Chicago TARDIS 2013: A Saga of Whofolk in Four Parts
Allo allo! So I actually returned from Chicago TARDIS exactly two weeks ago, but I've been recounting my escapades over on Tumblr since I got back. Now that it's pretty much finished, and partly to make up for my lack of reporting on it last year, here's the whole shebang for your reading pleasure. Also, each section includes the art I brought for people to sign (yeah, ignore the fact that the account is called PrincessHannah, I was in middle school when I signed up). Enjoy!
(Also, my next commentary will be Frontier in Space. I already have the disk, I just need to take care of a special rewatch first.)
Part 1: A Story of Fandom (and Colin Baker)
Doctor Who - Chibi Six by ~PrincessHannah on deviantART
This is actually only partly my story, but it's still one worth telling. Back after my very first Doctor Who convention, I wrote about what a family the Whofolk are and what an amazing experience it was for me to (albeit accidentally) be in the same room as that off-screen love, even if only for 30 minutes or so. At this year's Chicago TARDIS, I got another glimpse of the amazing relationship that Doctor Who has with its fans, even decades after the actors have left the show.
A couple years ago, I listened to a lot of The Happiness Patrol podcast. Easily my favorite episodes were the ones where TARDIS Tara and Dale would regale us with stories of fandom in the '80s and the Wilderness Years: stories of early conventions, misadventures, new friends made, and other such tales. I encountered Tara briefly at last year's CT, but this year I actually got to hang out with her a little. A good chunk of that was helping to disassembling her TARDIS on the last day, but first there was The Book. I was chilling with my friend Sarah in mid-afternoon Friday Lobbycon as I showed off my art that I was bringing for people to sign, while she showed me the TARDIS embroidery where she kept all her Who signatures. While I certainly understand the appeal of keeping up a single fandom item for autographing, I'm not personally keen on putting all my eggs in one basket like that. But then Tara came over and offered to show us hers.
She'd been collecting autographs in this book for 30 years, so I knew I was in for something that was not just special, but a unique part of Who history.
Tara has a TARDIS Technical Manual from the '80s that she uses to collect her autographs, and her showing me through it felt like taking my own little trip in the TARDIS. It was a unique glimpse into the past. She had autographs from Whofolk who died before I was born, like Patrick Troughton and Ian Marter, and Whofolk whose deaths I'd mourned along with the rest of the fandom, like Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney. Also in the plastic sleeve where she kept the book was a picture of her and Colin Baker, back when she was 15 and he was either still the Doctor or immediately post-Who. It was pretty amazing, and the whole experience made me feel rather privileged.
Cut to Sunday afternoon.
After the horrific clusterfuck that was the Three Doctors autograph virtual queue the day before, I was finally on line to meet some Doctors. Tara was a few places ahead of me, but she eventually melted into the table-bound crowd as we entered the autograph room. A few paces away from Peter Davison, I glanced further down the table and noticed Colin Baker looking back and forth between the person in front of him and something in his hand...
Then I heard a delighted gasp of "It's YOU!" and he got up from behind the table to hug Tara.
They stood there chatting for several minutes before Tara went on her way and Colin came back behind the table. He turned to his convention handler and said "sorry, talking to an old friend."
I finally made up to him, mentioning that I'd wanted to give this art to him at a convention two years ago, but we were there on different days so I didn't get to. He liked it, said it made him look "very athletic."
Also, apparently he and Terry Molloy are engaged in a fierce Croc war. He said at his panel that he owns 30 Crocs, while his "mortal enemy Davros" has 40 Crocs. Which is impressive in its own right.
Part 2: I Know It's Wrong to Put People on Pedestals but Holy Shit We Are Not Worthy of Such a Cast of Superheroes: A Story of the Friday Night Pre-Clusterfuck that Somehow Worked Itself Out
Doctor Who - Clothes Swap by ~PrincessHannah on deviantART
Doctor Who - Genius and Plush by ~PrincessHannah on deviantART
So. In a couple CT posts already I've mentioned clusterfucks relating to the virtual queues for autographs and photos, brought on by the unexpected volume of people at the con and the presence of so many high-profile guests at once. This is the prologue to that story, because on Friday night we were blessed with a miracle.
