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Yes, I am finally getting around to typing this up. There will probably be more comprehensive reports out there, but this one's mine. It's, um, still pretty long. *g* Read along, will you, about the awesomeness of Jamie Bamber, the delightful insanity of Aaron Douglas, and, well, Richard Hatch. I'll have very minor/vague spoilers at the end, clearly marked. However there are season 3 spoilers in here, so if you haven't seen all of season 3 yet, be wary. If you are coming directly to this post, you might be interested in the other part of my con report here, including Jamie sightings, and my post about my personal photo/encounters with Jamie here.

The most important and frightening news is, as many of you have no doubt heard by now, that SCI FI is considering showing the first 10 episodes of season four starting in Jan or Feb 2008...and then not showing the next 10 episodes until 2009. Both Jamie and Aaron made no attempt to hide their disgust at this possibility. As Jamie put it, it's a way for them to get two seasons without having to actually pay for them. So, start writing letters now, I guess, because that would suck a lot.

Overall I have to say that this was so much fun for me, in that this appearance of Jamie's was so different from when I saw him at I-Con. At I-Con he was on his own and was basically just participating in thoughtful discussions and answering detailed questions and it was all very intelligent and interesting. But at this con he was up there along with people he knew and liked and it made all the difference in the world -- he was more relaxed and ribald and funny as hell. Aaron and Jamie really played well off of each other and cracked each other up a lot, which was so entertaining for the rest of us. And Aaron is such a riot, he is a joy to watch and although I was upset that Katee canceled, I was really really glad that Aaron was there. He rocks. And, I believe, would be a lot of fun in bed. Anyway.

The panel on Friday was billed as "Star Trek vs. the new Battlestar Galactica," so all of the BSG actors and the ST: TNG actors who were at the con attended. Jamie, Aaron, Hatch, Mark Sheppard, Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden and some random other people. Before the panel started a fan handed out a bunch of flyers that said "MORE ROMO," which we dutifully held up when Mark Sheppard came on stage. We really lucked out in that Jamie and Aaron were sitting on our end of the room. The problem with this panel was that it was presented as having a theme, and yet, there was no real moderator, and so the panel spent the first ten minutes sitting there awkwardly and occasionally cracking jokes about leaving. It was truly painful. Finally someone from the con threw a few questions out there, and things got back on track a little bit, but it was a bit of a disaster all the way around. None of the celebs quite understood what they were doing there. Jamie and Aaron were sitting on the end and spent a lot of time just whispering to each other and reading the Trek Trak program. There were many moments where Jamie looked like he wanted to kill himself, which I found endearing as I couldn't blame him.

Pictures by

em_meredith:

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

I love this picture, it sums up the whole panel. Notice the hot short sleeve t-shirt! Yum. As some of you already heard, at one point he lifted up his sleeve to scratch himself and the full bamcep was there in all its glory. Guh.

(Please don't post any of these photos elsewhere. I have a large and wonderfully bitchy f-list and I'm not afraid to sic them on you. *g*)

But there were some non-physical highlights. Despite looking bored out of his mind Jamie jumped into the fray to answer a question about why BSG is more appropriate for the world we currently live in, and went off on a whole speech about the times we live in and how we're "capering down this jolly road" of destruction, etc., and he used the word "zeitgeist," which made me happy. When Jamie started talking Aaron interjected, "I didn't know he was British!?!" Hee.

I can't remember how this came up, but at one point Aaron started saying that Jamie was "a handsome man. A very, very handsome man," to squealing from the crowd (ahem) and then he leaned over and was giving Jamie a shoulder rub. Jamie was very WTF about the whole thing but then said, "But I would kill to be as butch as Aaron Douglas."

This segued into Aaron telling Jamie he had three -- I wrote down three weeks, which doesn't make much sense -- three weeks or minutes or something to "stop playing footsie with me under the table." Jamie responded, "Why do you think I wore flip-flops?" There was then discussion of Jamie's "long big toe" and it ended with Jamie saying he might need some Kleenex afterward, which made the whole crowd groan. It was all very homoerotic and hilarious.

