What if you threw a Hugo Awards ceremony, and nobody came?
That's not exactly what happened at last night's (Saturday's) Hugo ceremony. The audience was full, and numerous SF writers and artists were present. Yet, likely because of the remote location of the convention, almost none of the actual Hugo winners were present to receive their awards. Naomi Novick won the John C. Campbell award for best newcomer, and she was present; but alas, she lost out for best novel (that went to Verner Vinge) and thus missed the chance to be the only major winner present.
The co-MC for the Hugos was George Takei; and a major theme of the awards was the 40th anniversary of one of the seminal Japanese kid-vid superheroes, Ultraman (as is reflected in the design of the statutettes' base).
I videoed the extensive Ultraman throw-down that started the show, and I'll try to get it up on the blog sometime (it's eight minutes long).
Also on Saturday, we attended a repeat showing of STAR TREK THE NEW VOYAGES: WORLD ENOUGH AND TIME. This was the latest of the Star Trek videos that are non-profit, fan-created, and completely unauthorized; yet which feature professional special effects and participation from Star Trke writers and actors. This one was written by genre TV veterans Michael Reeves and Marc Zicree (who attended and introduced the video); directed by Zicree; and starred original Trek stars Takei and Grace Lee Whitney. The story (which came up with a great excuse to feature Takei in addition to the far younger fan actor who plays his STOS-age character) was well-written, featured excellent acting from Takei and a couple of other people (the fans playing Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc. were not quite up to tv-acting standards), and overall far more entertaining than the last several Paramount Star Trek TV and movie productions.
Photos from the third day are up here.
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