The story thus 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. Day 2 of the Flanvention brought two actor panels -- one for the men and one for the women, a charity auction that netted nearly $10,000 for Equality Now and a live cast commentary for one of the Firefly episodes. What would day three have in store for us? Read on...

The day started out bright and early with a church service by the Rev. Wallet. The Rev. turned out to be the alter-ego of actor Jonathan Woodward, who is one of the few actors to appear in all three Joss Whedon series (Firefly, Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and he led the semi-packed room in a service that had the energy of a gospel sermon and the wackiness of a Monty Python skit. Though Woodward...I mean Rev. Wallet...was serious about praising God, he also livened up the proceedings with plenty of jokes. He also gave communion with canned potato chips dipped in cheap champagne. It was loud and rowdy, but it was fun, as well. Especially when he was asked to stretch out the service because they weren't ready to have the first panel of the day yet. Nothing like off-the cuff improvising to get the morning started in a good mood.

Though the 11 am "Boys of Serenity II" panel started late, the guys made up for the delay by starting right in on the jokes. Down to four from yesterday's panel, Nathan joked about Sean's absence, "If I had a gangrenous toe, I wouldn't bring it to this panel...but we miss Sean terribly, anyways."

An audience member asked Adam about his character's obsession with food, so he related a story about the scene in the film after River beats up Jayne. It seems when trying to figure out what Jayne would be doing, Nathan suggested he'd be icing down his privates, since River did grab hold rather hard. So Adam related, "I thought, what if I was using something edible? Grapes would work. I had wanted to do a shot of Jayne going to the freezer to get the grapes...Joss didn't agree (laughs). But I thought it'd be cool to show that what Jayne was using was in fact, iced grapes."

"And then he'd eat them after he warmed them up," joked Nathan to much laughter.

The next question asked about the cast's penchant for playing practical jokes on each other. As if planned, Alan, Ron and Adam all looked pointedly at Nathan, who immediately got this innocent look on his face, as if to say, "Who, me?" He then acquiesed and admitted that he did tend to have a little fun with his castmates, but could take it as well. Alan shook his head and reminded him he didn't take the car incident well, so Nathan related the story of how he had just gotten a new car and proudly drove it to the set. He showed off his car to everyone and then when it was time to leave, he started to drive off and heard a clicking noise. The faster he went, the louder the clicking noise got. He said he was almost crying that something was already wrong with his new car. So the next morning, he took it to the mechanic, who discovered that somebody played a practical joke on him and had attached plastic electrical ties to the backside of his wheels. It was the plastic hitting the wheels which made the clicking noise he heard. Nathan wrapped up the story saying, "I can take a joke, but you just don't mess with a man's new car! That is just so wrong!" And to this date, no one has fessed up to playing the joke, either, he added.

Since the panel started late, it also finished a bit late. The guys hurried off to a special lunch with auction winners who bid for the seats at the luncheon. All winning monies were donated to the Equality Now charity by Booster Events, the promoters of this convention.

After lunch, all the main cast members went back into the ballroom to sign autographs. For over five hours, they signed for all ticketed passholders. All tickets had numbers, so we were allowed in by sections of numbers, to help control the flow of people. I felt bad for the actors, who near the end, so obviously needed a break and some dinner. But they didn't complain once and quite often joked with both the fans and each other.

After the actors finally got a dinner break, it was time for the "Good Doctor" panel...though it was technically the Tams and Kaylee, aka Sean, Summer and Jewel. Of course, one of the first questions asked was about the moment that Simon and Kaylee finally kiss in Serenity and in response to what it was like filming that scene, Jewel laughed that it felt kind of weird because by that time, the two had become close friends and to her it was like kissing her brother...her hunky older brother.

Another person asked what their auditions were like and Summer told a story of the first time she met Nathan. When she first arrived, she thought he was just an employee of Fox or Whedon's, because he was handing out water at the table. As he walked past her, she remarked how nervous she was about the auditions and with a straight face he told her not to worry because they weren't up for the same role. She said she didn't see him again until it was time for the read-through, after everybody had been cast and she took one look at him and went, "You!!"

Due to the day running late, the panel was cut short to allow time for the final panel of the event. Billed as the "Cast of Serenity," it featured all of the main actors -- Adam, Nathan, Alan, Jewel, Summer, Sean, Morena and Ron -- along with Raphael and Yan Feldman (Fanty and Mingo from the movie). As the cast was settling into their seats, Nathan started joking with the twins that since they looked alike, they really only needed one of them up there.

