Brisbanescifi.net and BrisbaneTriadLeague.com were proud to present Triad to the public at Supanova’s “Sneak Peak” held at lunchtime Friday April 3rd in Brisbane city’s Queen St Mall.

The crowd went wild as the Leonis Lions (Lionface & Lix) scored the first point against the Cylon Raiders (Mace & Jerds). Fast paced commentry from our very own MC Nyssa had onlookers on the edge of their seats. The display lasted for 10minutes, as Battlestar Galactica’s 1978 Triad legend Richard Hatch (you’ll know him now as Tom Zarek in the new BSG) watched on from the sidelines before he taking to further inspire the crowd with his Q&A.

Set to wow the crowd again at Supanova 2010, the League can only grow stronger from this kind of exposure. Congratulations to everyone involved!

The following Courier Mail video article contains footage of the Queens St Mall display. Head over to www.brisbanetriadleague.com to see more photos!

Yes, we’re going back to the library. Surely you’re not still surprised by this? Libraries are where it’s at. I don’t really know what “it” is, but I’m sure you could find it in a library. Those places are fountains of knowledge.

Aaaaanyway …

With the success of the November Main Meet fresh in our minds, we turned out attention to Logan North Library’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy Day at the end of November. This was the library’s day to wrap up the month, complete with a writer’s panel, costume competition, a band playing popular sci-fi music, as well as displays and booths from other sci-fi and fantasy groups. BSFF were there in full spirit, ready to soak up the fun and spread the gospel of the group to anyone who would listen. Can you think of a better crowd than one assembled in a library for a sci-fi and fantasy day? I think not!

The adventure began at Phoenix HQ with a rather late night session of printing and ironing transfers of the freshly designed team logos for Triad (the Caprica Buccaneers and the Picon Panthers) onto new uniforms. Captain Phoenix, XO Monkiee, and I also managed to get the BSFF logo onto the back of each uniform, which looked very shiny indeed. Self-promotion for the win!

So after only a few hours sleep, we suited up in our newly made fatigues, loaded up everything we planned to display for the day, and headed to the library yet again, geared up for the big day ahead of us.

Upon arrival, we were thrown into a hubbub of sci-fi related activity. There were people walking around dressed as Klingons, Star Trek officers, Pirates, Numenorean soldiers, Tuscan Raiders, Storm Troopers, Jedi—even a fantastically realistic Darth Vader! It was incredible. But we shook ourselves free of the wonder and began the task of setting up our two designated areas: the Triad court in the breezeway downstairs and the BSFF table display upstairs inside the library.

Obviously, we didn’t have the huge amount of space that we’d been given for our November Main Meet, so we kept our display on the small side and only brought the things we thought would best showcase our interests. Monkiee was kind enough to bring along his collection of awesome action figures, which received a lot of interest from passers by—most of whom wanted to buy them! In addition, we had trading cards, costume items, and props on display, as well as episodes from sci-fi shows running on the computer in the background. And we received a lot of attention for our display of personal photos from various group outings and conventions that had been made to look like polaroids. The entire set up was topped off by a huge 2 meter BSFF banner that we strung up above the display. It was great team work and we were rewarded by receiving many enquiries and handing out many a flier for our efforts.

But it didn’t end there! We were joined by our newest member, Wayne, who helped the gents set up the Triad arena downstairs and had soon learnt the rules fast enough to play a few rounds and show the watching crowd how much fun it was. We had to work in split shifts between manning the display table upstairs and demonstrating Triad downstairs, but we still managed to find time to walk around, take in the other displays, listen to some great music, and even munch on a hot dog. Our own Mace was there, not in costume, but painting youngster’s faces. Even Ben 10 swung by to show his support and check out what was on display.

BSFF Traid @ Logan North Library

All-in-all, a super fun day out. We had the chance to network with other clubs like Quest and the Tolkien Appreciation Society, as well as garner a lot of interest in our own little group. And we were lucky enough to be surrounded by a massive appreciation of sci-fi and fantasy for an entire day—who doesn’t love that?

Yes, you read correctly. The library. What? You’re reading about the activities of a sci-fi and fantasy group; does this really surprise you?

So it was a few months back when Captain Phoenix came to us with the news that Logan North Library was dedicating an entire month to sci-fi and fantasy, complete with displays and activities galore. A whole month? Our little sci-fi hearts were all aflutter with excitement and we quickly began brainstorming ways in which we could contribute to these four weeks of fun.

