Wintercon 2019
My experience at Wintercon 2019 (photos and video following):
It was the 20th anniversary that year, so there was going to be a Farscape panel, and a bunch of actors and the creator were going to be there. So it was Rockne O'Bannon, Ben Browder, Claudia Black, Anthony Simcoe, Gigi Edgley, Lani Tupu, and Kent McCord. Virginia Hey was supposed to be there, but she wasn't for some reason.
So, getting there, me and my brother got lost in the casino going in because it’s huge and there are no signs for the convention inside. When we finally found it we looked for the autograph table first. We found it all the way at the back and everyone was at their tables except for Ben and Lani (who had walked past us, looking like he didn't want to get noticed, as we were walking in). Since you have to pay to get an autograph or selfie with each person, I didn't want to spend that much money, so I just decided to get a selfie with Ben.
So, since Ben wasn't at the table, me and my brother decided to look around the convention a bit. As we were wandering around, Ben walked past me, and he was so tall and handsome my heart skipped a beat lol.
So, we went back to the Farscape autograph table, hoping that's where he was headed, and everyone was gone except Rockne. Then we saw a sign that said “Be back at 2 PM”. By that time is was about 12:30 so we decided to go to the food court and have lunch. Then we went back in and wandered around a little bit.
It was a pretty small convention so it didn’t take long to see everything. So we went to chill out by the autograph table, and some more people were coming over after a while and we realized they were getting in line already. So even though we had been there first, the line started forming next to us, so we had to get at the end. It turned out that there were a bunch of people in line who had red tickets because they had been waiting in line earlier but didn’t get to see Ben and/or Claudia before they had their break. So they went in a separate line so they could go first and then me and my brother were only behind like 6 people in the regular line, and 4 of them were in a group together.
Gigi, Anthony, and Lani came back on time at around 2, but for some reason Ben and Claudia didn’t get back until like 2:30. The panel was at 4:00, so the organizers were talking to each other about getting people through the line quickly. The lines for Ben and Claudia were really long. Gigi, Anthony, and Lani didn’t have people lined up to see them, but they each did have a lot of people go up and talk to them.
Anyway, when Ben came out, oh my gosh, pictures just don’t do him justice. He’s a beautiful man in person. And he’s taller than I thought (I had met him in 2001 but he was sitting at the autograph table), and he really is built like a football player. He has broad shoulders, and for some reason that’s not noticeable on tv. Also, the beard is back but it’s much more tame than it had been at Dragoncon. Anyway, me and my brother were really close to the front of the regular line so we got to just watch him interacting with people until it was our turn. 😍
So, when you get up to the table, there’s someone with the con at the table with each actor and you tell them whether you want an autograph or a picture. Since I already met him and got an autograph 18 years earlier, I wanted to take a selfie with him. So anyway, he stood up when he was told I wanted a selfie and he’s so tall (he seemed like 6′1″ to me- so not super tall and def not as tall as Anthony Simcoe, but anyone who’s taller than me I think of as tall because I’m 5′11″). And he started walking around the table and I accidentally kicked his foot but he didn’t notice it. haha. So anyway we said hi to each other and he took my phone and put his arm around me so i put my hand on his back and he took like 3 selfies of us, and then he was like, “Let’s do an ugly one” and he held my phone down low and angled up at our faces. lol. When he started walking back to go behind the table again, I told him how I recently rewatched Farscape for the first time since it originally aired (I didn’t tell him I watched it 3 times in a row since April, though haha). So, he stayed standing and I told him about how it was a very different experience watching the show in my 30s than it was watching it when i was around 19. And he was standing and listening to me intently and I was gazing into his blue eyes, and anyway, he said, “Was it better when you were nineteen or in your thirties?” So I was like, “Oh better in my 30s.” And he was like, “Yeah, it’s really profound”, I guess meaning that it’s got a depth to it that you can’t really understand until you’re older. So then I had taken up too much time so he sat down and shook my hand and said thanks, and then I left. There had been more stuff I wanted to say to him, but they were in such a rush to get everyone through the line that I’m lucky I got to say as much as I did. Idk what my brother was doing in that time because he didn’t have money for a selfie or autograph, but he came up with me anyway but didn’t actually talk to Ben? lol.
By that time, it was after 3:00, and by 3:30 we went over to the seats in front of the main stage and waited for the panel to start. There weren’t any seats left, so we stood off to the side. And while I would have liked to be a little closer, it was actually a great spot to see and to be able to take photos and videos.
The panel was only an hour long. I wish it could have been longer. I felt like Rockne, Anthony, Gigi and Lani did most of the talking. Ben was able to talk a few times, and Claudia didn’t say a ton until near the end. It was still a really good panel and the audience questions weren’t cringey like they usually are.
So anyway, that’s it. It was a fun day and I’m so happy that i went both to the panel and to get a selfie with Ben.
Here are some photos from the panel, and a video compilation of random clips that I recorded:
