The beginning of Season Three launched with GATECON 2022 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Now as we are winding down toward hiatus, David has recovered his 2018 interview with the Gatecon founders and is ready to share it with the rest of fandom. Allan Gowen, Richard Pasco, Fryn Rogers, Ian Rogers and Stef Rogers reveal their Stargate convention journeys, with a couple of very special guests peppered in…

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Timecodes
0:00 – Opening Credits
00.25 – Welcome and Episode Outline
00.57 – Starting Gatecon
06:30 – The First Convention
08:44 – Gatecon Founders Introductions
10:14 – Future Gatecons
12:03 – For the Love of Stargate
14:22 – Remembering Guests & 9/11
21:44 – Fryn’s Memory of David
24:23 – Dan Payne’s Kull Warrior Entrance (2003)
30:20 – Gatecon’s Opening Acts
33:20 – Stef’s Gatecon Memory
34:39 – Don S Davis at Gatecon
38:12 – 2018 Gatecon Highlights
42:05 – Party-Crashers: Rainbow Sun Francks and David DeLuise
49:40 – Why Do Gatecon?
54:21 – Final Thoughts and Wrap-Up
58:24 – Goodbyes and End Credits

***

“Stargate” and all related materials are owned by MGM Studios and MGM Television.

#Stargate
#DialtheGate
#TurtleTimeline

TRANSCRIPT
Find an error? Submit it here.

David Read:
This is David Read. I’m with my family. This event is very important to me because it was at a time in my life when I was discovering myself and figuring out who I am. I’m sorry. Hi.

Allan Gowen:
Hi. Hello.

David Read:
This means a great deal to me to have you all here. I love you.

Fryn Rogers:
If you cry, we’ll cry, so stop it. All right?

David Read:
Because you’re all so damn difficult. You’re a very important part of my life and you’re a very important part to Stargate’s life. One of the reasons that I’m so thankful for the opportunity for Stargate Command this year and for Gatecon, is that there are a lot of fans who are strictly homebound out there. I know a few of them. They can’t do these things. There are others, they can’t afford to come here. What you have created, there are no words for the magic that happens here. How much money have you guys raised for charities? What is it?

Richard Pasco:
It’s nearing 400,000 now, I think, over the years.

David Read:
That’s a lot of money. You’ve got cystic fibrosis. Keep in mind to speak up a little bit. You’ve got cystic fibrosis. You’ve got, what are the other charities that you guys have supported?

Allan Gowen:
Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Fryn Rogers:
Sea Shepherd.

David Read:
Where did this all come from? Allan, did it start with you?

Allan Gowen:
No. It sort of started with Fryn. Fryn contacted me. I created the website AusGate 20-odd years ago and in its first incarnation it had a quiz on it, an interactive quiz. Back in those days, doing a quiz or something interactive was quite difficult. I got contacted by a young lady called Catherine.

Fryn Rogers:
I was young then.

Allan Gowen:
Still is. She asked if I could give her some pointers on how to do the quiz. I, being the really nice guy, I am, back then, till I learned better, I decided to let her know that I would do it for her. I’d write up all the code and send it to her and she could include it on her website. We become friends through that. After that, she introduced me to her brother, Richard, who was doing a really cool Star Trek website.

David Read:
You’re a Star Trek fan. We’ve never talked about it.

Fryn Rogers:
We’ve not. We try and forget about that.

Allan Gowen:
Our sort of online friendship went for a while and then one day Fryn contacted me and said, “Hey, do you wanna do a convention?” I said, “Never been to one. Yeah, sure. Let’s do it.” It went from there and we spent the next couple of years not knowing what we were doing, trying to organize our first convention and thinking wrongly that you had to ask permission to do a convention from the parent studio. We spent close to two years emailing, or Fryn did, emailing MGM and…

Fryn Rogers:
It was Showtime as well, wasn’t it?

Allan Gowen:
And Showtime. After many, many non-replies, since there were no replies, apparently, so I’m told, a rather rude email went out.

Fryn Rogers:
I’m sorry. I got angry.

David Read:
What did you do, Ray?

Fryn Rogers:
I emailed them and said without the fans, they wouldn’t have a show. How dare they ignore me, blah, blah, blah, blah.

David Read:
What did you say?

Fryn Rogers:
I contacted the companies concerned several times. No replies. You get to a certain stage where you think, “Why are you ignoring me?” “We’re fans. Without fans, you wouldn’t have a show.” That’s what I said to them in quite a strong way and I finally got a reply. They finally replied and they gave us the support we needed. They sent representatives to our first event.

David Read:
They allowed you to put on this event?

Fryn Rogers:
Yeah, they actually supported us.

David Read:
They supported you directly?

Fryn Rogers:
They had a presence at the first event. We had Hank Cohen from MGM, who I think was the president.

Allan Gowen:
He was the head of worldwide television distribution I think was his title

Fryn Rogers:
He was there.

David Read:
18 years, Allan. Holy cow. Bravo.

Fryn Rogers:
I think he was a big wig. We had him and several other representatives from MGM were there supporting us, which was great.

David Read:
18 years since that first one. Gatecon number… what is this?

Allan Gowen:
12.

Ian Rogers:
12.

Fryn Rogers:
Something like that.

Allan Gowen:
12.

Fryn Rogers:
We only ever were gonna do one.

David Read:
You were gonna do one?

Fryn Rogers:
Yeah.

Allan Gowen:
Just gonna do one.

David Read:
What happened at that one?

Ian Rogers:
Mayhem.

Fryn Rogers:
It was carnage.

Allan Gowen:
It was a lot of fun. I can’t remember who it was. I think it might have been MGM sent a video crew along with it to follow Amanda.

David Read:
Bridge built the set. Did they not?

Allan Gowen:
We’re not saying Bridge. We’re saying Gateworks, which was their set construction facility at a secret location that we were never allowed to be told.

Fryn Rogers:
Oh, no. Pain and death.

David Read:
No. That was a big deal back then.

Allan Gowen:
They invited me and Richard out there. It wasn’t a case of they built it, they helped us build it and we built our own Stargate. I actually made a mold of a section of a Stargate, carved it out of Plaster of Paris. Did a fiberglass mold, packed it in my suitcase, brought it with me. Me and Richard literally built the Stargate by hand. It was out of rubber, wasn’t it?