After much discussion and planning, it was agreed that we’d involve BSFF in three activities, the two chief amongst them being our November Main Meet and the library’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy Day. First and foremost, we hoped that with the library’s help, these two events would assist to promote the group and extend our members more than we’d been able to in the past. And we were also quietly chuffed to be able to see our collectiveness showcased en masse.

November eventually rolled around and instead of our usual jaunt to the Plough Inn at Southbank, Captain Phoenix, XO Monkiee, Admiral Bender, Syam, and yours truly found ourselves at Phoenix HQ, loading up the trailer and car with Triad boards, the Pyramid set, computers, costumes, posters, books … basically, if it could fit in the car, we packed it. We’d also decked ourselves out in costume for the occasion: the Captain as Jayne Cobb; Monkiee as a jedi; myself as a Gryffindor student; and Bender and Syam as BSG Colonial pilots. We looked very shiny indeed. As soon as we were all tied in and secured, we hit the road and headed for the library.

Once there, setting up in the meeting room required some interior layout finesse, due to the sheer size of the Triad boards, but we had a handy floor plan put together by the Captain to help us sort out the confusion. Within about an hour, we were surrounded by what could only be described as a sci-fi fan’s mini Heaven. There were collectibles as far as the eye could see; trading cards, CDs, books, costumes, and props. Not to mention the Pyramid table, all set up for game play, as well as the footage we had screening on the overhead projector. And to draw focus back to the group, we had BSFF posters, fliers, business cards, and various photos of past group activities on display. It was, in a word, awesome.

And it wasn’t long before we were greeting and welcoming people through the doors, including our own Nyssa, who showed up in BSG fatigues, complete with a Starbuck tattoo. Nice! The turn out wasn’t as large as we’d hoped for, but we still met some great people who very keen share their own stories and love of sci-fi. We even managed to teach a band of youngsters to play Pyramid, which was thoroughly enjoyable. At the end of the day, being able to see other people’s enthusiasm towards our group was very flattering indeed.

With one event successfully under wraps, we set our sights on the next big day ahead of us, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Day. Three words: Bring. It. On!

As part of Logan North Library’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy Month, they held a trivia night for all connoisseurs of sci-fi and fantasy, so, naturally, BSFF decided to test their knowledge and see how they measured up. Given the miserable weather and the fact that it was a weeknight, only Captain Phoenix and myself were able to attend, but we gave it all we had and walked away with a pretty decent result.

I arrived at the library bang on starting time to find the Captain in a bit of a bother about some of the topic rounds. He felt confident about the Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek rounds, but was unsure about his knowledge on the Lord of the Rings and Stargate rounds. Luckily, I felt convinced that these rounds were my time to shine. And we both felt that we had enough combined knowledge to scrape through the Star Wars round. The Dr Who round, on the other hand, left us a bit uneasy …

Our host, Richard, kicked off the evening with some great banter before launching into the Lord of the Rings round, which the Captain needn’t have worried about, because we came out of it with 8/10. I knew being part-Hobbit would come in handy one day. This was quickly followed by the Star Wars round, which we also faired pretty well in.

Then came the Dr Who round. Oh boy. Let’s just say it wasn’t our strongest round as neither of us are Dr Who fans. At the end of the round, Team BSFF (aka Team We Feel Like We’ve Just Been Exterminated By A Dalek) walked away with a rather dismal 0/10. But there was hope on the horizon …

The Captain quickly had us back in the game with his extensive knowledge of all things Battlestar Galactica in Round Four, and after a knock out 10/10 in the following Star Trek round, we felt we were regaining our grip on the game. We’d sat at first place, slid down to third place, and somehow crawled our way back to second place, with only a few points difference between us and the winning team. It all came down to the Stargate round. I silently hoped that my love for Daniel Jackson wouldn’t fail me now.

With the pressure of the BSFF reputation resting on our shoulders (OK, not really, but it sounds more dramatic, no?), we gave it our all and waited on tenterhooks while adjudicator Amanda tallied up our scores for the last time. Richard took the results and announced fourth place to the family behind us, then third place to the team from the Star Trek Quest Club. The anticipation was killing us. We knew we’d done well in the last round, but was it good enough to drag us to the top of the mountain?

Alas, it was close, but no cigar. Richard announced us at second place (still worthy of a victory cheer) and the first place team members went up to collect their prizes. In the end, we only trailed by one teeny point*, but we were still chuffed to be entitled to prizes as second place winners. And to top it off, we also won first and second place for Best Costume Award**, so we walked away from the night feeling very grand indeed. Team BSFF for the win!