At one point Stargate SG-1 came up and people being upset about it being over and Jamie leaned in real close to the microphone and said, "Get over it," which had me cackling and lots of people gasping. OMG he was kidding, people! Sigh.

Someone asked something about buying the guys a drink and Aaron said, "I don't drink...gin." Jamie then added that "Aaron doesn't drink -- on odd minutes."

Aaron was in his glory being up there with the ST: TNG people, as he's a big Star Trek fan. He said that he was thrilled to be sitting next to Jonathan Frakes, and at one point he switched their name plates, and then later in the panel he was seen taking Frakes' nameplate and putting it in his bag. Heeeeee.

They had big video screens on either side of the stage and at one point Brent Spiner started talking and said he was talking just so that they would finally do a close-up on him. All the panelists craned their neck to look at the screen to see if it would happen, and lo and behold it did. It was cute. I don't know who all is interested in the ST stuff, I don't remember much. Spiner did say something about how people wanted Data to change, but then once he did by getting the memory chip, nobody liked that, either. There was also a lot of talk about ST feeling more constrained because of corporate parenting than BSG does, necessarily.

Aaron expanded upon being a geek and said that sometimes he'll be sitting at home and it will just hit him, "Hey. I'm the Chief." And that was the greatest feeling. It was so adorable how he said it, I repeated it a few times that weekend. Hey, I'm the CHIEF!

OK, I didn't take a lot of notes at that one because I was busy basking in my first sighting, so that's that.

The next day was a panel with Jamie, Aaron, and Richard Hatch. Just Q&A. Aaron was quite hungover at this one. (He said he felt like his liver crawled up his ass and gave him the finger.) Also, barefoot, sigh. This was the day we did the photo op with Jamie so he was wearing that white t-shirt. Seeing his hotness in that t-shirt was what made us decide to get our pictures that day, heh.

Jamie gets some water.

There was a lot of fooling around and laughing at this one. Pictorial evidence by

em_meredith:

And stretching:

Man, there's some stuff I scribbled down that I now have no memory what it means. Damn.

Aaron Douglas is going to guest star on Reaper. Also, once BSG is done he plans to put it behind him and not do conventions anymore.

Jamie used the word "titillating," which is always worth mentioning.

They talked about how brutal the ST vs. BSG panel had been the day before (Jamie: "I didn't understand what we were doing there. Were we supposed to fight, or...?") And there was some revisiting of the footsie incident. Jamie: "That was the only thing keeping me there." Aaron said something about Jamie only needing three minutes to get the job done because "he's that good." Jamie said something about Aaron being "that quick." Aaron said, "At least Jonathan Frakes held me after."

Jamie is impatient that the season three DVD isn't out yet. Hee.

The writers were at that moment "holed up in a cabin" somewhere "desperately" trying to come up with an ending for the show. Ron and David actually wanted to do two more seasons, not one, but SCI FI would only greenlight one season and said that *maybe* they would greenlight a season 5. Ron and David decided that instead of taking the chance that SCI FI wouldn't let them do a fifth season, they would end the season on their own terms in season 4. But that was not their plan all along, as they said to the press. (Duh.) Jamie was pretty openly bitter about SCI FI's treatment of the show, talked about how much money has been made off of iTunes and DVDs, etc. And how SCI FI "doesn't aim to make good TV." Then he said "my toaster's made by GE, it's great." BURN. These repercussions will be felt at the next day's panel, as you will see. ;)

Aaron wants Lee to start working at the "Galactica Chippendales."

Jamie made a remark about being "right behind Richard in the cockpit, so to speak," which led to much snickering.