For people unfamiliar with virtual queues (as I was, before this year), it's a method that theoretically reduces your wait time in line by having tickets available 90 minutes in advance so that you have a confirmed spot in line when the session starts and you can spend the intervening time exploring the rest of the convention. On Friday night, there were photo sessions with the Doctors and autograph sessions with the Classic companions from 4 PM to 6 PM when the opening ceremonies were supposed to begin. I didn't bother with photos (especially since I already had things to sign), but I did get a ticket for the Classic companions autographs. E 22. All-Access attendees got A tickets and Reserved attendees got B tickets. I'd have to wait a while.
At it neared 5:30, I kept going down to check with doctoroddfellow (who was working Line Management) to see how far along they were. They were still on the Bs. I held out hope until about 5:55, when I was resigning myself to having to wait until Sunday for the next autograph session, when something pretty amazing happened: someone in Line Management with a megaphone came out and announced that the Doctors would be continuing photos for another hour. A couple minutes later, the same was announced for companion autographs.
I was both delighted and gobsmacked. This arrangement wound up working perfectly for us, because they were able to get all the remaining ticket holders in during that extra hour.
But guys. Let me repeat that.
Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Paul McGann, Frazer Hines, Sarah Sutton, Louise Jameson, Nicola Bryant, and Daphne Ashbrook all stayed an hour overtime to do photos and autographs for us.
They did this block for
three
straight
hours.
I don't know the details behind the extension, I don't know if they were paid extra or talked into it by the heads of the con or just did it in a labor of love out of the goodness of their hearts, but they didn't have to. They shouldn't have had to. Paul McGann even admitted at a panel that afternoon that he was jetlagged and "felt terrible" (someone in the Q&A, who I think was a volunteer, even asked him if he'd eaten a good breakfast and it sounded like he hadn't. I was honestly worried about how he was holding up).
But they did it.
for
three
hours.
So next time you're in a convention line, especially on your way to meet these extraordinary people, please for the love of god give them the respect they deserve. Because they are superheroes and I love them all, and so should you.
Anyway, the folks themselves. (And I should probably mention now that, if my meeting with him on Sunday and captnbunny's video from Saturday were any indication, Paul held up just fine.)
Frazer Hines
I think this was my...fourth time meeting him? Took me a while to figure out what to draw for him, Louise, and Nicola (it was originally going to be Jamie and Leela taking Peri under their wing with her new role as Warrior Queen, teaching her how to be stabby and everything, but I know how much Nicola detests that ending. So I made this instead.) It occurred to me on Sunday night that I really wanted to let Frazer know about that play I wrote partly inspired by him and Pat, but had probably missed my chance. But Monday morning, as we final stragglers were hanging out in the lobby before heading to the airport, I had one more shot. Since he, Louise, and Sarah were getting ready to leave as well, I kept it brief and showed him a cast photo. He looked really happy about it, commenting that the Jamie in my play had some tartan as well (and also asking how long the play was). I think I said in a previous post that I was going to buy a copy of 50 Shades of Frazer, but I never got around to that. Oh well...
Louise Jameson
I first met her at my very first Doctor Who convention, where she was sure she'd met me before. She was still lovely, and said the art was "very clever." I do kinda regret not going to hers and Colin's performance of Love Letters on Friday night, because it sounded lovely, but I was weirdly worn out way too early.
Nicola Bryant
Finally got to tell her in person how amazing Peri and the Piscon Paradox was. (I was going to bring that to sign, mainly because Sarah Sutton had mentioned it when I bought it from her at Regenerations, but I eventually decided not to.) At her panel the next day, she even said she considers it canon. I also asked her during the Q&A if there was a Peri and Erimem story she would like to have done as a televised serial, and she said Eye of the Scorpion because it had great action scenes (to this I may have made some off-handed comment about "Doctor Who does Ben Hur.")
Sarah Sutton
She loved the art, especially the little Adric plushie. I told her it was one of my old contest pieces, but it didn't win (she really thought it should've won.) Also, because I'm a dork and still an Adric/Nyssa shipper at heart, I asked at her Q&A if the upcoming Big Finish stories with Matthew Waterhouse returning expanded on their relationship at all. She said not yet, but they've only recorded two so far. Still, fingers crossed.
And I still need to listen to Circular Time...
Part 3: How I Lost a Bit of Faith in Fandom But Gained Faith in My Own Sense of Charity. Also, Peter Davison.
