When Executive Producer David Kemper announced that the Sci-Fi Channel (aka Skiffy) had decided not to exercise its option on a fifth season of Farscape, my life changed forever. For one thing, before Skiffy cancelled Farscape you would never have caught me making a video at Speaker's Corner, especially not while wearing a tiara and speaking in the most outrageously prop-ah British accent this side of Christopher Plummer. And now, here I was, in Montreal, at the ConCept sci-fi convention, wearing a "Save Farscape Canada" T-shirt, handing out flyers and trying to remember my French for "Aidez le meilleur programme de sci-fi sur télévision."

The most important part of any campaign is to getting the news out. Despite the success of the Speaker's Corner rally, there has still been precious little coverage of the cancellation north of the 49th. SaveFarscapeCanada's Intrepid!Events!Crew! knew that it would come to this, that we would have to hit the mattresses, take to the streets and bring our message to the people--watch Farscape, write Space, write Skiffy, never give up and never surrender.

The time: Saturday, November 2, 2002. The place: the Days Inn on Guy Street, Montreal, Quebec. The mattresses: ElectricLandlady's.

The night before had ended in the wee hours of Saturday morning, after a frantic Friday that for the majority of the Events Crew involved not only travelling to Montreal but all the last-minute details that go along with any event: making up the last of the handouts; making buttons to pass out at the con; taking a cab back and forth from ElectricLandlady's because the Event Coordinator took the button images with her when she left the hotel "so she'd know where they were" and then left them at the apartment (...but she knew where they were); learning how to use the button maker; cutting out 150 bookmarks; and swearing that the next time we did this, even if the I had to sell a kidney, I would pay a print shop to do the frelling bookmarks. Still, everyone had a few drinks and more laughs, and by the time we were all tucked into bed at ELL's, we had everything more or less ready for the morning.

Andrew Gurudata , a Montreal expatriate and a long-time member of the Toronto Trek planning committee, played an essential role in advising the Events Crew about contacting ConCept's planning committee, organizing a Save Farscape Canada table, getting the T-shirts made and arranging to ferry Suse and me to Montreal.

ConCept was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Saturday morning, when Andrew, Suse and I were scheduled to speak on a panel about saving Farscape. The plan was that Suse, ELL, BandanaGirl, her sister Davia, and I would meet Andrew and TrueBlueZhaanFhaan at the hotel around 9 a.m. to set up our table in the club room, then Suse, Andrew and I would go do the panel.

But this is Farscape. I should have known the plan wasn't gonna work.

To begin with, we vastly underestimated the amount of time it takes five women to get ready to leave the house in the morning. Particularly when there's only one bathroom.

Then there was the problem that certain members of the Events Crew are useless without coffee in the mornings and, since I would be required to speak coherently to people throughout the day, a field trip to MacDonald's for breakfast and a ginormous coffee was absolutely essential.

We arrived at the hotel with flyers, TV, VCR, and CDs and videotapes of three seasons of Farscape at around quarter to 10. While Andrew hustled Suse and me up to the registration area to sign in and then to the panel room, ELL and BandanaGirl (we briefly lost Davia somewhere along the line) set up the table.

10 a.m. -- "It's time to start the show"

All things considered, the panel went fairly well. At one point, a grand total of nine people were in the audience. Seven of them weren't even Events Crew. And, fair enough, two people had never seen the show. Still, we answered questions, explained the heinous and insupportable nature of Skiffy's acts in cancelling Farscape, handed out flyers (in both official languages), collected signatures on our petition, passed out some candy and some bookmarks, and likely offended one charming lady from Texas by implying that she was a "Yankee." There's a reason why I go by Crankygrrl and not "tactfulgirl."

TrueBlueZhaanFhaan, a 10th level Pa'u of amazing baking skills, had poked her head into the panel briefly to let Suse and me know she had arrived, so when the panel wrapped up, Suse and I went back downstairs to the club room to check out how the rest of the Crew had gotten on without us and snag some Scorpy-chip cookies.

