Battlestar Galactica All-Access event

(click here to find photos from this event)

By Jim Quon
June 6, 2007

Hollywood, CA - Battlestar Galactica fans fans had the opportunity to see the their favorite stars from the show plus get a sneak peak to the upcoming Razor movie at the All-Access Event in Hollywood, CA. Some of the stars on hand included Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Lucy Lawless, Katie Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, Ron Moore, and David Eick. This event was a big thank you to all Battlestar fans. This was a free event, and they let in the first 500 people to line up.

I went up very early (the night before) because I wanted to guarantee a good seat, plus I was in charge of the More Romo campaign, promoting actor Mark Sheppard who plays Romo Lampkin on the show. He was not scheduled to attend but we wanted to show our support anyway and brought over a hundred signs that said MORE ROMO on them. Many of his fans including RenewingSpirit (creator of the More Romo campaign) from the Sci-fi forums were relaying my reports via forum posts. Also sending in reports were Sephiroth144 and CallisRocks from the forums.

Along for the ride was my friend Warren Morgan who is a big fan of Battlestar but had not seen the last half of the current season. I quickly got him up to day by showing him episodes on the drive up (via my Ipod), and he was surprised at the exciting revelations of the season finale. He also agreed that Romo really kicked some butt in the finale. We arrived in Hollywood in the dead of the night and to nobody's surprise we were the first people there. The security guards didn't even know there was an event going on. I think that makes us the most die-hard fans at least for the day.

After having a late night dinner at Denny's we watched another couple of episodes and got a couple of hours sleep in the car. We then got in line and watched as people started setting up the displays for the event. There were no stars yet arrived but it was still early in the morning. later in the day they set up a podium and speakers and entertained the guests by having someone ask us trivia questions for prizes as well as giving away free t-shirts that said "frak off" on them.

After frantically waving my MORE ROMO sign to get the MC's attention, he called me up to answer a trivia question for a prize. The question was "Who gave up their spot on the Raptor so Baltar could get on board? Of course I knew the answer (Helo), and scored VIP tickets into the event! The lucky VIP guests would be allowed to enter first and sit in a special section for VIP guests in the front of the theater.

So the day went on and the crowd got much larger, and it looked like they were approaching the 500 person limit. They laid out the red carpet in preparation for the stars arrival, and an NBC photographer was on hand to take pictures. As we neared the start of the event, we got exciting news that Mark Sheppard was going to be a last minute attendee of the event! We started waving our signs and the NBC photographer began snapping pictures of all of us.

Edward James Olmos and Bodie Olmos arrived and were talking with fans. Then the told all of the VIP guests to line up as security escorted us past everyone to the front entrance! That was very cool. I handed out signs to people and while I was waiting for the festivities to begin Seph called me and said that Mark Sheppard had arrived and to come out to meet him! Seph has always got my back so thanks to him! I went out toward the lobby and to my surprise Mark Sheppard, Edward James Olmos, and Bodie were all walking right by me. I greeted Mark and I think EJO was looking at me wondering who I was. We weren't allowed to take pictures while inside though, which was too bad.

When Mark entered everyone began waving their signs at him and began cheering for him which was very nice indeed. This quote is from Mark Sheppard's MySpace blog regarding the All-Access Event and our More Romo campaign:

"So..... for those who have asked, this year will be my first at Dragon Con... hoping to see some of the East coast fans there... Last night at BSG All Access was amazing! From watching Crossroads Pt 2 on the giant screen with EJO Bob Young and Bodhi, to the virtual sea of "More Romo" signs held by some of the coolest fans I've ever met. The name check at the end from EJO blew my mind... maybe he was right when he said this might just change my life..."
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