Alison Chenoweth reviews the TV panels at San Francisco’s Wondercon

This year’ s biggest Wondercon event was the Watchmen panel, where we got to see the first 22 minutes of the movie, but I was here to cover the TV panels, few and far between this year as movies ruled the con. NBC’s Chuck and Fox’s Terminator : The Sarah Connor Chronicles were represented with panels and signings, both beleagured shows if ratings are anything to go by, but keen to come out and meet the fans all the same. For T:SCC it may well be the last time…

SPOILERS WILL FOLLOW.

Chuck panel started out  with a preview for the rest of the season. The clips showed that  :

• Chuck gets to use a lot more guns
• Tony Hale will get more screen time and action.
• Sarah will get “close” to an MI-6 agent.
• Big Mike and Morgan’s Mom’s relationship will continue.
• Chevy Chase will guest star and be something of a villain.
• The government will find Chuck’s father for him, played by Scott Bakula.
• Chuck’s father is mixed up in things that can put Chuck in a lot of danger.
• Chuck and Sarah are in bed together but they both look really sad.
• Awesome’s bachelor party will be an interesting one.
• Chuck is again threatened with leaving his family and friends behind, unable to give them no explanation.

The Chuck panel was populated by Josh Gomez, Yvonne Strahovski, Zachary Levi, Adam Baldwin, and creators, Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. Adam Baldwin came out with ”Shiny” when he walked out onto the stage and the crowd erupted. Zachary Levi commented, “I wondered how long it would take him to say that.”  Through the answers from the moderator’s questions, we learned the following;

1. We can expect to see a couple of weddings before the end of the season.

2. The new arc we are moving into will deepen the stories and myths behind Fulcrum.

3. Josh Gomez believes Morgan knows something about what Chuck is up too, but is too good a friend to bother him about it. Josh Schwartz commented that if Morgan was to find out Casey would probably kill him.

4. Chuck will use a move called “The Morgan” in an episode titles Chuck VS The First Kill. Zachary showed us the move while standing on his chair.

5. Tricia Helfer will be guest starring.

6. We will see Jill again in at least one more episode.

7. They don’t have any plans for Bryce at the moment, but the audience did not want him to come back.

8. Jeffster will perform again.
From the audience questions;

1. Adam and Yvonne were asked if they ever tried to teach some of their moves to the other cast members, to which Adam responded, “I don’t need to teach Josh how to handle his gun… weapons on the other hand…”

2. Adam thinks Casey is growing on Chuck, (then Adam and Zach said together) “Like a fungus.”

3. The creators often took aspects of Casey from Adam himself, such as the Ronald Reagan picture and Casey sharpening a knife at the dinner table.

4. Josh F. feels that Sarah can never fall completely in love with Chuck, otherwise she and the mission will be comprimised and she will be incapable of protecting him.

5. As far as everyone knows there will be a season 3.

6.  In a fight Casey would beat Jayne.

7. If the cast members could be any other character, Josh Gomez would be Ellie, and just stare at himself all day, Adam would be Awesome, Zachary would be Casey, and Yvonne said she would like to be Lester because he is so funny.

8. Adam would like to work more with the Buy More cast because “the most fun [he] has is working with the BuyMorons.”

9. Zachary lives for the scenes where Yvonne gets to hit him.

10. Adam’s most embarrasing moment was when Zachary kissed him.

Over to the Sarah Connor Chronicles panel, consisting of Josh Friedman, Summer Glau, and Shirley Manson. This panel began with teaser clips from the rest of the season, showing us Savannah finding John Henry downstairs and attempting to play with him. The song over most of the clip was Savannah and John Henry singing “Donald Where’s Your Troosers”. Sarah is standing in a building talking to Catherine Weaver. John and Sarah are talking to Ellison and John attempts to attack Ellison. Cameron will confront Riley again. Cameron is laying on a bed with John on top of her.

The first question Josh was asked was inevitably was about the bed scene at the end of the teaser, though he said he didn’t want to talk about it. Through the audience questions we learn;

1. All will be revealed about the three dots.

2. Summer really liked the addition of the Riley character because it allowed the audience to talk about if Cameron was able to feel jealousy or insecurity.

3. Josh does not want to add new characters created in the Terminator: Salvation

4. If Catherine Weaver and Cameron were to get into a fight, Catherine is much more likely to win.

5. The last 6 episodes of this season have a lot of Cameron, and she will play a huge part in the arc.

6. Josh likes to slow the storyline down to give the show less of a “Terminator of the week” feel to it. He wants to allow time for characters to go through an arc, but the last few episodes have had poor reviews.

7. No one knows whether the series will be renewed.

8. In the last 6 episodes there will be a lot of character development for all the main characters and lots of action.

9. Shirley and Summer will have a scene together.

10. Almost all of the big questions people have been asking about the previous episodes will be answered by seasons end.

11. Josh does not want Shirley singing on the show.

12. Josh hopes if there is no season 3 no one is satisfied, and the finale was written without thinking about if there would be another season. The finale wraps up a lot, but will open new doors and new questions.

13. Summer is really excited and sad about where her character ends up.

So that’s it for another Wondercon! The TV interest may have been thinner than in recent years but  still the networks were keen to pimp at least a few of their shows out for the remainder of the season. Whether Chuck or T:SCC will make it to another con…well, stick with EOS to find out.