sign.

    Time crash number two occurred down on the Floor. This time I ran into my Fourth incarnation.

    Four is my favorite of the Classic Doctors so he gave me a jelly baby which I totally ate, because, heck, it’s a jelly baby from the Doctor! It was delicious.

    It was a little freakier when I saw myself. I’m just going to assume that he’s the Meta-Crisis Doctor 😉

    Mini me. Seriously, this kid was adorable. He was a bit upset with his Mom because she ruined his jacket. It’s not easy being the mother of a Time Lord, mmmkay kiddo?

    There were many, many, many ladies dressed up as the TARDIS. Apparently a Time Lord dropped some TARDIS coral on Earth at some point in the past.  This one was one of my favorites because it was so unique.

    Let’s move away from Gallifrey and check out some of the other costumes, shall we?

    This Lady Thor sat next to us during the Roddenberry panel.

    I ran into this walker at least three times. It freaked me out just as much each time. *shudder* He obviously ran into Haley from Woodbury because there’s no way Daryl would have missed that badly. Twice.

    There are always a few Ghostbusters wandering around conventions. This time they were everywhere. We chatted with a group from Sacramento for quite a while. I like the Ghostbusters groups, they do great things in their communities.

    The Ecto-truck (behind Ecto-1) belongs to one of the guys from the Sacramento group.

    The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was the Dad of the Mini Tenth Doctor (see him down in the right hand corner? He’s totally thinking he has the coolest Dad ever).

    Stay Puft helped me out by posing with Flat Stanley. I was put in charge of Flat Stanley by a friend who’s kid read the book. I honestly have no idea what the heck Flat Stanley is all about but I returned him to his owner yesterday. Apparently I’m getting him back when I go to Wisconsin for my family reunion next month,

    Rad.

    Steam Punk Snow White can kick your ass.

    Disney Princesses + Rainbow Brite = every little girl’s fantasy come true.

    Jon Snow admiring Daenerys’ …uh…eggs. Riiiight…..

    THIS.

    COBRA Command from GI Joe. I’m pulling this entirely from memory here but the group seems to include Serpentor, Destro, The Baroness, and I think Zarana, a BAT and a Night Creeper. Please correct me if I’m wrong, it’s been more than a few years.

    Marvel goodies vs. DC baddies.

    LEGO Darth Maul!

    This fellow HNG was mighty hot for a scruffy looking nerf herder.

    That’s a nice multipass you got there, Leeloo (and a view from the rear for anyone who’s interested).Finally, there’s CMDR William T. Riker as portrayed by a guy who’s name really is William (no joke). He was very nice and we chatted for a few minutes about how much we love Star Trek. It was only after I got home that I realize we’d already met and taken a picture together at Long Beach Comic Con back in November. Kismet!

    And that concludes my wrap up of WonderCon 2013. It was loads of fun and I’m looking forward to next year!

  • “Ask a Roddenberry” – Interview with Rod Roddenberry

    Every time I see Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry I become a bigger fan of him. He’s genuinely friendly and very easy to talk to.

    This interview was conducted on Saturday at San Diego Comic Con, hence my Thor costume, crazy makeup and obvious lack of sleep. I got back from my Grandma’s funeral a day and a half before SDCC so I only had about 24 hours to prepare for this interview. Despite the notes on my lap, it felt more like a conversation than an interview which I think was welcome to both of us – it was to me! But such is the personality of Rod. I never once felt nervous, though having met him before was most likely the reason for that.

    In the interview we talk about scuba diving, The Roddenberry Foundation, an amazing new media project called White Room: 02B3, the X Prize and devices such as Medical Tricorders and Universal Translators becoming a reality, and, of course, Star Trek. He also reveals a new Star Trek blog called “Mission Log” hosted by John Champion (DVD Geeks) and Ken Ray (Mac OS). I asked many of your questions so thank you for submitting them!

    We ended up using the whole interview, nothing was edited out so the footage is all raw all the time.

    Hope you enjoy it!

    [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7js4WltWHR0]

    –

    For more information on anything and everything Roddenberry, check out Roddenberry.com.

    Some more pics from the interview…

    Thanks to my friends Darcy for filming and Eddy for taking the still shots. And a huge thanks to Rod, Trevor, Chance and everyone in the Roddenberry camp for being so welcoming to me yet again!