Jamie and Hatch basically did a whole mutual lovefest all weekend long, talking about how much they admired and respected each other's interpretations of the character. Em actually got a little video of Jamie talking about Lee, and then Hatch piling on a lovefest, here. See for yourself how goddamn adorable Jamie is. :) (Em, if you want me to pull the link, just let me know.) In case you can't see the video, he basically talked about how Lee's fate seems to be to be a barometer for other people, keeping other people on the right track, and about finding himself, which means his journey is both more mundane and more profound. And sometimes he's frustrated about where Lee seems to be going, but that's okay, he'll see where things lead.

Oh, and he also said something he's said before, that one of Lee's roles is to "call a bullshitter a bullshitter," and he was glad he got to do that in Crossroads. Indeed.

There was some joking about Hatch hanging out in Jamie's trailer "wearing boots and a cape," and Jamie asks him to leave behind the cape. Aaron (I think) said it really made them crazy when Hatch would call Eddie Olmos "Lorne." Heeeeee. There was joking about how since Hatch played Apollo and he became a lead character on another show, that maybe someday there would be a Tom Zarek show. I have a note that something Aaron said about Hatch, which I can't decipher, cracked Jamie up, but that's no surprise.

I've also written down "sloppy seconds since Katee," I can't remember what that means. Sigh. I should have done this sooner. Maybe Em or C. will remember in comments. (ETA:

athena4lynn reminded me. Someone asked Aaron what it felt like to be sloppy seconds since he was signed up for the con after Katee canceled. OMG Aaron's reaction was hilarious. Wounded indignance! He then explained that his people actually approached the con, explaining that he probably wasn't going to do any more cons once BSG ended so this would probably be his last chance to come to Dragon Con. They resisted at first b/c Aaron was there last year, but gave in -- probably b/c Katee canceled. (That last bit is my commentary, not his.))

To one of the questions about next season Jamie said "Starbuck is dead and Adama is a necrophiliac," then defended what he said with "It's a dark show!" He had Aaron laughing so hard he put his head down on the table:

(Picture by

em_meredith.)

There was a line that Richard Hatch is the only straight actor on the show, but he doesn't get laid. Someone (Aaron?) said "Straight NOW, anyway." Jamie said something about not getting laid in a while and Aaron said "You have three kids!" so he clarified that he was talking about his CHARACTER (is that a spoiler? *g*), heh.

When asked Jamie said something he's said before, that Lee absolutely feels guilty for essentially sending Kara to her death.

There were a couple of (very) minor spoilers given here which I will put at the end.

I should talk, I suppose, about Richard Hatch. Man, this guy. This guy is going to cling to Battlestar Galactica until he takes his last breath. At every single panel he was on that weekend, he talked about how he really really hoped that the universe of Battlestar Galactica would live on, and that he really really hoped there would be a movie, or another series, because this great universe did not deserve to die. And he said this EVERY time. And it was even more poignant considering in between old BSG and new BSG, he spent a lot of time writing his own BGS novels. I mean -- yeah, it's an interesting universe. So is life. Just...man. *shakes head* And every time he went off on this the BSG regulars would kind of sit there like doo doo doo dee doo....sigh. He even talked about how he'd love to be a Cylon because you wouldn't die, just come back over and over again.

He also went on and on a lot about what a great character Apollo is, but that shouldn't surprise anyone, either. *g* There was talk about how Hatch had always hoped that his Apollo would have his mettle tested and explore darker parts of the character, and both he and Jamie were glad that the new series has had a chance to do that.

Okay, on to Sunday! This panel had Jamie, Aaron, Hatch, Mark Sheppard, and Kevin Grazier, the show's science advisor. Since this was a geek convention, Kevin actually got asked questions. :D I had an awesome seat for this panel, we were in the 5th or so row and the rows in front of me were shorter b/c they had spaces for wheelchairs, most of which weren't filled, and Jamie was pretty much right in front of me and I had an unobstructed view. :) This was also the panel where

athena4lynn was able to join us, so that was good too.

