Battlestar Galactica

Alessandro Juliani, who plays Gaeta on Battlestar Galactica, is a veteran of scifi and the stage. The actor has won numerous Canadian theater awards for his set designs, and this Spring fans of Gaeta and good acting can see him on stage in The Violet Hour at the Belfry Theater in Victoria, British Columbia.

The Violet Hour is a Tony award winning play that combines time travel, romance, and an ode to great books. The main character is Jonathan Pace Seavering, a young publisher with the limited resources to only publish one book and must choose between the tome of his best friend and his lover. He encounters a magical, page-spewing machine that feeds him information from the future, and allows for the audience to explore the time-honored subjects of ambition and fate.

The production runs from Tuesday, April 15th through May 18th with plays each Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights and afternoon productions on the weekends. Tickets range from $21 to $36 each, depending on the location of the seats and the night of the show.

It’s a good opportunity to visit gorgeous Victoria, a city that combines old world sophistication with outdoor charms like a fabulous botanical garden and whale watching. I spent three days in Victoria a few years ago, and truly enjoyed the town as well as its breathtaking scenery, quaint shopping, and tasty food.

Victoria is also a short ferry ride from Vancouver, where you can explore all sorts of BSG-related places, and Seattle, where you can geek out at the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.

Looking for a way to travel in scifi style next summer? The GalactiCruise will be sailing from Los Angeles to Baja Mexico September 15-19, 2008 on Carnival Cruise Lines.

Cast members on the cruise currently include Aaron Douglas, who plays Chief Tyrol on the modern version of the series and whose comic nature makes him a popular person at fan events. Now that The Chief is a Cylon, are the cast members of the original series bound to shoot him on sight?

Classic Battlestar Galactica cast members include the original Col. Tigh, Terry Carter, Lt. Bojay, Jack Stauffer, guest star Denny Miller, and the lovely Lt. Sheba, Anne Lockhart.

The event is timed to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the premiere of the original Battlestar Galactica and includes panels, dinners, and other themed events. To book a cabin on the GalactiCruise, click here.

Battlestar Galactica, Galacticruise, cruise, Los Angeles, Baja Mexico, anniversary, Aaron Douglas, Terry Carter, Anne Lockhart, Jack Stauffer, Denny Miller

Battlestar Galactica’s Edward James Olmos will be one of the celebrities narrating the annual Disney World Candlelight Processional Lunch & Dinner in 2007.

The annual tradition is a huge pageant, and actors and other celebrities are booked as guest narrators throughout the season.

Each evening, nearly 400 performers fill the stage to create this mainstay of Disney’s holiday festivities. The orchestra consists of 51 professional musicians from the central Florida area. The choir members dressed in gold represent high school groups from 30 states. A total of 21,000 amateur vocalists participate in this massed choir during the five weeks of performances. The performers dressed in green (the “tree”) are Walt Disney World cast members from all departments and areas throughout the Company.

The singers in red and black (the base of the “tree”) are the nationally acclaimed Voices of Liberty The centerpiece of the cast is a guest celebrity who narrates the story of the Nativity. Guest narrators over the years have included acclaimed actors, astronauts, vocalists, news commentators, and sports celebrities. The show is approximately 40 minutes long. There will be three daily showings from November 23 through December 30 at 5:00, 6:45 & 8:15 PM. 2007 Dinner Packages go on sale July 2, 2007.

EJO will be returning to the Processional stage December 20, 21, and 22. Other stars participating this year include Neil Patrick Harris, Marlee Matlin, Dennis Franz, and Kirk Cameron; if you are interested in going Disney this holiday season, dinner packages for his performances will go on sale July 2.

This is the second time this month that Disney has made an EJO casting announcement: a few weeks ago we learned he will be a voice actor in the new animated movie South of the Border with Drew Barrymore.

Edward James Olmos, Walt Disney World, Disney, Christmas, Candlelight Processional, Drew Barrymore, South of the Border, Kirk Cameron, Neil Patrick Harris, Marlee Matlin, Dennis Franz

This week we point you towards one of the more intellectual options available to you for a Battlestar Galactica-oriented summer vacation.

