Pegasus 4 Stargate Atlantis Convention


I attended the Pegasus 4 convention by Wolf Events at January 23 to 25 2009 and now have pictures of the event to offer you. Enjoy! You're welcome to download them (just credit me if you repost them, please), but please don't hotlink them.

If you crave for more photos, here are links to pics from other people, often much better than mine:

Some videos:

And if you seek other people's comments about the convention:


Con Report

General Thoughts

Waiting for the Eurostar gave me a bit of an airport feeling, except way, way less paranoid and unnerving; and then when you exit the waiting room, it's funny to see just a plain TGV-like train before your eyes. Anyway, going from Paris to London is so convenient I feel like I could do it much more often, now that I have a valid identity card!

On the bad side, not having any radiator at all (can you believe it?!), the hotel room was very cold and I estimated the temperature to be around 15 or 16°C; that it lacked proper duvets for this temperature didn't help. Even with the extra blanket, I was cold when sleeping. As for the food in the hotel restaurant, it was good but took aaaaages to be served, even when all you ordered was a cold sandwich. :-/

As I didn't really know anybody before going to Pegasus 4, I felt a bit isolated at times, but I didn't truly have time to be bored. So much happened within a couple of days! It was exhausting, but well worth it. I spent one of the best weekends of my life, which reminded me of a generic science-fiction convention I attended in France years ago. Many people said this year was the best of all Pegasus cons. Even though as can't compare since it was my first, I agree it was wonderful!

I wish P4 had lasted longer because it was awfully hard to choose between a photo session or a talk, or between activities and preparing my costume for the fancy dress competition. I ended up getting a photo only with Chris Heyerdahl, and missing most of Neil Roberts' interventions.

However, although I had been warned that you tend to queue endlessly at Wolf conventions, it wasn't actually half as bad as what had been told. Except for the Meet & Greet on Friday evening and the autograph session on Sunday afternoon, most of the convention didn't run too late. I missed most of Friday party because I already was too tired when it finally began, but waiting for the autograph session gave me the opportunity to rest a bit and discuss with other people.

As a whole, I wasn't too bad at understanding what people were saying, either guests or other fans, but speaking was a whole different story. It was very frustrating not being able to properly express what I was wanting to! That Chris Heyerdahl speaks French perfectly was a welcomed surprise, and I'll remember our conversation as one of the particular highlights of the weekend.

The Saturday party (the only one I truly attended) was great, but I have to say I just suck at convention dances. Ew, I couldn't manage to do them properly to save my life! I guess I'm really not enough of a social animal. In the future, I'll stick with talking with people and taking photos... at least it I can repair my camera or if I buy a new one; I guess it didn't like my makeup. :-/

I was very sad when I heard Pegasus 4 would be the last of Wolf's Stargate Atlantis cons, due to the series ending and the difficult financial climate. I'm afraid I'll not know most of the guests at future generic Stargate convention; in fact, I even hesitate about buying a ticket for Haven One despite not really being a Sanctuary fan, just to meet SGA actors (only Ryan Robins so far, but I hope for Chris Heyerdahl!)

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The Costume Contest aka Fancy Dress Competition

As I decided to dress up as a wraith only a week before Pegasus 4, I didn't have time to properly prepare my costume. I spent the whole preceding weekend and my noon pauses looking for wraith-like contact lenses and appropriate makeup. As for the clothes, a long somewhat gothic dress, a fancy T-shirt, pins, a belt from another dress, an aluminium foil, a hair clip I normally use for the bath, a chocolate box ribbon and a little imagination were all I had to do the trick. :-D

To be honest, I'm not sure I'd participate to the costume competition again, at least not as a wraith. On a hand, it was fun to disguise myself, and I certainly don't regret Chris congratulating me repeatedly afterwards; but on the other hand, it took a very long time to apply and then to remove it, plus I missed all other participants' performances. Moreover, the yellow slitted contacts were irritating my eyes, even with constantly adding physiological serum, and I ended up running into my room as soon as the contest was over.

While my first intention was to dress up all weekend, I quickly abandoned the contacts, then most of the makeup, then any makeup at all. I just had that awful temporary black dye in my hair that left a black powder everywhere, even several showers later, and leftovers of black and green nail varnish.

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Christopher Heyerdahl (Halling the Athosian, Todd the Wraith)

Although Chris was my main reason for going to Pegasus 4, I didn't know what to expect as it was his first (as far as I know) true participation in a convention, and he was a wonderful surprise. Chris is such a funny, nice and intelligent guy! He joked about us being his first, he did Todd voice for us (awwwww! :-} ), and we learnt he ships Todd/John Sheppard in Stargate Atlantis and John Druitt/Helen Magnus in Sanctuary.