* I’m holding Dr Who fully responsible
** We may or may not have been the only ones to turn up in costume.

One of the oldest ideas in the group—all the way back to our humble beginnings as a sci-fi and fantasy mailing list—has been some form of BSG Day (Battlestar Galactica). There had always been talk about getting together and making our own Triad Arena, with real boards and real rules that we could play with, but it wasn’t until recently that it became an awesome reality.

The best place to start would have to be the making of the boards. Starting with just a small number of the crew, we got together and worked through the layout of the Arena, what size we wanted each board to be, and what rules the game would having, trying our best to piece together what we could from the game’s brief appearance on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. It was a lot of fun working it out, trying to make something real out of a game that just existed in the world of science fiction.

Building the boards was much more complicated than we first thought, especially with some of the modifications we needed to make in order for them to match the show’s version as best we could. The Main board (with basket) was probably the most difficult, what with the basket and angle board, but we double-checked our measurements and took a few chances here and there and managed to get it all looking just right. It was a good team effort.

Triad Board Construction

The real team work, however, came with the painting and team names. Wanting to stay true to the show as much as possible we decided to take the names of two known teams (the Caprica Buccaneers and the Picon Panthers) and stay with a similar theme. So, working together to come up with some basic ideas, then throwing it out for the rest of the crew to narrow down the names, we came up with a list of all the colonies and their teams. There were many sessions afterwards, with almost every member of the group pitching in where they could and doing an awesome job of designing logos, stretching pictures, cutting, stenciling, and painting well into the night so we could finally get it ready for our first ever BSG Day.

It was the long days of planning, lots of great group support, and hard tiring work that got Brisbane Sci-Fi & Fantasy to BSG Day, but it was totally worth it in the end.

We began the morning bright and early, the sun high in the sky and our minds and bodies pumped for an action packed day of Triad, Pyramid, Trivia and BSG DVDs. And with everyone dressed in our colonial fatigues, we looked liked nothing would keep us down, not even a rogue platoon of Cylons.

To get the day started, we packed up the Triad boards as quick as we could and jumped into our “Raptors”, whereby we headed to a nearby park to have some fun in the sun. It was our first time setting up the Arena full-size, so it took us a little while to get the layout just right. We then had to work our way through the rules, so that everyone knew how the game went, but once we had a few trial games, everyone started to get the hang of it.

The first match was a one-on-one between Phoenix and Monkiee, the Triad Masters. It was high-paced, with a few sweet shots from both players, and even a few little cocky taunts to keep the other player on their toes. The excitement of the game created a lot of buzz from the rest of the crew with everyone wanting to get in and mix it up.

Nyssa, Ben 10, SyaZam, and the Bender Clan were the first to have a go at a three-on-three match. It was a little crazy at first, but with a few tweaks to the rules, everyone was able to get a feel for the game and we all became Triad Masters in our own rights.

It was at this stage in the day, however, that real pros stepped up to the plate with Satay, Nara, Lixx, and the man of the hour himself, Spider-Mace, working the Arena like they’d played the game for years. It was a tough slog to go play against these Terrors of Triad, but most of us were able to put up at least a little bit of a fight, and anyways, it was still fun.

Innaugural Triad Day, Gould Adams Park

With the sun quickly going down, and many more fun activities back at Phoenix HQ, we took a few photos of the day’s exhausted players, packed up the boards, and headed for home base.

Upon arrival, we poured ourselves a quick drink and got stuck into a delicious spread put together by the Captain and Satay. We then sat down to a round of Trivia questions from every one of the Battlestar series (the original all the way up to the remake). Each team did their best, but by the end of the night, it was Team Avatar that had staked their claim to victory—much to the surprise of the winners. Boy, that Trivia was tough!

After a few more drinks, those that hadn’t left for the night moved into the make-shift movie theatre and sat down to enjoy Battlestar Galactica: Razor, the BSG third season miniseries. Even though some of us had seen it, this was the chance to watch it on the big screen, not to mention there were loads of deleted scenes we’d never seen before. It really got the crew talking, especially after a particular scene that inspired plans for a future BSG Day involving toasters, lead pipes, and sky-diving. Wacky Fun.

All-in-all, it was a great night had by all, and totally worth the time, effort, and hard work the group put in to make one of the best mini-meets BSFF has ever had.