Richard Pasco:
Mm-hmm.

David Read:
You never cease to amaze me. The stuff that you guys can do!

Fryn Rogers:
It was rubbish.

Allan Gowen:
It was terrible. It was awful.

Fryn Rogers:
Rubbish.

David Read:
Who were the big headliners that year?

Allan Gowen:
Amanda.

Fryn Rogers:
Don.

Allan Gowen:
Don S. Davis.

David Read:
Don S. Davis.

Allan Gowen:
J.R. Bourne, Jay Acovone.

Fryn Rogers:
Might have been Teryl.

Allan Gowen:
Teryl. Because we had Turtle and Gazelle.

Richard Pasco:
Chris Judge was there, Tony Amendola.

Allan Gowen:
Chris Judge, Tony Amendola.

David Read:
Wow.

Fryn Rogers:
Did you say Jay Acovone?

Allan Gowen:
Jay Acovone. They enjoyed themselves. They loved it. They played it up because Kawalsky had just been killed off for the second or third time already.

David Read:
Season Three had aired, the alternate-reality episodes. How old were you?

Stef Rogers:
11.

David Read:
Wow. Did you come?

Stef Rogers:
No.

David Read:
No. Came later.

Stef Rogers:
For our first act, you gotta introduce yourselves.

David Read:
Yes. Let’s start. You guys pick.

Ian Rogers:
Start with me? I’m the youngest member of this group.

Fryn Rogers:
No, the newest member.

Ian Rogers:
Newest.

Fryn Rogers:
Not youngest.

Ian Rogers:
Sorry, not the youngest. In fact, the oldest, but the newest member.

Fryn Rogers:
And who are you?

David Read:
And who are you?

Ian Rogers:
My name’s Ian. I’m Fryn’s husband.

Fryn Rogers:
Mr. Fryn.

David Read:
You are the newest member of the group.

Ian Rogers:
I am the newest member of the group.

David Read:
Who is missing from the group of the original?

Allan Gowen:
Originally, we had a lady from Colorado Springs called Sue Seeley. She was with us from 2000 to 2005. She retired in 2005. We continued on, myself, Fryn, and Richard.

David Read:
So, the three of you and Sue were the four?

Allan Gowen:
We’re the four. We’re the C4.

David Read:
The C4. That’s it.

Allan Gowen:
C4.

David Read:
You guys are the C4. Understood.

Fryn Rogers:
Then we went down to C3 for a while.

Allan Gowen:
Then Stef started coming to Gatecons with Fryn. It was 2010, I think Stef was sort of more of a part of the group and then officially in 2016, it was the five of us.

David Read:
So, for the record, we have Stef, we have Fryn, we have Richard, we have Allan and we have Ian. I know I played that out of order, but that’s who we’ve got here on the stage from left to right.

Allan Gowen:
Editing.

Richard Pasco:
We’ll fix it in post.

David Read:
We’ll fix it in post. Allan and I are the big editors. What was the magic about that first year that made you guys say, “Hey, we’re gonna give birth to another one of these things next year?”

Ian Rogers:
Don.

Allan Gowen:
Don.

Ian Rogers:
Don’s quote at the closing ceremony. Don was on stage and sort of wrapping things up. On the spur of the moment, I assume, came up with this quote, which was, “They took the seed of an idea and planted it, and out grew Gatecon.”

David Read:
“They took the seed of idea and planted it and out grew Gatecon.”

Richard Pasco:
And that’s been our motto since.

David Read:
It’s in the stage.

Allan Gowen:
It’s in the stage.

David Read:
Behind us.

Allan Gowen:
18 years later, it’s printed on the stage behind us. For me as well was the charity auction the first night. It was our first convention ever, but we were supporting Make-A-Wish. We had a young brain-tumor survivor from Make-A-Wish called Tara Mitrovic. Tara’s wish was for her dog to become famous. Her dog was Boomer.

David Read:
Boomer.

Allan Gowen:
The dog that appeared in…

David Read:
“Singularity.” “This is my new dog.” I love the pronunciation that she has.

Allan Gowen:
The speech Tara gave that night literally brought the whole house to tears, including Christopher Judge the most. It was streaming down. That was the one for me.

David Read:
And that was in year one.

Richard Pasco:
And she’s been coming back since then.

David Read:
Is she here this year?

Richard Pasco:
Not this year.

Fryn Rogers:
No.

Allan Gowen:
No, not this year.

David Read:
I didn’t see her. I have her online. I expected to see her this year.

Fryn Rogers:
Even though Boomer’s no longer with us.

David Read:
I met Boomer. He lasted a while; she took good care of him. Why are we still doing this?

Richard Pasco:
Very good question. It’s something we say every year.

David Read:
Gluttons for punishment?

Fryn Rogers:
Yeah. We love it. We do love it.

David Read:
What is it that you love?

Fryn Rogers:
Love seeing the family. They’re strangers. We don’t live with them. We don’t know them. We don’t live next door to them. They’re family.

Richard Pasco:
We said on the way over here, it’s magical when we get here and see all these people coming into the hotel, checking in, whatnot, and we think, “They’re here ’cause of what we’re doing.” That is pretty humbling, isn’t it?

David Read:
We are. Absolutely it is. What is it about Stargate that you guys love?

Allan Gowen:
Hard question. Doing Stargate conventions so often, I didn’t stop becoming a fan, I almost started becoming part of it. Because a fan, when you sit back and you love a TV show and you can’t wait to watch it each week, where the people on the screen we knew, and the people who were building the sets on the screen we’re watching, we knew. It wasn’t like it changed for me. It’s hard to explain. We weren’t fans anymore. There was a sense of ownership there.

David Read:
You were a part of this mechanism.

Allan Gowen:
We’re a part of it.