  • San Diego Comic Con, Part 4 – Sunday Shenanigans

    Geek Outlaw and Hot Nerd Girl aka Nerd Best Friends Forever

    This has been my craziest Summer ever. I feel like I’m never home and I pretty much haven’t been since the beginning of June. Some of the reasons have been great (weddings, visiting new family members, hiking through Yosemite) and some of them have been sad (Grandma’s funeral) but all of them have been very time consuming. So I apologize for being so behind in answering emails and messages. Hopefully things start to calm down a bit.

    In the meantime, here is my last SDCC 2012-related post! (Don’t forget to check out my interview with Rod Roddenberry in the very near future. It was conducted at SDCC but is a beast all its own).

    Even though I had a couple more costumes to choose from I opted not to cosplay on Sunday. Not gonna lie, it was kind of a pain in the ass and one day of it was enough for me. I will definitely cosplay at future conventions though. It was a lot of fun despite the hassle.

    The first half of the day was consumed by the Fringe, Supernatural, and Doctor Who panels in Hall H. In case you missed it, I wrote about all of the Comic Con panels here.

    The second half I spent wandering around the Exhibition Hall. I didn’t see as many celebs on Sunday but Convention regular Thomas Jane was there.

    A bunch of people requested that I check out the Suicide Girls booth. Ask and you shall receive. They really liked my buttons.

    My buttons turned out to be pretty popular actually.

    Which is awesome cause I’m pretty much obsessed with my new button machine.

    I really wanted an awesome souvenir from the Con, and y’all know I’m a huge Trekkie, so when Geek Outlaw found Brian Rood’s booth I got really excited. I bought that lovely Kirk-Spock print you see in the pic.

    Some other randomly awesome stuff from the Floor:

    I’m actually pretty bummed that they remade Total Recall (if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it mmmkay?) but I’ll wait until I see it to pass final judgement. I gotta admit though, this hover car was pretty badass.

    Geek Outlaw disappeared on me so I took this picture to make him feel guilty for ditching me 😉

    We ran into fan Andrew while roaming around.

    Michonne forgot to cut my arms and jaw off. Bad Michonne.

    My friend Eddy was sad that he was a zombie.

    We heard that there were Batmobiles across the way at the Hilton so we made our way over there.

    On to costumes!

    It took this badass chica about 1000 hours to make this armor out of aluminum.

    Where was this uber hot Cap when I needed her?? We were bummed that we didn’t run into each other when I was dressed as Thor the day before.

    Orcs! and Trolls!

    And Gollum! Oh my!

    I think he’s a little scared of me.

    This Bane was very friendly.

    As was this Darth Vader. All he wanted was a hug and everyone was just walking by. He looked very surprised and happy when I hugged him. What can I say? I’m a lover.

    Dark Helmet was not as friendly.

    Shit! I hate it when I get my Schartz twisted.

    I know who I’m gonna call. The World’s Tallest Ghostbuster standing next to me.

    It’s a Starfleet officer who has been assimilated by the Borg and has an Alien busting out of his chest WHO HAS ALSO BEEN ASSIMILATED BY THE BORG!! *le sigh* … I think I’m in love.

    Exterminate! Exterminate! EXTERMINATE!!!

    While taking the picture with the Dalek I heard someone yell “Hey Hot Nerd Girl! Show us your tits!” I turned around and my friend Leia was standing there! She’s a fellow HNG and sexy beast. Sorry guys, I did not show her my tits.

    And so ended my 2012 Comic Con experience. It was a great first crack and I can’t wait to go next year. I’m going to try to make it to APE Con in San Francisco in October but with all this traveling I’ve been doing I may not make it. We’ll see. In the meantime, thanks to Mama Jedi, Troi, Darcy, Joy, Christian, Eddy, and especially Geek Outlaw for hanging out with me at SDCC. Thanks again to Daniel and Morgan for the great panel seats. Thanks to everyone I met and chatted with. And thanks to you for patiently waiting for this SDCC coverage while I was off gallivanting around the country.

    I leave you with this totally awesome picture I took of Geek Outlaw.

    You’re welcome.

  • San Diego Comic Con, Part 2 – Friday Shenanigans

    I’ve been struggling to figure out how best to showcase my Comic Con shenanigans because I have over a thousand pictures taken over the course of 3 days. I did a post dedicated to the Panels and thought I might do posts dedicated to Costumes, Celebs, Exhibition Floor, etc. but no matter how I worked it, it just wasn’t coming out right. So I decided to showcase each day individually starting with Friday.

