The Con is On: Comic-Con 2008

By C. W. Oberleitner
July 25, 2008

San Diego Comic-Con International 2008 is off and running, a conference and Expo so large that no single news agency can cover it all. Here, then, is a grown up geeks’ guide look at some of the sights and sounds from day one of “the Con!”

Passing the Torchwood

From a geeks-eye point of view, one of the biggest highlights of day one of Comic-Con 2008 would have to be the nearly two-hour combined BBC America Doctor Who and Torchwood panels.

To insure being in the hall when the Doctor Who and Torchwood panels began, hundreds of British SciFi fans filed into the 2,500-seat Ballroom 20 and sat through at least one other panel, featuring comic book legend Stan Lee. Many came dressed as their favorite Doctor or one of the Doctor’s many, equally famous companions.

Though none of the performers from the current Doctor Who series made the journey from Cardiff, Wales in the U.K. to San Diego, executive producer Julie Gardner and lead writer Steven Moffat had no difficulty keeping the capacity crowd laughing and cheering with tales of the adventures of filming Brittan’s longest-running science fiction television series.

In response to what it was like to work with a writer of Moffat’s caliber, Gardner said, “You look at a script and see that it says, ‘a horse jumps out of a mirror at the Palace of Versailles,’ and ask yourself, ‘How the hell are we going to do that?’”

If the crowd liked the Doctor Who presentation they went positively bananas when Gardner introduced the star of Torchwood, Captain Jack Harkness himself, actor John Barrowman. They came to their feet clapping and screaming with glee as Barrowman leapt up on his chair, raised his arms in triumph, flexed his muscles, and then feigned mooning the audience.

A minute later an equally loud roar went up from the audience as Welsh actor Gareth David-Lloyd, who plays Torchwood’s Ianto Jones and Captain Jack’s current love interest, was announced and came on stage.

Barrowman wasted no time in making the most of David-Lloyd’s appearance, grabbing the handsome young actor and embracing him as if to reenact one of their now famous Torchwood snogging scenes, thereby bringing the audience to its feet, whooping, whistling and hollering their approval so loudly it seemed to rattle the rafters of the gigantic conference center.

Not to be outdone, when released by Barrowman, Daivd-Lloyd, too, began to drop trou and tease the crowd with the possibility of a peek at his tush.

Completing the panel was the appearance of actor Naoko Mori, who played Torchwood’s computer specialist Toshiko Sato. Played, because at the end of series two Tosh dies.

Mori, too, much to the audience’s continuing approval, received a passionate embrace from the shy and retiring Barrowman as she came on stage.

Year’s earlier the two appeared in London’s West End as the leads in Miss Saigon. After having mentioned this, an audience member, during the Q&A portion of the session, asked for them to reprise their final duet from the show. After a rocky start both Barrowman and Mori let loose with a chillingly beautiful a cappella rendition of The Last Night of the World.

Barrowman has recently completed his autobiography, Anything Goes, which he personally subtitles, “and it did.” Later, on the Comic-Con exhibition floor, when asked, “Does John Barrowman ever get depressed,” the irrepressible actor, singer, dancer, writer, lecturer emphatically said, “No! Never.” He just loves life and what he’s doing too much to waste time being depressed.

Some of the sights and sounds from Day One of Comic-Con 2008.
Video copyright© obe-mediaone. All rights reserved.

John Barrowman and Naoko Mori reprise The Last Night of the World.

San Diego Comic-Con International 2008

Tom Sito, Producer, Director and Floyd Norman Storyboard Artist for the PBS animated television series
Click and Clak's As the Wrench Turns.
Image copyright© obe-mediaone. All rights reserved.

Heroes star Greg Grunberg shares a laugh with a reporter and a fan.
Image copyright© obe-mediaone. All rights reserved.

From the hit ABC Family series The Middleman graphic novelist Les McClaine, actor Matt Keeslar,
and producer, writer, director Javier Grillo-Marxuach
Image copyright© obe-mediaone. All rights reserved.

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