David Read:
It never changes. It never ceases to amaze me. I think back on when I first visited the set and some of the magic was taken away. When I met a lot of the actors, a lot of the magic was gone, replaced with something far more satisfying, which was not, “Oh, yeah, I know Amanda Tapping. How am I not so self-important?” But a growth of friendships that emerged from something that was purely originally based on what we all took away from the show when we first saw it, which was different for everybody. In some ways, so many of us feel the same way about it. The hero’s journey that really has its roots in mythology that has been incorporated into this series. My first Gatecon was 2003. The first person to walk out on stage was Colin Cunningham, completely different from Major Davis. I’d never expected that to come out of that guy and it got me realizing these guys are people. They can be funny and they can surprise you. Who surprised you over the years?

Fryn Rogers:
That’s a tricky one.

David Read:
Everyone, sort of, probably to a certain degree.

Fryn Rogers:
No. Over to you, Allan.

Allan Gowen:
I could give you a few names of people that you’ve never met that you would have an impression of what they’d be like and then they were exactly what you thought they’d be like. Usually what you think they’re like is gonna be a good person; they’re personable and friendly and have a connection with. There wasn’t too many that were totally different than what we thought they’d be like. For me, Tony Amendola was brilliant. He was exactly like I thought he would be in real life.

David Read:
When he speaks, you stop and listen.

Allan Gowen:
He paid attention as well to the convention. For me, the people I remember most over the years are the people who stopped to pay attention to the work we’ve done. For a lot of guests we have, it could be just another convention or they’ve done the rounds of conventions.

David Read:
They’re punching a card. Stargate’s my thing right now.

Allan Gowen:
For me, it’s the ones who pay that attention. They don’t have to say anything to us, but you might overhear something that they’ve said and you go, “How cool is that?” One for me was Brent Stait, he paid attention to all of the effort that was put backstage. It was a year that I was in an extremely elaborate costume, it took me about half an hour to get into the costume. I heard Brent talking to another one of the actors and saying how well everything was organized backstage and the amount of work that goes into everything. Also recently, today, with Michael Shanks and Lexa Doig. I think they were expecting that punch card situation. I introduced them to the stage; they walked up the stairs…

David Read:
Michael and Lexa?

Allan Gowen:
Yep.

David Read:
Have they ever done Gatecon together?

Allan Gowen:
Not together, only ever mine. They walked up and straightaway Lexa noticed the detail in the stage. She went, “Oh, wow.” Michael followed her up the stairs and went, “Oh.” Then, unbeknown to me, because I had to leave to do some other duties, they spent the first five minutes of their panel talking about the stage and how great it was. They’re the things I remember, the people who appreciate the effort we’ve put in.

Fryn Rogers:
I’ve got a different memory. I don’t know if I can even talk about this because I don’t know if we’re allowed to talk about this, but it was 9/11.

David Read:
Please.

Fryn Rogers:
We had a convention the day after. We traveled to Canada the day of 9/11. It’s the day after, we woke up in the hotel to all the catastrophe that’s happening. I remember Erick Avari coming out and he was devastated by it all, he wasn’t going to come. It still upsets me when I think about it, but he said, “I’m so glad I did,” Everybody was so welcoming and warm and he said he was so upset about it all. It was amazing.

David Read:
It was at a time when people needed it most. It was right there.

Fryn Rogers:
Very emotional.

Allan Gowen:
It was very emotional. I flew in on 9/10. Richard must have as well.

Fryn Rogers:
He was there.

Allan Gowen:
The very early morning of 9/11, I woke to a bash at my door and it was Richard. He said, “Are you watching this?”

David Read:
I didn’t know you guys were here.

Allan Gowen:
We were here. Me and Richard flew in the day before. So, the TV went off. Literally the moment I turned the TV on, the second plane hit live.

Fryn Rogers:
When it’s the two towers.

Allan Gowen:
We were stunned. That was the second plane hit.

Fryn Rogers:
It was awful.

Allan Gowen:
We didn’t really go into a panic ’cause everyone was in shock straight away.

David Read:
You’re in shock

Allan Gowen:
It was a case of, what do we do? We’ve got a convention.

Fryn Rogers:
Do we do it?

Allan Gowen:
Do we do it?

Fryn Rogers:
Do we cancel it?

Richard Pasco:
We did think about canceling.

David Read:
You did?

Fryn Rogers:
Yes.

Allan Gowen:
Yeah.

Fryn Rogers:
Yes.

Allan Gowen:
We had about half of the attendees already here and the other half ready to fly in. Most of them that couldn’t get in didn’t wanna fly at that stage, including some of the actors.

David Read:
Did the fly ban interfere at all with people coming in?

Fryn Rogers:
No. Not really, no.

Allan Gowen:
A few attendees, it did.

David Read:
But they probably had a lot to do with themselves backing out.

Allan Gowen:
A lot of people with a lot of fear. They didn’t wanna go on planes at that time.

David Read:
This is a new world

Allan Gowen:
So, in the end, we were around about 75 to 100 attendees, lower than what had bought tickets. Most of the guests…did we have any cancellations?

Fryn Rogers:
No, I don’t think we did.

Allan Gowen:
When it came to the end of the convention where we were doing the autograph session, we had video cameras in the autograph session filming away. Again, Tony Amendola said, “After all that’s happened, I felt I needed to be here.” He wanted people to come together. We ended up putting on a convention and I think this is where the whole family thing started. It bound people together.

David Read:
You guys dealt with a crisis. A legitimate crisis.

Allan Gowen:
We dealt with a dreadful crisis. We dealt with it together.

David Read:
Life has to go on. I think that a lot of people have the instinct of, “We must grieve now, right away.”

Allan Gowen:
No.

David Read:
Life has to go on. You guys had scheduled this and everything else happened. “Let’s have a good time here. Then we’re gonna be able to grieve and deal with this. Because if we don’t put this on, they win.” You guys did that.

Fryn Rogers:
It wasn’t easy.

David Read:
It wouldn’t be. No. So, other memories.

Fryn Rogers:
Good memories. Better memories.

David Read:
I’m milking you guys. Come on. Let’s save Don for last. We’re gonna get to Don.

Fryn Rogers:
I’ve got a good memory of you.

David Read:
Of me?

Fryn Rogers:
Of you. I think it was 2004.

Allan Gowen:
Same one, think it was.

Fryn Rogers:
2004.

David Read:
Dear heavens.

Fryn Rogers:
It was here.

David Read:
I’m so sorry.

Fryn Rogers:
No. Shame on you. It was here. We had this amazing video that you did where we had a spaceship landing on the hotel.

