FOG! Attends The 53rd Annual Saturn Awards!

“Yeah man, but it’s the dry heat” is what first came to mind. Not because it’s Aliens‘ 40^th anniversary and half the cast of the superb 1986 film was here.

No.

It was a toasty. Upper 80’s toasty outside the Universal City Hilton for this year’s 53^rd Saturn Awards. Adding to the unseasonable temperature was an unfortunate lack of clouds and shade for some of us. That didn’t stop this committed Geek however, nor a host of fantastic participants committed to engaging with the SciFi, Horror and Fantasy community for this year’s Saturn Awards.

Out of the gate was the prolific Doug Jones attending with his Star Trek cast and crew mates for the Saturn Hall of Fame Award celebrating Star Trek’s 60^th anniversary.

Each year Doug wears pieces from various projects he’s been involved with. This year it was a tunic from Marc Zicree’s independent series Space Command and a broach gifted to him by his son-law. He can be currently seen in a film called Operation Taco Gary’s which he describes as a zany comedy about an alien takeover. Guess which part Doug plays? That’s right, the alien.

Doug plays a lot of aliens, that prompted me to ask him about his process for creating unique movements for each iteration like Star Trek: Discovery’s Saru. It’s a combination of his early training in physical performance and the costumes for the individual characters. He never plays it safe whether it’s for indie projects like Operation Taco Gary or mega blockbusters such as Hellboy (Abe Sapien) with his dear friend Guillermo Del Toro.

Love him or hate him, Jack Champion’s character Spider from Avatar: Fire and Ash now holds the fate of two worlds on his shoulders.

When asked how that hit him when he read the Fire and Ash script, he reminded himself that Spider wouldn’t feel that weight at all. For Spider, it’s family and nothing else.

The Aliens Bug Stompers were assembling as recipients of this year’s George Pal award marking Aliens 40^th anniversary.

Although most of the squad had passed us by, including Drake (Mark Rolston), Frost (Rico Ross,) Hicks (Michael Biehn), and honorary member Newt (Carrie Henn).

Vasquez and Dietrich, Jenette Goldstein and Cynthia Scott, were present and accounted for and were feeling the love and excitement for their work from so long ago.

Jenette has been in three James Cameron films; Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Titanic. I asked why Jim keeps calling her back. She’s humble and feels honored that Cameron sees a quality in her that earns her a place in the family. We asked why she dies in each film, she doesn’t hold it against Jim.

I was sure to mention to Jenette about her role in the spectacular 1987 vampire film Near Dark, she lit up as it’s a film she holds near and dear to her heart.

Aliens producer Gale Ann Hurd wasn’t far behind. Gale is a force of nature, no pun intended. She’s also one of my film school heroes.

When asked how George Pal’s films informed Ms. Hurd’s body of work; “through both his visual effects wizardry and character driven story. That is what George Pal achieved long before anybody else and that’s why his movies stand up.”

Gale Ann Hurd is celebrated for blazing a trail for women in film, so we had to ask how much of Gale Ann Hurd is in Ripley. She gave credit where credit is due to James Cameron but also reminded us that Ripley is not a superhero. She is a hero in the Joseph Campbell tradition; an ordinary person called to rise to the occasion. The hero within us all.

Neither George Lucas, this year’s The Founders Award recipient, nor Kathleen Kennedy were able to hit the red carpet due to the heat and Tony Gilroy couldn’t make it from New York for his Best Science Fiction Television Series Saturn for Andor. However, we were treated to Best Young Performer in a Television Series; Ravi Cabot-Conyers, aka Wim from Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.

The first thing I had to ask Ravi was what his code name was on the show. The Star Wars television shows all work with code names for production purposes. Code names for the shows, code names for the characters. Skeleton Crew’s code name was “Gramar Rodeo” and the actors were all given character names from the forever running animated series The Simpsons. Ravi was Bart which more than geeked him out.

While Ravi may have been a Star Wars fan before being cast, his father was more-so and Ravi credits him for exposing him to our favorite galaxy far, far away. Ravi also reminded to us that he voiced Antonio in Encanto which immediately earned him serious additional points for his outstanding overall work.

The stunning Katee Sackhoff, The Mandalorian’s Bo-Katan Kryze, was excited to be there as a presenter. She let slip that she was involved with Mike Flanagan’s upcoming take on Steven King’s Carrie but couldn’t give any details.

Katee never watched Battlestar Galactica although she played the titular character Starbuck. She’s rectifying this by doing “Starbuck’s first watch” on her The Katee Sackhoff Show podcast.

Having heard about the fun the cast had making Battlestar Galactica, I asked what her favorite unscripted moment was that made it to air. She said that there were too many between line flubs that worked and inhabiting the character in the moment.