Jamie was wearing a Dallas Cowboys t-shirt. Yeah, I don't get it either. When he came out in it he received both cheers and boos. *g* He did a lot of playing with his hair and stretching during this panel, and it was insanely hot:

(Photos by

em_meredith.)

Someone asked Jamie the difference between working for the BBC and in the US and he said that the only difference is that if you work for the BBC, "the food is yellow." Mark laughed and agreed with this. Peas, potatoes, corn, squash...all yellow. Hee. He said that he loves "the Beeb" and would happily work for them again.

When Mark first showed up to work on BSG, he was SO excited to be there because he was a huge fan, had seen every episode, etc. And when he showed up it was right around when it was announced that Katee was leaving and he was like WTF???? To respond to his confusion Eddie handed him a stack of DVDs and said, "You need to see these." [I think all three of those guys imitated EJO at some point during the weekend.] The first time he encountered Jamie on set he went up to him and just gushed about how much he loved the show and Jamie was like, Oh-kay... And now they're "neighbors and buddies." (And dinner companions!)

Jamie loved playing fat (sigh) because it was something different to do as an actor. He was tearing apart the props department looking for things to stick down his ass to make his ass fatter.

Someone asked everyone who their favorite Cylon model is, and Aaron just started preening and pointing to himself. That answered everyone's question for them. *g*

Everyone has probably seen/read this sort of thing before, but Aaron got asked at pretty much every panel how he felt when he found out Chief was going to be a Cylon. He was very frank about how he had been upset and concerned about it, but then he had a really really long phone conversation with Ron Moore who managed to turn him around. He was worried that it would really do something terrible to a character he cared about a lot and who people liked, but now he's okay with it.

(He's still not really okay with Chief beating Cally and then marrying her, however. *g*)

I think Jamie got asked about whether it's hard doing the accent with other Brits, which it's not. Mark said how it would be so funny when he, Jamie, and James Callis were doing scenes together, because they'd all be talking in their normal accents, then filming would start and Jamie and Mark would shift to different accents and James would stay the same. At this point Jamie started imitating James Callis' mannerisms and it was pretty much the fucking funniest thing ever. I can't even describe it, he was doing those kind of jerky little movements that Callis does, and Aaron was dying. OMG it was so funny. And I feel like I should mention here that James is, I believe, Jamie's closest friend on the show so it's okay. Hee.

The other big crackup was when Jamie called Kevin Grazier "Richie Cunningham," and I thought Aaron was going to hurt himself he was laughing so hard. I admit that it makes me happy to see my boy amusing others. :D

Here's Kevin on the left:

Someone reminded Aaron that the night before he had drunkenly promised to call Katee during the panel. He whipped out his phone and said he was going to do it, and Jamie or Mark pointed out that she was on vacation in Mexico. So, um, that's why she canceled the con. See, it WAS the people who followed her into the bathroom at Comic Con! I told you. Mark Sheppard had actually just been filming Bionic Woman with Katee a few days prior. Anyway, Aaron left her a voicemail that we didn't get to hear.

Mark Sheppard had an iPhone and at one point called up one of his BSG episodes on the phone and Aaron was taunting him about how he was the only actor who actually walked around with his work on his phone.

(Photo by

em_meredith.)

There was a lot of teasing about the iPhone throughout, I think Aaron stole it for a while and made like he was going to dunk it in the water pitcher.

The guys played musical chairs during this panel for various reasons, insults flying, homoerotica being bandied about, etc. I think Aaron, Mark and Hatch all switched chairs at some point. Jamie was very Lee-like and stayed in his assigned seat. *g*

Speaking of homoerotica, at one point Jamie was giving his usual spiel about how Richard Hatch was so great as the original Apollo, and Hatch said, "Frak it, let's just make love right now" and proceeded to completely molest Jamie. Sat in his lap, put his arms around him and hugged him tight and pretended to be making out with him. NO, REALLY.

em_meredith has the evidence, along with showing how shell-shocked Jamie was afterward. (He was playing it off, but also totally like "WTF just happened?")

