Serious question. Because not only will the entire main cast of TNG be there, but now it's been announced that so will Stan Lee. http://www.calgaryexpo.com/
This is going to be outstanding, when I first heard the entire cast of TNG was comnig to town I didn't believe it until I confirmed it. Last year we had Shatner, and that was exciting, this year is one for the books -Kytee
Only thing disappointing is the continued absence of any Doctor Who actors. Not even anyone from the TV movie. (James Marsters is the closest, having guest starred on Torchwood, and I heard Dave Prowse is coming too and he appeared in a Pertwee-era Who). I have my fingers crossed they have something big planned for the 50th anniversary next year. As for this year, I agree this has the potential to be one of the best. I don't expect to get Patrick Stewart's autograph or attend that panel, but I think it'll be fun and probably for the first time I'll end up going on more than one day. Stan Lee is top of my non-TNG list, along with Adam West, Gil Gerard, and John Noble. Things sure have changed. I remembered when they (and by they I don't mean the Calgary Expo people but another group) tried to do a SF convention back in 1998. Erin Grey, Danny John Jules from Red Dwarf and Robert McNeill from Voyager were the guests but it wasn't organized very well and only a couple hundred people showed up and that pretty much killed it until the Expo started up a few years later. And even then there was one year that Peter "Chewbacca" Mayhew was the headliner. (Nothing against Peter, but I mean - hey.) I'll forever be kicking myself though for missing that one year they decided to have a Firefly focus. I'm not a fan of Firefly. I AM a fan of Jewel Staite, Morena Baccarin and Christina Hendricks and they were all there. I made up for it with Summer Glau last year, but still... Alex
I'd go and just ask questions that have nothing to do with Star Trek at all. "Michael Dorn, do you remember that eipsode of CHiPs where Danny Bonaduche beat up Brodie Greer? What was it like to work with those guys?"
Yeah Calgary is very lucky indeed. Vancouver is getting it's first ever major comic con the previous weekend and our guest list so far is mediocre by comparison. I think so far we have Adam West, Burt Ward, Nicolas Brendan, Kristen Bauer, and Tom Felton. Which isn't bad...but they're no TNG cast and Stan Lee
Believe it or not sometimes they get a kick out of that. I was in the line-up for Malcolm MacDowall and while most people were talking about Generations and Heroes, he seemed to really perk up when a guy showed him a rare Clockwork Orange soundtrack LP. I wonder if anyone asked him about Caligula? They always do. Also there is always one or two people who pull out because of work commitments - they get double-booked or a role in a film. We lost out on Katee Sackhoff last year because of that but there's talk she's coming this year. And there's been a couple of times a guest has appeared without any prior announcement - when Katee cancelled a few days before last year's event they replaced her almost on the day with Linda Blair, and Erin Gray (who actually is a convention booking agent for a lot of these people) tossed her hat into the ring just for the fun of it. I think the key is the event has a good reputation. I remember hearing the horror stories about some conventions a few years ago. The venue is also considered to be very good - unlike some events that take over a few rooms in a hotel, this one takes over one of the main convention facilities in town at the Stampede Grounds. My favourite guests so far have been Erin Gray (who I've interviewed a few times for the newspaper), Summer Glau, Tricia Helfer (a bit of a cheat as she is virtually a local anyway - she flew in to Calgary after having been working on the BSG set till 2 the previous morning), George Takei, Malcolm MacDowall, Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner (though I decided not to get Shatner's autograph I sat in on his panel, which was a lot of fun). Alex
Halifax got David Prowse and Walter Koening in October 2010, and last year Toronto had Julie Benz, Claudia Christian, Nicolas Brendon and some others. This year Toronto is getting John DeLancie, Bruce Boxleitner, Tia Carrere, Charisma Carpenter, Robert Picardo, Nicole DeBoer and Kristianna Loken. Not bad.