    Holy craparoni there was a ton of people. I knew there would be, and yet, nothing can prepare you for the experience the first time you go. I used to celebrate Halloween in the Castro, I know what it’s like to be surrounded by a shit ton of humans dressed in crazy costumes, but I’m also used to smaller conventions where it takes less than 45 minutes to walk from one end of the Exhibition Floor to the other.

    Craziness both outside… …and inside.

    In the past I’ve discussed my extreme shyness and social awkwardness. They go hand in hand and it’s something that I’m constantly fighting with, especially as the blog grows. This trait o’ mine can be particularly frustrating to my family and friends when they’re with me at conventions and events and are promoting me. I have a tendency to panic and retreat whenever I hear my name mentioned so by the time they turn to introduce me to someone I’m nowhere to be found. For Comic Con it was decided that they were going to liquor me up.

    I’m dead serious.

    And they came prepared. My sister-in-law, Troi, brought disposable flasks. My NBFF (Nerd Best Friend Forever), Geek Outlaw, made a delicious alcoholic concoction in his CamelBak each morning. I was ordered to sip from one of these two vessels throughout the day so that I would be less likely to panic and run. To be clear, I was never once intoxicated or even slightly buzzed, but I will admit that it took the edge off a little. A few people were even surprised when they were told how well I was doing at being social.

    Geez, I totally sound pathetic haha. The point is, it helped and I probably had my most socially successfully convention ever.

    Sippin’ on gin and juice

    I needed that little bit of liquid courage because I made buttons to hand out to the people I met. Lots and lots of gloriously nerdy buttons. Despite the liquor I was pretty shy about handing these out but there were a few times when they caught on like wildfire and I actually had a line of people waiting to dunk their hands in the giant bag of buttons. I made these in the 1.5 days between getting home from my Grandma’s funeral in Cincinnati and the first day of Comic Con so hopefully the next batch of buttons will be better.

    I was lucky enough to meet up with some friends throughout the day including one of my best buds Brett (he zombifies all my pictures for me), Aaron who I hadn’t seen in at least a couple of years, and Eddy who I hadn’t seen in 10 years.

    Brett! Aaron! Eddy! (and a seriously awesome photobomb)

    While on the Floor I headed over to the DC booth to visit Tre’ Ridings, a fabulous photographer who I met at WonderCon and have kept in touch with. If you haven’t yet, check out DC’s We Can Be Heroes campaign. While there Eddy and I got our pictures taken.

    Eddy got a bit saucy This made me LOL I stuck with good ol’ fashioned badassery Take THAT Lex Luther!

    I’m an insanely devoted Trekkie and have been collecting signatures in my TNG The Continuing Mission book for about 15 years now starting with John de Lancie. So I was super excited to see Brent Spiner and LeVar Burton at Comic Con! But super sad that I didn’t have my book on me. I got their signatures and pictures with them anyways.

    The next day I brought my book but Brent was gone. So I’ve added LeVar’s signature to the book. Hopefully Brent’s won’t be far behind!

    From top to bottom: Rod Roddenberry, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, John de Lancie, LeVar Burton

    My sister-in-law and I ran into Colin Ferguson from Eureka on our way to the Roddenberry After Party. He was super nice.

    Lou Ferrigno was huge! And also very nice.

    Todd Stashwick is officially my new favorite celebrity. I didn’t recognize him at first with his hat and glasses. He was there promoting the printed trade paperback of his online comic book The Devil Inside and we started chatting it up about all kinds of random stuff like Chicago and the Secret Service. It wasn’t until about 10 minutes into the conversation that it even came out that he was an actor (trust me, you know who he is). We ended up talking for quite a while and I left with a copy of his book and a promise that I’d return the next day to show him my Thor costume and get Dennis Calero’s signature on my book.

    Some other randomly awesome stuff from the Floor:

    KITT…

    And Michael from Knight Rider.

    Awesome Indiana Jones booth complete with live snakes.

    Optimus Prime is the shit.

    Trolls!

    Zombie mobile from The Walking Dead.

    I don’t know why but the Batpod looked kind of small to me in real life but looking at it in comparison with the people in the picture it looks like a decent size. Weird.

    Troi is obsessed with zombies.

    Who’s scruffy-looking??

    The Captain’s chair was blocked off but they let this guy take a picture in it. Love the Roddenberry folks!

    Troi got the greatest LEGO set ever for my brother and my nephew. It has working electronics. Frak, I’m jealous.

    Time for costumes!

    We were behind some Avatar: The Last Airbender fans in a panel line.

