Dispatches from San Diego: Comic-Con 2011 TV Guide Panel

I'm not in San Diego for this year's Comic-Con (marking the first year in about six that I haven't traveled south for the annual pop culture confab) for a number of reasons. However, Televisionary correspondent Lissette Lira was on the scene to offer her report on Thursday's TV Guide panel as well as some photos from the fan-favorites sessions.

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All in all the TV Guide panel was a bit of a mixed bag. While it was great fun seeing such an eclectic group of stars share the stage together, there were so many participants that everyone wound up getting a bit short-changed in the process.

Nonetheless, there were still a few memorable highlights, including Zach Levi passionately voicing his agreement with a fan about the need for the TV ratings system to be changed. Levi vowed to write more about the subject on the website Nerd HQ which he was promoting with his baseball cap. Levi also spoke about his hope that CHUCK fans will be happy with the show's finale.

At this point LOST's Jorge Garcia (soon to be seen on Fox's upcoming ALCATRAZ series) jumped into the conversation and advised him to avoid an ending in which the characters all turned out to be dead because, "the fans will never stop telling you how much they loved the series, but HATED the ending!"

In addition, DOCTOR WHO's Matt Smith offered a few details about the show's eventual return, noting that the Doctor will be wearing a new coat when we next see him in "Let's Kill Hitler" which he described as "a fantastic episode."

Smith also fielded a number of questions from audience members including one as to whether we might be seeing Captain Jack Harkness (played by John Barrowman) return to DOCTOR WHO at some point. Smith answered "John is always welcome back." Smith went on to say that with the 50th anniversary of DOCTOR WHO coming up in 2013 there has even been talk of other Doctors possibly coming back.

[Photos from the session follow after the jump...]