David Read:
That’s right. Bruce Woloshyn did the effects.

Fryn Rogers:
The attendees weren’t sure if there was a spaceship landing.

Allan Gowen:
We filmed it the day before, I think it was early that morning. We put it on the screens as if it was a live broadcast.

Fryn Rogers:
It’s happening now.

Allan Gowen:
We’re here and we’ve got David. I’m filming, I’ve got the camera filming David.

David Read:
I say, “I’m from GateWorld and I’m reporting at Gatecon.” Someone from Bruce’s team at Rainmaker had gone out and shot photos of the parking lot from sky all the way down. The cargo ship lands.

Fryn Rogers:
It was amazing.

David Read:
Actually, on my head. Leaves and everything. The detail they put in this.

Allan Gowen:
Everything.

David Read:
[clip starts] Hi, this is David Read reporting for GateWorld.net. We’re in Richmond, British Columbia, right outside the Best Western Richmond Hotel and Convention Center, the site of Gatecon 2004, where some of the biggest Stargate fans in history are coming to meet some of the fans and get a little one-on-one with the actors. So, we’re gonna go around and meet some of the actors and see what … What the … [clip ends]

Fryn Rogers:
That’s a good memory.

David Read:
That was cool.

Allan Gowen:
It was me arriving in the Al’kesh, wasn’t it?

Fryn Rogers:
Yes.

Allan Gowen:
I was then beamed on the stage through the transport rings. My lighting guy had actually created a set of gobos for the moving lights to make them look like Stargate transport rings. It was a bit tacky.

Fryn Rogers:
It was cheesy, but it was good.

Allan Gowen:
It was cheesy.

David Read:
It was great.

Allan Gowen:
The lights come down, the rings come down and then the rings went up and I was suddenly on stage. Everyone loved it. It was great.

David Read:
My favorite entrance of yours is my first year here in 2003.

Allan Gowen:
Let me think.

David Read:
With Dan Payne.

Allan Gowen:
Dan Payne. With the Kull warrior.

David Read:
The first episode of the Super Soldiers had aired. That was the only one, “Evolution Part 1,” I believe it is. We have just seen this thing and then they had gone to break and it was gonna be months before we saw it again. So, this was an unknown thing. Tell us about that entrance, Allan.

Allan Gowen:
I came on stage.

David Read:
This is funny.

Allan Gowen:
I come on stage dressed as my Tok’ra character, Ne’lan, which Richard came up with the name for that character. He basically turned my name around.

David Read:
In Carmen Argenziano’s costume.

Allan Gowen:
Yes, in that one it was Carmen’s, which was about four sizes too big for me. It was actually held up by a piece of rope around the middle. I’d start doing my introduction…

David Read:
No, you were looking for him.

Allan Gowen:
That’s right. I was looking for him.

David Read:
You had the Zat gun.

Allan Gowen:
We did the old panto thing where I’d be going back and forth.

Fryn Rogers:
“He’s behind you.”

Allan Gowen:
“He’s behind you.” He grabs me and drags me up the center aisle.

David Read:
He picks him up like a doll.

Allan Gowen:
It’s nothing we haven’t wanted to do since.

David Read:
No, no. The Super Soldier came out first. The stage was dark. You see his eyes.

Allan Gowen:
That’s when the lights went out.

David Read:
He’s scanning. Dan was pulling it off. You come out and it was so funny.

Allan Gowen:
That’s right. He was coming back down.

David Read:
What is he, seven and a half feet tall with the boots and the helmet? He said, “Ladies and gentlemen, Dan Payne.”

Allan Gowen:
No, but that’s not where it ended because he grabbed me.

David Read:
Please. I’m rushing. Sorry.

Allan Gowen:
He dragged me up the center aisle of the seats and dragged me out the back of the theater.

David Read:
That’s right.

Allan Gowen:
We had a microphone out there as well. We made it sound like there was a big fight outside.

David Read:
That’s right.

Allan Gowen:
Then, next minute, I come back in, holding him by his nosepiece, dragging him behind me. Like a father dragging…you would hopefully not do it as a father. Dragging someone behind you, I threw him up on stage. It was hilarious. It was good. [clip starts] Behind you. Oh, God. Oh, God. No, you can’t kill me. No. Look, I’m really important. I’ve gotta run this convention. Please don’t kill me. No, come on, please. Looks like that’s it. There’s gonna be no one to host the convention. Convention’s over, everyone. Go home. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, Dan Payne. Thanks very much, Dan, for all your great help. Thank you. Phew. Everyone, make some noise for Dan. For those of you who haven’t been lucky enough to see the Season Seven episode “Evolution” yet, that was the newest bad guy of Stargate SG-1, the Super Jaffa. Unfortunately, you didn’t get to see what Dan looked like. Hopefully he might be returning on Sunday to meet and greet you all. [clip ends]

David Read:
It was great. The photographs were later. He put on the Super Soldier costume and stood for fans in that costume.

Allan Gowen:
He did.

David Read:
If you wanna talk about a glutton for punishment, there is no one more apt for that.

Fryn Rogers:
Gluttonous.

David Read:
Gluttonous, thank you. here is no one more appropriate for that than Dan Payne because he went through everything on set and then he came here and did it with fans. I talked with him later. I said, “Dan, what are you doing?” He said, “Don’t worry. It’s a little warm, but it is the most comfortable thing I have ever worn. It was designed for me. They molded it to my body.” It’s little things like that that always mesmerize me because time and again they do some wonderful stuff on screen and then they come here and they do it for free with us in many cases. Sometimes they come away with a little bit of money, but the connections that they build with us are great. Richard, do you have any?

Richard Pasco:
Not any one single memory. It’s things from start to finish that amazed me, like the opening ceremony with the video that Allan puts together each time. That sort of gets you going.

David Read:
This year?

Richard Pasco:
Every year.

David Read:
It’s so good.

Allan Gowen:
The very first year we used it and then the second and third years, I actually used different music.

David Read:
You did?

Allan Gowen:
Yeah, I actually used different music, ’cause I was gonna do a different one each year. After that it was Richard who convinced me to go back.

David Read:
Absolutely Everybody.

