Well, I did go and it was pretty cool. I got there around 7pm and magically was able to find street parking about two blocks away. I was surprised to not find a huge line around the block in front of the theater (only about 30-40 people). The staffers working the event behind the rope line and near a cloth-colored table said that people had started lining up around 8am this morning and that those people were currently seeing the final episode of Season 3, "Crossroads, Part 2" on the big screen. However, they gave everyone waiting in line a very cool black t-shirt with the words "Frak Off" in red. Finally, we were let in to the Cinerama Dome and castmembers Edward James Olmos (Admiral William Aldama), Mary McDonnell (President Laura Roslin), Jamie Bamber (Lee Aldama), Katee Sackhoff (Kara "Starbuck" Thrace), Lucy Lawless (D'Anna Biers) plus producers Ronald D. Moore and David Eick. The event was emceed by Lawless, who opened the event with a shout out to "the noble Cylon race."
Some blogger called Flipit has an incredibly detailed minute-by-minute recap of the event posted at tvgasm.com so I won't say much more about the actual comments made by the attendees but I will include some of my impressions.
Lucy Lawless -- sounded like she must have had a cocktail
or three before the event, but managed to be funny and foolish at the same time
("space opera, what a cool term, did you just invent that?") all the whole
looking amazing in a too-tight dress.
Mary McDonnell -- was also in a dress that also seemed too
tight, but looked great. She was probably the most animated member of the panel
and pobably had the most fun.
Jamie Bamber --
shorter than I expected, but still very handsome. However, his thick British
accent was a huge shocker. He wasn't shy about saying that he was happy that the
show was ending.
Edward James Olmos -- was basically acting like the
crotchety grandpa of the set, complaining about the network (a division of NBC
Universal) cancelling the show due to low ratings. He
questioned the ratings procedures by A.C. Nielsen, saying that it is well-known
they under-count African Americans and Latinos and Asians. In addition, due to
thegeekyintelligent nature of BSG's fans they are more likely to download the
show on ITunes and other places and to use DVR to skip the commercials. He came
across like the head of the cast, which I suppose was fitting since he played
the head officer on Battlestar Galactica.
Katie Sackhoff -- was pretty quiet and a bit giggly when
she spoke. She kept on needling Olmos and McDonnell about her relative youth ("I
wasn't born yet when the first Battlestar series was airing") which was
sorta cute but got sorta annoying after awhile. She also didn't seem too upset
about the end of the show since she has been cast in the new Bionic Woman.
Ronald Moore -- was very laidback and seemed very
respectful of the fans. He also had seen all this rabid fan energy before,
having been the central force behind at least one Star Trek series
(Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and heavily associated with best of another Star Trek: The Next Generation). He didn't seem overly upset about the demise of BSG, since he will be involved wth production of the show for the next 12 months or so, and is looking forward to the production of the pilot of the spin-off prequel Caprica.
David Eick -- was also pretty laidback and seemed pretty
comfortable playing bad cop to Moore's good cop. He has a show picked up on NBC
for the fall, Bionic Woman in which Sachoff is playing a recurring role
as a villain. He provided some interesting details about the genesis of BSG
since he was the primary executive producer on the original 4-hour
miniseries.
After the panel, they showed a too-short highlight reel of scenes from the 2-hour movie airing in Fall 2007 called "Razor" which covers the story of the Battlestar Pegasus told in flashbacks. The entire cast of Battlestar Galactica will appear, as well as Michelle Forbes (Ensign Ro from Star Trek: The Next Generation) starring as Admiral Cain.
All in all I was glad that I went.
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