While the ShoreLeave conventions started twenty-four years ago as a venue for "Star Trek" fans, the conventions have grown to include performers from many of the other current and past-loved genre shows. Despite the appearance of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" fan favorite, Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Trekkers had to take a back seat this weekend as something akin to "Beatlemania" or in this case "SpikeMania," took hold of the Hunt Valley Inn Marriott

Fans of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and Marsters, in particular, were everywhere at the con sporting pins, costumes and t-shirts exclaiming their love for the blonde vamp. Marsters originated the role of vampire villain, Spike, back in season two of the series. As show lore goes, James was hired as a one episode villain of the week until creator Joss Whedon decided to pair the peroxide haired vamp with an unholy and seriously twisted paramour known as "Drusilla" (played by Juliet Landau). The rest is history, as the pair known as the "Sid and Nancy of Sunnydale" quickly became fan favorites sticking around until the end of that season.

James then made a solo cameo in the season three episode, "Lover's Walk" and Joss made Marsters a cast regular in season four. Once the villain, Spike's permanent return began an involving, complicated and masterful story arc which found Spike getting a government chip implanted in his head which physically prevented him from attacking humans. Essentially neutered from his demonic predilections, Spike became a reluctant Scooby gang member, protector of Buffy's sister Dawn (Michelle Tractenberg) and in season six, this once mortal enemy of Buffy now found himself as her lover. Due to Marsters incredibly nuanced portrayal and Whedon's crafty storytelling, Spike has transformed over the years from strictly being a Buffy "Big Bad" to one of TV's most interesting characters and a beloved fan favorite.

James' first scheduled appearance at ShoreLeave on Saturday, for a hour Q & A, wasn't until 3 p.m. but his dedicated fans started queued up hours ahead of time vying for a chance to just get into the Main Ballroom for his appearance. A lucky couple of hundred fans were able to see Mr. Marsters in the flesh while many more had to be satisfied, or be incredibly disappointed, with the closed circuit coverage in the spillover ballrooms.

Regardless, fans gave James a standing ovation as he arrived on stage where he immediately opened the floor to questions from the packed house. He paced, walked and talked for seventy minutes on a wide range of fan induced topics including creator Joss Whedon, James's new band, Ghost of the Robot as well as expertly fielding plenty of saucy questions from an adoring group of many female fans. He finished the session by singing and playing his original composition, "Smile" on acoustic guitar.

The following is a transcript of the Saturday Q & A with James Marsters, Spike from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer": James Marsters: Hello Baltimore!

(Audience roars in approval)

Q: When will we see you on the big screen again? And what type of work do you prefer - TV or movies?

JM: I haven't really done enough movies to know [Laughs]. As far as when you are going to see me on the screen again? I don't know. There is film that wanted to cast me that, then lost its' money and they are trying to get money again…It's a great script about rock and roll.

Q. Are you going to sing in it?

JM: No! I would play the guy who writes all the songs, the mind behind the music and then some screwy front man messes with me.

But in general, I am busy man! I asked to get out last year for a movie and they couldn't do it. Then I asked to get out for another movie and they said yes but then I didn't get the role. [Laughs]

The people at "Buffy" don't want to stand in the way of the careers of the actors on the show but at the same time they have a story to tell and they are paying me a lot of money right now! At least that changed! [Laughs]

Q. Which medium do you prefer?

JM: Aahhh…..it's hard, man. I would rather choose between talking about the difference between stage and TV because really the difference between TV and film is negligible from what I do. I do what is called one camera work when there is only ever one camera on you at one time. So, you rehearse the scene from a certain perspective. You go away for like 45 minutes while they light and then you come back and perform for one camera at a time. For sitcoms, it's very different. You have seven cameras operating at one time and you pretty much perform live. So, for actors who are used to sitcoms, it's a big jump to go to features but for a show like "Buffy," it's kind of the same thing.

I miss the stage. On stage, you are really in control in a way that you are not in control on TV at all. On stage, you tell a story. In film, you are just a building block for someone else to come and tell the story later on and that was kind of a hard adjustment for me.

Q. Has becoming a sex-symbol redefined your persona any? Has it changed you fundamentally?

(Audience hoots and applauds while James blushes and acts coy)

JM: Uh, the girls that are breaking my heart are much prettier these days, that's about the only difference [Laughs]

It's a weird thing. I've always said I wanted to be kissing Buffy or kicking Buffy because you would be in the middle of the story then and I get to the kissing Buffy part and I'm always naked and Sarah is fully clothed, giggling at me and the teamsters are always very sensitive.