But then Nathan kept talking and it became apparent that he was trying to announce something. The excitement level in the room began to build, because as Nathan spoke of "the man who was the real reason we were all together..." a figure appeared through the doors -- and the room erupted into thunderous applause as Joss Whedon himself took to the stage.

I have to confess that I knew he was going to be there, and it was one of the hardest secrets I've ever had to keep, especially with people talking all weekend about whether he would make a surprise appearance or not. But it was totally worth it upon seeing the crowd's reaction.

One of the first questions asked was why he writes such strong female characters in his stories, to which Joss joked, "Because all women have the power to turn me down." After the laughter died down a bit he added, "So yeah, I 've got a problem. What do you want? I think strong women are cool."

Another in the audience asked who would win in a battle -- Marcus Hamilton, the evil go-between from Angel (played by Adam) or Caleb, the equally evil preacher from Buffy (played by Nathan). Joss glanced at both actors uttering, "Why don't we find out? Gentlemen..." At this, Adam jumped from his chair, ran over and mock-smacked Nathan in the head. Nathan pretended to fall down, then righted himself saying (in character), "You know in a fight, Caleb would win, because he has the Lord on his side."

When asked if he had any advice for other writers, Joss answered, "Watch everything, steal from everyone, care very deeply about structure and only write what you really, really have to."

Just when we thought there was no more suprises, Nathan pulled another. It seems the reason he had been wolfing down his chicken salad in front of us all whilst the panel was going, was because during his short supper break, he actually drove home to grab his copy of the gag reel from Serenity that was given to cast and crew. It was longer than the one that finally appeared on the dvd, and in addition to some of the funniest, most vulgar words I've ever heard come out of Alan's mouth, the reel ended with a special message from Nathan to Jewel that had her and the rest of us cracking up. It seems the two are constantly trying to outdo each other with a certain finger gesture, and Nathan managed to get a Caleb doll to deliver his message to her on the gag reel.

Following this final panel, we all filed out, many glowing at having just been in the same room with their idol, Whedon. I decided to hang around getting reactions when I heard a commotion right behind me. I turned to find Joss not even a foot away talking to people. As he reached me, I shook his hand and told him how much I've enjoyed his work (yeah, not the most original, but it was definitely heartfelt). As we were talking he reached out and signed my pass, which was clipped to my shirt collar, saying that he looked forward to reading what I thought of him and his work. At that moment, it was so hard for me not to go all fangirl on him, as I've truly been a fan of his work since the original Buffy movie.

*****
The denouement...the end. No matter how you phrase it, it eventually has to come. Reflecting back on the three days I spent at the Flanvention, I realized that this was a rare experience, even in all the years I've been covering fan conventions. It was intimate -- only 500 tickets were sold, compared to the thousands normally sold for events like this. The fans were dedicated, united by their love for Firefly and Joss Whedon, but they completely respected the actors and each other -- and I have to say the actors themselves seemed genuinely interested to meet their fans. As both Adam and Nathan said at various times over the weekend, they themselves are fans of Firefly, so rather than be stars up on a pedestal, they interacted with their fans like they, the fans, were the guests of honor. It was like a little family reunion, complete with the slightly eccentric cousin (love you Nathan!).

The event itself had a few glitches, but all conventions seem to in one form or another. Sure there were schedule problems and such; a few complaints about the layout of things, including the dealer room. But overall, compared to some other conventions I've covered, the Flanvention ran rather smoothly. And since Booster Events is a fairly new kid on the block when it comes to hosting these large events, I'm sure they took notes for changes to implement in this year's Flanvention.

Wait...did I say this year's Flanvention? Yes, Booster Events is doing it again with The Big Damned Flanvention II . The event is scheduled for December 8-10 and will be held in Burbank, California, for a second time. Returning guests already signed are Nathan Fillion, Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk and Jewel Staite. Most likely, the remainder of the guests from last year will also be appearing, as most have told me they loved the interaction with the fans. I'll bring you updates as they occur, but in the meantime, you can click on the banner below to head over to the Booster Events site for all the details.

Hope to see you there!

*****
I'd like to give special thanks to Denise and Vicki at Booster for their assistance in covering the Flanvention, to Adam Baldwin for being the true gentleman he is, and to the new friends I made while writing this review. You all made my job not so much like hard work for the three days of the Flan. Can't wait to see you all again in December!

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Missed the first two chapters?

Read my report of Day 1 of the Flanvention here and Day 2 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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