"Meeting: Commander Straker" Con Report

Here is a con report from last weekends "Meeting: Commander Straker",
from Paolo Malaguti:
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Straker is a Sex-Free Zone!
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Dear all,

"Meeting: Commander Straker!" is over and we are happy to send a
report on the event; please check-out the Isoshado website
(www.isoshado.org) where photos will be published asap.

Ed Bishop was planning on landing in Milan by the first available
flight on Saturday morning.

While we were driving to the airport to pick him up, a thick fog
raised our concerns and we checked with the airline by phone just in
time to know that the flight had been canceled! We reached the
airport anyway, and started to enquire.

Apparently Ed had been booked on a later flight, same airline. Lot of
confusion going on, because of privacy reasons which prevented the
airline to disclose info on passengers. After one hour in deep
concern, we finally were informed that Ed was on another flight
landing soon in the same airport...

Ed was one of the last people to exit the customs zone: the second
airline had lost his luggage!! The airline people were kind enough to
confirm that they would deliver it, once found, to Ed's hotel. Ed
confirmed that there were no considerable values inside the bag,
except for his precious Mysterons shirt...

Saturday afternoon schedule included a video interview with Ed and
Isoshado Staff in Paolo Malaguti/Isoshado's loft, where Ed was shown
original studio items.

The interview ended with a sequence on the famous original 6-wheel jeep.

Dinner was quite enjoyable as always. Ed was very kind - as always -
with answers to questions, photos and autographs. At one point he
offered to show around the table his UFO watch. That is the original
wristwatch Ed wears in all episodes. It carries a writing on the back
of the case: "UFO 1969 with affection Gerry Sylvia Reg".

Dinner finished around 11 PM and Ed was very tired, as he had to wake
up at 3 in the morning... We took him to his hotel and wished
goodnight.



Sunday's schedule was mainly set for the whole afternoon, when we had
a minicon with Q&A and photo/autograph session. A display of original
items was also set up: you will see it when the Isoshado website is
updated, Ed's original blond wig was there...

Many were the questions asked, some recurrent, some new.

When asked about the wig, Ed recalled that the hairdresser used to
"glue" it strongly with an adhesive strip under his sideburns because
they used to fly loose and did not stick to his cheeks.

Ed told us a lot about 2001: a space odyssey. He explained how upset
he was when he was invited to the "premiere" of the movie. Recalling
how many scenes he had shot, he got much deluded by the cuts. One
funny scene was played on the spaceship taking Dr. Floyd to the moon:
the scene we know shows Ed as commander of the ship, meeting
"upstairs" his sole passenger and gently greeting him and inquiring
on how the trip was going. The whole scene included Ed's walk from
the cockpit to the passenger deck (round walk on the ceiling
included, as the hostess - same actress who played Peter Carlin's
sister in Identified - does in the movie); the captain's scope was to
inquire about his sole and mysterious passenger (how come such a big
ship for just one passenger? must be a VIP indeed!!).

Ed has then delighted the audience telling us many anecdotes and
facts happened during the production of the series, as well as his
very interesting and appreciable personal thoughts on his fellow
actors.

As it often happens in the Isoshado events, more than half of the con
was dedicated to interaction between guest and audience. After about
1H30 of conference, Ed was so kind as to release autographs and to
pose for photos with the attendees, for more than one hour...

Although the event had to be over around 6PM, many of the attendees
were still doubtful in leaving the room: Ed's presence was for sure
the main reason, but much interest was shown in the original items
exhibition.

We then took Ed to the airport and left him there at around 6.30.

As far as photos, the Isoshado website will be briefly updated in a
short time (only a few picts) and a further update which will include
a larger photo reportage will follow as soon as possible.

Thank you, Ed!