Actress Lin Shaye and Actor/Musician Kurt Deimer were on hand to promote their film Scared to Death about a film within a film and a séance gone awry. It comes out quite possibly the day this piece publishes all over the country (Friday the 13^th if it doesn’t.) I had seen Shaye recently in the indie thriller House of Abraham starring Species’ Natasha Henstridge and I gotta tell you, Lin is creepy as hell, so be ready for her as Max in Scared to Death.

Star Trek’s cast and crew were all hands on deck. So much so that it was impossible to catch everyone, especially in this heat which kept OG Captain William Shatner inside.

While we missed The Doctor (Robert Picardo,) Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan,) movie McCoy (Karl Urban,) Boimler (Jack Spade) and Riker (Jonathan Frakes,) other favorites stopped by for a quick chat, including Doug Jones mentioned earlier.

We were geeked out for Ethan Peck and Christina Chong, Strange New Worlds’ Spock and La’an Singh, to stop by.

Okay, they didn’t “just stop by.”

I called Ethan over because I had a bone to pick. Last year we talked about his process for channeling the transition from young naïve Spock to hard-core Leonard Nimoy Spock. He said he was always trying channeling Nimoy.

That was a lie!

I pointed out that in the Season One finale of, A Quality of Mercy, that Peck nailed Nimoy’s Spock. After a fist bump, we talked about the quality of the writing and how that informs his performance.

Strange New Worlds wrapped filming it’s 5^th and final season. Both Ethan and Christina were feeling the bittersweet of pride and ending and were enjoying the moment with fans and Star Trek family alike.

When asked their favorite Star Trek episodes, for Ethan it was TNG’s “Brothers” and Christina’s was the one that started it all, the unaired pilot “The Cage.”

Moving ahead in the Trekverse timeline, I was honored to have a moment with Brent Spiner who really needs no mention of character name.

What a thoughtful person.

First, he had fun at my expense due to the volume of chatter around us, intentionally confusing “concluding Data’s arc” with “Noah’s Ark” and professing his fondness for pairs of animals. He did then confess that he’s a philosophical person and learned to never close the book on anything in life, especially Data.

And those blue eyes…

I have to admit that I was anxious to meet Todd Stahwick who played USS Titan Captain Liam Shaw in Star Trek: Picard Season Three. You wouldn’t know it to look at him with his sharp tie-less suit and amber tinted shades, but he’s an avid Dungeons and Dragons player and can out-geek me seven days a week.

Todd played one of the best character arcs any actor could hope for and the toughest to pull off; going from raging a-hole to absolute favorite. I asked him about just that; did he know his arc at the onset? Terry (Malatas) called him early on and told him that “the audience is going to hate you, then they’re going to love you.” That helped Todd shape and color Captain Shaw and show vulnerability early on to earn that moment when you realize that this guy is a true hero.

Todd’s favorite Star Trek episode? The Next Generation’s “The Measure of a Man.”

Jumping ahead 800 years, we found Bella Sheppard who plays Genesis in Starfleet Academy. Anyone who knows me know how important Star Trek is to me, so I have to admit that I was very fearful that Starfleet Academy would be “Star Trek: 90210”.

I’ve never been more glad to be wrong. I’m a fan and this cast of young performers are killing it. Bella had only been scantly exposed to previous Trek through her grandfather, particularly The Original Series . She’s on a journey of Star Trek discovery, the act of discovering, not the Starship, and feels that that journey is helping inform her character as she absorbs Starfleet’s fictional mission and its message of hope and cooperation to fans in the real world.

Our talk with Bella got hijacked when castmate Kerrice Brooks who plays the holographic life-form Sam appeared behind her. We didn’t get a chance to talk to Kerrice on the red carpet, but spent time to getting to know Kerrice as a person later in the evening. Her journey into the Trekverse was atypical as she hadn’t set out to be an actress and had only seen scant episodes of TNG. Star Trek changed her life in more ways than one and you can see that excitement and growth in her performance.

Personal growth is one of the countless reasons why Star Trek is special and why Star Trek: Starfleet Academy works.

It was Picard Season Three showrunner Terry Matalas’ turn and I asked him about a controversial topic: fan service and how not to do it egregiously. He admitted that it’s tough, but for Season Three they had the luxury of building to the moment of the full cast standing on the bridge of the USS Enterprise-D for the first time in almost 30 years so that that moment was earned. He felt they had struck the right balance and this Star Trek geek agrees wholeheartedly.

Terry started out as a production assistant on Star Trek: Voyager and was there to receive The Robert Forster Artist’s Award. His all-time favorite Star Trek episode; “The Inner Light.”