And in Lixillent conclusion…

GenCon Oz ‘08 exceeded our expectations as the event of the year for our BSFF Serenity crew!!

Aside from the fact that our “Wash” (pictured below) forgot to wear his Hawaiian shirt, he had his crew at his side and, subsequently, the best kind of resurrection (you can’t take our pilot, Reavers!!) a leaf on the wind could ask for on a sunny Brisbane Sunday.

Cap’n Malcolm Reynolds (Monkiee), Kaylee Frye (Nara), Zoe Washburne (Lixx), Wash (Alan Tudyk), Jayne Cobb (Phoenix), Dr Simon Tam (Spaceman)

The Can’t Stop the Serenity charity event, showing the “Big Damn Movie” as it ought to be seen on the “Big Damn Screen”, organised by our most excellent new addition Andrew (aka ‘Bud’) and his team, was a fantastic end to the shiniest day we could have asked for. A united crew wave to Beth from www.fannishinquistion.com whose coolio coolz audio interviews (featuring US!) can be enjoyed here. Also last, but far from least, big nod of appreciation to Carissa from The Hub Productions, whose tireless celebrity wrangling skills made yet another Con worthy of greatness for all in attendance. Love your work girl! See you again soon!

I love my crew, each and every one of you. Ain’t nothin’ in the ‘Verse could keep us from bein’ cheerful!

-Lixx (Zoe Washburne)

*Interesting to note that we were party to inside info citing this precautionary enforcement to the GenCon security manual (regarding toy weaponry) as a post “9/11” addition, apparently. Anyone remember ‘Earth That Was’…? :p

This is your Cap’n Malcolm Tight-(Monkiee)-Pants speaking…

Well, I’d have to say that with the exception of Phoenix’ recent trip to Sydney Supanova, and shooting our Sweded Star Wars movie, we’d all gone way too long without Cosplay! I’ve personally missed the fun of hunting down an awesome costume a week before the event, piecing together what you couldn’t just buy from a ragtag collection of items scrounged from op-shops and cheap-ass stores like Crazy Clarks and Dollars & Sense. So it was great when the BSFF team decided to suit up once again, this time for GenCon 08, and even better was the fact that we decided to do it as a themed group. The best part of ALL, was that we decided to go as the Serenity crew, a personal favourite for all!

The day kicked off early, with a 9am crew rendezvous at Lixx’ place on the Sunday morning to put the finishing touches on each of our costumes. I was going as Captain Malcolm Reynolds, so needed a few coats of brown paint (thankfully supplied by Lixx) to get my duds looking as shiny as possible.

Phoenix was taking on the role of the “Hero of Canton” himself, Jayne Cobb, and had strapped on a cunning combination of guns, his cunning woollen hat and various other weaponry in case we ran into “Reavers” en route.

Nara rocked in her shiny Kaylee Fry cosplay, sporting her awesome replica Chinese style shirt (as seen in the Firefly pilot) and workers overalls, all topped off with an elegant parasol to keep the sun at bay while waiting to entice passing travellers to join the Serenity crew on their travels.

Definitely the best costume of the day, however, would have to have been Lixx. She had certainly put in a lot of effort to get the look of Zoe, making her own leather vest from scratch, buckles and all. Making her own weaponry, as you know Zoey would, and squeezing into the tightest pair of gorram pants this side of the ‘Verse. Move over Mal, there’s a new ‘Capt. Tight-Pants’ on the crew!

Needless to say we all looked as shiny as any Serenity crew could, drawing the attention of all the passing motorists and pedestrians walking around Southbank, obviously not expecting to come face to face with the best crew in the ‘Verse strolling down the street on some ideal Sunday morning.

We ended up at GenCon around 10am, ready to head in and rendezvous with our pilot (Alan Tudyk, of course), who was already inside meeting and greeting fans of the show, and ship’s Doctor Simon Tam (Mace), who was running a little behind schedule after just two hours sleep (River can be such a handful sometimes!).

So, about to head on in, suddenly the Alliance (seriously, the Police were there doing security) showed up, flashed their badges and told us we weren’t allowed to carry our weapons around the Con so’s not to scare the masses*. We were seriously bummed at first, but after a little persuading, the officer let us keep our weapons, just so long as they were put away in Jayne’s backpack and only taken out for the Cosplay competition. A little disappointing, especially for Jayne, who clearly felt defenceless without Vera by his side, but with Wash waiting, and possibly panicking that the deal had gone south and Patience had shot Zoe, we complied with Alliance orders. Gorram the man!