I first encountered him while waiting for the Friday party. The Meet & Greet was running late and I was just standing outside the door with green makeup and my unpleasant contacts, bored out of my mind, when he strode past me. The moment he recognised my makeup, he had a huge very fanboyish smile, hee hee. :-D It only lasted for a split second before he was gone (I suspect he was late, or nervous, or probably both), but the next day, after my photo shot with him, he asked me if I was the person with contacts he'd seen the evening before. I guess he appreciated the effort. :-}

I've forgotten most of what he said during his talks, but I remember he made me love Todd even more as a character and himself both as an actor and a person. Someone asked him why his portrayal of Druitt had evolved with time, and he answered the idea of redemption was important to him. I could have hugged him! Now I must watch Sanctuary. And on the next day, he explained he's a relative of the explorer Thor Heyerdahl, and he admires his cousin's will and ability to go where nobody else ever went before. Among other less meaningful things, he said he tends to prefer the character he's playing at the time, and he clearly confirmed Todd had his feeding hand back in Enemy at the Gate.

When I thanked him in the collective name of the Wraith Defenders Club for all what he brought to Todd, he seemed almost intimidated, much more so than when people were asking somewhat personal question (such as the usual boxers or briefs?). Isn't he used to be complimented for his awesome work? Or is my poor spoken English so scary? :-p But he seemed to like the Todd tattoo I'd made in prevision of the photo shot.

During the party after the costume competition, he congratulated me for my makeup (and also several times on Sunday!) and we had an awesome discussion. He speaks French nearly perfectly, but he had to lower himself to hear me because of the music and because I'm so short compared to him.

We first talked about wraith makeup and he told me that although his own contact lenses are specifically made for his eyes, they hurt him too at the end of a shooting day. Now I can imagine how wraith actors feel after 15 hours!

Chris had always wanted to play a wraith, despite being first chosen for Halling. It was great to hear how much he loves them, and that he doesn't consider them evil, especially not Todd. I expressed my worries the writers may turn him into a bad guy for the movie, and while Chris didn't seem to think so, he didn't look like he'd be surprised either. Anyway, he was very firm he wouldn't agree with such a decision, and while I didn't ask explicitly, the way he told me he wouldn't subscribe to this vision sounded like he'd refuse the role. He insisted that everybody makes mistakes sometimes, and that it would be a mistake from the writers to turn Todd into a bad guy.

We also discussed about Brendan Penny's portrayal of Todd in Be All My Sins Remeber'd, as Chris had mentioned the topic during his talk. I told him I prefer his own portrayal (again, he looked shy when faced with compliments) and agreed the rhythm of Todd's voice was different in this episode, despite the voice being Chris'.

Finally, I told him that although I don't always agree with the writing in SGA, it's great for me as a viewer to see how committed to their roles the actors are. I have no idea how long our whole conversation lasted, but it was one of the most wonderful moments I had at Pegasus 4. I invited him to the WDC on the autograph session; I'm not sure he'll want to, but I'm sure we could have awesome discussions with him there.

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Kavan Smith (Major Evan Lorne)

Compared to Chris, always so polite and whose worst swear expression was oh gosh, Kavan was quite a shock. He uses fuck and derivatives every couple sentence and plays somewhat the bad boy... although, from what he told us, he used to be much worse in that respect when he was younger. :-p He felt unwell on Saturday although he managed to become a bit more animated as his talk was going on, but fortunately he was feeling much better on Sunday.

Kavan told us of a few embarrassing experiences he had had as an actor, and man, it seems he did have his share of crappy jobs in the past! I feel for him, and for all actors who have to play sex scenes all naked but for a sock, in front of the entire movie crew. :-D

About the other Stargate Atlantis actors, he was caustic about David Hewlett (Dr. Rodney McKay) and explained how often and how much David complains any time something doesn't go like he'd want it to. He imitated him while filming the Search and Rescue scene when McKay makes debris fall on Lorne, and David got dirt in his eyes and was all screaming about it.

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Paul McGillion (Dr. Carson Beckett)

Seeing him gave me a shock. Not because he did anything wrong, mind you, but he looks so much like Carson Beckett! All the other actors were very different in real life from their characters (in haircut, clothes, body language, manner of speaking...), but when I saw Paul for the first time I got a very strong and disturbing feeling of having suddenly jumped into the show reality. :-D

Unfortunately, I had to miss the better part of his talk on Saturday because of the photo session with Chris; moreover, even though he has naturally less accent than Beckett on the show, he was still a bit hard to understand for me. But later on Saturday, he interrupted Chuck's conference by coming on the scene with his kilt. At this point he didn't look at all like Beckett anymore. ;-)

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Chuck Campbell (Chuck the Gate Technician)

I had heard several times that Chuck is a very funny guest, and I wasn't the least disappointed! I had a bit more trouble understanding him than Chris, but what I understood was hilarious. I was coughing and my lungs were hurting from too much laugh because of him! :-D It's pretty impossible to summarise his talks, but I had an excellent time.

At the party on the Sunday evening. he was speaking with a group of people, and he was very funny and pleasant to talk to... even after he spilt beer. ;-)

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James "BamBam" Bamford (Stunt Coordinator)

I already knew BamBam somewhat through his thread on the Gateworld forum, and he's as cool a guy in real life as he is in there. He talked about what it is to do stunts, and how it works with the actors. We learnt David Hewlett is like McKay (i.e. really really not fit!), that Joe Flanigan could manage to hurt himself even when doing the least dangerous stunt, that Jason Momoa is as strong as he seems (but doesn't like to be punched in the nose by an incompetent stunt man!), and that Chris Heyerdahl is surprisingly good at doing his fights scenes himself.

