Dragoncon was a blast this year. Meeting Michael Sinelnikoff was a great thrill. I only wish his weekend had gone more smoothly than it turned out to be. I'm not sure how much Michael would appreciate my saying, since he seems to prefer to look at the brighter side of things. But he and many other people I spoke with or heard from (including Karl Urban, who is well-known to Hercules and Xena fans and who has a role in Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings") had some similar problems with lost luggage on the airlines.

Although I didn't get to see much of Michael during the convention, we had had dinner with some friends of mine on Wednesday evening and he stayed up late Thursday and Friday evenings to talk with me after I got in (that's the last time I schedule an open-ended session from 8:30 onward, btw). And we had lunch on Saturday.

Michael, as I mentioned, was able to perform briefly in the first skit for the Atlanta Radio Theater on Saturday, which is a warm-up for the Masquerade. Several friends and I watched Michael do his skit ("The Most Pierced Man in America" -- an amusing three-minute piece about a man being interviewed on the radio concerning all his body piercings). Michael came to join us after that and either the actors in the next skit stood too far back from the microphones or else the sound system had problems. We couldn't hear them and Michael was concerned that he hadn't been heard either, but we reassured him his skit came off just fine.

So, unable to hear the actors, we adjourned to dinner, where I tried to persuade my friends to see the Masquerade with us. Alas, they weren't interested (these are long-time Dragoncon attendees, and I guess even the Masquerade gets a little old after 10 years). But Michael and I went after we talked a while in the usual male-bonding sense (swapping stories of female conquests and that sort of thing -- you wouldn't be interested).

We got into the Masquerade somewhat late but it started late, I suppose. Anyway, we sat in the overflow seating and that probably gave us a better view (via a video feed). This year's Masquerade wasn't as good previous ones, in my opinion, but it was still a nice show and Michael stepped out for a cigarette at one point. When he came back 20 MINUTES LATER, he had a collection of nice photographs of many of the contestants (some of whom had not yet appeared on stage). Michael, btw, uses a digital camera and he took quite a few interesting shots throughout the convention.

Some of the sub-par masquerade entries received a crowd response in Overflow Seating where this big guy would yell out, "WHAT?" and the audience would jump in with "...THE H??? WAS THAT?"

Andreas Katsulas (ambassador G'Kar on BABYLON 5) and Chase Masterson were the MCs for the Masquerade. They tried to liven up some of the skits with a few comments, and I suppose I'll always remember the faux Martial Arts kids as doing the "Kick 'em in the nuts" skit (maybe they really were martial arts students -- it was too hard to tell, the audience was laughing at various places).

A lot of Sailor Moon fans showed up. The youngest fans (under 12) were among the best. I guess cute and adorable kids go over best with all audiences. In 1998 an incredible Sailor Moon skit was done by a group of fans who dressed up as all the characters and did a choreographed dance to the Sailor Moon theme (and I hadn't seen the show then, so I really had no idea of who these characters were -- I've since seen a couple of episodes and still have no idea of who they were, but the costumes looked nice on a lot of women at the convention).

My favorites this year, I suppose, were the wolf-man and wolf-girl outfits. The two Imperial Speeder Bikers won the competition, though. I have to admit they did an impressive job.

I mentioned Michael had told me a few things about "Snowy", and someone wanted a report. To be honest, I don't remember everything quite so clearly, but I do recall Michael saying that the women have the right impression about his physique. The man takes care of himself, and he does many of his own stunts. Michael also told me an amusing anecdote about him and Snowy as they rode to work in the car one day, but all I recall (sorry, Michael) was that at one point Snowy set aside a newspaper and gave Michael his full, undivided attention.

Some of the stories he told about the production did stay with me. For example, when they were filming the scene on the river in the pilot movie they were about 100 yards (I think) from a very busy highway, and there was no way to record the actors without recording the vehicles. So the soundtrack was composed to INCLUDE the traffic (and, no, they didn't play any drums while filming -- those were added afterward).

One of the men hired to steer the boats kept crashing into the riverbank, I think, and they kept yelling at him something like, "NO! Turn to your OTHER LEFT!" Canoes are not really hard to steer, but if you're unused to them, it takes a while to get used to how to turn them, I suppose.

When the dinosaurs attacked, the director tried growling like one and the actors would start laughing, so they requested that the director simply say, "Okay, T-Rex right in front of you!"

I remember a few other anecdotes, but am not sure what should or should not be posted (especially if I misremember something). Peter McCauley's wife guest-starred in an episode ("Nectar") and she was not given a full explanation of what the show was about or how her character was supposed to be a part of the lost world, so her performance didn't come off very well. I'm afraid fans didn't receive her performance very well.

I asked Michael about the wagon scene in "More Than Human". Four men lifted and shook the wagon to make it seem like it was moving over a rough road while they filmed the interior action (I suppose that explains why the wagon was covered). Michael said the arena was actually built for the episode (wonder what they did with it?) and it was a real arena. He also mentioned something about the actor who played the Tribune, but I'm fuzzy on that. I think he was reciting Shakespeare between takes or something like that, and seeing a lizard-man recite Shakespeare was very amusing?

Michael, please feel free to help me out here.

Anyway, I suppose the worst time to try and meet people is when you're helping to run a convention. I stayed very busy with the Tolkien and Middle-earth track (which was very successful) and had little time for moving around and just enjoying the convention. A few people did recognize Michael, including Steve Sears (well, after I mentioned who Michael is), who said he liked the show and thought it was very well done. I thought that was neat.
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