Expo & Cons - FedCon 22 by Doreen Freitag

Okay, there was this day when John Barrowman was announced for the FedCon 22 in Duesseldorf, Germany. So I had only one thing to do: booking those bloody tickets for my first convention ever!! But…would I survive four days between all these geeks and nerds?

Day One (Thursday)

In the morning, I thankfully got the information that the Hotel Maritim isn’t at the train station ‘Airport’ but at ‘Airport Terminal’. That wasn’t even that bad because it gave me the opportunity to arrive in proper style using the Airport Sky Train. I was really wowed by Duesseldorf’s amazing airport building and loved it at first sight.

First step into science fiction – check.

The Hotel Maritim was quickly found, and so I entered the entrance area. One step – and I stood in a completely different world. I have to admit that my first thought was: Oh my god, look at all these crazy people! There were captains and aliens, black apes with shields, Stormtroopers from Star Wars, Doctors and many other creatures – some human but others... I wasn’t sure. But, thank God, I wasn’t the only one dressed in ordinary clothes. It took only a few minutes to get assimilated by the surroundings and feel comfortable with it. Immediately I switched off the life outside and dived into this unknown universe.

Second step into science fiction – check.

Casper Van Dien (Starship Troopers, Titans) crossed my way but I learnt that this wasn’t anything special during such a convention. Some minutes later he had entered the counter where you could pay autographs in advance and sold autographs just for fun. At that moment I knew: This con is going to be great and fantastic.

Some friends and I decided to kill the time until the opening ceremony by going to the airport and having some late lunch. We had just finished eating as John Barrowman tweeted: ‘#germany here I come. Jb’

Of course none of us left the airport anymore. Damned wise decision. About an hour later John Barrowman appeared at the arrival gate and was pleased when being welcomed by his fans. The FedCon guys wanted to lead him away from us as quick as possible but John wouldn’t be John if he didn’t stop that in his own special way. He angrily turned around and said to them: ‘I'm not like other people. I talk to my fans!’

He FIRST joined us for a group photo which was really kind of him and headed THEN off to the opening ceremony. As if I didn’t know that before: this man is really worth going to a convention.

He left us smiling. The Captain had arrived.

Third step into science/fan fiction – check.

Being back at the Hotel Maritim, we entered the panel room and the opening ceremony started a few minutes later. Laser show effects, funny movies and at the end all guests were called onto the stage. Eve Myles and John Barrowman were the last ones in the call. Immediately John made clear that he is the king of naughtiness and Eve proved her skills as well.

In the evening we met Eve and John in the hotel bar. They had some drinks there with Casper Van Dien, Patrick Muldoon, Dina Meyer (Starship Troopers), Gigi Edgley (Farscape) and others. It was fun watching them taking this picture (tweeted by Dina Meyer).

Unfortunately I missed John and Eve crashing the Starship Troopers movie screening with JB in his underwear and other funny stuff. Okay, nothing new seeing the Captain/JB half or full-naked. So, well, next time.

DAY TWO – Friday 

The next morning started – and it was meant to be the last morning for me of not getting up tired. What’s going to happen today? ‘Oh, so many things. It gets better and then it gets worse again…’ Oops, wrong story line – or maybe not? J

I had the Eve Myles panel, a photoshoot with John and the John Barrowman panel on my schedule. The first panel was planned for 1 pm so I took the chance to visit the traders rooms. And this was the moment I finally realised: OMG, they are all totally but lovely nuts. I’ve been loving Star Trek and Star Wars and so many other Sci Fi series and movies for years but I wouldn’t call myself a Trekkie or a Warsler (German name of Star Wars fans). A convention had never been a number one choice of my life destinations. But this FedCon was so bloody nice. I was staring at all these great people in costumes, the huge amount of stuff to buy and got a warm feeling when I found the blue Police Box and the golden Dalek with its *plumber’s helper* – as we call that piece they used to point at you. ;)

 

And there were really amazing artwork. There was this great model of the U.S.S. Enterprise (which actually won a price at the contest) and I also couldn’t get enough of the brilliant metal-made aliens.

 

The afternoon started with the Eve Myles panel and that was simply great. Eve is such a warm-hearted, honestly interested, lovely, funny and so beautiful woman, though sometimes a girl too.

She had been entertaining the whole crowd for a complete hour on her own, made the audience laugh so hard and also cry a bit. Answering some questions she fell on her knees and when she recognised it she smiled and said something like: ‘I feel like being in a church.’ She had been so extraordinarily cute during the panel (and during the whole convention) that everybody must have been fallen in love with her for good.

I got my first picture with JB on this Friday, too. It was a huge queue but I managed to be one of the first hundred. The shooting was tough planned so John held more or less 1000 people in his arms on this day. ONE – TWO – THREE – GO!