As we learned at the Speaker's Corner rally, if you want people to hear your message, the fastest way to their minds is through their stomachs. Throughout the day, the homemade cookies, Hallowe'en-sized packs of Starbursts and Rockets kept a steady stream of visitors coming to our table. Once there, we'd feed 'em a cookie, tell 'em to watch Farscape, pass out a bookmark, hype the web site and the Save Farscape campaign and send them on their way full of chocolately-sugary goodness and warm feelings for Farscape fans. ( Editor's note: The top-secret cookie recipes are now available -- for a price! FoodScape: Unofficial Recipes from the Uncharted Territories.)

Meanwhile, members of the Events Crew roamed the dealers' room and the halls over the con's two floors, passing out flyers and inviting people to visit the Save Farscape table in the club room. Montreal is a little strange, Farscape-wise, as the show airs five times a week on the French sci-fi channel, Canal Z, but only once a week on Space and only in certain parts of the city. Many of the fans at the con hadn't heard that the show had been cancelled and were outraged. Events Crew, particularly BandanaGirl (who learned to say "Watch Farscape!" in French for the occasion), were passionate and patient explaining to upset Scapers how they could contact various channels and companies to support Farscape and directing them to sites online where they could get more information. Meanwhile, TBZF worked the Babylon 5 twins, Jason Carter (Marcus Cole) and Richard Biggs (the cranky doctor guy), giving them cookies, candy and Save Farscape flyers and getting her picture taken with them in her Save Farscape Canada t-shirt.

The largest part of the day passed in a blur, as Events Crew made endless trips from the Club room, in the basement, to the main con floor to hand out flyers and chat up the newly arrived con-goers. Still, by three that afternoon, the coffee and "con"-drenalin had worn off and the Events Crew was desperate for food.

"What's French for 'beer'?"

We found Mexican at a place on Ste. Catherine called the "3 Amigos." Here I learned the most important rule of con-going: take off your nametag in public! The food was only so-so and our waiter was obviously in the throws of a galatically bad day but I was so hungry I would have eaten Hynerian marjules. And the beer was cold.

Naturally, Suse, TBZF and I talked Farscape over lunch. TBZF, who is something of an uberfan, told us stories about meeting the cast at various cons and there were a few pauses in the conversation as we contemplated Ben Browder (who looks as good in real life as on TV, and TBZF has the picture of Ben hugging her at Burbank last year to prove it). We also discussed the virtues of fan-run cons versus corporate cons, like the "Official" Farscape cons going on this week in Burbank and NYC, and generally lamented the fact that none of us had gone to Toronto Trek in June when Virginia Hey (Zhaan) was a guest. Who knew Skiffy was going to go farbots and cancel the show?

After lunch, we returned to the club room and relieved the others, who headed off to find their own food. Concept is an all-day, all-night event but the club room was scheduled to close at six p.m. We handed out more flyers, got more signatures, and somehow I ended up subscribed to a French sci-fi newsletter. Strange things happen at cons.

ConCept isn't a huge event -- more like a really big club meeting than a Creation or Toronto Trek-style gathering of the masses. But by the end of the day, we'd handed out 150 flyers, over 100 bookmarks, 50 Save Farscape Canada buttons (for which people donated a quarter each), sold two T-shirts to people not on the Events Crew, and collected 92 signatures on our petition.

It was time to party. And we did. A lot. More than that, a lady doesn't tell. ;]

Thanks to the entire Intrepid!Events!Crew! -- ElectricLandLady, BandanaGirl, Suse, Andrew, TrueBlueZhaanFhaan and Davia for coming out and making ConCept such a success, and Etana and Grinlit for the fantastic flyers, bookmarks, and videos. We got our message out, had fun and partied hard.

( Editor's note: Andrew has kindly posted some photos from ConCept on his web site.)

Until next time,
Crankygrrl, Intrepid!Events!Coordinator!
November 26th, 2002