Doctor Who - Read the Book by ~PrincessHannah on deviantART
Okay, time to bite the bullet and retell the whole story of The Great Virtual Queue Clusterfuck of Chicago TARDIS 2013.
So I mentioned in my last post that the virtual queue was meant to, theoretically, reduce the amount of time spent on line for photos and autographs so that people could spend more time enjoying the con. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone anticipated just how big a demand there would be for the headlining guests this year, considering we had a couple thousand attendees and three Doctors. So the virtual queue wound up creating another line, earlier in the day. I wound up going to the virtual queue line around 2 PM (a half-hour before it opened, because I figured there would be a LOT of people wanting to get their photos signed from the day before), and quite a few people built up behind me over the course of the next thirty minutes. Then 2:30 came around and...it turned out they were splitting the line and people waiting for the three Doctors autograph tickets had to go to a different line further down the hall. I eventually emerged with a G ticket and went on my way to check out some panels and prowl the dealer's room again.
As the 4-6 autograph block rolled along, I checked in occasionally and was glad to hear that the numbers seemed to be moving along faster that night than the night before, but I also knew that we probably had a snowball's chance in hell of getting another extension. Going back and forth between the virtual queue holding room and the dealer's room, I told my friends around 4:30-ish that I was remaining "cautiously optimistic." An hour later, it downgraded to "cautiously." There was no way they'd reach the Gs at this rate.
But at 6, they made the compromise I hoped they'd make: the remaining ticket holders would get to exchange their Saturday tickets for Sunday tickets, and they'd get to be in the same order. So I came out with a C ticket for Sunday, stuck it snugly in my con badge, and felt pretty damn secure.
Unfortunately, I'd also caught a glimpse at the uglier side of fans not getting what they want. I'd heard a few horror stories from doctoroddfellow and his Line Management co-workers of some of the insults people had thrown at them the night before, but I didn't actually see any true anger until late in the Saturday night episode. On my way to the re-ticketing, I saw a guy yelling at a con worker with fierce insistence that they "can't possibly" make this work. And this was just after everyone had been offered a perfectly reasonable compromise. Again, by some miracle, they got everyone in a line and re-ticketing moved along at a nice even clip. But after I'd settled a little from the high of "yes, this is going to work out after all!" I stopped and looked at the Line Management folks, all of whom looked run into the ground and a few on the verge of tears.
Backtracking a little to a conversation I had with my dad a few days before I left for Chicago, so you can understand a bit of my mindset at the time: I've been making slow progress at networking during my job hunt and he was trying to identify the source of my reluctance to ask people for help or advice. There are times when I believe that humanity is naturally uncharitable, and this was one of those times. I told Dad that I didn't think people would want to help me because I didn't know how willingly I would give the same help, if asked. People have commented on my kindness in the past, but there's usually a part of me thinking "you wouldn't be saying that if you knew some of the negative thoughts I've had, because I don't always consider myself a good person."
But in that moment after The Clusterfuck, I realized that I had a chance to make these peoples' lives a little better, and that I should take this chance. I thought "these people have been through so much in the past couple days...I should really get them something nice." So I ran over to Target and bought them a couple bags of Lindor truffles.
Because I think that's one of the great lessons of Doctor Who: knowing how to find the best of yourself in the face of adversity. When you see the darker side of fandom, or humanity, let that inspire you to be better. The other great lesson is, of course:
please
for the love of god
So after that, a few of us went out for Chinese and took awkward selfies with a turkey in a parking lot.
That's a story for another time, perhaps.
Peter Davison
I get the impression that Petey was the Superstar Guest of the con, considering his solo panel was so packed that they wouldn't let anyone without an All-Access pass into the main programming hall after a certain point. I hung out in the Overflow room for a bit during the Q&A, hearing the Anthony-Ainley-diving-behind-a-rock-during-The-Five-Doctors story before moving on.
At some point that weekend, we had a brief Elevator Passing. I'd just gotten into an elevator and he was about to get into another one, when we looked at each other over the heads of the rest of the crowd. It was an odd moment, composed mainly of me trying to process that Peter Davison was looking right at me and holy crap how am I maintaining eye contact this long, and then he smiled at me. I smiled back and in the throes of "Peter Davison is smiling at me from across an elevator enclave okay what do" I...saluted him. With my left hand. Which is not my dominant hand. Sooo...that happened.