    And also ran into some Legend of Korra peeps.

    My best guess is GI Joe. Correct me if I’m wrong!

    Saw a ton of Poison Ivy’s and Harley Quinn’s per usual.

    This guy was a big hit with Troi.

    Alicia Hunt?

    A towering inferno of physical perfection.

    Awesome AT-AT.

    Remember this girl?

    Her name is Jennifer Landa and she’s super sweet and she put together another spectacular Star Wars costume, this time of the Millennium Falcon.

    Everyone needs a little bit of Tusken Raider in their life to keep them on their toes.

    This Prometheus promotion calmly and silently walked through the Exhibition Hall while his lovely ladies passed crap out.

    Best. Penguin. Ever.

    What’s up Doc?

    And a couple after my own heart.

    It’s Picard and a female Geordi! How awesome is she?!?

    At the end of the day we headed over to Fluxx for the Roddenberry Trek Nation Party. (Friendly reminder that my interview with Rod Roddenberry will be coming to you soon!) On the way there we ran into the zombie walk. Depending on how long you’ve been reading you may or may not know that zombies are my biggest fear. Needless to say, I snapped this picture and then walked very briskly to the next street over.

    Me and Mom waiting to be let in to Fluxx. Apparently I was supposed to go through the Media/VIP line. Oops. I’m still getting used to being considered Media :/

    At the club we met up with friends Joy and Darcy (yes, he’s really that tall).

    And watched a circus performer lady.

    There was a super creepy Tron dude who just stood there and never took his motorcycle helmet off.

    Hanging out with Trevor Roth of Roddenberry Entertainment. He’s super awesome.

    This was some kind of Jägermeister concoction that Geek Outlaw ordered for me.

    Whatever. It was delicious.

    Goofing off with Troi, Mama Jedi and Geek Outlaw

    We left the party at 10:00pm (around the time the geeks left and the usual clubbers started showing up) to try and get some sleep before Day 2 of the Comic Con craziness.

     Stay tuned for “Part 3 – Saturday Shenanigans” in the next couple of days!

  • San Diego Comic Con, Part 1 – The Panels

    Hot Nerd Girl and Geek Outlaw at it again

    I promised detailed blogs about Comic Con and by golly, I aim to keep that promise. There’s just one problem. There’s waaaay too much for just one post. I tried. I’ve gone through approx. 1000 pictures (no joke) and narrowed them down to the best of the best and even then I was left with so many that I had to break it up.  So I’m splitting SDCC into 3 (or 4) blogs.  The first of which is the panels.

    FRIDAY (Community, Legend of Korra, Firefly):

    I’ve been to many conventions but this was my first time at the mothership aka Comic Con and boy, did I learn a lot about what to do/not to do (but that’s a whole ‘nuther post). I thought that because I live in San Diego County I could sleep at home and drive to SDCC each day.

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

    I’m ridiculous.

    Parking is a bitch so what you end up having to do is drive to a trolley station and take the trolley the rest of the way. They helpfully provide CC-specific trolleys to make it easy for you. One problem, the first one gets you to the Convention Center just after 7:00am. Waaaay too late if you want to get in line for one of the big panels *cough cough Firefly cough cough*

    Daniel to the rescue!

    Lucky for me and Geek Outlaw, our mutual fan (and now fave friend) Daniel, had planned to camp out and saved a spot for us in the Ballroom 20 line. I felt guilty about cutting in line for exactly 3 minutes at which point I saw everyone else doing the exact same thing and got over it.

    I’m not gonna lie, I was there for Firefly and Firefly alone. But you have to sit on all of the panels before Firefly in order to have a seat for Firefly (they seriously need to figure out a better system) so I ended up sitting through the panels fro Community and Legend of Korra as well.

    I wasn’t the only one.

    The first panel of the day was Community. I find Community highly entertaining so I was more than happy to sit in on their panel. They did not disappoint. The cast and crew were hilarious and the film clips they put together for Comic Con were chock full of funny shenanigans. Chevy Chase and Donald Glover were noticeably absent. Which is too bad because LeVar Burton was there and they could have had an epic Troy/LeVar moment.

