1:45-2:05pm

PANEL #6: ASCENSION Panelists: Brandon P. Bell, Tricia Helfer, Brian Van Holt, Al Sapienza and Andrea Roth Dave Howe Intro ** Panel Participants Mingle with the Press (15-Minutes) **

Ascension is Syfy’s ambitious 6-hour event series that will air across three consecutive nights starting on Monday December 15. Syfy really feels strongly about this project, and it feels like this is really a 6-hour pilot for a future series—much like how Battlestar Galactica first got its start.

The premise is that in 1963, the U.S. government launched a covert space mission sending hundreds of men, women and children on a century-long voyage aboard the starship Ascension to populate a new world. Nearly 50 years into the journey, as they approach the point of no return, a mysterious murder of a young woman causes the ship’s population to question the true nature of their mission.

Here is a trailer:

The press tour panel included five actors from the series—Brandon P. Bell, Tricia Helfer, Brian Van Holt, Andrea Roth and Al Sapienza. The cast described their characters and talked about the premise of the series. You could really get a sense of how much they enjoy this project and trust in the writer Phil Levens—I dare anyone to spend 5 minutes listening to Al Sapienza and not catch his excitement for this series!

When asked about the series’ potential for sparking online debates, they responded:

AL SAPIENZA: The potential here to have these debates are tremendous, and the potential of where this show could go is tremendous, and we’re all going to find out, you know, in December, exactly how it lands on people. And I’m hoping that — I have high hopes for this. I really hope it lands where I think it’s going to land.
But yes, my answer is yes.

TRICIA HELFER: Social media is the new watercooler talk, right, and there are so many angles and elements to the show that lead into that,
I think. I think it’s something that people will want to discuss, will want to see how somebody else feels about it, that type of thing.
So, I’m all good and looking forward to engaging. I have to bump up on my technological skills, though.

BRIAN VAN HOLT: I feel the show will definitely provoke conversation and debate, and I’m looking forward to it. I have to — I don’t tweet
or — I got to join this tweeter thing everybody is talking about.
… But yeah, I think it will provoke a lot of conversation. It’s a forward-thinking show and it’s exciting.

BRANDON P. BELL: I certainly hope so. I think it’s extremely socially relevant. The historical fiction aspect is really cool, and I think it definitely has the ability to be one of those shows where people want to talk about the themes that are so relevant within them. There are so many parallels with what’s going on currently, and what’s happened, with what’s going on, on the ship. If you have the best and the brightest in the room, what could happen? If you had time and resources for them to continue living in that room, what would happen? And I think that’s essentially what we all aspire to see at some point. It’s the ideal
situation. It tries to be utopia in a sense, but perfection is always impossible, and so things are — there’s tons of surprises and there’s wonderful stories and characters, and I definitely feel strongly in hoping that people connect. I really think that’s possible, and it will definitely create some thoughtful conversation for sure.

AL SAPIENZA: Plus we’ve got a great looking cast.

Watch the full panel below:

9:30-9:50am

PANEL #7: Z NATION Panelists: Keith Allan, Michael Welch and Karl Schaefer (Executive Producer) Chris Regina Intro ** Panel Participants Mingle with the Press (15-Minutes) **

The final panel of the day was for Syfy’s new zombie series Z Nation, with stars Keith Allan (“Murphy”) & Michael Welch (“Mack”) and executive producer/writer Karl Schaefer. The panelists talked about the fan reaction to the series, and their own favorite zombie kills and moments from the show.

They also talked about the show’s balance of humor and horror:

KARL SCHAEFER: Well, I mean, my experience is life is sometimes the most dangerous, saddest things are right up against some of the funniest things, and you know, that that’s sort of the way life is.
And I mean, another kind of operating theory that we came up with in the writer’s room is we are three years into the apocalypse. Anybody that’s survived now is genetically predisposed as a survivor. It’s more than luck if you’re still alive at this point. And having a sense of humor in such dark circumstances is part of the ingredients of being a survivor; that if you took the apocalypse totally seriously and didn’t have some sort of relief, you’d just curl up in a ball and die.
So all of our characters have a sense of the absurd and a sense of the situation they’re in, and have learned to find humor where they can in what’s going on.

KEITH ALLAN: I think for my money, also, it’s that nice balance of the horror, the drama, and the humor that I think makes the show a success for what it is. I mean, to me, that’s old drive-in movie stuff. We used to go to the drive-in movies to go to the horror movie, to get scared and laugh at the same time. I think that’s golden stuff.

MICHAEL WELCH: Yeah, I mean, tonally, I think that’s the kicker to the show is the humor. I can’t remember the last time fun was an element in zombie shows.

KARL SCHAEFER: Yeah, we’re trying to put the fun back in zombies.

MICHAEL WELCH: I think that’s what makes it work.

Watch the full panel below: