This was the second two-day conevntion held in Burbank this year. The turn out for this one was much smaller than the first one, approximately 1000 people compared to the 2500 from the previous. The guest list for this con was quite nice and equally divided between the two days. The other activities for each day were the same though: trivia contest, videos, slide shows, auction, bloopers, merchandise room, and prop room. The prop room did have some updates to it. I never did make it inside to them all but I did notice the addition of the red raincoat that Sharon Skinner wore on "Avatar".

Saturday's guests started out with a writer's panel consisting of Vince Gilligan, Frank Spotnitz, and John Shioban. They each briefly described who they got involved with the X-Files. Frank had been with it from the start. Vince submitted a spec script Chris liked and that got him into the scene. Unfortunately I cannot remember what John said that got him started. Naturally each of them love and are very happy with their job. They also did their best to answer questions like "Why did you kill Queequeg (Scully's dog)?" and "When will (insert character name) be back?". They gave a brief run down of the script writing process, starting with the initial idea, running it by collegues, writing it down, showing it to CC, getting his approval, and doing any rewrites. It definately doesn't sound easy but it does sound fun.

Bruce Harwood, Byers of the Lone Gunman, made an appearance at this con. He seemed a bit nervous of first but get into the swing of things after a few minutes. He was very interesting. We found out he had never watched the show prior to auditioning for the part of Byers. He was even more shocked when he received a call asking him to come back in the same role. He said the Lone Gunman's return was due to their popularity on the Internet. So he was very greatful to all the fans for their support of the Lone Gunman. He had done a few other things that US audiences might have seen including and episode of The Outer Limits. But most of his other works have been Canadian. And, sorry to all you ladies who have a crush on him, he is married.

Charles Nelson-Reilley was the next guest. And let me say this man is a riot! Not to mention a wonderful entertainer. He kept the audience laughing the whole time he was on stage. He really enjoyed working on "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" and with the entire cast and crew of the show. He talked about some of his past works and a few of the more recent things he has done. He loved making a joke about the fact that a lot of people thought he was dead. He was definatly a big hit with the fans.

Mitch Pileggi was the last of the guest to come on for Saturday. He suffer a minor head wound when he walked on stage. He forgot to duck under the bar that held up the curtains. I'm sure there were many women there wanting to kiss it and make it better ;-) Mitch is always a big hit with the fans and this time was no exception. He normally opens up the floor almost immediately for questions but this time he talked a bit longer than normal. We'll forgive him though ;-) He told us a little story about how he and Gillian were working on a scene and she was having a heck of a time with the lines, flubbing just about every other word. At one point, Mitch turn and looked to the cast and crew and jokingly said "This is Gillian Anderson, Emmy nominated actress!" Gillian gave him a good smack for it :-) The questions were pretty much the same as has been asked before. I did ask him about the Volleyball game in Vancouver that took place the weekend before. He said that they got their butts kicked but had a good time. I mentioned that I had seen pictures already. He replied "You constantly amaze me." Then several people in the audience shouted that the pics showed him shirtless. He laughed and blushed then said "You guys are terrible." He said that he would be returning to Vancouver the next day and that he'd be in episodes 1 and 4 so far.

The autograph session followed Mitch's talk. At that time I gave Mitch a box load of stuff from the MPEB, MPPB, and BRAWS members as well as a humorful, but not truthful, tale as to how my injury occured (I had torn, pulled and twisted things in my ankle so I was in a wheelchair). After he was finished doing all the autographs, he came over to talk with me for a few minutes and find out what I had really done to hurt myself. I told him and added that there was a reason why my parents did not name me Grace :-)