If you’re planning to go to this summer’s DragonCon, remember that the preregistration price goes up from $60 to $70 on May 15. (It’s $85 after July 14.) Buy now, save money!
This will be my third DragonCon, and though I do find the crowds exhausting, I must say it’s worth it, even though we don’t usually get the biggest of the big names, or at least those who would make me squeal with so much high-pitched glee that dogs in neighboring counties would howl in sympathy (e.g., Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, any of my pantheon of pet British actors). Last year, we did get Robert Jordan promoting the penultimate volume in his Wheel of Time series, Oliver and Jamie Phelps (the Weasley twins in the Harry Potter movies), and a good proportion of the cast of “Firefly” promoting the movie “Serenity.”
At this point, the guest list is still not finalized, but they do have Summer Glau and Adam Baldwin of “Firefly” confirmed, as well as Mira Furlan and Stephen Furst of “Babylon 5.” (Mira Furlan is also occasionally on “Lost,” but I’ve given up on that show after Sawyer’s Great Unforgivable Action; realizing that the only characters I still liked and cared about were Hurley and Rousseau, neither of whom has exactly a major role, I decided I’d rather have that hour of my time back to do other things.)
I suppose it’s too much to hope that they’ll snag Christopher Eccleston or David Tennant as guests. The British Programming track lists one Who-oriented presentation, but it’s hard to tell whether it’s for this year or next — the Firefox tab says “Brit Media Track 2005!” and they also mention having Hattie Hayridge from “Red Dwarf” in a later panel, but she’s not listed among this year’s guests. (Did I miss seeing Holly v. 2 last year? Damn and blast it all six ways to hell. Well, given that the panel was at 5:30 on a Saturday afternoon, I was probably wiped out from struggling with crowds by that point and would’ve been too tired and cranky to enjoy it fully, but still!) On the other hand, the Whovian panel is/was supposed to be about Eccleston’s series, which is only now showing in the States, and “What about David Tennant stepping in?” which hasn’t happened yet here. Unless they were counting on their entire audience downloading episodes of dubious legality, that kind of sounds like something that would be scheduled for 2006 — in which case, I still have a chance to see Hattie! Woo hoo!
Speaking of the Doctor, Amazon.ca still hasn’t shipped my Eccleston DVDs. Bastards. Their estimated arrival date is anywhere from April 28 (yeah, don’t think that’s going to happen) to June 6, and the product page still says that they’ll ship in four to seven weeks. It’s been five weeks now, with no news. I’m tired of waiting, tired of being left hanging. If they’d just send me an e-mail every week or so saying they haven’t forgotten about my order, that would make a lot of difference in my frustration levels.
On the other hand, Amazon.uk says they’ll ship the region 2 set in 5 to 9 days; even with slow overseas shipping, I suspect they’ll get here no later than the region 1s from Canada would at this point, and the price (and carbon cost of long-distance shipping, I think) should come out to be about the same. I think I’m going to swap to the British DVDs. (One of the many reasons I lurrve my multiregion DVD player!)
