Love in a Wormhole: Stargate SG-1/Atlantis Convention
By Alicia Hollinger
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today)
November 12th, 2009
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| Michael Shanks at the Stargate SG-1/Atlantis Convention |
What brings a worldwide audience from as far away as Australia, Germany, Brazil and England to a Los Angeles sci-fi convention? Fascination with high tech gadgetry, wormholes and aliens? No, not this time. It’s the hot guys.
An audience of predominantly middle aged women gathered the weekend of Nov. 6-8 at the Los Angeles Marriott at LAX for Creation Entertainment’s Official Stargate SG-1/Atlantis Convention for a chance to melt at the sight of the Beatles of Stargate — hotties Michael Shanks, Joe Flanigan, Ben Browder, and perhaps the Ringo of the group, Paul McGillion.
Stargate SG-1 ran for 10 years from 1997-2007 and Stargate: Atlantis for five, 2004-2009. Two Stargate movies were released directly to DVD and a third may or may not be in development, depending on whom you talk to. Word is MGM is having problems financing the project. The new controversial SGU Stargate Universe has just begun its run with mixed reviews.
Although not a particularly large group, the convention attendees were certainly an enthusiastic one. And very willing to shell out money for their obsession. Most attendees opted for the sold-out Gold Pass going for $379, which included preferred seating, free autographs and photo ops normally going for $30-$70. Auctioned autographed Stargate banners went for as much as $425; one woman spent at least $1000 on auctioned goodies — banners, and T-Shirts and memorabilia, oh my! Private lunches, breakfasts, and cocktails with a 15-person limit went for up to $500. As they say, sex sells. Although…
Despite their hotness, the Stargate cuties are all very married with children. When asked if he was a flirt, Joe Flanigan dodged the question saying “My wife might get pissed off if she thinks I’m a flirt” and right on cue received a phone call from her that he answered on stage, thrilling the audience with this peek into his private life. While shooting in Vancouver for five years, the dedicated husband flew home to Malibu every weekend to see his wife and kids.
Michael Shanks had his daughter in tow who piped in from the audience, “Dad, you’re such a dork!” and later pointedly refuted the accusation that she was responsible for chocolate pudding cups left in his trailer that led to a naughty prank on co-star Christopher Judge. Shanks joked that his favorite guest appearance was on the TV show Andromeda and didn’t have to explain to the giggling savvy audience that’s where he met his wife, actress Lexa Doig. Perhaps intimidated by all the estrogen in the room, he looked up to the ceiling and exclaimed “I love you sweetheart!” The fact that they appeared to be nice family guys just somehow made them seem even more appealing.
The big elephant in the room was the subject of the new TV series SGU Stargate Universe. Michael Shanks has openly panned the show, claiming the drama was forced and the characters were made to look like petulant children. He conceded that he did, however, like the visual effects, camera work and photography and the actors were really giving their all. When he put the question out to the audience to get their opinion, audience members screamed out, “It’s too dark,” “It’s boring,” “Too many characters,” “It’s slow paced,” “We don’t care about the characters.”
One of the funniest but most off-color speakers, Robert Picardo, referred to the series as “Stargate Galactica,” which got a huge laugh from the audience. Writer-producer Martin Gero, aware of the current fan reaction, urged them to hang on, give it time, and promised it will change and be more similar to the Stargate series the fans know and love. He explained that “the birth of a new show is super difficult” and felt they “had to reinvent the gate and make it fresh.” He continually begged the fans to stick with it. The fans most likely will.
As well-loved as the Stargate actors are, they are struggling to find the type of work they seek. Although virtual Beatles at the convention, TMZ would probably walk right by them on Robertson Blvd. All surprisingly funny and quick-witted on stage, they may want to look into careers in stand-up. However, when asked what type of role they would most like to play, oddly none picked comedy.
Fans were most interested in the stars’ funny private stories, juicy tidbits, on set pranks, and answers to questions about careers in the entertainment industry. Flanigan revealed that he wished he could have directed episodes of Stargate: Atlantis, but the Canadian tax laws prevented him from doing so. He joked “I would have become Canadian just to shoot an episode.” He said “If I were directing, I feel maybe there’s an arrogance, a cockiness that I have. I feel like I could do a good job because I see people don’t handle actors well. At all. They don’t understand them, they don’t understand how they think… There are a lot of technocrats. Especially in television.”
Michael Shanks had the audience laughing over complications with his costume on upcoming episodes of Smallville as Hawkman. “The wingspan is 13 feet. When I turn, I knock crap over. I hit people in the face. It’s twice my height widthwise. Good luck other actors getting in that shot.” He revealed a bit of frustration with the early incarnation of his Stargate SG-1 character Daniel Jackson, who he felt was “too often the brunt of the joke like the Kenny character (in Southpark) who gets killed at the end of every episode and we all laugh.”
Photo-ops with the actors were a huge big deal. Eavesdropping on the fans, there was no talk of alien races, time travel dilemmas or arguments about quantum physics, just gleeful exclamations of: “Oh my God, Ben (Browder) is such a hunk!”, “Joe (Flanigan) was sooo nice!”, “Michael (Shanks) hugged me!” This is a sci-fi convention???
But it’s more than just the hot guys that bring these women back year after year. One new fan who just started watching Stargate SG-1 reruns a few months ago told Michael Shanks she watches marathons of the show with her kids for hours and hours, forgetting everything else. She gushed, “You guys become part of my family. It was pivotal for us to experience that, go on journeys with you. Thank you very much!” To which Shanks replied “Thank you for sipping of the Stargate Kool-Aid.”
All in all, the Stargate convention was a true love-fest. “It’s a happy world,” fans say. “We all get excited about something we all love. The actors are genuinely nice and so entertaining, and really funny!” Debra Selle, a recent breast cancer survivor, is using her love of Stargate for a good cause, auctioning off autographed Beanie Babies to raise money for breast cancer awareness:http://www.avonwalk.org/goto/debra_selle “A lot of my best friends I met through these conventions,” Selle says. “We become friends for life.”
Who knew that a Syfy Channel TV empire about people going through a wormhole to fight off evil aliens could leave one feeling so warm and fuzzy?
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