John didn’t like that behaviour of the photographer and the staff and complained about it in the aftermath. The second shooting on the next day got even better and funnier. Result of my first picture with him: HE looks good, I grin too much.

Then I followed the John Barrowman panel and what can I say…he was great as always. First thing I remember is the question about his favourite Disney Princess. He chose Arielle because of her story.

Day Three – Saturday

Saturday almost completely belonged to the awesome costumes. There were even more of them on this day than the days before - maybe because of the costumes contest in the evening.

So I met them all. THE ALIEN I loved at first sight. It will always be my most scariest alien at all and so I couldn’t get enough of watching the monster moving like the original one. Really well done.

I have to admit I don’t know all of the other aliens or movie characters that showed up. But there were amazing creations. Of course, I recognised the well-known ones like Captain America, Iron Man, Darth Vader, Lara Croft or the Klingons (a con slogan this year was: ‘Keep Calm And Kling Off’).

But my favourite hero I met at the con (besides the real Captain Jack and Gwen Cooper) was that guy who cosplayed Wolverine. Oh my God, he was so cute! The moment I saw him I only could think: I want him. Oh, okay, at least a picture with him. After a failed try I got it. The first one wasn’t sharp enough (Not sharp enough? Am I kidding?). I didn’t complain – the pain wasn’t that hard making another pic with him. J

 

And then this young couple came along and they were eye-catching. There had been many Doctors (really good ones) at the con. But this young man blew me away.  When we asked them for permission to make a picture he turned away and grabbed the black glasses he had in his bag. When he turned back they looked like this. Whenever the BBC needs a younger copy of the 10^th Doctor – here he was. Just saying…

The only appointment of my Saturday’s schedule was the second photo shooting with John Barrowman. Because the first picture wasn’t convincing enough, so I wanted to try my luck again. This time with a fun shoot. I bought bananas at the airport and took one of them with me. I got my gun range pic with the Captain. Well, that's what it looks like when Captain Jack Harkness is showing me how to use a banana. It doesn't look as if I would hit any target that way, does it? I blame his fully charged 51st century pheromones...

My Saturday’s schedule was finished. I decided to watch the costume contest which was great fun since I wanted to see more people in fantastic disguises. Sadly my Wolverine wasn’t in it. Sigh.

I stood for the Ben Browder/Claudia Black panel (Stargate, Farscape) and that was a real good idea. They both rocked the stage and the audience was laughing tears again.

When it was over I took a seat with friends at the bar and then IT happened. John appeared again and had fun doing silly things with his actor colleagues on the party stage and in the bar. One of these things was kissing other people through the bar window pane. Suddenly the space behind the window was free and I thought: Okay, why not doing this, too, that’s my big chance…I headed out of the bar to the other side of the window pane and knocked on it. The girls inside were screaming and pointing at me and John turned around. He laughed and….drum roll… I got my Captain’s kiss.

Uhm, well, it felt like kissing the TV screen though. But the evening couldn’t get better any more for me.

When John Barrowman left the bar we thought he’d go to bed as he said so to us. But actually he didn’t. So the next day was…let’s say…exhausting.

Day Four – Sunday

Three hours of sleep that night wasn't that bad - could have been less. I only wonder how many hours John had slept.

Sunday was the day of the autograph session for me. I was on a mission. There was this special banner I wanted to get signed by John and Eve.

The queue at John’s signing table got longer and longer. Eve was already signing, Casper Van Dien came over and joked around and then, finally and one hour too late, John appeared.

A ‘Woohoo’ rolled through the hall and John sat down, sunglasses on. He took them off later and revealed a really tired hangover face. But he was smiling and took all his courage to go through this bloody signing. When I reached him I could tell him anything to write down that I wanted. He only did what he was told and tried smiling – maybe to stay awake. It was hilarious.

Then I went over to Eve and she completed my mission. So this signed banner is what I brought with me as a present for the ‘creator’ of Project Torchwood. John wrote the ‘Project Torchwood’ and the ‘Good luck’ part and signed. I explained a little bit more to Eve so she was so lovely to put the Gwen line below.

Good day.

  

After sorting my luggage (I had to reach my flight right after the Torchwood panel) I slipped into the Starship Troopers panel. There was the little hope that John or Eve would join again but Casper Van Dien said: No chance, John is in bed…

But for the Torchwood panel John rose up from the dead again and gave a brilliant performance with Eve. I loved the emotional part about his dogs (the question was asked by a friend of mine) and at the end we got him singing and dancing with Eve.

And this is the point my story ends. I watched the first part of the closing ceremony but had to leave before the guests appeared again. I heard that I didn’t miss that much.

To sum it all up:

The FedCon was an exciting and great experience that took me out of time and space into another exciting time and space.

To quote Gwen Cooper: I bloody LOVED it.

Picture sources: Doreen, Nicole, Ralf