Over the weekend, we made the drive up to Dallas again for another fantastic show; Scifi Expo.  Sure, it's not necessarily a Trek con, per se, but the convention is featuring another scifi series that's near and dear to our hearts.  The ill-fated Joss Whedon spectacular known as  Firefly.  I gotta say, if we weren't Trek fans, we would definitely be Browncoats, but I digress. 

A little less than half of the crew of Serenity made the "trek" to Big-D . The role call includes; Ron Glass, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite, and Sean Maher.  There is one Trek connection here however, Ron was in the Voyager episode "Nightingale".   You know the one… Harry Kim finally gets the chance to be in command of a ship.  It's one of our favorites from Voyager.  Anyway,   We got the chance to hang out during the Serenity / Firefly panel and here are a few highlights….

The panel started off with a question about being cast for Firefly.  Did the cast have any input into their respective characters?...

Ron: Nobody cared what I thought about anything

Adam: That's not true… Joss took us to a fancy restaurant on the Westside of LA.  Since he worked on Barney Miller, I asked Ron what's the key to keeping the cast happy and cohesive.  Ron said, jut keep it about the work

Sean: That’s so Lame

Adam: We failed miserably at it and that's why Joss killed him [Ron] off in the movie….\

Sean: We all talk about how it was this instantaneous organic chemistry that we had.  It sounds like a cliche , but it's true.  It's was a very easy going cast and that's not always the case in this industry

Question: After the show wraps, the show becomes an instant hit on DVD…  What's it's like to have this kind of fan reaction and cult following?  It's gotta be gratifying...

Adam: [jokingly] We're gratified… It's a testament to Joss's vision.

Question: What are some of your favorite scenes / memories from the TV series & movie?

Adam: One of my favorites is when we're going into the bar and Kaylee here says something about "twixed her nethers…" Seriously, the Mule scene was my favorite. 

Jewel: One of my favorites is when Sean gets shout.  I love that scene when you say "River, I'm sorry."  I also love that scene were we make out…  [Crowd cheers]

Sean: I'm not answering any questions about Firefly… Just kidding.  Jaynestown was my favorite.  Getting drunk with this one (pointing to Jewel) was challenging.  Oh and my other favorite one is when I get shot.

Ron: In the movie Serenity I love the last moment before I took my last breath. 

Adam: That was one of Joss's favorite moments too.

Question: What was it like to work together on Warehouse 13? Asked to Jewel & Sean...

Jewel to Sean: You looked real professional in that purple spandex suit.

Sean: It was a one piece. Like a leotard.

Jewel: you looked so good.

Sean: At first I was really shy and tried to take care of "things" real discretely. By the end I didn't care. I just grabbed my crotch.

Question: What were your favorite Adam Baldwin moments? Asked to the entire panel...

Jewel: In the reaver space scene of Serenity we were in front of a green screen. Joss tells us stuff like "act scared", "look right", "look left". And Adam is in the back making groaning noises (she makes low groaning sounds mimicking Adam) making me laugh. What was that? (Jewel looks at Adam).

Adam: I was scared (jokingly). [Crowd laughs]

Jewel: Even if the scene didn't have anything to do with Adam, he'd be doing stuff in the background with a prop so that the director would have no choice but to cut to him and he would ultimately get more screen time.

Sean:  I'm trying to think…. Uh… dear diary, today I was pompous and my sister was crazy…. Jane had to touch everything in every scene… Adam would sit there in every scene and touch, touch, touch… It was kinda of annoying but funny in retrospect.

Ron: This actually happened off stage.. We had trailers next to each other.  In my old fashion kind of way, I like to prepare quietly and by myself.  He was right next door to me with the loudest damn music.  I couldn't bring myself to say anything, so I would  just  fume.

Adam: I think it was Gina that finally came to me and said "Okay, you gotta knock it off…"

Question: What plot points did you want in the show that never were added?

Adam; I wanted Jayne to hook up with Inara, but Joss said no frikkin way! Think about it...she was his perfect type woman

Jewel; I always wanted Kaylee and Simon to have a baby

Before they wrapped up the panel, they took a quick poll to see how many Jayne hats were in the audience... There were lots. We had a blast at Scifi Expo and especially enjoyed this panel. The cast seemed to really like one another and the mutual admiration was palpable. If you're in the DFW area in May, be sure to check out another con put on by the same folks: Dallas Comic-Con. We'll be there.

Check out the full set of pics from the Firefly panel below.