Even the men just couldn't keep their hands off him, I swear to god. *g*

Kevin said that the difference between old BSG and new BSG is that "On the old Battlestar Galactica, the fans wrote Apollo/Starbuck slash, but on the new Battlestar Galactica, the writers write Apollo/Starbuck slash." Jamie looked around quizzically and asked "What's that?" (Awww.) I'm geeky enough that I knew Kevin was referring to the original meaning of slash, which was just sex period, but someone in the audience of course yelled out "Gay sex," to which Jamie replied, "Well it doesn't need to be gay anymore, does it?" Then he added, "Even though Starbuck's a big dyke." Heeeeeeee.

Frak is a four-letter word. FYI. :)

Jamie used the word "panoply." Yes, I just write down random words that I enjoy hearing him use, shaddup.

Jamie's one flaw is that he was more of a Luke Skywalker fan than a Han Solo fan. Le sigh. But he said that he enjoys "being Luke Skywalker to Katee's Han Solo." Basically someone needs to be that straight arrow hero, and he's happy that it's him.

Oh, and Jamie spent half this panel talking about how awesome SCI FI was, and how much he loved SCI FI, and they were the greatest network ever and he loved working for them, etc. It was HILARIOUS. Mark Sheppard was cracking up as Jamie frantically covered his ass for his comments the day before. He was very proud of himself.

(Photo by

em_meredith. OMGSOCUTE. Also: bicep!)

Finally, he had been pretty much doing this all weekend, but it was during this panel that Jamie went off on his finest progressive rant. He said that "every species grows to its own excreta" and talked about how our excessive consumption is leading us down a path to ruin, and then he started going on about how our country is being run by giant corporations "that nobody elected," and you might remember that the whole corporations thing is one of my bugaboos right now, so at that point I was truly whipped up into a frenzy, and he talked about how we need to wake up and make changes and save our planet and ourselves and GUH, it was so, so hot.

kiss_me_cassie was cracking up because she was sitting in between me and Em and we were both getting so hot and bothered by this fiery display. As I said afterward, "The only thing hotter than a guy talking progressive politics, is a hot guy talking progressive politics." I just need to get him and Bradley in a room talking politics together and I will be happy for the rest of my life.

OK, here are some more random photos, they're crappy because they're mine:

This was probably one of those times where Hatch was talking about how he hopes BSG lives forever. Ha ha ha.

Jamie was rubbing his beard and fluffing his hair a lot, clearly enjoying the novelty of it. It was, you guessed it, hot.

I can't remember what this was all about, although I feel like I should.

Jeans!

And just a few notes about Monday's panel, which was Aaron, Hatch, and Kevin Grazier, since Jamie had to leave to go film a movie in Louisiana (yay for him, woe for us):

Aaron originally auditioned for the role of Apollo, but is glad he didn't get it because "Jamie has to go to the gym." He also auditioned for Gaeta but was glad he didn't get that either, because Alessandro has to do so much tech speak. Chief was initially supposed to be Tigh's age, but when they were trying to cast the role they remembered Aaron from the auditions and brought him onboard.

Aaron also ad libs a lot. In fact the Chief character was originally conceived as not having much of a personality and was barely in the miniseries, but Aaron brought so much to the character that they just went with it. He referenced one speech in particular where Chief goes out and says that this what we've been trained to do and we're all going to go out there and kick some Cylon ass, and he ad libbed the whole thing, and the director was jumping up and down he loved it so much.

Another ad lib was when Tigh walked into the hold and saw Chief, Anders, and Tory, and said, "Whoa." That was Ron Moore's favorite line of the season, and it was Michael Hogan's ad lib. Both Aaron and Jamie in another panel imitated Michael Hogan saying this line, it was very funny.

In "Flight of the Phoenix," Kevin Grazier actually came up with a justification for where in the fleet every part of the Blackbird came from. He "foraged for parts." "*I* foraged for parts!" Aaron said.