    Cast and Crew of Community

    The second panel of the day was Legend of Korra (I’d like to know who they had to bang to get the lucky spot between Community and Firefly). This panel was like Chinese water torture for my sister-in-law. She looked like she was either going to explode or throw up. Maybe both. Simultaneously. I had an advantage because I’ve seen a bit of Avatar: The Last Airbender. So I actually enjoyed the panel. It was notable in that I recognized two of the voice actors. Bud (David Faustino) from Married with Children and Janet Varney from The Selling (which I reviewed a while back because it’s directed/produced/starring our mutual friends from SFSU). It was also fun because they recorded the audience doing crowd voice work for a future episode. I’ll admit, it got me intrigued about checking out an episode or two of the cartoon. For those who are Korra fans, they did a preview of an upcoming episode by reading the script live while showing concept sketches of the episode. They also showed off future costume and character designs.

    The cast and crew of The Legend of Korra Hey! It’s the chick from Falling Skies!

    Then came the panel we were there for, the 10 year Firefly reunion. It was epic. Truly epic. I felt like I was a part of history. The sheer volume of love being poured forth was incredibly intense. The actors and Joss all cried at some point. Most of the audience cried at some point. My mom cried through 90% of it. It was magical. I took video of parts of it but then I found this full length video and thought you would appreciate it more.

    [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V85olh2aZ34]

    –

    Nathan Fillion was so overwhelmed that he totally missed a question that was directed at him and his costars had to answer for him.  They all said that Firefly was the best job they’d ever had. At one point they all blamed Summer Glau for something (which you’ll find hilarious if you’ve watched the extras on the DVD) and the look on her face was priceless. Gina Torres, Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin, and Ron Glass were missing and their absence was felt deeply by everyone in the room. The most touching moment in an hour chock full of touching moments was when the last question was asked of Joss Whedon –  “what do the fans mean to you?”

    [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXiS0gV8cic]

    –

    It was the most beautiful “thank you” I’ve ever witnessed and I feel truly honored to have been there for it.

    Tid bit excited!

    SATURDAY (Spotlight on J. Michael Straczynski, Roddenberry Presents):

    Saturday was the day I cosplayed as Thor. Which was awesome but awful at the same time. It was my first time cosplaying at a convention and I underestimated the amount of time it would take to get ready. As a result I got to Comic Con about…ohhhhh….5 hours later than I’d intended and missed a bunch of the morning panels I’d wanted to check out. I’m a little jealous that Geek Outlaw got to sit it on the Powerful Women, Simpsons, Futurama, Once Upon a Time, and Peter Cullen panels but meh, what are you gonna do?

    (Be sure to check out Geek Outlaw’s blog if you want to get the dish on those panels I just mentioned!)

    No matter, I had something uber awesome to look forward to. I was scheduled to interview Rod Roddenberry after his 3:00pm panel.

    As a result I caught the Joe Straczynski panel right beforehand. The best part of that panel? One guy complained that a Joe comic had kept him up on a school night so Joe reached into his wallet and gave the guy a $20 refund.  It was quite hilarious.

    The Roddenberry panel was a whole ‘nuther level of awesomesauce but I’m saving all of the Roddenberry stuff for its own post later this week. So stay tuned for that!

    SUNDAY (Fringe, Supernatural, Doctor Who):

    I was supposed to cosplay on Sunday as well but my experience on Saturday convinced me that it was a terrible idea so I reverted back to an HNG t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Comfort and timeliness will always, always win out for me. I am nothing if not practical.

    Morgan to the rescue!

    The one panel that I was determined to see was Doctor Who. I lurv me some Doctor. Again, thanks to the trolley schedule, we were pretty much screwed but miraculously, another HNG/GO fan came to our rescue. Morgan camped out and let us join him in line for Hall H. Seriously. Best. Fans. Ever. I’ve promised myself that I will plan this better and do my own camping out next year.

    Immediately upon walking into Hall H we were handed Fringe fedoras a la The Observers  (fun fact, while I was in New York I saw Evita on Broadway starring Michael Cerveris as Peron and he was AH-mazing)

    Fringe was the first panel of the day and after mentioning their brushes with cancellation, there was a very lovely moment when at least half the audience held up pictures of white tulips. I’ll admit that I got a little verklempt.

    Despite the best efforts of the audience (and some teasing from Joshua Jackson), the Fringe cast and crew revealed no secrets about the upcoming final season.

    It was kind of a kick to see the actors smile and laugh. There was one especially funny moment when Anna Torv said she “was coming…” and then paused in her sentence. The audience started laughing.

    Then Joshua Jackson got it and started laughing.

    Then the rest of the cast got it and started laughing.

    Then Anna got it and was completely mortified.

