The story so far... In early December 2005, I found myself at the Burbank Hilton, surrounded by Browncoats, all gathered together for the first ever Big Damn Flanvention. In part one of my review of the convention, I covered the opening ceremony and evening cocktail party. Now, it's day two of the Flanvention, and it looks like it's going to be an interesting day...

It's slightly before eight o'clock in the morning on Saturday, December 9, as I exit the elevator. The lobby is already packed with fans, even though the first panel doesn't start for almost six hours. Waiting in line for my Starbucks order (there's one in the lobby of the hotel), I overhear what appears to be some disgruntled fans. Seems due to last night's non-show of actor Nathan Fillion, for work reasons, all photo sessions with him that were supposed to occur last night are being worked in this morning. That means those who were supposed to have photos with him bright and early are finding out they could've slept in a bit longer. And unfortunately the only way the event organizers had to get the news out is a dry erase board in the lobby. But hey, I figure, at least Nathan is going out of his way to make sure everyone gets taken care of, because, well, that seems to be the decent kind of person he is. I can understand the fans' frustration, but in the end run, if it takes a little longer to get the photo op done, it's not like it's the end of the world. But then again...I got to sleep in...a bit.

My timing proves to be spot on though, as getting on the elevator, I find myself face to face with Alan Tudyk. A glimmer of recognition comes across his sleepy face as he jokes, "You look more awake than I do from last night." Waving my Starbucks cup in front of his face, I joke back with a bad Chinese accent, "Ancient Seattle secret." We both laugh as we reach my floor. He proceeds on to the "green room" set aside for the event guests to use throughout the day.

After lunch, I made my way to the panel room to find my spot along what I termed "photographer's row" in the back. The first panel of the day is a Q&A session called "The Boys of Serenity." All five of the main male leads enter the room to applause. Nathan immediately took control of the room, fielding questions and being generally boisterous.

Adam Baldwin spoke of filming the Poseiden Adventure remake that aired in the US on NBC. He and the rest of that cast filmed the project in South Africa. Of course, Nathan had to jump in, adding that he had joined Adam and his kids in South Africa and took one of Adam's sons go-karting in the desert. Nathan then went into a physical impression of Adam's son yelling at "Uncle Nathan" to slow down and look where he's driving. Adam laughed through the whole thing, then got this super-serious face and rumbled, "You saying my kid's a wimp?" The whole room erupted in laughter.

When a question came up regarding Alan's stint on Broadway in Monty Python's Spamalot, Nathan quickly jumped in with, "It was brilliant! I saw it three times...for free." Gee, wonder how he got hooked up with those tickets, eh? Then he went on to pick on Sean Maher, saying, "And then there's Sean...while Alan was hard at work on Spamalot, Sean spent the last six months spiking his hair." Referring to Maher's new shorter-than-Simon spiky hairdo.

At this point, Nathan called up a girl from the audience, who was freaking out, wondering why Nathan was singling her out. Of course, Nathan drew out the surprise, teasing Ariel about if her boyfriend would be jealous of him standing with his arm around her. It turns out he was in on a big plan from her boyfriend, Thor, who took that moment to surprise her with an engagement ring. After a round of applause, the actors once again fielded questions.

A young lady asked Nathan if it was hard to do his nude scenes in the Firefly episode, "Trash." He answered, "Let me tell you. Normally you do these scenes and there's black curtains everywhere and nobody's around that doesn't need to be around. The day I do my nude scene, there were 65 people that showed up. Everyone from the special effects lady to the lady who prints out the things for TV Guide. People who've NEVER been to set...and today's the day!" Everybody was laughing so hard at this point tears were running off people's faces.

After a question about who was the actor's favorite male Firefly character went nowhere, Sean rephrased it to if you couldn't be your own character, which one would you like to play. "I pick Jayne," said Sean definitively, which made Adam laugh. Then Nathan jumped in with, ""I'd play Wash, only funny." Then, playing off Alan and the crowd's reaction, "Sorry... funnier." To which Alan remarked, "I'd play Mal, only not gay.... okay, less gay."

