Robert J. Sawyer

We had a wonderful first full day at San Diego Comic-Con, at which I'm special guest.

(Noel Neill)

We started Thursday by attending a session with Noel Neill, now 87, who played Lois Lane in the classic 1950s TV series The Adventures of Superman. Sadly, 15 minutes of her hour were eaten up by a "tribute" video that consisted mostly of schtick by a modern guy and lots of clips that featured George Reeves rather than Noel. But when she did speak, she was funny and warm, and absolutely charming. Carolyn and I scored front-row seats for that one.

We then briefly ran into Fraser Robinson, the head of original programming for Space: The Imagination Station, Canada's counterpart of the SciFi Channel.

(John Barrowman)

I then went off to visit the unbelievably massive dealers' room, while Carolyn went to see a panel on the BBC series Torchwood, which included many of the actors, including the guy who plays Captain Jack.

Meanwhile, I caught up with my friends Marc Scott Zicree (who wrote "Far Beyond the Stars," arguably the best ever Deep Space Nine episode) and David Gerrold (who wrote "The Trouble with Tribbles") as a panel they'd been on was ending.

We then attended a panel on the upcoming NASA-sponsored (!) SF film Quantum Quest. Actors Gary Graham and Robert Picardo, plus Tom Kenny, the guy who voices SpongeBob SquarePants, were on the panel; we scored front-row seats again.

(Left to right: David Gerrold, Carolyn Clink, Robert J. Sawyer, Walter Koenig, William F. Nolan; facing us: George Clayton Johnson.)

Later, David Gerrold, Carolyn, and I went out to dinner, joined by actor Walter Koenig and writers George Clayton Johnson and William F. Nolan (who together wrote Logan's Run; George also wrote the classic Star Trek episode "The Man Trap"). It was a terrific dinner at an Australian restaurant in San Diego's Gas Lamp district, near the Convention Center.