    It then became a running joke throughout the rest of the panel. I feel for you Anna, that is totally something that would happen to me. The mood quickly shifted when the cast were asked what their favorite scene was that they were not in. Cue the waterworks! Anna Torv,  Jasika Nicole, and Lance Reddick all teared up when describing memorable and beautiful scenes from the show.

    And then shifted back again just as quickly when the best audience questioners ever took the floor. I can’t even remember what their question was, I was too busy laughing at their deadpan Observer impression. Seriously, they never broke character once and the girl in the back right had the most amazingly creepy buggy-eyed thing going on..

    It was an all around awesome panel and made me want to run home and catch up on my Fringe episodes on Netflix.

    Next up was Supernatural, a show I’ve never had time to get into. Seriously, I wish that I didn’t have to sleep, I would be more than happy to fill 100% of my time watching every awesomely nerdy show there is. I have some friends that are obsessed with this show and have been trying to get me to watch it for years. They were very jealous that I got to see this panel. The running joke here was that “anything is possible” was used to answer at least half of the questions they were asked.

    I may not know much about the show but I do know about Mark Sheppard and I was SUPER excited to see him. I’m pretty sure that he’s contractually obligated to only appear in TV shows/movies that are nerd-worthy.

    I never really thought that Jared Padalecki was that cute but I must admit, he’s pretty damn good-looking in real life. He and Jensen Ackles win major brownie points for their gag reel antics.

    Then came the panel that I was really there for, Doctor Who. Or should I say “Doctor WHOOO???” Seeing these people in real life is kind of a surreal experience. I usually only get star struck by Star Trek actors but I was totally star struck by these guys. I literally sat on the edge on my seat the entire time. And that’s only partly because the girl in front of me was so tall she most likely plays in the WNBA.

    First of all, let me just say how incredibly gorgeous Karen Gillan is. Seriously. I didn’t think she could get any prettier than she is on TV but she can! I’ve seen it with my own two eyes! Just stunning.

    The moderator of the panel was one of my nerd crushes, Chris Hardwick (not Wil Wheaton as some mistakenly believed) and he was nerding out just as much as the rest of us. He even brought his sonic screwdriver.  There was a bit of good-natured ribbing between him and Matt Smith. Apparently they ran into each other the night before at a party and this happened:

    Oops! Chris blamed it on his pointy face.

    The best audience question came from a little girl dressed up as a Dalek. She wanted to know what button, screen or object on the TARDIS was their favorite. The cast took this question very seriously and even admitted to stealing a few of their favorites (a pair of binoculars for Karen). Matt’s favorite is the main lever he yanks all the time. The little girl walked away but Matt Smith called her back and asked her if she had a favorite button, screen or object on the TARDIS. She looked at him very pointedly, said “NO” and walked away again. The whole room was laughing so hard I think we all peed ourselves a little.

    They were also asked what they find annoying about each other. Matt said that Karen picks her lip, Karen said that Matt shakes his head and they both agreed that Arthur Darvill goes into “dad mode.”

    Having seen the Firefly and Doctor Who panels, I can now die a happy nerd.

    Stay tuned for more posts about Comic Con 2012 including the Roddenberry interview I mentioned and all of the awesome costumes!

  • Star Trek Captains Podcast (Ten Forward)

    This is a very sleep deprived HNG coming to you from New York City. I’m here visiting my nieces and having a great time with them. Unfortunately for me, I usually go to bed around midnight-2:00am California time. Combine my sleeping habits with the time zone change and my body wants to go to sleep between 3:00am-5:00am New York time. Since I’m typically waking up around 8:00am that’s not working out too well for me. 5-hour Energy has become my new best friend.

    It’s time for another podcast with the awesome guys over at World’s Best Podcast and their section dedicated to all things Star Trek – “Ten Forward.” This time around we discussed the Captains from Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise. It made for a very entertaining discussion, let me tell you!

    Oh, and we recorded this a while ago when I was very sick so my voice is all scratchy and Janeway-sounding. I was also suffering a bit from sick brain so it was difficult for me to put my thoughts together at times.  But considering how awful I felt, I thought I did pretty good.

    Thanks to Mark and Isaac! It’s always fun to talk Trek with you! Listen to the podcast here:

    Or if, as per usual, if the above player takes too long to buffer, just click here to listen: http://tinmanfrisbie.podbean.com/2012/06/04/ten-forward-season-1-episode-2/

    Previous podcasts I’ve joined in on:

    Daredevil

    Star Trek Universe

    Marvel Cinematic Universe