This is the story of my close encounter of the Syfy Premiere kind. I arrived early. I was the only one covering this particular event and I’ll admit, I did feel a bit like a secret agent, taking notes, dressed up, sipping a cocktail; all i needed was a side kick or a cool get away car if the mission went south. I got my name tag and checked my coat. There wasn’t much to do yet since there was hardly anyone there to mingle with, so I decided to walk about, take some notes, and scope the space.
The cocktail hour was to take place in theAmerican Museum of Natural History’s foyer and African animal exhibit. The space was lit by a subtle bath of purple light, very in keeping with the whole Syfy theme. The life size elephants in the center of the room in the purple glow looked almost mythical, like science fiction creatures themselves. All along the walls there were huge posters with pictures of different Syfy fans. Each had the word “Igniter” next to it and a quote indicating why 
each is an igniter. This theme of being an igniter was a major point throughout the entire evening.
I went back out into the foyer and saw that the crowds had finally started to arrive. I looked to my right and noticed there was a gaggle of reporters by a Syfy screen backdrop that I have only ever seen in the background of photos of celebrates… at premiere events… much like this one! Needless to say, I got myself a cabernet sauvignon and hung out there for the next little while.
Well, who should then arrive? None other than the casts of Being Human (the United States version), Warehouse 13, the host of Face Off, and the new showDefiance! I saw a woman filming an interview on her ipad. Not sure whether it was because it was bulky and the flap kept getting in the way or just because it was an ipad, but I found it a pretty amusing sight. After the publicity and mingling, we were directed into the main event, down the halls, up a few floors, and into a beautiful auditorium. I sat down in the orchestra seating, third row, and right in front of the casts (pretty good seats). The presentation was lead by the president of Syfy, David Howe, and he took us on a virtual tour of the 2012-2013 seasons for Syfy and what it meant to be an Igniter.
The Igniters are the fans of Syfy, viewers and employees alike from what I gathered, those minds with imaginations that keep on dreaming up new and exciting things. They constantly imagine greater (see what I did there?) and Syfy positively celebrates this! They are curious, open minded, creative, and optimistic. So in the spirit
of the Igniters they have a ton of great stuff coming up.
But the new seasons of already existing shows, though exciting, wasn’t the coolest bit, the really exciting stuff was all new. My favorite new thing that Syfy will be doing is calledDefiance. It is a TV show and MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game). They run in tandem and one affects the other. So that means when something significant happens in the show it will become part of the game, and that also means when something significant or major happens in the game they will put it in the show! The players write the show! Now I think that’s awesome! As well as a few more spoilers (Viral Video Showdown! Check it out!) they gave away a trip around the world to one of the guests, and for a finale, the band Young the Giant played (awesome!) Pretty cool presentation.
Then came the party afterwards held in the ocean exhibit, the one with the life size humpback whale hanging from the ceiling! DJ Spooky presided over the proceedings. It was an open bar with amazingly catered food by world renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson. The walls were lined with scrims lit by diff
erent shades of purple jelled lights that switched and strobed to the bass beat of the music.
This party was brilliant! Ran into a former high school classmate, met a few new people, mingled, even got the chance to shake the hand of one of my favorite actors (Sam Huntington, plays the werewolf on Being Human, talked with him about the penne, told him one of my favorite movies is Fan Boys, and said thank you for his work. He was so gracious and cool). Also got the chance to say thank you to the Young the Giant! I had a great time.
So what is the throwback here? Well I guess I’m not so much throwing back as I am tossing forward. Let’s just pretend that I have a TARDIS (time and relative dimension in space) and I’m sending you this from the future so it is a throwback to now! Welcome to the future Igniters!
Logo photo by Justine Impressions http://www.justineimpressions.com/