Someone asked Hatch why Dirk Benedict wasn't on the show (it was very snarky, like "and he's had SUCH a great career lately"), and that led to a whole big discussion about how Benedict was actually in the first draft of the miniseries script, but then he went on the internet and shit all over the new production and whined about Starbuck being a woman, and that was that. Hatch tried to be very diplomatic.

Eddie and Mary are truly the "Mom and Dad" on set and Aaron says they're two of the most amazing people he's ever met.

Aaron shared a story of his first scenes with EJO, it was the scene in the mini where Chief is complaining that if he'd just had 40 more seconds he could have saved his guys from being airlocked. They did the scene all morning and then broke for lunch. When they came back, EJO had eaten something really disgusting for lunch, and his breath was rancid. Aaron said it burned the skin off of his face, it was so bad, and now, whenever he looks at that scene, all he can think about is how horrible EJO's breath was. When they finally wrapped the scene, EJO looks at Aaron with an evil grin and says, "Welcome to the show." HA.

Someone asked Hatch a question and he couldn't see her and asked if she was standing up somewhere and Aaron said, "She is standing up, she's like 4'3"," and Hatch said, good, that means less work, and Aaron was like WHAAAA? How is that less work? He couldn't get over it. Are you talking about less square footage for tongue action? What? He then suggested that Hatch move to "the Shire" where he would really have a lot less work.

Hatch asked how many people in the audience had bought Aaron drinks last night and Aaron said "I think everyone bought me four." There were a LOT of running jokes about Aaron's drinking all weekend. :)

At one point Aaron was trying to stop laughing and he said "dead kittens dead kittens" and then added "dead Cally dead Cally." At one point someone in the audience said something mean about Cally, I can't remember what, and Aaron got all indignant but you could tell he didn't really mean it. HA.

Couple pics:

(Picture by

em_meredith.) Aaron was bored and texting at one point.

And that's about it, except for some mild spoilers, including validation of what I've been saying all along about the final five. :)

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Mark Sheppard is returning as Romo Lampkin! Yay. He starts filming soon.

As Aaron has said before, one reason his hair is so short is because "Chief goes a little nuts this season." (To which Jamie said, "Chief has little nuts?" Aaron: "Only by comparison.") I believe he's said this before, but yes, the fact that Nicky is a hybrid will be addressed, there will be Chief family drama. From what people were saying all weekend, it sounds like the first 6 or 7 episodes of the show are extremely Chief-heavy. And extremely Lee-light. :( Jamie definitely sounded a bit frustrated about the first half of this season for Lee. Sigh. (It's not easy being a Lee fan.)

He did say that the Lee/Adama relationship really "matures," and that Lee really matures and evolves as well, that he becomes more and more comfortable in his own skin, all of which is nice to hear.

Someone asked if Lee was going to be back in the military or not, and Jamie said, "I can answer this question without words" and then proceeded to run his hands over his beard and fluff his hair. *g* So, civvie Lee.

The final 5 Cylons are very different from the others. There are only one of each. (Which is what I've totally been saying all along, I can't believe I was right about something for once.) If Chief, say, dies, he's dead, that's it. And Aaron said there was a very important clue in one of his lines in Crossroads: "We're Cylons. We have been from the start." He said the "from the start" is what we should be asking ourselves about, what does that mean. If we can figure that out, then we have the answers.

And that's it! Told you, very minor. They were pretty tight-lipped, although to be fair, people didn't ask them much. It was mostly a spoiler-free zone. Except I think there were some people in one panel who were shocked to find out Chief is a Cylon. OOOPS. *g*

Um, in conclusion, I love Jamie Bamber a lot. The end. :D Seriously, usually the more I find out about an actor, the less I like him, so in those rare instances where it's the opposite (Bradley, Ewan, Jamie), it warms my cold cold heart. All in all, a wonderful experience and I'm so glad that I went.