DarenDoc’s Slightly Nifty Musings Inc.

The man who inspired me to follow my dreams and work hard and be kind and laugh and be creative and try my best and clean up my room turns 79 today.

Happy Birthday, Daddy.

I’m happy to report that over the weekend, our Wondercon Galaxy Quest Retrospective of 30 years of the original series was a resounding success.  Our medium sized room at the panel was insignificant next to the power of the crowd… and was filled to its capacity. A crowd lined up a half an hour beforehand and was running down the hall, around the corner, and around the corner again.  We were even hassled trying to get into our own panel, until we said that WE were the ones doing it.  It was a great time, and my co-panelists Steven Melching, Robert Meyer Burnett, and newly announced “Galaxy Quest: The Next Generation” exec producer Ashley Miller were on hand showing their Questarian credentials.  (We neglected to announce that GQ-TNG had a website, www.galaxyquesttng.com, but mentioned it at our Starship Smackdown panel the next day.  It looks like a placeholder page at the moment, but you can email them and join a list, I guess to be alerted when it goes live.

An adventurous audience member videotaped the proceedings, and I’m so pleased they put up segments from it on youtube… here they are.

I’ll be at Wondercon the first weekend of April doing some fun panels… here is a preview:

FRIDAY

2:30-3:30 Geek Café: State of the Genre Report— Join our panel of experts as they examine the state of science fiction, fantasy and horror in film and TV from the living ever longer and prospering Star Trek franchise to Star Wars to what the success of Avatar means for the future of movies. Join Robert Meyer Burnett (Free Enterprise, The Hills Run Red), Daren Dochterman (conceptual illustrator, Iron Man 2, Master & Commander), Steve Kriozere(Dead & Deader, NCIS), and Steve Melching (The Clone Wars, The Batman) for this freewheeling conversation about the state of sci-fi movies and TV today. Room 220

SATURDAY

3:00-4:00 Galaxy Quest: A 23rd “Anniversary” Galactic Celebration: Never Give Up, Never Surrender!— It’s been 23 years since the best sci-fi TV series of the 80s, Galaxy Quest,first debuted on television, and now our panel of Questsperts discuss their favorite episodes, whatever happened to the cast, and the future for the franchise. Although the series has been dormant for two decades (despite some bad JN/AD slash fiction and old VHS and laserdiscs), there’s always hope for the future. Never give up, never surrender! Featuring Robert Meyer Burnett (Free Enterprise), Daren Dochterman (VFX, ST: TMP Director’s Cut), and Steve Melching (The Clone Wars, Big Guy & Rusty the Boy Robot). Room 220

SUNDAY

3:30-5:00 Starship Smackdown XIV: Captains’ Courageous Edition— The must-see panel of WonderCon and Comic-Con International returns for another action-packed year as the greatest spaceships in the history of the universe and this or any other dimension compete for the highly-coveted Smackdown title. Will the Enterprise once again defeat an Imperial Star Destroyer? Can the Serenity make mincemeat out of the Battlestar Galactica? And what exactly is the Captain’s Courageous lightning round anyway? Our panel of expert spaceshipologists vying to outwit, outplay, and outphaser includes Robert Meyer Burnett (Free Enterprise, Hills Run Red), Daren Dochterman (conceptual artist, X2, Iron Man 2), Steve Melching (The Clone Wars, Transformers), and special surprise guests. End your weekend the San Diego way with a REAL San Francisco treat! Room 103

Yeah, I’m looking forward to this… should be a lot of fun.  I’m especially excited to be able to do the Galaxy Quest panel, since the powers that be won’t allow any “unauthorized” Star Trek panels, our “Is Star Trek Dead” fan favorite panel is no more…

So now we can concentrate on our OTHER favorite genre show…

Hope to see you there.

At least, what we thought was the future…    Let’s all have a happy and healthy new Decade…

To all the readers of DarenDoc’s Slightly Nifty Musings, have a wonderful holiday season and health and happiness in the new year.

Let’s bid 2009 a fond farewell… hope we don’t see more like ya!

-Daren