Basically, being a romantic interest means that you do have a lot less clothes on and I don't have a particular need to keep my clothes on. I've been naked on stage in front of 500 people a night, 9 shows a week but at the same time in stage there is a dignity to it. [Giggles] In stage, you don't go down to underwear until the final tech rehearsal and you don't get naked until the very last rehearsal and there is a way to do it that has been done a hundred years before. On TV, there is no time for dignity. It's like 'Take it off! Get up there!' So, you just kind of release into the maelstrom. How embarrassed am I?

Q. When you go into a McDonald's, does the HappyMeal with legs comment ever come back to haunt you?

JM: [Laughs] I tried that once! They just stared at me. [Laughs] Yeah, that's one of my favorite lines actually.

Q. Joss Whedon is responsible for Buffy I understand?

JM: Every move!

Q. Please thank him for what he has done. I'm a little bit of a romantic and all the sacrifices Spike made to get where he is, all the changes he made for Buffy - paid off.

JM: Yeah, the issue of redemption and how very hard it is to get. Yeah, I will thank him. I do thank him too much. [Laughs] For the first two years of the show, I never really talked to the man because I was too nervous. In stage, writers don't really have a lot of power so if you go to one and you tell them their work is really top notch, it's just really a worker to a worker. But I was in a situation where the dude was my boss and I did NOT want to kiss his butt so I just completely avoided him. I think he thought I didn't like him or something. But then when I thought I was off the show, I finally wrote him a letter just saying 'You're words just float an actor and make the job really easy.' I can't help myself! Two months ago I wrote him another letter and I was like 'Dude, you've been helping me since he day after the day we met.' It's true. I haven't had to worry about rent, I haven't been bored artistically. I came down to LA pretty much to just make money. I didn't want to be poor anymore, I didn't want to die poor. I thought I would do anything down in Los Angeles because I was a big uppity stage actor and I was like 'West Wing, Urkel, it's all the same!" [Laughs]

But I find myself in a position of being with a group of people who are more talented than any theater company I've been with…the writing is better many times than any of the original work that I've done and I've worked with some Tony Award winning play writes. "Buffy" is very special and I don't want it to be over, basically.

Joss has a very clear vision and it's all played out in the internals of his mind. He basically explores his deepest fears and forces his fellow writers to do the same, to expose themselves and their most embarrassing moments of their life and then he just plasters vampires over the top of it so no one knows what you're talking about.

(Audience laughs)

Joss makes his bread and butter by denying you guys what you want, right?

Q: (Young girl on the mic) What is the most embarrassing thing you've done on "Buffy?"

JM: Why do I always get that question?! Ok, you first, what was the most embarrassing thing you've ever done?

Young girl: I dunno! Maybe this….

(James and audience laugh)

JM: You get the prize!

My most embarrassing moment was in my first year as a regular, and I wanted to do well, you know? We were doing this cave fight where Spike first finds out he can fight at all again that the chip doesn't keep him from fighting demons, right. So, there is off-camera work where you are not being photographed but the people opposite you are so you are standing by the camera giving them all the acting stuff you can so they have real reactions. Xander and Willow are watching me fight. So, I'm doing off-camera work and as opposed to waving my arms around like an idiot I decide to really do the fight, like an idiot! [Laughs] Cause there lighting cords, camera people around and they are like 'Whoa!' and I trip on a cord and fall right through the cave wall. Alyson was really, really kind…she was like 'WHAAHAAA!'

(Audience roars in laugher)

So, I got real cool and lethargic for like two weeks. 'I don't care' [Giggles]

Q: Did you really enjoy doing the musical?

JM: That was absolutely, incredibly terrifying! [Laughs]

I got off easy actually because I wasn't asked to do anything that I don't normally do. Joss, I hang out at his house sometimes and read Shakespeare with the gang and we sing. Joss knew that I sang and I sing in bars in LA and so all I had to do was sit around, skulk and sing and then almost bite a preacher.

The other cast members were really asked to do something that they were not prepared to do and to their credit, even though they were terrified, they really bored down and studied and no one more than Sarah. They didn't hire her to be a musical actress and she was out in front on the thing. We didn't know we could do a musical! Everyone was telling us we were crazy! We didn't know Joss could write music!

There was potentially a lot of egg to be put on the faces of the actors so we were going into it as a company, terrified. Then Joss released some dailies of his first day of work - the dance with Xander and Anya, which was like the best piece of the whole thing, in my book, incredible. And we all started to realize that it was going to work and by the end of the shoot we were just on cloud nine.