And yes, as you can see above, I got him to sign the infamous Adric, Read the Book comic. There was no way I'd be able to explain that to him (even though there was an uneasily long gap between meeting him and meeting Colin where I was just...standing silently in front of him while we waited for the line to move), so I just handed it to him for signing. He had no comment, just laughter. Also, I got to thank him for All Creatures Great and Small, because that show was my comfort food show for most of my sophomore year of college.
I REALLY wanted to go to his Live Director's Commentary of The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, but I didn't know when that was. But I did mange to get in for the Three Doctors panel with him, Colin, and Paul on Sunday afternoon. By some miracle (probably having to do with being in an aisle seat), I also made it relatively early onto the Q&A line. Someone before me asked Peter if he'd considered ever writing a full episode of Doctor Who (to which he said he'd hate to see how long that would take, considering how long he spent writing the Five(ish) Doctors), and someone else asked Colin what it was like playing an unsympathetic Doctor right after Peter's time playing one of the most sympathetic Doctors. I opened my question by reassuring Colin that his Big Finish audios made Six very sympathetic (which prompted a burst of cheers from the crowd over which I blurted "I'M STILL NOT EMOTIONALLY OVER THE END OF THE FIRST HALF OF PROJECT: LAZARUS!") and then this happened:
Me: "So, after watching The Five(ish) Doctors, it occurred to me that I would LOVE to see a feature-length road-trip movie with you guys..."
Crowd: "*Bursts into cheers*"
Me: "...and apparently a lot of other people would, too! So, is there any chance of that happening?"
Petey: "*stands up* I'd better just go start writing right now..."
Part 4: Thanking Freema Agyeman, Hugging Paul McGann, and That One Time Daphne Ashbrook Saved a Girl by Punching Things: A Three-Part Tale of Awesome People
Doctor Who - Kindred Spirits by ~PrincessHannah on deviantART
Let's jump right in.
Freema Agyeman
FIRST NEW WHO COMPANION! So as you guys may know, there are few things in Doctor Who fandom I understand less than Martha-hate. She's smart, she's badass, she spends the entire season 3 finale walking the earth for a whole goddamn year...gahhhh, I love her. One of the complaints I hear lobbed against her the most is "but she gave up a life traveling with the Doctor!!???!!!??!" but see...that's actually one of the things I admire the most about her. And when I met Freema on Sunday, I finally got to tell her what Martha meant to me.
"I finished your season of Doctor Who right after I'd gotten over a guy who didn't like me back, and you were the first woman on television who told me that it was okay to leave. So, thank you for being Martha Jones when I needed a Martha Jones in my life!"
I shook her hand, and she smiled and said that that was the intention that Russell T Davies went in with when he wrote that scene, and that he'd be really happy to hear that as well.
Thank you, Freema. And thank you, Martha.
Daphne Ashbrook
Especially after she ran the immensely fun RegenerEIGHT watch-along of the TV movie this summer (and sent me a commemorative Seal of Rassilon!), I was really looking forward to meeting Daphne. She was fantastic. During her panel on Friday, I asked her if she would recommend that other Whofolk do similar events. She said that it might be trickier for everyone else since they had more material to choose from (still, if anything like RegenerEIGHT does come up again, I'm all over it. That afternoon was a blast).
But let me tell you about this thing where she got to be a badass.
So. It's Friday night, about 6:30 PM. We're already half-way through the photo/autograph overtime, so I already believe that everyone in the cast is actually a superhero. I'm on the last stretch of the line curving into the autograph/photo room, and there's a family of four behind me. Average nuclear family, mom, dad, son, daughter. At some point the girl says she needs to go to the bathroom, so she rushes over on her own. A few minutes later, her mom goes after her. When they come back, they're saying something about the girl getting trapped in the stall and how someone got her out by "punching the door." I chuckle a little to myself, thinking "wow, that's one way to do it." Pretty soon, I'm in the room and getting my stuff signed. (Daphne loved the art, and even asked to take a picture of it!) As I moved down the line, probably about when I was between Nicola and Frazer, I see the family reach Daphne out of the corner of my eye...and I hear "you were the one I rescued from the bathroom!"
And she signed the girl's picture with "you make me feel like a superhero!"
Guys. Daphne Ashbrook rescued a girl from a bathroom stall by punching it and I think everyone should know that this was a thing that happened.
