It’s the final day of Comic-Con, and after I checked out of my hotel and checked my luggage, I headed out for the Hilton Bayfront. On my way, I passed through the Gaslamp District, and decided to stop and get some pictures of the Midnight, Texas activation that I had been seeing all week.
I started off Sunday/the final day of San Diego Comic-Con at the BBC America press room. While I didn’t get into the roundtables for Dirk Gently and Doctor Who, I needed to pick up my panel passes for for those series. There were a few of us waiting outside the pressroom, hoping that there might be some no-shows and that some room would open up at the roundtables. The Dirk Gently cast was already inside, making their way from table to table, but we still didn’t want to give up hope. As we waited outside, the Doctor Who cast arrived at the door. Peter Capaldi said Hi to us, and hugged a woman who exclaimed that he was her Doctor. Then Matt Lucas introduced himself to each of us and shook our hands. After the cast entered the pressroom, it was clear that we weren’t going to be getting in for interviews, so I headed off to walk around the convention floor to kill time until the panels.
As I walked around the floor, I picked up a few free posters at the FOX booth and got in line to preorder the Legion Season 1 Blu-ray, since it came with a limited edition SDCC-exclusive print. Unfortunately, when I got to the front of the line I was informed that the prints had already sold out the previous day. Also at the FOX booth, I entered to win a Firefly Browncoat prop, and checked out the completed War For The Planet of the Apes mural that was created from fan-submitted photos—and even recognized some of the people in the photos.
I also walked by the Toddland booth where they were selling Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers related merchandise. They had a fun “Con-suela” shirt that had sold out—there was an equally-amusing hand-drawn sketch to let potential buyers know this.
I walked by the Outlander booth where they were making custom screen-printed t-shirts, but the line was insanely long—people were in line all around the perimeter of the convention floor! I also walked by the WB and Funko booths. I made the mistake of walking by the WB booth just as the Supernatural cast arrived for their autograph signing—traffic came to a screeching halt as fans mobbed the booth trying to get pictures of the cast.
After I broke free, I headed upstairs to check out the convention center’s press workroom to see what kind of free food or drinks were available. I grabbed a soft pretzel and headed for Hall H for the BBC America panels. I presented my panel pass to get in and made my way to one of the really close reserved seats. The people in the row in front of me had lined up at 4:30am the previous day to get their seats! They were dressed as various characters from Dirk Gently—apparently they do this every year for whichever show BBC America brings.
Kevin Smith moderated the Dirk Gently panel. First they showed a zany recap video of the first season—I don’t know how anyone who hadn’t watched the series could follow all that craziness! They also showed a clip from season 2 and series creator Max Landis remarked that it was nearly impossible to find a clip that wasn’t spoilery. The rest of the panel included showrunner Robert Cooper and stars Elijah Wood, Samuel Barnett, Hannah Marks, Jade Eshete, Fiona Dourif, Mpho Koaho, Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine. It was a really fun panel and made me anxious for the show’s second season. They didn’t have any Q&A portion during the panel—the participants just left the stage at the end of their discussion.
Shortly afterwards, Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat, writer/actor Mark Gatiss and cast members Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie, Matt Lucas and Michelle Gomez came out on stage for a panel moderated by Chris Hardwick. They showed a promo for the Christmas special, which looks quite exciting, and Pearl Mackie confirmed that, unfortunately, Bill would not be returning for the new season. They mentioned Jodie Whittaker and supported the choice of a woman for the 13th doctor, but it was clear that the focus of this session was to discuss the Christmas special and celebrate Peter Capaldi’s time on the show, rather than talking about the next Doctor. Capaldi got a standing ovation and then returned the favor by spending time praising each and every member of the panel for his or her contributions to the series. Once they cut to the fan Q&A, I had to take off to get to my final press room of the year.
Mr. Mercedes is a new series coming to the AT&T/DirecTV exclusive Audience Network. It is based on a trilogy of books written by Stephen King. The first season pretty much follows the first of these books. I had checked out screeners for the first four episodes prior to the press room, and this show is really creepy! In the press room, we got to speak with cast members Harry Treadaway (“Brady Hartsfield”), Holland Taylor (“Ida Silver”), Kelly Lynch (“Deborah Hartsfield”), Jharrel Jerome (“Jerome Robinson”) & Breeda Wool (“Lou Linklatter”), as well as series creator Jack Bender. There was no press line in this room, so things worked out really well—it was much quieter than most rooms and we got to speak with everyone. I made the mistake of asking a question regarding future seasons of the series, and got a detailed explanation of how the first season comes to an end. Needless to say, that response has been removed from Jack Bender’s Q&A video! Check out the Q&A videos from this press room.
Afterwards, I said goodbye to some friends who were also in the press room, and then I quickly made my way to Burger Lounge to use up my final 5 Ecoins, since the deal was going to expire at 5pm. When I got there there was a huge line, but I managed to get my order in with 5 minutes to spare. Besides the Red Wheelbarrow BBQ t-shirt, this was easily the best value for the 5 Ecoins! The burger, which normally costs $8.99, was delicious!
I headed back to my hotel to get my checked bag and wait for my Super Shuttle back to the airport. As I waited, I watched that night’s episode of Game of Thrones on my iPad via HBO Go so that I could freely move about the internet that evening. My red-eye flight was actually on time this year, and I ended up getting back to Boston even earlier than expected.
It was another fun trip to Comic-Con and I look forward to doing it all again next year!
(Check out all of our SDCC 2017 Daily Recaps: Preview Night | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4)