On the Sunday, he didn't do a conference but instead showed us how he builds a fight. Tina aka Teknikal on Gateworld was "attacked" by three local stunt men he had hired for the demo. It was awesome to watch, and it reminded me of my medieval sword lessons.

Afterwards, BamBam organised another demo session, but with any fan who'd want to try. Alas, I missed it because I stayed in the conference room for the other talks; perhaps next time, I hope...

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Neil Roberts (Stargate Atlantis: The Kindness Of Strangers, Audiobook With Paul McGillion)

I'm not entirely sure whether Neil produces Stargate Atlantis audiobooks, or if he only plays in them with Paul. I'm afraid I missed both his talk and the Dial or No Dial game on Saturday because of the costume competition. I didn't pay much attention to his conference on Sunday because not having a clue what he was talking about made him hard to understand, especially with the tiredness. My interest rose when he began talking about things Stargate, but I don't remember what he said. :-/

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Pictures


Scenery

[The stargate] [Atlantis' wall and the stargate] [Lit stargate] [Atlantis' wall, big screen and lit stargate] [Atlantis' wall, lit stargate and big screen announcing BamBam] [Atlantis' wall, lit stargate and big screen announcing Kavan] [Pegasus 4 starship now in orbit above Earth] [Atlantis' wall and the stargate] [Atlantis' wall and the stargate] [Pegasus 4 starship entering hyperspace] [Pegasus 4 starship entering hyperspace] [Atlantis' wall and the stargate] [Pegasus 4 starship entering hyperspace] [Pegasus 4 starship entering hyperspace] [Atlantis' wall and the stargate] [The stargate] [Lit stargate] [Lit stargate]

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Christopher Heyerdahl

[Chris exits the gate] [Chris in front of the stargate] [Chris in front of the stargate] [Chris talking] [Chris in front of the stargate] [Chris talking] [Chris exits the gate] [Chris exits the gate] [Chris talking] [Isn't he impressive!!] [Chris talking] [Chris talking] [Chris talking] [Chris talking] [Chris talking] [Todd rubbed off on Chris!]

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Kavan Smith

[Kavan exits the gate] [Kavan exits the gate] [Kavan talking] [Kavan talking] [Kavan exits the gate] [Kavan talking] [Kavan talking] [Kavan talking] [Kavan without his cap ;-)] [Kavan talking]

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Paul McGillion

[Paul talking] [Paul interrupts Chuck... and distracts him with his kilt!] [Paul interrupts Chuck... and distracts him with his kilt!] [Paul interrupts Chuck... and distracts him with his kilt!] [Paul in his kilt and Bryan] [Paul and Neil Roberts] [Paul and Neil Roberts] [Paul talking] [Paul talking] [Paul and Neil Roberts] [Paul talking]

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Chuck Campbell

[Chuck exits the gate] [Chuck exits the gate] [Chuck mimicking a funny dialogue] [Chuck mimicking a funny dialogue] [Chuck mimicking a funny dialogue] [Chuck mimicking a funny dialogue] [Chuck talking] [Chuck talking] [Chuck talking] [Chuck exits the gate] [Chuck talking] [Chuck talking] [Thirsty!]

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James Bamford

[BamBam exits the gate] [BamBam exits the gate] [BamBam on the screen] [BamBam talking] [BamBam talking] [BamBam showing his tattoo] [BamBam talking] [BamBam talking] [BamBam presenting one of the stuntmen for the demo] [BamBam presenting one of the stuntmen for the demo] [BamBam presenting the stuntmen for the demo] [BamBam explaining the demo] [BamBam explaining the demo]

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Stunt Demonstration

[Stunt demo with Teknikal] [Stunt demo with Teknikal] [Stunt demo with Teknikal] [Stunt demo with Teknikal] [Stunt demo with Teknikal] [Stunt demo with Teknikal] [Stunt demo with Teknikal] [Stunt demo with Teknikal] [Stunt demo with Teknikal] [Stunt demo with Teknikal] [That was well done!] [Stunt demo aftermath :->]

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Group Photos

[Ending (*sob*) ceremony] [Ending (*sob*) ceremony] [Ending (*sob*) ceremony] [Chris showing his butt to BamBam and Chuck :-o] [Ending (*sob*) ceremony] [Ending (*sob*) ceremony] [Bryan is down!] [The revenge of the guests]

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Fancy Dress Contestants and Other Costumed Fans

[No mercy for Atlantis' enemies!] [Growl, I'm going to eat you! Fortunately my handgina opens better than my mouth :-D] [Todd, ready to defend himself] [The queen from "Rising"] [The puddle jumper needs some repairs] [You can't defeat me, puny human!] [The wraith from "Vegas" and his queen]

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Inscriptions

[Christopher Heyerdahl and myself with Todd's tattoo] [Inscription from Chris Heyerdahl to the Wraith Defenders Club]

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Laura@Espezon.org

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My home page (in French).
Last update: February 20, 2008.