Paul McGann
First there was his panel on Friday, where I was honestly kind of worried about him because he said he was jet-lagged and not feeling well. But I did get to go up during the Q&A and give a heartfelt "thank you for coming back to us!" re: Night of the Doctor, because getting Eight back really did mean a tremendous amount to me. He replied with a smile and "thank Moffat!" Then I asked him if he could do a full-length television episode with one of his audio companions, which one would it be. He couldn't pick just one, because they were all great and he didn't want to make any of them feel left out (bless 'im).
So...I really wanted to hug him when I went to get his autograph, partly because of this story which is easily one of the most amazing and heartwarming fan-meeting-cast stories I've ever read, but also because of that burning urge I felt after Night of the Doctor to bury my face in his/Eight's chest and cry "you came back to us!" Sunday afternoon rolled around, I got my stuff for Petey and Colin signed, and then I finally made it to Paul. I was going to make some comment about how I hoped he was feeling better, or that I was amazed he and the others powered through Friday night the way they did, but unfortunately all that went out the window when I finally met him and just went "...hi Paul" and gave him the art. He loved it, even giving me a quick quip of "shoes!" and then my brain went "hurry Hannah here's your chance."
Me: "May I please hug you?"
Paul: "I was going to jump up and hug you anyway!"
guys
guys he wanted
to
hug
me.
So the hug was amazeballs, even though it was across the table, and I was basically walking on air for the rest of the day. Also when I
was turning to leave he said "till we meet again!" and I could only respond with "till we meet again, sir!"
As you can probably tell, that pretty much made my whole weekend. And there was also this thing that happened where I called out the name of a play where he played a five-year-old girl.
(Also, my next commentary will be Frontier in Space. I already have the disk, I just need to take care of a special rewatch first.)
Part 1: A Story of Fandom (and Colin Baker)
Doctor Who - Chibi Six by ~PrincessHannah on deviantART
This is actually only partly my story, but it's still one worth telling. Back after my very first Doctor Who convention, I wrote about what a family the Whofolk are and what an amazing experience it was for me to (albeit accidentally) be in the same room as that off-screen love, even if only for 30 minutes or so. At this year's Chicago TARDIS, I got another glimpse of the amazing relationship that Doctor Who has with its fans, even decades after the actors have left the show.
A couple years ago, I listened to a lot of The Happiness Patrol podcast. Easily my favorite episodes were the ones where TARDIS Tara and Dale would regale us with stories of fandom in the '80s and the Wilderness Years: stories of early conventions, misadventures, new friends made, and other such tales. I encountered Tara briefly at last year's CT, but this year I actually got to hang out with her a little. A good chunk of that was helping to disassembling her TARDIS on the last day, but first there was The Book. I was chilling with my friend Sarah in mid-afternoon Friday Lobbycon as I showed off my art that I was bringing for people to sign, while she showed me the TARDIS embroidery where she kept all her Who signatures. While I certainly understand the appeal of keeping up a single fandom item for autographing, I'm not personally keen on putting all my eggs in one basket like that. But then Tara came over and offered to show us hers.
She'd been collecting autographs in this book for 30 years, so I knew I was in for something that was not just special, but a unique part of Who history.
Tara has a TARDIS Technical Manual from the '80s that she uses to collect her autographs, and her showing me through it felt like taking my own little trip in the TARDIS. It was a unique glimpse into the past. She had autographs from Whofolk who died before I was born, like Patrick Troughton and Ian Marter, and Whofolk whose deaths I'd mourned along with the rest of the fandom, like Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney. Also in the plastic sleeve where she kept the book was a picture of her and Colin Baker, back when she was 15 and he was either still the Doctor or immediately post-Who. It was pretty amazing, and the whole experience made me feel rather privileged.
Cut to Sunday afternoon.
After the horrific clusterfuck that was the Three Doctors autograph virtual queue the day before, I was finally on line to meet some Doctors. Tara was a few places ahead of me, but she eventually melted into the table-bound crowd as we entered the autograph room. A few paces away from Peter Davison, I glanced further down the table and noticed Colin Baker looking back and forth between the person in front of him and something in his hand...
Then I heard a delighted gasp of "It's YOU!" and he got up from behind the table to hug Tara.
They stood there chatting for several minutes before Tara went on her way and Colin came back behind the table. He turned to his convention handler and said "sorry, talking to an old friend."
I finally made up to him, mentioning that I'd wanted to give this art to him at a convention two years ago, but we were there on different days so I didn't get to. He liked it, said it made him look "very athletic."
