Report by Mary and photos by Teri

ROBERT BELTRAN WINKED AT ME!!!! In the autograph line! I gave him (well, Patti gave him) my ancient legend card to sign (the same one I sent out for the postcard exchange), and he signed it, then studied it for a moment, then handed it back to me. I managed to say 'thank you' (the only 2 words I got out at all!) and he WINKED at me! My life is complete!

OK, I'll stop now - but it was really very cool, and I'm STILL grinning about it. I feel like a 16 year old! Oh, I guess I should talk about the rest of the con...It was a wonderful con <pauses while everyone gives Patti a standing ovation>, the first big one I've ever attended and I was really impressed. It was neat to just be walking down the hall and see Richard Hatch or John Colicos or Anne Lockhart standing 10 feet away, casually conversing with fans. I saw Jeff Conaway in the bar! And Chase Masterson must have been sitting at her table autographing for 4 hours, and every time I looked at her, she was smiling! The couple of panels that I went to were organized and interesting, and the video room, dealer room, art room etc - all terrific!

On to the JetC stuff - Richard Arnold spoke on Saturday and said that he knew of nothing beyond what had happened in 'Hunters' being planned at the moment. He also said that he'd never heard anything about a kiss cut out of 'Hunters'. He gave only the briefest of spoilers for the first 4 episodes:

1) Night - the ship is going through a void and everyone gets bored

2) Drone - something about Seven's nanoprobes and the Doctors mobile emitter spawning a new type of drone (!)

3) A Torres episode - which also introduces the new mega shuttle

4) A Neelix episode - no details...

RB was supposed to appear at 4, but Patti had to get up on stage and announce that he'd missed his plane, and wouldn't be out until 9:30 <pauses while everyone clucks sympathetically for poor Patti>. I was really scared, because I couldn't be at the con the next day, but he did make it to the 9:30 appearance - thank goodness! He is even more beautiful in person than he is as Chakotay, and I can't believe that I'm saying that - but there's just something about that face, those eyes, that smile, his expressions, his personality... It was a little surreal, I thought. Every time he said or did ANYTHING, people would applaud or laugh wildly...It reminded me of that TNG episode where Joe Piscapo was trying to teach Data humor, and the holographic audience laughed every time he moved...These actors must just fly home from these things shaking their heads in disbelief...Anyway - he didn't talk much, he said he wasn't a stand-up comic, so he mostly just took questions from the audience.

There was one unpleasant incident - a woman got up and asked him a question that he basically had just finished answering (about being a non-Native American playing a Native American). He HATES the question to begin with because he says that, as a Mexican, he IS a Native American. So anyway, I'm not quite sure what happened, but he was a little sarcastic, and the woman who asked the question left in a huff, and he tried to apologize and it was a bit ugly.

He'd been up since 5 AM shooting until 1, then he had to get on a plane and was being faced with 3 hours of questions and autograph signing, I know, but I think he could have handled it a little bit better <Mary ducks from all the flames heading her way> BUT the woman was pretty childish to huff off like that and he DID say he was sorry...

Anyway, after that the audience demanded that everyone lighten up and everyone did and it was great fun from then on. He really gets faced with some silly and awkward questions. and some almost completely unintelligible ones! He handled all that quite well. He did impersonations of Marlon Brando (outstanding) and Kate (not so great!). He told an anecdote from the set. He said that Ethan is always mooning everybody (figures) and he wanted to outdo him just once, so he came out of his trailer with his pants down to his knees and his turtleneck body suit unsnapped (he said he was wearing underwear so it was a clean story. mercifully, no one asked what KIND of underwear ...<Patti sighs in relief>...). And he was saying "wait, wait, I'm almost ready, I'm really sorry, I'm almost ready" and then he stumbled and sprawled on the ground. He said Ethan hadn't been able to top that yet.

And who knew that those purple turtlenecks snapped at the crotch? Sounds uncomfortable! Someone asked about J/C, of course, and he said he honestly didn't know - that was up to the producers. And he said Kate didn't know either, and they were always asking each other "do YOU know? I don't know...". Then someone asked him if he wanted J/C and he pointedly ignored that...

Someone asked him what his favorite episodes to shoot were, and he said 'Resolutions' to waves of applause, and, I think he also mentioned 'Nemesis'. At one point he started singing the song "Unforgettable" and everyone booed, and he scowled.

That's about all I remember. Then was the autograph line, where HE WINKED AT ME, or did I already mention that?

I was not there on Sunday, so I anxiously await everybody else's con reports to find out what happened then and if anything else was said by RB or Richard Arnold about J/C or Season 5...

I have to say that apart from being WINKED AT BY ROBERT BELTRAN (oh, did I say that already?) the highlight of my weekend was meeting everybody from JetC12! I had no idea what anyone looked like, of course, but I had mental pictures that were all WRONG! It was really, well, I can't think of an adequate adjective to describe it - it was just neat to talk to you guys in person. The only people that I think I missed were Mandi and Jennifer Presley. Were you guys there? Sorry I missed you!

Well, I've forgotten a million things, but hopefully everyone else who was there will fill in my gaps! It was a wonderful experience and Toronto was beautiful, too - awesome weather for the weekend! I am off to get some much needed sleep...

Mary

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