London Film & Comic Con 2011 - Part 3: Sunday's Talks & Other Stuff

This article can also be found on Step2Inspire.

Compared to the packed-beyond-belief state of Saturday, Sunday was markedly more sedate. That’s not to say it wasn’t heaving, as it certainly was, but it felt like there was enough oxygen in Earls Court to go around - the same cannot be said for Saturday! Once more I arrived early at the scene to see who I could grab for a few quick words, and attend the first talk of the day.

Sunday

9:55 - Morgan Sheppard & Walter Koenig

Sunday started with a talk that was initially listed as Brent Spiner, but was in fact Morgan Sheppard (Mark Sheppard’s father), and Walter Koenig. Koenig is almost certainly best known for his role as Russian crewman Mr Chekov in the original series of Star Trek (and received a round of applause when he quoted the line “Where are the nuclear wessels.”). Whilst Morgan Sheppard has a vast array of work under his belt, including four collaborations with his son, he too is quite well known for his roles in various Star Trek episodes and films. Questions were therefore fairly Star Trek centric.

Any fan of the original series would have noticed that the Klingons suffered a sudden evolution when they made the leap to the silver screen, developing a series of ridges on their foreheads. Koenig stated that this was to make the whole thing more visually appealing, but in Star Trek lore this was explained as them being an offshoot of the original Klingon race.

This led to another question, this time directed at Sheppard, who had been cast in a Klingon during his many Trek incarnations, regarding his experiences. “It was Hell,” He stated, rather matter-of-factly, “The make-up took four hours the first time round, but we eventually got it down to two hours after that.” Evidently being a Klingon isn’t easy!

11:15 - Richard Hatch

Richard Hatch, as the star of Battlestar Galactica back in the late 70s and a recurring character in the re-imagined series in the 2000s, spoke extensively on life after the original series ended. As the show had only enjoyed a short run and was taken off the air after a year, the studios never conceived of the possibility that Galactica may have actually been popular. “I was attending conventions and meeting the fans of the show,” Hatch said, “And there were more of them than you’d imagine!” He approached Universal about perhaps reviving the series, but until he mentioned it to them they had no idea they were even in possession of the license.

He went on to detail his efforts to revive the show, even to the extent he made his own (and, frankly, illegal as he didn’t own the license!) trailer for a hypothetical Galactica movie. He took this trailer to show at conventions, and was eventually approached by Miramax who wanted to buy the movie. “Obviously, one of the major problems with that was, we hadn’t made the movie. But what kind of person makes a trailer for a movie if there isn’t a movie?!” However, despite the attention the trailer had gathered, Universal were still in possession of the rights to the Galactica franchise and were not interested in Hatch’s vision.

His campaign for a sequel of the 1978 show was scuttled in favour of a re-imagining of the series produced by Ronald D Moore, which Hatch then went on to be cast in as recurring character Tom Zarek.

13:55 - Christopher Lloyd (& Jeffrey Weissman, Lea Thompson, Ricky Dean Logan)

This session had been listed as Christopher Lloyd, but a few minutes in and Lloyd was joined by Jeffrey Weissman, Lea Thompson, and Ricky Dean Logan - his Back to the Future cast-mates. They reminisced on their favourite aspects of filming the classic time-travelling trilogy.

“Chasing the train on horse-back.” Lloyd said with great certainty. He had already expressed his love for the third film of the trilogy, in which they travel to the Wild West of 1885, citing the depth of character the script had added for Doc Brown, including a romantic interest, as a reason for this. That, and chasing the train on horse-back.

Thompson’s favourite moment was dancing in the 50’s scenes and meeting Christopher Lloyd (although not necessarily in that order). Weissman added “My favourite moment would definitely have to be dancing with Lea.” Logan, on the other hand, decided that the hover-board was his highlight of Back to the Future, which led on to a further discussion as to why no-one had invented a prototype yet.

16:25 - Alex Kingston

The concluding talk of the event was Alex Kingston, otherwise known as River Song in Doctor Who. Given River Song’s recent revealing of identity after being an enigma for nigh on two years, the audience was rife with questions pertaining to any more surprises regarding Kingston’s character, as well as how long she’d known for and how that effected her acting style.

“I knew since the beginning of this season.” Kingston answered. “In the first episode I turned to comfort Amy and gave her a hug, and Karen just leapt back and looked at me [as if to say] ‘What are you doing?!’” She laughed, recalling the moment. “It was only a few months later when Matt, Karen and Arthur were told who River Song actually was that Karen realised why I was playing it that way.”

Evidently, Moffat has had the idea for a long time, and only revealed the real ending to the four central cast. “He kept the whole thing very close to his chest,” Kingston spoke on the matter, “I didn’t expect this to happen in my first episode [Silence in the Library]. She was just a one off character, but afterwards we discussed [River Song] being a returning character, and when I heard how they intended for her character to develop, I couldn’t resist!”

There wasn’t a chance to speak to Kingston regarding her current role in Luise Miller at the Donmar Warehouse, and in the much the same case as Gillan she was largely inaccessible throughout the day.

My next and final LFCC article, The Cosplay Collection, will tell the tale of my encounters with the likes of Darth Vader, Jessica Rabbit, and a Cylon, and will be online soon.