TVSquad

I'm combining Sunday's panel reports because neither the Women in Sci-Fi panel nor The 4400 panel was brimming with revelations unless you count as a revelation the fact that Lucy Lawless' fans bear a striking resemblance to the core audience of the WNBA, but you shouldn't.

The Women of Sci-Fi
The Women of Sci-Fi panel featured Lawless, The 4400's Jenny Baird, the real life Allison DuBois, Painkiller Jane writer Lisa Klink and former Buffy scribe and Private Practice showrunner Marti Noxon, who was delayed and arrived 45 minutes late for a one hour panel. All of the women cited a combination of Wonder Woman and Princess Leia as early sci-fi role models. Each said that the sci-fi genre was opening up to women, and that sci-fi was going more mainstream in general. Lisa Klick pointed out, however, that there were no female showrunners behind the scenes on the current crop of TV shows. The genre itself is still a man's game creatively.

And, then, there's the part where the real life Allison DuBois was on the panel. Bizarre. She's so used to living with the voices of the others that she said she had to resist the urge to just tap into people's heads. Whoa. That's a panel I'd like to see. "You don't need to answer that question, Lucy. I'll just do a little brain tap, look into the future and all that. I'm getting a message. No, she won't do Xena's war cry for you." (For the record, she gave a short war cry at the close of the panel.)

The 4400
Cast members Jeffrey Combs, Jenny Baird, Megalyn Echikunwoke and Conchita Campbell; supervising producer Craig Sweeny; and executive producer Ira Behr shared such scintillating quotables with us as, "Sci-Fi's cool cause the possibilities are endless." When asked if they would take the Promycin shot, most aired on the sign of caution except Megalyn, who was all for the 50/50 chance of, say, dying in favor of the possibility of super powers. Combs suggested that the odds on Promycin's success rate may be on the rise, and Behr told us that by the end of the season those of us who wouldn't take the shot may not have much choice in the matter. Hmmmm? Massive contamination, or did someone spike the Kool-Aid?

Clips from a handful of upcoming episodes were shown. Things look like they're getting a little Waco in Seattle between the government and J.C.'s disciples. In the world of The 4400, subtle analogies are for suckers.