Allan Gowen:
“Absolutely Everybody.”

David Read:
Who’s the artist?

Allan Gowen:
Vanessa Amorosi.

Richard Pasco:
Australian.

David Read:
Australian. You guys got the rights to use it?

Allan Gowen:
In 2004 we got the rights to use it. Her management. We haven’t since, but whenever we play music at a convention, it comes under a musical license that’s part of our hotel.

David Read:
The openings are magic; they get you right into it.

Richard Pasco:
That’s when the con really begins.

Allan Gowen:
It gets everyone wound up to start with, it gets them going. You don’t wanna start a convention dry with someone walking on stage. There’s no emotion in that. It’s about building up the emotion and that’s why way back in the early days when we were even deciding what we were gonna do, I said to Fryn, and then Richard and Sue, that I didn’t wanna do your typical convention. I don’t want a stage with seats on it, with microphones and people talking behind it in front of a banner.

Richard Pasco:
Saying, “Welcome.”

Allan Gowen:
“Welcome. This is boring. We’ll answer questions now.”

David Read:
“We will now ingest the audience one at a time.” Like cattle.

Allan Gowen:
I wanted to create a theatrical experience.

David Read:
That’s exactly what it is. Exactly.

Allan Gowen:
I wanted that the moment they walk through the door when they were entering the main ballroom the very first day, I wanted them to look up and go, “Wow.” That’s why we’ve always had a set, we’ve always had a stage, a proper stage. It’s always been a theatrical stage and it’s all about emotion. Straight away they’ve got some sort of emotional connection. Thanks to Stargate Productions and Gateworks for helping us for the first few years. We built some of our own stages. Some weren’t very good.

Fryn Rogers:
I can’t say it. Some were really bad.

Allan Gowen:
Straight after that of seeing the impact of the stage, we would hit them with a music video that for the first time at conventions, was about the people in the audience, not about the people on the stage. That’s what it was about. It was about, “my God, I’m just Joe from wherever. I bought a ticket and they’re putting my face on a screen” in a really hopefully cool video.

David Read:
Ian, Stef, any memories that stand out?

Ian Rogers:
Stef, you go first.

David Read:
You’ve been really quiet. Microphone’s right there, darling.

Stef Rogers:
My favorite from 2007 in Reading, where we had the Rugby World Cup. It’s the auction night, so we put it up on the stage.

David Read:
The broadcast of the cup. Suanne Braun and Cliff Simon were there.

Ian Rogers:
Both South African.

David Read:
South Africa was playing.

Ian Rogers:
Was in the World Cup.

Stef Rogers:
It was against England. You had Colin Cunningham and JR Bourne at the back trying to work out what rugby was and commentating on it.

David Read:
We’re outside looking in. I still don’t get it. What games? Whatever. OK.

Ian Rogers:
It’s called rugby for a reason.

David Read:
No, I get it.

Stef Rogers:
So, we decided the next day to sell a rugby ball. Suanne, because South Africa won, she kicked it into the audience and it bounced off the top of the roof and hit our condock.

David Read:
And her camera and her camera hit her. Now it is immortalized in the stage.

Allan Gowen:
Hathor carrying a Gilbert rugby ball.

David Read:
That’s fantastic. Don S. Davis. The first day that I did the convention, I showed the picture to Teryl. They came off stage and I ambushed them in the dealer’s room, where they walked through, I got a picture with each of them. Teryl and Don on stage were magic. Don did most of the talking and Teryl would sit there. The image is still in my head of her white suit and the pink shirt underneath and her sitting there rocking her feet, ’cause she’s on a high chair and she’s so short. Letting him pontificate and she’s relishing every moment of being with him. They were father and daughter; he called her his daughter. Memories of Don, besides the quotation.

Fryn Rogers:
I’ve got a great memory of Don.

Richard Pasco:
The charity auction?

Fryn Rogers:
Yeah, that too. I’ve got a better memory. The very first Gatecon, which year? 2000?

Allan Gowen:
2000.

Fryn Rogers:
We were at this dodgy-looking hotel. It really was dodgy. I didn’t know these actors and in walked Don Davis. He’s got a presence, it’s obvious who he is. He had this little woman with him. In they came. I said, “Oh, Don,” I said, a fangirl, “Don, it’s so good to meet you. Is this your wife?” He goes, “No, dear, that’s Teryl Rothery.”

David Read:
If I could’ve seen the look on Teryl’s face.

Fryn Rogers:
I could have died. I tell you, I could have died there and then.

David Read:
Wow. Richard.

Richard Pasco:
Mine’s a short-and-sweet memory of Don. Charity auction, probably 2002, 2003. Prancing up and down the stage wearing Hathor’s wig. A side of Don you’d never seen before.

Fryn Rogers:
He really enjoyed it.

Richard Pasco:
He did. Too much. He enjoyed it too much.

David Read:
There’s a picture of Don in the archive online somewhere of him wearing Hathor’s wig. I looked at that photo and I was like, “Yeah, I wanna come.” ‘Cause it was from an earlier year. Oh, man. That was great. Allan, a specific story of Don.

Allan Gowen:
Not convention related. Sitting in Don’s living room, drinking the beer out of his fridge, playing with his dog. Don invited us over to his house in 2002-ish somewhere.

Fryn Rogers:
’01 or ’02.

Allan Gowen:
We went over and we hung out and we chilled.

Fryn Rogers:
Surreal.

Allan Gowen:
It was going over to a mate’s place and having a beer.

David Read:
He wasn’t an actor first. He as a man’s man. He was, like you say. It’s like, “Really? This is you?” “Yeah.” That was it. He was recently in the Southern Illinoisan, which was my school’s magazine. He and I had never met before and he remembered me because of that magazine. He was like, “Come over.” He signed it for me. We met each other again later and he was like, “David, how’s SIU?” “It’s good, Don. I brought you a mug” and I brought him a mug and I think a T-shirt from it. That was a personal connection that I cherish to this day and I think of him all the time. All the time. That’s because of you guys that I got that opportunity. So, thank you very much for that.

Allan Gowen:
You’re welcome.

David Read:
No one can take that from me. This year was an extraordinary year. Highlights, please.

