Chicago TARDIS 2010

This past weekend The Dulcinea and I descended upon suburban Chicago for Chicago TARDIS. It was fun but I learned my lesson: I need a new camera. The batteries don't hold a charge very well any longer, it performs poorly in low light conditions, blah blah blah. And, honestly, I didn't really feel like taking snaps all the time anyway.

None of the actors who have played The Doctor were in attendance but we got Louise Jameson and Frazier Hines who played companions Leela and Jamie, respectively. Ian McNeice, who played Winston Churchill in DW last season was also there. Tommy Knight from The Sarah Jane Adventures was on-hand as were Kai Owen and Gareth David-Lloyd from Torchwood. The Big Finish gang were there as was Terrance Dicks who was script editor and producer of DW in the 1970s. Lots of great tales were told. And the Torchwood guys even did a rap. To wit:



Louise Jameson said that "The Sunmakers" was one of her favorite DW episodes as it parodied England's government and tax codes so well. Since she was in attendance, there were a few gals in Leela outfits. I managed to get a snap of this lovely young woman in costume.





I mean, what would a con be without pulchritudinous young women in skimpy outfits? This young lady took my rhetorical question to heart and dressed as the Cyberwoman from Torchwood.



(I didn't take this photo. It can be found here.)


I suppose if I have a gripe, it's that only 1 or 2 of the people who wore costumes actually did any posing after the masquerade show. Everyone else seemed to have headed back to their rooms to change into normal clothing right away.

Listening to Terrance Dicks talk was really great. He reminisced about writing "The War Games", the Second Doctor's final story, working with Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, and hanging out at the BBC tavern. I wanted to get a book or something autographed by him but the line filled up right away and th ETA to meet him was well over an hour. His stories really brought back memories. Dicks also had high praise for David Tennant. He described him as being born for the part unlike some of the other actors who've played the role.

And so did a panel on DW fandom in the 1980s before the new series, pre-Big Finish, and pre-Internet. The panelists talked about how DW slowly gained fans starting in the late 1970s before it became a real cash cow for PBS in the 1980s. I started watching in 1981 or '82 on Chicago's PBS station. Almost 30 bloody years! My long standing fandom (i.e. – my aging) was thrown into sharp relief whilst waiting in the autograph line to get the Big Finish gang to sign a poster. Behind me was a young man dressed at the Seventh Doctor. We started chatting and I told him that I saw Sylvester McCoy back in 1987 in either Green Bay or La Crosse at a stop on his tour to promote his episodes which would begin airing on PBS stations shortly. So the kid (sorry!) says to me, "I was born in 1988 just as 'The Happiness Patrol' was airing." D'oh!

To be honest, I'm proud of myself. I think there are many older fans who grew up or got into the show back in the day and look down upon younger fans for whom David Tennant is their Doctor. Luckily I haven't fallen into that trap. It's all DW and I don't give a tinker's cuss how old you are or how you got into the show. Sure, we can argue whether or not "Timelash" is the single worst DW story ever or ever will be but we're all fans celebrating the show and our fandom. (However, that Colin Baker's outfit is the single coolest piece of haberdashery ever conceived by mankind is not up for debate.)

The gents in Mysterious Theatre 337 were there as well and they did Tom Baker's first episode "Robot", which was written by Terrance Dicks and, since he was on hand, he answered questions about it. The show was funny and I can't even recall the last time I watched that story.

The dealer room was full of DW goodies and, remarkably, I didn't buy a whole lot. Just one BF audio drama this time around. I grabbed a David Tennant action figure for a friend's daughter and some DW novels. Why I don't know but I found myself confronted with shelves full of the Virgin and BBC novels and suddenly decided to buy some under the impression that I needed to have them all for my collection. I walked away with only a couple but it was the first time I have ever really thought that I ought to have them on my shelf. They were all Sixth Doctor stories because I'm collecting every story with him. Now, I had a couple other BBC novels already but I bought them mainly to just see how they are and I've not yet read them. But now I am bound and determined to do so. I don't know how to explain it. Just one of those Road to Damascus moments where I went from being quite indifferent about the novels to being very enthusiastic.

Author Simon Guerrier was in attendance and he seemed to be a really nice and funny guy. I bought a copy of his DW novel The Pirate Loop and had him autograph it for Miles. I'd love to bring the kid to Chicago TARDIS but I think he'd be bored. He loves the new series but there isn't much new series-related stuff. To my knowledge, Eccleston, Tennant, and Smith can't actually do DW cons. Neither can new companions. (Is this correct? I can't recall where I heard this but I heard that their contracts forbid them from doing fan conventions until further notice.) Besides, Eccleston has said he would never to a con. (But, as was pointed out last weekend, Paul McGann once said the same thing.) Miles watched some classic series DW once but he didn't care for it. He doesn't listen to the audio dramas nor does he read the comic books. So I thought I'd try to get him into another DW realm with a novel. We'll see how my little experiment turns out.

Other cool things at the con were the K-9 unit buzzing around and some Mad Norwegian Press books which I now want to own. Plus the folks who run Mad Norwegian Press are really nice. Rob Shearman was very funny. The D bought a couple books of his and she had him sign them. On one he drew a Dalek. I discovered that Lisa Bowerman is a much bigger dork than I thought. And I mean that in a good way. I am angling to check out the Bernice Summerfield audios now. Ciara Janson and Laura Doddington were both really friendly. I guess cons tend to be self-selecting as far as guests go. If you're a big asshole who doesn't want to be bothered to deal with fans, you don't go to them. Hence the guests at Chicago TARDIS are always really friendly (and patient). And it's also great that most of the guests are simply fan geeks of the show. I mean, the people behind the new series and Big Finish all grew up watching it and now they help create it so, while they may be a guest up on stage, they're still all fanboys and fangirls geeking out to DW. Gary Russell was especially forthcoming about his fandom.

Ooh! And I can't forget Toby Hadoke doing his one-man routine "Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf". It was very funny and touching at the same time. I can only imagine how his kid is going to turn out.

The registration forms for next year said that writer Ben Aaronovitch was already confirmed. Since he wrote two stories for the Seventh Doctor ("Remembrance of the Daleks" and "Battlefield") I suspect the organizers are looking to get Sylvester McCoy to be a guest. Besides, he hasn't been there since 2006. Maybe I'll even bring my scarf.