Also, apparently he and Terry Molloy are engaged in a fierce Croc war. He said at his panel that he owns 30 Crocs, while his "mortal enemy Davros" has 40 Crocs. Which is impressive in its own right.
Part 2: I Know It's Wrong to Put People on Pedestals but Holy Shit We Are Not Worthy of Such a Cast of Superheroes: A Story of the Friday Night Pre-Clusterfuck that Somehow Worked Itself Out
Doctor Who - Clothes Swap by ~PrincessHannah on deviantART
Doctor Who - Genius and Plush by ~PrincessHannah on deviantART
So. In a couple CT posts already I've mentioned clusterfucks relating to the virtual queues for autographs and photos, brought on by the unexpected volume of people at the con and the presence of so many high-profile guests at once. This is the prologue to that story, because on Friday night we were blessed with a miracle.
For people unfamiliar with virtual queues (as I was, before this year), it's a method that theoretically reduces your wait time in line by having tickets available 90 minutes in advance so that you have a confirmed spot in line when the session starts and you can spend the intervening time exploring the rest of the convention. On Friday night, there were photo sessions with the Doctors and autograph sessions with the Classic companions from 4 PM to 6 PM when the opening ceremonies were supposed to begin. I didn't bother with photos (especially since I already had things to sign), but I did get a ticket for the Classic companions autographs. E 22. All-Access attendees got A tickets and Reserved attendees got B tickets. I'd have to wait a while.
At it neared 5:30, I kept going down to check with doctoroddfellow (who was working Line Management) to see how far along they were. They were still on the Bs. I held out hope until about 5:55, when I was resigning myself to having to wait until Sunday for the next autograph session, when something pretty amazing happened: someone in Line Management with a megaphone came out and announced that the Doctors would be continuing photos for another hour. A couple minutes later, the same was announced for companion autographs.
I was both delighted and gobsmacked. This arrangement wound up working perfectly for us, because they were able to get all the remaining ticket holders in during that extra hour.
But guys. Let me repeat that.
Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Paul McGann, Frazer Hines, Sarah Sutton, Louise Jameson, Nicola Bryant, and Daphne Ashbrook all stayed an hour overtime to do photos and autographs for us.
They did this block for
three
straight
hours.
I don't know the details behind the extension, I don't know if they were paid extra or talked into it by the heads of the con or just did it in a labor of love out of the goodness of their hearts, but they didn't have to. They shouldn't have had to. Paul McGann even admitted at a panel that afternoon that he was jetlagged and "felt terrible" (someone in the Q&A, who I think was a volunteer, even asked him if he'd eaten a good breakfast and it sounded like he hadn't. I was honestly worried about how he was holding up).
But they did it.
for
three
hours.
So next time you're in a convention line, especially on your way to meet these extraordinary people, please for the love of god give them the respect they deserve. Because they are superheroes and I love them all, and so should you.
Anyway, the folks themselves. (And I should probably mention now that, if my meeting with him on Sunday and captnbunny's video from Saturday were any indication, Paul held up just fine.)
Frazer Hines
I think this was my...fourth time meeting him? Took me a while to figure out what to draw for him, Louise, and Nicola (it was originally going to be Jamie and Leela taking Peri under their wing with her new role as Warrior Queen, teaching her how to be stabby and everything, but I know how much Nicola detests that ending. So I made this instead.) It occurred to me on Sunday night that I really wanted to let Frazer know about that play I wrote partly inspired by him and Pat, but had probably missed my chance. But Monday morning, as we final stragglers were hanging out in the lobby before heading to the airport, I had one more shot. Since he, Louise, and Sarah were getting ready to leave as well, I kept it brief and showed him a cast photo. He looked really happy about it, commenting that the Jamie in my play had some tartan as well (and also asking how long the play was). I think I said in a previous post that I was going to buy a copy of 50 Shades of Frazer, but I never got around to that. Oh well...
Louise Jameson
I first met her at my very first Doctor Who convention, where she was sure she'd met me before. She was still lovely, and said the art was "very clever." I do kinda regret not going to hers and Colin's performance of Love Letters on Friday night, because it sounded lovely, but I was weirdly worn out way too early.