It was obvious that these guys got along great -- even if poor Ron Glass could barely get a word in edgewise.

Following the panel, the actors went to continue the photo ops in another room while James Leary and Jason Carter conducted an auction of Firefly and Serenity memorabilia. Ok, technically Leary was the auctioneer, while Carter enthusiastically played show model, but the two raised several thousand for the charity Equality Now, which is near and dear to show creator Joss Whedon's heart, and which Booster Events, which produced the Flanvention, also supports. Among the higher priced items sold were Reaver weapons autographed by the cast ($1000), Adam's T-Shirt from the Firefly episode "War Stories" ($1500) and the head from the statue of Jayne from the Firefly episode "Jaynestown" signed by Adam ($1800). In addition, Booster presented Equality Now with a separate check for $3500.

Later in the afternoon, the actresses took to the stage for "The Girls of Serenity" Q&A panel. The ladies, minus Gina Torres who played Zoe in the series and movie, sat down and began fielding questions.

Summer Glau was asked if she always wanted to be a dancer, and responded with a story about when she was a little kid, it was freezing outside, but she wanted to perform for her friends, so she dressed up in a swimsuit and a feather boa and went outside anyways...and then got the flu. But she realized she loved performing and had wanted to be a ballet dancer until she accidentally smashed her knee on a stone fireplace. That's when she decided to be an actress.

Then Jewel Staite fielded a question about how it was to work with Joss and if he let them have freedom to improvise with their characters. She answered, "Joss is great to work with. He's very specific with what he wants, which is nice. He'll let you collaborate. He'll let you do stuff..." To which Morena Baccarin replies, "...But he'll never use it." The audience laughed at that.

Around this time, one of the doors behind the stage bursts open and Nathan comes flying through. He and Adam were having a mock fight to lighten things up. As Adam pulled Nathan back into the other room, Morena joked, "Nathan just can't stand not being the center of attention."

When the laughter died down, an audience member asked if they had any hobbies. One that all three enjoy is cooking, at which point, Jewel and Morena got into a semi-heated debate over who was better: the Food Network's Rachael Ray or Giada De Laurentiis. Jewel is a die-hard Rachael fan, but Morena, claiming that she didn't trust anyone as perky as Rachael, chose Giada. "If I want to make a meal in thirty minutes, I'll make a sandwich," she joked. It was all in good fun, though, with both ladies agreeing to disagree.

The last panel of the day that I attended was, in my opinion, one of the best panels I've ever attended at a convention. The cast entered the room, and after Adam polled the audience for their choice, settled in to provide commentary while the Firefly episode "Out of Gas" aired.

As the show started, Nathan led the room in singing the theme song...in the dark. The lights were out to better view the two screens at either end of the room. I enjoyed hearing the memories from the cast about filming this very poignant episode and the cast enjoyed teasing each other about the various scenes.

At one point Nathan goes, "And on set, we would constantly try to steal scenes from each other, especially when in one of the group scenes." He went on to point out that in the scene that was airing, Adam, as Jayne, goes to swipe some cake frosting with his finger, and that he, as Mal, smacks his hand for doing so. As the scene plays out, Mal indeed smacks Jayne, as Nathan loudly comments, "...and...scene stolen."

The experience was a lot of fun, but alas, after a full day of panels and wandering around, it was time for dinner. The cast left to attend a separately ticketed banquet, which I heard was well worth the $165 price. Living on a writer's budget, I opted to head out of the hotel to a nearby Chili's. The evening went on following the banquet, with a karaoke night led by Andy Hallet, who played Lorne, the singing demon, on Whedon's series "Angel."

But for me, it was another early night to be ready for the third and final day of the Flanvention.

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Want more?

Read my report of Day 1 of the Flanvention here and Day 3 here.

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Related articles of interest:

Serenity Movie Review
Serenity DVD Review

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Meet the cast of Serenity at the Big Damn Flanvention 2! Click here for tickets and more info.

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