Capping off the Star Trek experience was modern Trek producer Trevor Roth and executive producer Rod Roddenberry, the son of Star Trek creator, Gene.

The big question on my mind was how they approached bringing the storytelling of classic and Next Gen era Star Trek back to modern television which has evolved considerably. Trevor gave credit to JJ Abrams and Alex Kurtzman for helping to keep the flame of Star Trek alive and feels responsible for making sure that all the talented people in front of and behind camera have the tools and freedom they need to keep the spirit of Star Trek relevant and ageless.

Trevor’s favorite Star Trek episode is The Original Series’ “The Devil in the Dark,” an episode that exemplifies man’s misguided fear of the unknown.

Rod, of course, grew up with The Next Generation. For him, his favorite episodes are; “The Measure of a Man” and “Ship in a Bottle.” He explains “I love the ones where we discover that, whatever it is we’re looking at, is actually a life-form and all it took was for us to learn how to communicate with it and we found out it was intelligent. It was trying to survive. And in the end, we hope it survived.” (“The Devil in the Dark” to a tee) “We don’t always need conflict in the bad guy. Conflict can be misunderstanding. It doesn’t have to be aliens and humans fighting. Those are the ones where we end up making a friend.”

That have me chills, and I told Rod and Trevor as much.

Star Trek is in great hands.

Among the others that took the time to speak to us were Spartacus’ Liam MacIntyre who is excited to be voicing The Wolverine for Insomniac Game’s Marvel’s Wolverine and Samba Schutte who landed the role of playboy Mr. Diabate in Vince Gilligan’s high concept Apple TV series Pluribus.

Samba’s character created a lot of controversy as a person taking advantage of others whose sole purpose is to please, so I asked how he views his character under this scrutiny. He said he plays the character sincere because it forces us to ask ourselves the question; what would we do if no one was watching and no one was judging?

David Dastmalchian was the smartest man in the room by sporting an umbrella. There for Dexter: Resurrection, for which he won Best Guest Star in a Television Series, he was also in the outstanding series Murderbot and that’s what I wanted to talk to him about.

His Murderbot character, Gurathin, is an introvert among extroverts and relates to Alexander Skarsgard’s Murderbot the most, though he’s highly suspicious of him. I asked him how he came to play his character with those internal conflicts.

His answer was very personal.

“There’s something everyone can relate to when it comes to vulnerability and emotional relationships.” He also used his personal history with addiction to inform his character’s history with addiction. “I tried to just be as authentic as possible in a way that hopefully everyone watching would be like, ‘I can see that.’”

The red carpet ended with a real treat. Esai Morales. There for his role as villain Gabriel in the last two Mission: Impossible films, Dead Reckoning Part One and The Final Reckoning.

I was first exposed to Esai as Ritchie Valen’s half-brother in 1987’s La Bamba. He was absolutely delighted that someone remembered that magical film which is one of his very favorites from his incredible body of work. I regret that I forgot to mention that I photographed the title sequence for his 1998 film The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit (Based on the short story by the great Ray Bradbury).

The ceremony itself went long this year, an hour past it’s two and half hour scheduled running time. One of the highlights was Dana Gould in full Planet of the Apes Dr. “Z” Zaius make-up, chewing up every moment.

Bosch and Dark Winds star Titus Welliver received this year’s Lance Reddick Legacy Award and became emotional telling the audience how he and Lance bonded working in frigid Toronto cold without layers. They had to be tough guys towards each other but as soon as the camera stopped rolling, they turned into wussies begging for blankets and heat.

Pluribus received the Saturn for Best New Science Fiction Television Series and Rhea Seehorn Best Actress in a Television Series. In the press room, Vince Gilligan took us back to the mythology of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey in the creation of Rhea’s character Carol and how important it is to show us our flaws to help us understand our flaws while presenting them in an original and engaging way.

The night ended with James Cameron taking questions in the press room. Cameron is another film school hero and I was excited at the prospect of potentially talking to him.

Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be. This time.

He was an inspiration, nonetheless. He closed his remarks with advice for filmmakers; “Don’t be precious about the rules. Don’t step over a dollar to pick up a dime. Recognize when an actor brings something better than what you imagined and never lose sight of what you’re there to say.”

And that’s what I leave you devoted readers with:

Never lose sight of what you’re there to say.

For a complete list of winners, CLICK HERE!

Anthony Sword is a LA based filmmaker, Star Wars action figure influencer and overall science fiction nerd.

Photographer Virginia Hall is a psychiatric nurse practitioner, prettier nerd and frequent collaborator on Anthony’s YouTube channel The Imperial Communique.