Dollverse goes to Starfury T1 convention – Dollhouse coverage.

Posted by gossi on Apr 27th, 2009 | 1 comment

Well, I’m just back from Starfury T1, which guests included Miracle Laurie (Mellie), Dichen Lachman (Sierra), Mark Sheppard (I’m not even going to try and remember his character name) and Felicia Day (who’s character name we don’t know, ’cause Felicia’s a good girl) (and a damn fine dancer).

Much fun was had by all, I think. Especially – well – me.

The event took place over the weekend in Birmingham in the UK.

Here’s some highlights:

Dichen Lachman, the best dressed lady at the convention (and in Birmingham’s history, quite possibly). Photo by Rachael.

Dichen treated us to something which makes her happy – blowing bubbles in the shower using her arm. Pretty obviously, she did not actually demonstrate this (in spite of Mark’s requests), she just told us how to do it. I’ve tried: it both works, and it made me happy. Dichen also asked after me at the Q&A, and we had a lovely conversation about my cooking. I’m not anybody understood what we were talking about, but that’s okay with me.

She revealed if the show returns for a second season, Joss has the idea of having the show go dark. Not necessarily just in tone, but in how the show physically looks (sets etc).

Everybody seemed to agree she was a genuinely brilliant presence at the convention and a joy to be around. Joss Whedon, Anya and Amy’s knack of casting for both talent and sanity was again re-established.

Chris and Miracle demonstrate how to play the Ukulele with their eyes closed. Photo by Jaina.

Next up Miracle introduced the audience to the rather awesome Chris, and they knocked out a few numbers to the 400 strong audience on their Ukueleles. Both me and my friend Kirsty now want to imprinted with Ukulele skills. Make it happen, joss!

They performed over the two days, and got a particularly good response from the audience. I think the performance on Saturday actually shifted the mood of the convention slightly, as Chris and Miracle are clearly very in love and it.. well.. provided a sheet of serenity over the attendees, I thought. Both Chris and Miracle have lovely voices, and musically won over a few more fans. You can check out their band, Uke Box Heroes, on Myspace.

Miracle herself had a smile which lit up on the room, and I heard many people saying Chris was incredibly down to earth. Including me.

Felicia wasn’t coping with Twitter withdrawal well. (Lie). (She kept a’twitterin’).

Felicia was obviously limited about what she could talk about, given she’s in episode 13 of Dollhouse and doesn’t want to spoil it. She did say she appears in a very significant portion of the episode, and she got to tick off one of the things-I-want-to-do-in-life in the episode. I strongly suspect this Joss Whedon directed episode is one to look forward to. She also revealed she was brought directly into the episode cast at the last minute.

I think it’s fair to say the boys at the event had a wee crush on her. Fe’s web series The Guild got significant questionage from the audience.

Mark Sheppard was also in attendance. He put forward a very convincing argument as to why Joss could look into creating a series for cable (FX, USA, TNT etc) as he felt it could be a better mold. He also revealed to the audience that he was cast in his role as Paul Ballard’s FBI co-worker late on – originally an Asian actor was scheduled to appear in the role, however this didn’t work out. We will learn the character’s first name in episode 12. Watch out for that one..

Overall, the event was a huge success. All the Dollhouse guests were accessible, nice, and could be spotted on the dancefloor until the early hours of the morning mixing and dancing with fans. Even though the show has yet to officially air in the UK, there was clearly some Dollhouse love on display amongst the attendees.

On a personal note I have many memories from the weekend involving the cast I’ll be keeping to my good self, but I just wanted to thank Dichen, Miracle, Chris and Felicia publicly. I don’t think Felicia had a clue who I was as I failed to say hello, but I did end up in one of her dance moves, which was entirely as fun as it sounds. No really, Fe can dance. All the guests were welcoming to me and I hope to catch up with them again in the future.

One Response

1. Matt D says:

   April 28, 2009 at 9:20 am

   Awesome stuff man. Sounds like you had a blast. Here’s hoping the show get renewed for a second season! I’m a UK Dollhouse fan myself. I’ve been massively enjoying the later half of Season one. Everything from Episode 6 onwards has been very enjoyable.

   Hell, I even emailed FOX to urge them to keep it going!