Richard Pasco:
Charity auction for me, as always. Especially last night, because chatting to Cystic Fibrosis Canada after the event.

David Read:
What was the total, Richard?

Richard Pasco:
Getting to that.

David Read:
Understood. As long as it’s in there.

Richard Pasco:
But talking to them after the event, they said that they expected to maybe walk away with $5,000.

David Read:
The conservative expectation.

Fryn Rogers:
But they were happy with that.

Ian Rogers:
But when they added it up and it came to $35,000, they were completely blown away by it. As were we.

David Read:
Was JR?

Richard Pasco:
Yes.

Fryn Rogers:
Yeah. I emailed him straight after and he couldn’t believe it. He didn’t stay for the final countdown.

David Read:
The final tally.

Fryn Rogers:
He didn’t stay for the final tally, so I thought, “I’ll email him.” He couldn’t believe it. Blown away.

David Read:
What else?

Fryn Rogers:
My highlight, every convention, I think I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again because I’m boring like that, is when you’re sitting in there on a Friday morning, the lights go down and the room’s full and the video starts. You can feel it. You can taste the excitement building and everybody gets, “ah.” It’s that electricity.

David Read:
The only thing I can compare it to is when the lights go down and on the theater screen you see, “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away.”

Fryn Rogers:
Exactly.

David Read:
Shit’s about to get real. Absolutely.

Richard Pasco:
It’s little things as well, when you’re going round the day-to-day things around the event. We march up and down the hotel so many times during the con.

Fryn Rogers:
And trying to avoid people.

David Read:
Miles and miles are racked up among all of us.

Richard Pasco:
You make eye contact with somebody and they say thank you or something like that. It makes all the difference. Makes it all worthwhile. It’s incredible.

Allan Gowen:
With my highlights, I can’t think of any that have actually happened up on stage, even though a lot have happened on stage. Mine’s been interaction with the fans. Richard said, when they pull you aside and say thank you and that thank you turns into a 15-minute speech from them about how…

Richard Pasco:
Some really personal stories.

Allan Gowen:
Personal stories.

Fryn Rogers:
They cry like children.

Allan Gowen:
They’re telling you where they’re from. We don’t know these people.

David Read:
No, you don’t know them. But you do.

Allan Gowen:
And still get surprised that there’s still people that come up to us and say, “Oh, this is our first Gatecon.” Pardon? We’ve been around for 18 years and it’s the first one. They tell you their life story or they tell you where they’ve come from, or they tell you what their connection is to Stargate and what led them to come to this convention at this time. I’ve had some really great stories. Out of most of the conventions, this one has had more stories than most. Don’t know why. There seems to be a calmness about them this year, a contentness, and they’re really happy to be here and they love the way we run conventions.

David Read:
It’s a little bit sharper around the edges, but you get a result that allows for things like spontaneous interaction and arm wrestling. It is the opposite of a mic convention. Which I think of some of these others as. Creates a great product, it’s a product. It’s not a family experience. That’s what I really wanted to do with Stargate Command and bringing you guys together this year; to show that to the world, to show what is here for those who don’t get to make that journey financially, health-wise, all kinds of other reasons. That’s why I wanted to share this with everyone. Any thoughts before we wrap up, guys?

Richard Pasco:
I think looking back, the live streaming is gonna be an important thing from this year.

David Read:
You think so?

Richard Pasco:
First time for us anyway.

David Read:
It went off without a hitch, didn’t it?

Richard Pasco:
Yeah, I think.

David Read:
Those do really well.

Allan Gowen:
We had a hitch.

David Read:
OK. A few hitches. There were a few hitches, yes?

Allan Gowen:
We had one thing that went wrong. I think that something to do with the recording device. Steven from your team.

David Read:
Slee. Steven Lee.

Allan Gowen:
Sorry?

David Read:
Steven Lee. Slee. God love him.

Allan Gowen:
Sleaze?

David Read:
Slee.

Allan Gowen:
He’s a sleaze, is he?

David Read:
No. Come on.

Allan Gowen:
He approached me and he said, “I need five minutes.” I said, “That’s fine. I’ll take the panel off. I’ll get up and I’ll give announcements for five minutes.” I saw the thumbs up from the corner of my eye and I introduced the panel.

David Read:
Ready to go.

Allan Gowen:
It was fixed. It wasn’t an issue.

David Read:
It was special for everybody. Shanks coming on at the last moment, people had asked for him. That was cool, going live. I didn’t expect to be opening your convention this year. That with Kieran was such a huge gift. It was so tremendous. David DeLuise coming on and bombing us. David DeLuise! That was not… I swear to God. He’s bombing me again.

David DeLuise:
You gotta go to England and dress up like The Beatles and do the Happy Birthday. No, it’s all right. No, it’s like that. No. You wanna go then? I was like, what if someone…

Fryn Rogers:
Wasn’t gonna say anything bad about David, probably. Nuh-uh.

David DeLuise:
Just up the street from there is Waverly Place. We don’t live in London.

David Read:
Guys. I’m doing an interview here. Come on now.

David DeLuise:
I’m sorry.

David Read:
Let’s add something to this real quick. Come over here real quick. What does Gatecon mean to you guys?

David DeLuise:
What is it? I can answer it in one word. You ready?

David Read:
I don’t know. Am I?

David DeLuise:
Do you want me to hashtag it, or should I say the one word?

Rainbow Sun Francks:
If you’re asking me, I wanna hear the word.

David DeLuise:
Go ahead, ask me the question.

David Read:
What does Gatecon mean to you?

David DeLuise:
Family.

Fryn Rogers:
You softie.

David DeLuise:
I’m not a softie. I’m an actor.

David Read:
He lies for a living.

David DeLuise:
Wait, I don’t lie. If you’re lying, you’re not a good actor. If you’re acting and being genuine…

Rainbow Sun Francks:
You always have to tell the truth.

David Read:
And Gatecon to you. Is this your first?

Rainbow Sun Francks:
Yeah.

David DeLuise:
Yeah.

David Read:
What…?

Rainbow Sun Francks:
I can’t tell you in one word.

David Read:
No, not necessarily one word.

David DeLuise:
One word. That’s it.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
I can do it in one word.

David DeLuise:
My God, are we having a competition right now?

