Gigi Edgley at Starfury Defiant Convention 2002
Personal Accounts
The Saturday Convention
The convention I attended was the Saturday one, the Sunday one being a duplicate of the previous. We first met Gigi as she walked in the front door to go to her photo sessions. She walked in, I smiled and said hello, and I immediately gained eye contact and a "hi" back. She is much smaller in real life than her screen character, either that or the Farscape cast are midgets? Dunno?
The four of us had to beg for photo tickets because the Saturday ones had sold out, I got the tickets, so here's what happened. We queued like musical chairs until it was photo time. I said "hello", put my arm around her, she huggled in (she has very soft hair) and the photo was taken. But, she blinked, so she giggled, and we huggled together again. Photo taken, I blinked this time. So, we got together again, Gigi looks at me and says," wow, I'm quite getting to like you!" I replied,"me too", and third time lucky the photo was taken. I thought, how goods that, three cuddles from Gigi, the other UK sand box posse just looked on thinking, jammy twat!
Accompanying Photos by John
L to R: Dave, John, Gigi, Todge & Stuart
We then went into the dealers room looking at goodies and Gigi and Lani walked in for a nosey round. Gigi pops onto the stall while I'm waiting for my Card to be authorised. I said "hi" again and asked her what she thought of England. She replied by saying she'd flown for 24 hours to get here, would LOVE to get out but unfortunately, Sunday night, she would have to fly out to be on set the next day. She said she came for the fans. Nice that.
By the way, I have a limited edition Escapee from Nebari Prime figure, an Autographed Nerve Script by Gigi of course and a Couple of Signed Piccies. The photo of us both turned out very good. I am the big guy with the baseball cap next to Gigi. I think the smile on her face says it all! The convention was really more star trek, and to be honest, not that many people recognised her. Sad really.
When it came to the talk by her. I can honestly say, the UK sandbox are the noisiest. Oh yes, she knows we exist. As Carl says, we'll hopefully be seeing more Chiana; she asked Kemper for more.
That was my question to her: Are we going to see more in series four? Except I froze when I stood up and she said "hello", I paused, and a Derbyshire " Hey up" came out to the crowd's surprise. Must admit, my question did get the longest answer.
Chiana's look will be returning back more to series one with a few more costumes. There will be more ESP stuff too, and something with Jool. She still loves doing Farscape, can't believe she gets paid for doing it, still!
Gigi talked allot about her life and parents and how she sees things. She's all woman and definitely clued up to life. I wish I had her energy. How to put her, one of the guys. In the crowd though, it split into two groups. There where about 8 from another Farscape club and the UK SB 4 and a few other people asking questions.
After the talk, well much later, there was the fancy dress. I'm including a shot of two Chiana look alikes and yes, they did win prizes. A Scarran won but unfortunately the pictures did not turn out. A baby Chiana was also entered and Gigi made a right old fuss.
After the fancy-dress she disappeared. In fact they all disappeared. We looked in the disco and we had gave up. On deciding to go and get our bags and goodies from a friends room, well bus trip back time was closing fast.
Who did I find sat in the back of a Car ready to go, Gigi. I cheekily knocked on the window, with the wind it down gesture. Make or break time, if I don't say goodbye, I think I couldn't cope without doing it. Well, she struggled to find the controls, but when she did get the window down, it had a child protection thing on it, so it wound down 50%. I thanked her for coming, explained she was the reason why we watched Farscape, and told her to keep doing what she was doing because she was one in a million. She shook my hand and gave me a big thanks and that gorgeous smile. The look on her face was off, wow they like me. Once again the UK SB posse followed by hand shaking too. She then drove off.
Did I have a daft grin. Oh yes.
Glad I met her, hope I can again sometime. She's a fantastic person.
~ John Whilde