Armageddon

Armageddon is held in Auckland and other cities here.

​Guest stars included:
Andromeda:  Brent Stait (Rev Bem)
Babylon 5:  Mira Furlan (Delenn), Jason Carter (Marcus Cole)
Farscape:  Claudia Black (Aeryn Sun), Wayne Pygram (Scorpius), Jonathan Hardy (Rygel), Lani Tupu (Crais and Pilot), Anthony Simcoe (D'Argo)
Stargate SG-1:  Tony Almendola (Bra'Tac)
Star Trek:  Robert Picardo (the Holographic Doctor), Tim Russ (Tuvok), Robert O'Reilly (Gowron), J G Herztler (Martok)​

Reports by me and fellow SF Steve, who took his daughter Abigail, followed by photos.

Nicola's report

Anthony Simcoe
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The cast never thought of Rygel as anything but a puppet, but Pilot was regarded as a real character because the people and machinery used to animate him were never visible.  He said there's a technique to speaking 'in slow motion' involving putting the tongue on the roof of the mouth, and he used this, plus lowering his register, to create D'Argo's voice.

Brent Stait

One of the hardest things about working on Andromeda was acting to a green screen. When doing loops (dubbing in voice tracks) he always had to put in the Rev Bem teeth to get the voice right. He did every Magog voice in Andromeda—every single screech and howl—and made up the Magog language himself as he went.

Mira Furlan
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She sounded just like Delenn. The worst of Delenn's makeup was the glue around her mouth and nose, but it was not as bad as for the extras playing the Markab whose noses were closed off altogether so they had to breathe through their mouths. In the B5 pilot, the Delenn makeup was unbearable so they changed it for the series.

Was she now typecast? Mira laughed, and asked if the questioner had any jobs for a Minbari. She said that she had made many films in Croatia and had a very successful established career there although the films are not well-known outside her home country.

Did she like seeing herself on TV? No, if she did see herself, she turned it off.

Since Babylon 5 she has had a boy called Marko, and is writing screenplays. When they filmed the B5 pilot, Mira had no idea whether there would be a series, let alone five years of work.

The cast got on very well together despite being from very different backgrounds, and very different professionally—Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi) had once been a stockbroker on Wall Street! She thought the primary reason for B5's success was Joe's (J Michael Straczynsk's) writing, then the cast.
It was sad filming the last episode, Sleeping in Light  as they were all leaving too. Also, two days before, her dear cat Ugi had disappeared—eaten, Mira suspected, by coyotes.

Robert Picardo

​Robert came in singing La donna e mobile, changing the lyrics of to a very funny song about Tuvok's sex-life or lack thereof. He explained that he did all the songs the Doctor sang in Voyager except for the last two in the episode Virtuoso, which were sung by a real opera singer.

A woman who wanted to kiss his head. "Of course you may," Robert said, and she promptly climbed onto the stage and planted one on top of his head. "Anyone else?" Robert asked hopefully. "Do you realise that a naked head is a sign of spectacular virility?"

He disappointed when Seven spurned him for Chakotay? "Still, the timeline was changed in that last episode, so Seven is up for grabs again."

Kate Mulgrew was great to work with, always immaculately prepared every day; she always knew all her lines. They are great friends and see a lot of each other. He is fond of all the cast, and they all still see each other.

In the episode with the two doctors, the other one was played by Andy Dick, who  asked if Picardo got a lot of jokes about his name being so close to Picard's. "Your name is Dick and you're teasing me about mine?" was Robert's response. He said he was concerned about how the episode might be reported in the TV schedules: Picardo in double act with Dick etc. Speaking of which, why was his action figure always presented with one or two hands over its crotch?

The cast all hated the artificial smoke used in battle scenes and went home with their nostrils caked in black crud. Cue another song: 'Smoke gets in your eyes'.

Robert then said he'd written a book before he realised that Star Trek books were traditionally ghost-written. He then read us a very funny excerpt from 'The Hologram's Handbook' about how to go about getting anatomical enhancements to one's software. (I bought this afterwards.)

He believes there is other life in the universe? He is a Christian—a Catholic—but is able to believe that there is plenty of room in creation for other life-forms who will have their own paths to salvation.