Rainbow Sun Francks:
Now we are. We weren’t up until you said something.

David Read:
This is your first year. I’m very interested in what you take away from this, as opposed to some of the other conventions that are out there. Not to be specific for anything. What’s this been like?

Rainbow Sun Francks:
What does it mean to me? It’s been such a great Con. I don’t know how to describe it. Everyone’s been lovely, in every way. I haven’t had any misgivings about anything.

David DeLuise:
Except for that one guy.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
No, except for the one hotel guy that keeps telling me I can’t drink my tequila. But other than that…

David Read:
Dang it.

David DeLuise:
I said, “We’ll get better tequila in here and I’ll buy it from you.”

David Read:
It’s so funny. I was going towards spontaneity and that was not planned. I had talked with him about it. Getting up on stage, and I had said at this convention, anything can happen. Be prepared for it and I think you used that a few times.

Allan Gowen:
What you said in that opening panel, I have been re-quoted that about 20 or 30 times during the course of the convention.

David DeLuise:
We know. Everybody’s told us that you keep saying the same thing. I’m sick of it.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
Now you’re coming out with a T-shirt line and a hat line. It’s getting too much.

David DeLuise:
No, it’s good.

Allan Gowen:
Talking a whip and a dead horse?

David Read:
Then you came on. You and I had only talked a little and it was like no time had passed since we had. I have made a friend; I have a DeLuise in my contact list.

David DeLuise:
It’s a nice thing when you can have chemistry and energy. I think that plays to why this is such a wonderful event, because everybody’s energy…we’re happy to be here. You guys are happy to be here. It’s fun and the energy is great.

David Read:
And it’s intimate. Let’s keep… No. No. No.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
I actually was gonna say something nice for once.

David Read:
Go ahead.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
Now I realize I’m the boy who cried sexual assault. I was gonna say what most Cons mean to me, but this one has proven itself to be in the upper echelon. For me, it’s about friendship. It’s about seeing my old friends, especially being in Vancouver, which was my home for seven years. I get to come here and I get to see Paulie and I get to see you, who I love so much. Alexis and everybody that I’ve met along the way, you included. We haven’t seen each other in years.

David Read:
Long time, brother.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
But we talk here and there. So, it’s all of these tendrils of friendship that have been extended over online are now, I can recoil them and bring them back and actually say to someone, “Hey, it’s good to see you for real.”

David Read:
It is.

Allan Gowen:
“And get to share a real laugh with you.” All the new friends that I’ve met that are fans of the show, but friends of the show at this point, because that’s all we have now.

David DeLuise:
The new fans are mixed in with the old fans.

David Read:
Seamlessly.

David DeLuise:
I know 13 years ago, when I did a Con in Germany and in France, there’s people from both of those crowds.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
There are people that I met 15 years ago.

David DeLuise:
So, I’m seeing pictures of me 13 years ago. That’s a long time and there’s some stories coming out that I can’t deny.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
They happened?

David DeLuise:
There’s something about me dancing and it was a lot.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
I had stories about me and Aaron Douglas breaking a door of a hotel and then I passed out and went and puke.

David Read:
OK, come on, guys. Come on. Couple more minutes and that’s it.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
A tiger doesn’t lose its stripes. You can’t ask them not to be a tiger.

David Read:
And a drink doesn’t become water like that.

David DeLuise:
Can I ask you a question?

David Read:
Yeah, please.

David DeLuise:
How about this? 120 characters or less. It’s about tweeting now: the most information that you can communicate in a small amount of time. What is it that drives the five of you to do this?

Rainbow Sun Francks:
It’s a great question.

David DeLuise:
Because it’s hard. It’s so hard.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
It’s a great question.

David DeLuise:
Nobody but you guys know exactly how hard it is and the crazy stuff that went wrong that nobody even knew about.

David Read:
Things you’ll never know.

David DeLuise:
But the things that people knew about was even crazy. We’re starting with you.

Stef Rogers:
Thought the other end.

David DeLuise:
No. I think you help so much more than you know. There’s a big big contribution…

David Read:
You do Stef.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
I wouldn’t have found anything all weekend without you. Literally. I was like, “Thank you. I don’t know where my room is or where I am.” You are the greatest.

David DeLuise:
So, what is that? What does it mean to you? What’s your feeling, your desire? Why are you here doing this?

Stef Rogers:
For you.

David DeLuise:
Vancouver.

David Read:
So, come to Vancouver, she said. OK.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
It’s a magical place.

David Read:
It’s a beautiful area. It is magical.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
That’s absolutely worth it. Vancouver has a lot of worth, a lot of value.

David Read:
One of these days I hope I get to see it. I go into buildings when I’m here.

David DeLuise:
I don’t think I’ve seen this. I don’t think I’ve seen a family with … Usually the kids are like, “No. I wanna sit on my phone and I wanna go somewhere else. I don’t wanna participate.”

Fryn Rogers:
She’s the best friend ever. We’re not just mom and daughter, we’re best friends. We do everything together. Even go to Japan.

David DeLuise:
I promised myself I wasn’t gonna cry.

Fryn Rogers:
You’ll be all right.

David DeLuise:
No, that’s the sweetest. I have two daughters, Riley and Dylan. They’re amazing. They’re the biggest part of my life. Once we have kids, it’s never the same. The fact that she wants to do it with you guys, you’re doing something right. So, what is it? Why are you doing this?

Fryn Rogers:
Why do I do it? Because I’m a glutton for punishment. Maybe.

David Read:
It appears to be a trend among Stargate people.

Fryn Rogers:
I don’t know. I always say every year, this sort of time of the year after the wrap party, “I’m never doing it again. Never. That’s the last one. I can’t cope. I’m a nervous wreck. Can’t do it again.” But we said this in 2010 and I said to my brother, “Let’s do another one.”

David Read:
Let’s do another one.

Fryn Rogers:
“Let’s do another one.”

Richard Pasco:
We missed it.

David Read:
Let’s have another baby.

Fryn Rogers:
I miss it.

David Read:
It really is what it is.

Fryn Rogers:
I miss it.

David DeLuise:
And how did that feel when she said that to you for the first time? Do you remember where you were? Were you in your car?
Richard Pasco:
I think my heart sank when she said, “Let’s do another one.”

