So last night was the premiere of The Walking Dead season 3! It takes place several months after the events of season 2 - Rick and the gang were forced to leave the zombie overrun farm and in the process Andrea was separated from the group. It looks like the group has miraculously survived winter, and have become a more cohesive group. This was especially evident in the opening moments - they work together as one without any communication necessary, it was freaking awesome to see such fluid and coordinated movement instead of constant bickering and hesitation. Rick - the now pretty undisputed leader has become a bit distant and dark now. He's missing that spark of hope he used to have and now he's just concentrated purely on making it day to day and making the hard decisions. Carl - Rick and Lori's son, completely surprised me. He's no longer that whiny annoying kid that I hated at the end of season 2, he's grown up - which is a bid disheartening considering he's only 13, but in this post zombie apocalypse world you grow up fast. Lori - is still as annoying as ever, she's trying to be the voice of reason and the go between and you can just feel the tension in her family. Heavily pregnant now, she's voicing some concerns that I hadn't even thought about and boy are they ever scary. Glen and Maggie still manage to be adorable even in such a desolate time. In fact a lot of inter-group relationships seem to be hinted at, and I can only imagine how awkward things might get later on. We're finally introduced to Andrea's mysterious savior, Michonne and although quiet she's impressively deadly with a katana, I really can't wait to see more of her! It's shaping up to be one amazing season - especially the ending. Huge cliffhanger! Gah, I'm already counting down the days until next week!
I've been travelling and readjusting to home and trying to upload the videos for the past few days! Sorry that this is so late!
Calgary Comic Expo Recap: Day 3!
~*~ Panel Extravaganza Edition ~*~
Since we had gotten all our autographs and shopping done on Friday and Saturday, we pretty much spent the whole Sunday in the Corral Stage area watching the panels.
After the fire hazard related fiasco that was Saturday, it seemed that by opening on Sunday the event planners and the attendees got themselves better organized. People were there earlier (to avoid being locked out), and we were all corralled into neat orderly lines by pass possessing precedence (VIPs first, Weekend holders next etc) that didn't clog up the halls. It definitely felt a bit more relaxed, and far less claustrophobic. Upon the great doors to the exhibition areas opening, they even hung signs that directed the flow of traffic. However, these were hung on thin pieces of string attached to the ceiling, and they swung violently with the air current - when the crowd passed under them there were a variety of remarks about the ominous nature of the swinging, my personal favourite was "if that falls, it's going to be a hell of a paper cut".
So I'm just going to explain right here and right now. My camera battery started blinking warnings at me about halfway through the Futurama panel, and I decided I'd conserve it as much as possible for later by limiting the photos and videos subsequently taken. But it full on died on me during the Stan Lee panel, and after that I resorted to using my iPhone which doesn't capture the best video, but you can at least hear the audio related jokes. At this point, it was "something is better than nothing" for me.
The entertainment this day in the Corral was the instrumentally inclined band THWOMP that played renditions of classic video game instrumental music during the panel interludes. They seemed to have a limited set list though, and ended up repeating themselves, but they were still entertaining nonetheless.
Panels I Attended: #1: Futurama with Billy West and Joe Dimaggio
Futurama if you don't know, is a cartoon about a 20th (on the eve of the 21st) Century pizza delivery boy named Philip J. Fry who gets cryogenically frozen and wakes up in the 31st century and joins a rag tag interplanetary delivery team. Since I had seen Billy West previous at the Cartoon Voices panel I was really hoping it wouldn't be a repeat of that panel, and it wasn't. Joe Dimaggio and Billy West made a great team while doing some of the voices they're known for, as well as doing great impressions of their fellow cast mate's characters. Here's a few clips from their panel:
Panels I Attended: #2: Jonathan Frakes, Marina Sirtis & Michael Dorn This was supposed to be a "love triangle" discussion between the characters Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes), Counsellor Troi (Marina Sirtis) and Worf (Michael Dorn), but it was a weird gong show for the most part. It was kind of a running gag for Michael to be documenting the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast reunion with his camera, and passing it back and forth with Jonathan while Marina was answering questions. They talked about their wealth and what they bought with their Star Trek pay cheques. It was really so-so.
Panels I Attended: #3: Walking Dead Panel I was super excited when Jon Bernthal was announced to be the representative for the AMC's The Walking Dead. However he ended up cancelling, and Michael Rooker who plays Merle Dixon took his place. Which I felt a bit uneasy about because we had only really seen him briefly in a few episodes and was not able to really get more depth to his character. I actually got a bit bored in his panel, I can probably attribute this to the disdain I have for Merle though. He did confirm however that he and his character will be returning for Season 3 of The Walking Dead, and he is not taking the role of "The Governor" who will be portrayed by David Morrissey
Panels I Attended: #4: Stan Lee Spotlight When I got Stan Lee's autograph on Saturday, I noted that he was pretty exhausted. I think his age is starting to catch up with him. Garret Wang (he played Ensign Kim on Star Trek Voyageur) as the panel moderator was a really great surprise! The whole panel was something akin to listening to your grandpa tell you stories from his childhood, he'll start with one story, forget the question, and then it leads to a completely different story. He went through some great origin stories though, like how he came up with Gwen Stacy and Mary Jane. The origin of the Green Goblin, and how the Hulk became green (he was originally grey but that didn't print very well but green did!).
Panels I Attended: #5: James Marsters Spotlight Oh James Marsters. This was by far the best panel ever. Dressed in very classic "Spike" wear complete with leather pants and jelled hair; we got some insights on what it was like to work with Joss Whedon, his music career, his time on Torchwood. He switched in an out of accents, and one lucky question asker even got him to sing happy birthday to her friend that was in the front row!
Panels I Attended: #6: Sir Patrick Stewart Spotlight To end such an amazing expo they had Sir Patrick Stewart's panel last. He regaled us with stories including how he learned about his impending knighthood and his preference for theatre work over movies. Apparently he didn't even want to do the part of Captain Jean-Luc Picard originally! Blew my mind.
All in all this was an amazing experience. I think I'll definitely be going back next year!