With weapons ‘safely’ stowed out of ‘harms’ way we made our entrance, and began our journey around the Con enjoying the sites and stalls, and the fan appreciation (oh so many photos!). We caught up with Wash on a number of occasions, well chuffed to see us and have a reunion shot taken with his crew, but resigned to staying on the bridge so as not to let the Dinosaurs run riot over “this land”.

Amazingly we were the only Firefly crew there for the entire Con, so you could imagine how excited some of the fans were to see us. We got hugs, butt pinches, got to stand up on stage like super models and all got compliments on how awesome we looked, in particular from the man himself, Alan Tudyk. Cool, eh?

The highlight of our Cosplay day, however, had to have been the Cosplay comp. We hadn’t really planned on entering, but decided (mostly due to us almost getting our weapons confiscated) that we would give it a bash. It was all mostly Anime cosplay and every group that went up LOOKED pretty cool, but was let down by their, frankly, lame skits and repetitive lip-syncathons.

We got to thinkin’ that our Serenity crew could do better than that, and working together, lead by the musical stylings of Nara and Lixx, to the tune of Mr Whedon himself, we strapped on our hats (or in my case wig) and in 5 seconds flat, and we mastered the theme song to Firefly (aka The Ballad of Serenity)! Did we bring the house down or what? In true Browncoat spirit we managed to turn a 5min on the spot rehearsal into an act worthy of stealing second place from what must have been near 30 entries. A shiny way to end a great Con!

All in all I’d have to say we all had one of the best days we could’ve, and honestly, it was mostly because of the Cosplay. There’s seriously nothing better than working hard at making a costume that looks ‘just right’, and then getting fans of the show (especially a show like Firefly) coming up to you and telling you you’ve totally nailed your character’s look. Sure it might be a little bit of an ego thing, but it’s also about connecting with a small (but ever growing) group of people that love everything Serenity. It’s also a chance for us to just hang out with friends and have an awesome time getting a group pat on the back, which is great!

One of the best gorram days all year!

-Monkiee (Cap’n Tight-Pants)

Kicking off with a few words from our GenCon Public Relations Officer, Mr Jayne (Phoenix) Cobb…

The USA franchised GenCon, branded “GenCon Oz” for its first year on Australian soil, is a predominantly games based convention. Fans of PC games, table top, board games and RPGs were set to make the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre their stomping ground for an extended July weekend of geeking out!

However, with our sneaky BSFF ears to the ground, we knew from an early date that this Con wouldn’t be lacking a Scifi contingent. Some of the first special guests announced to appear were Jamie Bamber, James Callis (Battlestar Galactica TNS), and David Nykl (StarGate Atlantis). However, having just returned from Supanova Sydney where 3 of the main guests didn’t show, I wasn’t surprised when the boys from Battlestar pulled the plug. Seems that filming of the last 2 eps of bsg went over time and they had to stay Stateside to wrap things up.

The Hub Productions dipped into their bag of guest goodies (it’s what do they do!) and came out with Paul McGillion (Stargate Atlantis) and none other than Alan Tudyk (Hoban “Wash” Washburne - Firefly). I ought to clarify at this point (and I think I speak for the rest of the crew) that although I love BSG, I LOVE Firefly & Serenity sooooo much more! The news of Alan’s impending appearance completely overshadowed any disappointment I may have felt about Jamie and James’ succumbing to their industry obstacles.

With the (“leaf on the…”) wind now well and truly in our sails the Brisbane SciFi crew excelled with Cosplay enthusiasm and preparation for our crew adventure. Having seen my photos of the Firefly Cosplay effort at Sydney Supanova, I think everyone felt inspired and, likely riding on our recent Origin triumph, cocky enough to go truly above and beyond – and that we did!!

Our very own…

Mal Reynolds – Cap’n TightPants himself (Monkiee)

Zoe Washburne (Lixx)

Dr Simon Tam (Mace)

Kaylee Frye (Nara)

Jayne Cobb (Phoenix)

…somehow managed to pick up this scruffy looking hanger-on during the course of the day who seemed to make an OK pilot. He didn’t have a Hawaiian shirt, and we had to make him shave his moustache off (that thing was just too old skool cool, it was intimidating and was attracting Reavers), but he took a good pic without it and really added to the group aesthetic.

-Phoenix (Jayne Cobb)