Press Conference 

Before the convention opened for regular visitors, there was a press conference scheduled at 10:30 - which was the reason for me to get up that early. The press conference was held in a beautiful saloon with a warm atmosphere. Here, the fan-made artworks made their first appearance - on a silver screen for all star guests to see. As I learned afterwards, they were very impressed.

The first guest was Mike Hillebrand who introduced his new book "40 years of Star Trek - these are the adventures". It's a German book especially for the anniversary of Star Trek.
The next guest who was introduced was Hubert Zitt - a scientist famous for his dissertations. For the FedCon 16, he had two panels scheduled: "The Visions of Star Trek" and "The Science of Star Wars".
After that, the crew around the Executive Producer of our DVD crew - Rene von Bodisco - has shown a promotional trailer for their short science fiction movie "Kurzzeithelden". The press was quite interested in this project and asked several questions.
Jack Moik introduced to us another science fiction movie made in Germany: "Nydenion", which is a private low-budget production with nontheless stunning CGI effects, as some raw material could portrait very well. With an estimated production time of almost ten years, it is surely an ambitious project. Jack Moik and his crew want to show that good science fiction can also be made in Germany.

Then, the star guests were announced one after another. In chronological order: Robert O'Reilly, J.G. Hertzler, Orli Shoshan, Garrett Wang, Anthony Montgomery, Jonathan Frakes, Kate Mulgrew, Avery Brooks, Paul McGillion, Cirroc Lofton, Suzie Plakston, Marc B. Lee and Richard Arnold. The opening of the press conference already gave an impression of how the rest would be - certainly not dry and boring. O'Reilly and Hertzler welcomed everyone by performing a bit of the famous Blues Brothers song "everybody". 

One of the first topics was the new Star Trek movie. Richard Arnold said that the rumour of Matt Damon playing Captain Kirk has been floated for 2 years now without anyone on the staff ever even mentioning this idea. In fact, the staff has not yet even begun filming and the movie will not be published until December 2008.

Questions targeted at the entire Star Trek staff were a common situation - obviously, since there were so many well known Star Trek actors at the convention. So, whenever a question began with "...to all the Star Trek members", laughter was aroused. The first of these questions asked for the impressions that Star Trek has left in everyone's personal and professional life. After no one wanted to take over, Paul McGillion surprisingly took the microphone and began talking about his fictional experiences on Star Trek - a show he never actually played on. Avery Brooks' answer wasn't less funny: "It actually transformed my life - now I'm here in Bonn". Kate Mulgrew replied: "Looking back, I'm not sure if I drank enough". Apart from some ironic remarks however, they all had two impressions in common: The people they were working with during their time on set and the strong fanbase they would be meeting on the conventions, as Garrett Wang pointed out.

During the first 20 minutes, there was one empty chair. With the respective delay, Laura Bertram joined the press conference. Surprisingly, she received the loudest applause from the press representatives. Jewel Staite was asked about additional Firefly seasons, but all she could hope for is another movie. She did not imagine that there would be any more seasons within the next ten years, according to the studio. The next question aimed at the sexual relationship of her character Kaylee to "battery driven things" and how many takes the respective scenes have required. Being asked about her technological knowledge right after, her answer "I can't even change batteries" caused quite a lot of laughter.

An entertaining intermission was brought to the press conference when certainly Darth Vader stepped in, followed by three Stormtroopers. Poor Orli Shoshan (the Jedi Shaak Ti in Star Wars) was called "Jedi scum", but she took it with humor. When Darth Vader rested in the rear of the room, his breathing noise distracted quite a few people, resulting in Cirroc Lofton asking him to turn it off.

Being asked about further Andromeda seasons, Laura Bertram replied that there would be no further than the finished five seasons. There were plans about a movie however. Yet, there have been no developments so far. 

Some of the fun questions has been "what's your favourite movie?" which brought up a little debate between Garrett Wang and Jonathan Frakes. While Wang replied with "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan", Jonathan Frakes got upset and asked: "C'mon, what's wrong with First Contact?" Marc B. Lee was trying to please the masses instead by mentioning "Das Boot".

Paul McGillion whose Stargate Atlantis character Carson Beckett was killed in season 3 gave us the information that he would be coming back for season 4. He hasn't read the script yet, but will definately reprise the character - much to the pleasure of the German fans who had organized quite some events for Paul McGillion during the FedCon. 

While Avery Brooks got up in the middle of the conference to change clothes, Hertzler and O'Reilly asked if there was a casino in Bonn. The question was actually what the guests would do aside from attending the convention itself. Paul McGillion had thrown in that all of them would go to the city and have a big party, inviting everyone to join them. How much truth his words contained was to be revealed later in the evening.

Garrett Wang later gave some insight on his most embarrassing moment ever - which was on his last FedCon when he was forced by Robert McNeill to play on the clarinet  and utterly failed. As a revenge, he ordered him to take his shirt off in front of all the fans - which he did. As Marc B. Lee stated afterwards, this was the start of a FedCon tradition - each year, at least one of the guests comes on stage and takes his shirt off. 

The press conference came to an end with every actor giving information on their current projects. When it was Paul McGillion's turn, he enumerated his various activities: teaching at the university, having a hip hop label opening, doing a new pilot in Florida, etc...when he finally came to an end, he spoke on behalf of Avery Brooks, who had still not come back yet: "He's starring in every major production in the US right now", "he's also starring in '12 angry men' - he's the thirteenth...". Coming to an end, he mentioned that apart from that, he wouldn't be doing much.

At the very end of the conference, Avery Brooks returned to the saloon and a very entertaining conference full of humor ended. It was not quite what I had expected from a press conference, but apart from the great information being provided, it was a good foretaste of what was to come during the panels.