Welcome Home From Comic Con

I arrived home from this year’s Comic Con on Sunday night, exhausted from 5 incredible days of programs (and a case of “concrud” – otherwise known as a head cold from the constant back-and-forth between the air conditioning of the buildings and the heat of San Diego), sharing fun experiences with friends and working my butt off taking notes for a multitude of panels – most of which will be featured here at NiceGirlsTV.

The adventure started off with my friends and I arriving in San Diego well before check-in time at our hotel. Since we had time, we drove around downtown San Diego for a bit before seeking sustenance at Café Diem (otherwise known as the Hard Rock Café, which was being used during the duration of the con as the SyFy Channel’s base of operations via the café featured in their original TV series Eureka). We then got checked into our hotel and relaxed for awhile until 3 PM when registration opened. That process takes all of 5 minutes because of the streamlined process the event organizers’ have created, allowing us to find an open electrical outlet for the laptop a friend brought along and reviewing the Events Guide, which is part of the “goodie bag” for all attendees, making sure that none of our panels had been changed in any way, shape or form.

We then walked around the convention center for awhile and got our bearings, making sure we knew the locations of all the rooms for which we needed to be over the course of the convention as well as the location of the off-site ballroom that was being used this year in addition to the rooms at the convention center.

On Thursday (July 23) I participated in the panel by Entertainment Weekly called Wonder Women: Female Power Icons in Pop Culture, featuring Sigourney Weaver (Alien), Elizabeth Mitchell (Lost and V), Zoe Saldana (Star Trek) and Eliza Dushku (Dollhouse) followed by the panel for the USA series Burn Notice, featuring stars Bruce Campbell and Seth Peterson; guest stars Ben Shenkman and Jay Karnes and Executive Producers Matt Nix and Alfredo Barrios, Jr.

I then moved to a different room to sit in on the panel for Legend of the Seeker, the new syndicated hit from New Zealand based on the Terry Goodkind Sword of Truth novels. The author himself was on hand as well as star Bruce Spence (Zedd) and Executive Producers Ned Nalle and Ken Biller. The last panel of the day was Mad Science: The Science Behind Science Fiction, which featured Jane Espenson (Buffy, Battlestar Galactica and Warehouse 13), Jamie Paglia (Eureka), Kevin Grazier (Battlestar Galactica), Rob Chiappetta (Fringe) and Glenn Whitman (Fringe).

Thursday evening was the only early night that my group of friends and I had to enjoy a leisurely dinner at our favorite little restaurant in the Gaslamp District before heading back to our hotel to get as full a night’s sleep as possible.

My friends headed off to the convention center before me on Friday (July 24) morning in order to get into the Stargate Universe panel followed by the Caprica/Battlestar Galactica: The Plan panel while I headed off to a different room for the Coraline panel, featuring stars Teri Hatcher and Keith David, author Neil Gaiman and Director Henry Selick (among others) and the Flash Forward panel, which featured stars Joseph Fiennes, John Cho, Courtney B. Vance and Christine Woods as well as Executive Producers David S. Goyer, Marc Guggenheim and Brannon Braga.

I then attempted to get into the 24 panel, but due to an extremely LONG line for that room, I missed ¾ of that panel, but thankfully I got to sit in on the Bones panel, which featured star Emily Deschanel and Executive Producer Hart Hansen as well as the Dollhouse panel, which not only included the screening of the unaired episode “Epitaph One”, but also featured star Eliza Dushku and mastermind Joss Whedon.

I had every intention of sitting in on the TV Guide Magazine: Sci Fi Hot List panel that followed the Dollhouse panel as well as that evening’s screenings of the SyFy series Eureka and Warehouse 13, but was not feeling up to it (due to a very sore leg and ankle from too much strenuous walking) and slowly headed back to our hotel to get some dinner then rest and relax.

As always, Saturday is the jam-packed day and this one (July 25) was no different. I started out in the Eastwick panel, which featured creator Maggie Friedman and Director David Nutter as well as stars Jaime Ray Newman, Rebecca Romijn, Paul Gross and Lindsey Price. I then walked over to the Bayside Hilton (which is located next door to the San Diego Convention Center) for the Sanctuary panel, which featured stars Amanda Tapping and Robin Dunne as well as Executive Producers Martin Wood and Damian Kindler; the Glee panel, featuring stars Matthew Morrison, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith and Dianna Agron as well as Executive Producers Dante Di Loreto and Ian Brennan and the Heroes panel, which included Executive Producer Tim Kring and stars Jack Coleman, Masi Oka, Hayden Panettiere, Adrian Pasdar, Zachary Quinto, Milo Ventimiglia, and new stars Robert Knepper, Dawn Olivieri, Ray Park and Madeline Zima.

The evening was capped off with panels for Human Target, which featured stars Mark Valley, Chi McBride and Jackie Earle Haley as well as series creator John Steinberg, Executive Producers Brad Kern and Peter Johnson and Len Wein, the creator of the character for which the series is based on and The Vampire Diaries panel, featuring stars Ian Somerhalder, Nina Dobrev and Paul Wesley as well as Executive Producers Bob Levy, Julie Plec and creator Kevin Williamson.

That evening my friends and I were able to go a terrific steakhouse located just slightly away from the Gaslamp District where we enjoyed a terrific meal as well as a celebrity sighting (the cast of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia were just ahead of us upon arriving at the restaurant).

Since Sunday (July 26) was the last day, the first panels we wanted to get into started at 10:30 AM, and we had to check out of the hotel, we were all up very early, had the car all packed up and were over to the convention center by 7 AM (and believe it or not the lines were really long by the time we got there). Several friends arrived the night before in order to attend the Doctor Who panel with one of the girls from my group while I headed for the Smallville panel with the other girls in our group. The line for this panel was insane because star Tom Welling was making his first appearance at Comic Con. The rest of the panel included stars Justin Hartley, Erica Durance, Allison Mack, Cassidy Freeman and Callum Blue as well as Executive Producers Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson. The Supernatural panel was next, featuring stars Jim Beaver and Misha Collins as well as creator Eric Kripke and Executive Producers Sera Gamble and Ben Edlund.

The final panels of the day were for the BBC America series Being Human, which featured stars Aidan Turner, Russell Tovey, Lorena Crichlow and creator Toby Whithouse and Torchwood: Children of Earth, featuring Executive Producers Russell T. Davies and Julie Gardner, Director Euros Lyn and star John Barrowman.

With our big adventure in San Diego at a close, we headed for the car and were on our way back to Los Angeles with a short stop near Carlsbad for some dinner (and some much needed soup and crackers to ease my worsening head cold). The trip that started out with a lot of excitement (and a little bit of dread on my part) turned out to be another terrific convention to add to the annuls of my adventures in California.

If you ever get a chance to attend one of the San Diego Comic Con’s, please do so as you won’t be disappointed.