One of the largest fan events of the year is the annual DragonCon held in Atlanta, Georgia. It is estimated that over 15,000 fans attended this year from June 28 to July 1, 2000 to see programming about sci-fi movies, TV, comics, books, magazines, artwork and music. Battlestar Galactica was well represented with personal appearances by Richard Hatch ("Apollo"), Herb Jefferson Jr. ("Boomer") and Jack Stauffer ("Bojay"). Six presentations and panel discussions were devoted to Battlestar, it's stars, the revival effort, plus Richard's new Great War of Magellan" project. We got off to a rough start on Thursday afternoon as Richard's first presentation was cancelled due to technical reasons. However, no one told the vast majority of convention attendees, including myself!

Hundreds of us packed a ballroom for over half an hour waiting for Richard and the trailer, until we were finally informed that the program was postponed until Friday. Richard was unaware of this situation and was truly shocked to hear so many fans were waiting for him! Things went much better after that. A lively panel discussion on Galactica fandom later that afternoon by Dan Bollinger and myself filled the room. On Friday, in one of the Hyatt's cavernous ballrooms, Richard showed the Battlestar trailer and a short behind the scenes clip from Great War of Magellan to thunderous applause and cheering. Jack Stauffer and Richard Lynch also joined in on that panel and gave further insight into the making of the trailer.

Later that evening, Jack performed his one man cabaret to yet another full house. I had heard some good things previously about the cabaret, but I was truly astonished at what a fabulous performer Jack is! If you ever have a chance to see it, don't miss Jack's show. It certainly surpassed my expectations. Even Richard and Sophie showed up in the audience. We were all thoroughly entertained. On Sunday morning, Richard, Jack and myself presented a panel discussion entitled: "The New Galactica: What do you want to see?"

Fans got to give input as to what they would like to see in a revived Galactica TV show. Our small panel room was overflowing! People were sitting on the floor, standing in the back and out the door. When Richard showed the trailer again, (this time on a single small TV monitor), the resulting applause and cheering brought even more people just to see what was going on! Of course, Richard, Jack and Herb spent most of the con at the Walk of Fame signing autographs and talking with numerous fans at this giant event. Surely a great time was had by all of us at DragonCon.

The fan response at this convention was a great testament to the enduring appeal of Battlestar Galactica, and the tremendous interest in seeing the show revived with the original cast and characters.

See also: DragonCon 2000 panel review at reCON's web site.