Buckingham Chilterns University College will be hosting a one-day conference on its High Wycombe campus in July.

The conference is titled “The Politics, Poetics, and Philosophy of Battlestar Galactica” and it will be held July 28, 2007. The deadline for abstracts was June 1, 2007 but if you have something great to submit you can always call and see if they will accept it after the deadline. If you just want to go and absorb you have plenty of time to register, and the fee will be lowered considerably for students and the “unwaged.”

Professor Ewan Kirkland will reprise his role as conference chair in 2007, he has presented papers at conferences all over the world on the societal relevance of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and various video games. The college itself was formerly known as the High Wycombe College of Art & Technology, and brief research indicates the school has an academic foundation that could potentially lend itself to a fascinating conference.

High Wycomb has several lovely hotels, or if you prefer the town is an easy day trip and low train fare from London.

Battlestar Galactica, Ewan Kirkland, London

San Diego will transform itself into a Geek Mecca July 25-29, when Comic-Con comes to town and brings tons of celebs with it. Last year’s Comic-Con featured a plethora of Battlestar Galactica cast members, the unveiling of Venom from Sony Pictures, and enough swag and booze to inspire the comment that Comic-Con is like “Sundance, but with cooler movies.”

Films, seminars, Q&A sessions with celebs, autograph signings, parties, an art auction, a highly competitive masquerade ball … Comic-Con has it all. Over 114,000 people attended in 2006. To see a list of comic book guests for this year’s event click here, and stars who will be signing in the autograph area will be listed closer to the event. Basic registration for Comic-Con starts at $50 for a four-day pass, but that will go up quite a bit if you take advantage of the various packages, events, and add-ons that are available.

If you are heading out there, be sure to research thoroughly. Comic-Con is what you make it, as ComicsReporter.com explains in detail while giving advice on everything from room key strategies to drinking at the convention. You also want to look into what’s available for fans of BSG specifically, or any other comic books, TV shows, and movies you love as well. Some are fairly organized, such as californiabrowncoats.com’s annual Firefly-related fund raiser, while other meetings may be more informal (just a message board post to meet at this time at this stairwell, for example).

Back to BSG … last year Richard Hatch and Herbert Jefferson Jr. were in the autograph area, and the photos below are of various BSG folks heading in to the SciFi Channel Cocktail Party. Looks like a choatic good time was had by all.

Katee Sackhoff & Tahmoh Penikett

Amanda Tapping from Stargate SG-1 and Grace Park

James Callis

Jamie Bamber & David Eick

Comic-Con, Grace Park, Katee Sackhoff, San Diego, Battlestar Galactica, BSG, Amanda Tapping, James Callis, Baltar, Boomer, Starbuck, Jamie Bamber, David Eick

If you are planning a trip for the summer you may want to consider traveling to Seattle, Washington to visit the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. If you have time in June Gene Roddenberry and Ridley Scott will be honored at the SciFi Hall of Fame inductions on June 15-16. Neal Stephenson will host the gala, and fan tickets are on sale now.

That weekend also marks the opening of a special exhibit entitled Out of This World: Extraordinary Costumes from Film & Television. The exhibit features a bunch of cool stuff, like Daryl Hannah’s Pris costume from Blade Runner (shown above) and various items from Star Wars, Star Trek, and of course BSG. On a side note, if you can’t make it to Seattle you can always have the entire exhibit shipped out and displayed at a location near you for only $35,000.00 USD.

Through an odd series of events I was lucky enough to be there for the grand opening of the SciFi museum in 2005, and it is definitely worth a visit. The displays are great and since the President of the SciFi network is on their advisory board we can only assume the BSG offerings have grown since then. My personal experience was spiced up considerably due to an odd series of jostlings that found me walking down the red carpet behind Steven Speilberg, who is also on the advisory board. While you may not have the Steven experience when you make your visit, the museum itself is a damn good time.

If you live near Seattle you may even consider becoming a member of the museum. The cost is only $40 and it looks like they had a BSG screening in January as well as a few other BSG events last year.