When it came to so the next episode, which was a really cool script "Tabula Rasa," we were a little bored! [Laughs] Where's the music, the soundtrack?

As often happens on "Buffy," we get terrified because of what they are going to ask us to do either emotionally or technically and we end up being proud we were able to get there. I'm really luck to be on a show where you are terrified after five, six, seven years. Most actors are really bored by now and we are not.

Q. Is Spike going to get anymore Buffy?

JM: [Chuckles] Man, I don't know! I keep myself in the dark on purpose because it's kind of refreshing to just be like Spike and not know and just fight for what you want week to week and hope you get it. I haven't seen any other hot guys on set. [Laughs] I don't know. At the end of the last season, they have me a soul but however, remember when the mom died? Remember how she got better right before she died? Joss does 180 degrees from where he is really going to go at first so giving me a soul is like 'He's Dead!'

(Audience boos!)

I don't know! See, Spike doesn't want Buffy anywhere near him right now because he is bad - he feels horrible, I think. If I was a vampire and I woke up to the fact that I had killed all these women and kids, I'd feel pretty bad. I really wouldn't want my love to be dirtied by that so it is quite possible Spike is going to keep her really far away from him if possible. (Audience grumbles in disapproval)

How many times after a "Buffy" episode are you like 'Oh, I feel good now!' NEVER!!!!

Q: First of all, I don't know what you mean when you say Joss doesn't give us what we want because we pretty much wanted you naked [Laughs]

JM: [Laughs] No, I think that was Marti [Noxon]. I am really serious. I don't think Joss went there, I think it was Marti. She has a dirty mind. How much heat was there last year? Whoa! That was Marti's year. As much as we talk about Joss, Marti is the Bomb! She is, like all the writers, using her personal life and she is incredibly brave about what she admits has happened to her. She has lived the life.

Q. Are you bringing your band on the road at all?

JM: What the band and I are talking about is exactly what we are going to do. The band is pretty young. There is a 17, 18 and a 19 old in the band. The 17-year-old still has to graduate high school and I need to graduate "Buffy." Until next summer, we are going to be popping out in alternative locations. A single will be available very soon. The CD will be available in early September.

Q. Is there anything you regret?

JM: I regret letting my theater company go. I was getting an ulcer so I had enough but I had another season I wanted to produce but I think it was the best choice. I try to live my life without regret.

Q. When the show ends do you plan on keeping the bleached locks or go back natural?

JM: I will go back natural. Yeah, I love Spike but if I kept my hair it would signal to the entire community that I wanted to stay in that box and one of the lucky things I have is that I have a lot of different characters I want to share. The easiest way I can remind people that I am not Spike and that I can do other roles is by dropping the accent and the hair. Frankly, I think a lot of people in LA won't know what I did - that I'm new.

Q: Whose performance besides yours in the musical was the best?

JM: Sarah. She had to whip out dance moves at the end, she had a lot of songs. I think she was incredibly brave. You guys don't know her like I do - she has a big work ethic but at the same time she likes control and she had to give up a lot of control to do that. Tony rocked too! I am so glad he is back. We need that guy!

Q: When do you go back to filming?

JM: July 25th.

Q. How do you balance being a musician and a well-established actor?

JM: I don't know yet. One of the reasons I didn't get in a band earlier was I didn't meet geniuses like I met now and two is that you have to rehearse with the band quite a lot or you suck. [Laughs] This is going to be a real challenge and I'm not sure how I'm going to do it. Luckily, the guys up in Sacramento are like national level jazz musicians and they can play anything so it's more of a problem for me then them.

Q. What is your waist size?

JM: 28, next question. [Laughs] I've been chasing a body type for five years! I weighed 200 pounds coming from Seattle to LA. I realized the only vampires that have made a lasting mark on the consciousness of people are really thin. We are a metaphor for hunger both psychological and sexual.

Q: What is your favorite "Buffy" episode? JM: The one where we go back and meet William ["Fool for Love" - Season 5].

(Audience roars in approval)

Yeah, I had to do lines like 'Mother's expecting me.' [Laughs]

I choose that one because I was most terrified of it. When I got the script, I really felt like they were making fun of the character and ripping him down form what they had built before which was completely true. I did not see the larger picture of what they were building and I really learned my lesson that I am not a writer. That was a very vulnerable time for me. Once I found the character of William, I really felt that no one else would understand him. I wanted so much for the audience to hook into him because when Joss was writing stuff like 'I know I'm a bad writer but I'm a good man' that is Joss. I wanted to be true to that…it happened better than I thought it would.

Reported by Tara DiLullo, @N-Zone Magazine