Fryn Rogers:
I sort of really miss it.

Richard Pasco:
But, no, you do miss it.

Allan Gowen:
Actually, it’s not that you miss it. You get withdrawal symptoms from it.

Ian Rogers:
It’s an addiction.

Allan Gowen:
It is an addiction.

Ian Rogers:
‘Cause you get such a high from it.

David DeLuise:
What’s the high?

Fryn Rogers:
Seeing people coming.

David DeLuise:
I wanna hear it from them Rainbow.

Ian Rogers:
It’s the incredible feeling you get from everyone here.

Allan Gowen:
51 weeks of the year we’re boring home people. We’ve got families. We’ve got kids.

Ian Rogers:
Hey, you speak for yourself.

David Read:
A lot of us have jobs.

Allan Gowen:
We’ve got mortgages.

David Read:
And jobs that are hard.

David DeLuise:
Everybody has to earn a living. Everybody has to do their job. This is where we all gather together.

Allan Gowen:
For one week a year it’s about us and what we do together.

David Read:
It’s about each other.

Allan Gowen:
It’s about meeting up with each other.

Richard Pasco:
And when things do go wrong, you need the support of people you can trust.

Ian Rogers:
Someone to blame. You need someone to blame.

David DeLuise:
You guys are like a commission.

Allan Gowen:
People we trust and we hire them especially.

David DeLuise:
This is a crew.

David Read:
No, it is.

David DeLuise:
You know what I mean?

David Read:
This is my family. This is my convention family.

Ian Rogers:
We are all family though.

Fryn Rogers:
That sounds like a Pointer Sisters song.

Ian Rogers:
It does. OK. Break it, guys.

David Read:
We’re always gonna be together. Diana Ross said that, look what happened to them.

Allan Gowen:
So, that’s what it is. It’s the addiction and being able to get back together with people you haven’t seen in a couple years, especially the group. Even if we’re doing a yearly convention, we’ll take a few months off and then we’ll start working together again.

Fryn Rogers:
‘Cause come tomorrow we’re gonna be normal people around the table.

Allan Gowen:
We’ll be normal people again tomorrow.

Fryn Rogers:
Normal.

David DeLuise:
You’re gonna be normal?

Fryn Rogers:
Yeah. No room access normal.

David DeLuise:
Can we define what normal is?

David Read:
No kidding. Any last thoughts before I’m gonna let you guys go?

Ian Rogers:
Roll on 2020.

David Read:
2020.

Richard Pasco:
We are planning the next one.

Fryn Rogers:
They are. I’m not.

David Read:
There are big milestones next year. An Atlantis anniversary.

David DeLuise:
Hold on a second, Dave.

David Read:
Dave!

David DeLuise:
When is it?

Fryn Rogers:
You’re coming to it. Jesus.

Richard Pasco:
2020 will be the 20th anniversary of Gatecon.

Allan Gowen:
It will be 2020.

David Read:
So, you’re gonna skip over the Stargate anniversaries? I would focus on yours as well. Give you guys a year off to pee and take these other things that you have to do.

David DeLuise:
Wow, that’s a long time.

David Read:
Then come back in and do it all over again.

Fryn Rogers:
We’ve even got a name for the next one.

David Read:
Can you announce it?

Richard Pasco:
I think we can, can’t we?

Fryn Rogers:
Yes, you can. It’s your name.

Richard Pasco:
It’s gonna be called Full Circle. So, you’ve got the full circle of the Gate and the full circle of 20 years coming back to where we started.

Fryn Rogers:
Gatecon Full Circle.

David Read:
I like it.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
But you never know.

David DeLuise:
I like it.

Allan Gowen:
It all depends if there’s people with influence in high places that might wanna bend some arms.

Fryn Rogers:
Do you know any?

Allan Gowen:
And give some incentives. You never know what might happen.

David DeLuise:
Can I ask a question? Does anyone wanna hear me say this?

Richard Pasco:
Depends what you say.

David DeLuise:
You ready?

Fryn Rogers:
Yeah.

David DeLuise:
“Gatecon. Full Circle. It’s on now. One captain, one man, one ship, one laser, one chart.”

Rainbow Sun Francks:
Three cookies. A donut. A single, slightly stale donut hole. One half-drank glass of water.

David Read:
I’m really glad that you came out here.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
Thanks, man.

David Read:
Really glad.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
Thank you, guys, for having me.

David Read:
You are a brother. I love you very much.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
I love you, too.

David Read:
David, you are a new brother. I love you, brother. You guys, I already said it. You are my family. Let’s do another one and let’s bring some magic to a really mediocre and dark world with these things. Keep on going. I’ve been yelling at you guys all week for this. This is what I do, this is what I’m good at. Fryn, you didn’t wanna do it, I know.

Fryn Rogers:
No.

David Read:
I appreciate you sitting down with me. I wanted to do this. You guys gave me a Valentine by doing this. This was my Valentine to fandom because that’s why I’m here and continue to be amazing. So, thank you very much.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
Continue to be amazing.

David DeLuise:
Continue to be amazing.

David Read:
I feel like I’m going like this spiral. Pink elephants on parade. Hippity-hoppity.

David DeLuise:
Bondage.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
No, no, no. The other thing. The other thing.

David DeLuise:
Family.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
Gatecon.

David DeLuise:
Gatecon.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
One family.

David DeLuise:
One family.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
With nothing left to prove.

David DeLuise:
Nothing left to prove.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
But more in the tank than you know.

David DeLuise:
The tank has a lot in it.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
The tank is in between F and E.

David DeLuise:
There’s an E and an F and a tank.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
But it’s tipping closer to F, so there’s a lot left to go in here.

David DeLuise:
It’s so close to F, we don’t know what to do.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
We’re not sure.

David DeLuise:
Eject, buckaroo. Eject.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
Pedal to the metal.

David Read:
I’m ejecting.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
One family.

David Read:
I’m ejecting.

Rainbow Sun Francks:
One large green van.

David Read:
I don’t know what they’re doing, but from Gatecon 2018…

Rainbow Sun Francks:
Four circles. One track.

David Read:
I’m David Read. Thank you, guys.