Why do the consoles keep exploding? "Because science fiction has a young male audience who like explosions."

He originally read for Neelix, whom he decided to play as a drunk, and committed one of the no-noes of auditions—he used a prop. He loaded a handkerchief with talcum powder and pulled it out to give his face a wipe, releasing clouds of powder. This got a laugh, but afterwards he went home to his wife and said he probably hadn't got the part. The studio rang and asked him to go back to audition for the doctor, which he did. At the end of the scene, where the doctor is left alone asking plaintively whether anyone will turn him off, Robert decided to add another line: "I'm a doctor, not a night-light!" This brought the house down. At the time he hadn't seen any Star Trek (his wife, a big fan, rectified that) so he didn't know he'd used a catch-phrase of McCoy's. Despite committing two faux-pas (using a prop and ad-libbing) he got the role.

Ad-libs were not allowed on the show. The cast had to go through channels to change any dialogue; it was not easy.

He seemed reluctant to comment on Enterprise but said that they spoke too slowly, and if they picked up the pace dialogue and plot, it would help. Many of the Voyager cast including him spoke very fast, and they always had strict and often seemingly impossibly tight time limits for scenes.

Robert's small daughter was intrigued with the episode in which the Doctor was reduced in size, and afterwards commanded, "Daddy, go small!" She also wondered why he had to drive to the lot when the ship could just come over and beam him up. She had a Doctor action figure, known as Daddy the Doll, who had an enviable life riding shotgun with Barbie in her toy cars. He then told a lot of Holo-Doctor action-figure jokes: "I can play with myself in public!", "Oh, look, Picardo's beside himself!", "It has a cute butt, just like mine, but unfortunately, no—it hasn't had the anatomical upgrade."

He was the first to appear, and he signed a photo for me while I took his photo doing so, then I bought his CDs which he also signed: basic bob, extreme bob, and one of him reading The Hologram's Handbook. I had a chat with him, despite the appalling noise from the games area. mainly from a guy hawking a game called Set. I asked Robert if it was annoying him, and he said he was considering killing the guy. I offered to help.

Steve's report

Tim Russ is very nearly as entertaining as Robert Picardo. He too has a penchant for music; he sang a couple of numbers during his panel session. He also has a sense of humour that borders on the zany. He and the Klingons put on a short Trek-based comedy routine, and later when he was asked how he maintained such a consistent air of straight-faced seriousness over seven years in the role of  Tuvok he said, "It was easy. All I had to do was think about my paycheck - then it's impossible to smile!" I've also seen a few out-takes from Voyager and I tell you the bloke's a nutter!'

J G Herztler brought a toy tribble on stage with him which he left behind. When Jason Carter took the stage he threw it into the audience, and I caught it! He also spotted me yawning later during his panel session and apologised for keeping me awake. I still have the tribble and when you give it a squeeze it still makes that noise tribbles make when a Klingon comes near.
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The Farscape panel was good, although the thing I remember most about it was afterwards. When the guests were making their way back to the signing area, Jonathan Hardy walked past me singing softly to himself in Rygel's voice, "Rygel, Rygel rules the universe..." to the tune of the German national anthem! I later spoke to Claudia Black and Lani Tupu, who was amazed that Farscape had been broadcast in the UK.

Photos

Mira Furlan

Robert Picardo

Tony Amendola

Abbey hugging Robert

Steve and daughter Abbey with Tim Russ

Claudia Black with Abbey

Signed by Lani Tupu

Robert Picardo as the Holographic Doctor

Mira Furlan as Delenn

Signed by Claudia Black

Signed by Tim Russ

I also bought a signed photo of Paul Goddard as Stark because I like the character. Besides, he looked lonely and in need of a home.

Outside in Queen Street, I took a photo of Stark's Cafe and Bar for Farscape fans—proof that Stark has found his way to Auckland and is happily running a business here.  ;-)

Actually the cafe's just outside the wonderful Civic Theatre (yes, it does look like that) and is named for Freda Stark, a famous dancer who used to entertain there at the Wintergarden cabaret during WW2. She danced in little more than gold paint for American serviceman and later became an icon for the gay community. She was a fascinating character; pity there are hardly any photos of her, but there's a statue which appears on the cover of her biography.