Nicola Bryant
Finally got to tell her in person how amazing Peri and the Piscon Paradox was. (I was going to bring that to sign, mainly because Sarah Sutton had mentioned it when I bought it from her at Regenerations, but I eventually decided not to.) At her panel the next day, she even said she considers it canon. I also asked her during the Q&A if there was a Peri and Erimem story she would like to have done as a televised serial, and she said Eye of the Scorpion because it had great action scenes (to this I may have made some off-handed comment about "Doctor Who does Ben Hur.")
Sarah Sutton
She loved the art, especially the little Adric plushie. I told her it was one of my old contest pieces, but it didn't win (she really thought it should've won.) Also, because I'm a dork and still an Adric/Nyssa shipper at heart, I asked at her Q&A if the upcoming Big Finish stories with Matthew Waterhouse returning expanded on their relationship at all. She said not yet, but they've only recorded two so far. Still, fingers crossed.
And I still need to listen to Circular Time...
Part 3: How I Lost a Bit of Faith in Fandom But Gained Faith in My Own Sense of Charity. Also, Peter Davison.
Doctor Who - Read the Book by ~PrincessHannah on deviantART
Okay, time to bite the bullet and retell the whole story of The Great Virtual Queue Clusterfuck of Chicago TARDIS 2013.
So I mentioned in my last post that the virtual queue was meant to, theoretically, reduce the amount of time spent on line for photos and autographs so that people could spend more time enjoying the con. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone anticipated just how big a demand there would be for the headlining guests this year, considering we had a couple thousand attendees and three Doctors. So the virtual queue wound up creating another line, earlier in the day. I wound up going to the virtual queue line around 2 PM (a half-hour before it opened, because I figured there would be a LOT of people wanting to get their photos signed from the day before), and quite a few people built up behind me over the course of the next thirty minutes. Then 2:30 came around and...it turned out they were splitting the line and people waiting for the three Doctors autograph tickets had to go to a different line further down the hall. I eventually emerged with a G ticket and went on my way to check out some panels and prowl the dealer's room again.
As the 4-6 autograph block rolled along, I checked in occasionally and was glad to hear that the numbers seemed to be moving along faster that night than the night before, but I also knew that we probably had a snowball's chance in hell of getting another extension. Going back and forth between the virtual queue holding room and the dealer's room, I told my friends around 4:30-ish that I was remaining "cautiously optimistic." An hour later, it downgraded to "cautiously." There was no way they'd reach the Gs at this rate.
But at 6, they made the compromise I hoped they'd make: the remaining ticket holders would get to exchange their Saturday tickets for Sunday tickets, and they'd get to be in the same order. So I came out with a C ticket for Sunday, stuck it snugly in my con badge, and felt pretty damn secure.
Unfortunately, I'd also caught a glimpse at the uglier side of fans not getting what they want. I'd heard a few horror stories from doctoroddfellow and his Line Management co-workers of some of the insults people had thrown at them the night before, but I didn't actually see any true anger until late in the Saturday night episode. On my way to the re-ticketing, I saw a guy yelling at a con worker with fierce insistence that they "can't possibly" make this work. And this was just after everyone had been offered a perfectly reasonable compromise. Again, by some miracle, they got everyone in a line and re-ticketing moved along at a nice even clip. But after I'd settled a little from the high of "yes, this is going to work out after all!" I stopped and looked at the Line Management folks, all of whom looked run into the ground and a few on the verge of tears.
Backtracking a little to a conversation I had with my dad a few days before I left for Chicago, so you can understand a bit of my mindset at the time: I've been making slow progress at networking during my job hunt and he was trying to identify the source of my reluctance to ask people for help or advice. There are times when I believe that humanity is naturally uncharitable, and this was one of those times. I told Dad that I didn't think people would want to help me because I didn't know how willingly I would give the same help, if asked. People have commented on my kindness in the past, but there's usually a part of me thinking "you wouldn't be saying that if you knew some of the negative thoughts I've had, because I don't always consider myself a good person."
But in that moment after The Clusterfuck, I realized that I had a chance to make these peoples' lives a little better, and that I should take this chance. I thought "these people have been through so much in the past couple days...I should really get them something nice." So I ran over to Target and bought them a couple bags of Lindor truffles.
Because I think that's one of the great lessons of Doctor Who: knowing how to find the best of yourself in the face of adversity. When you see the darker side of fandom, or humanity, let that inspire you to be better. The other great lesson is, of course:
please
for the love of god
- don't
- be
- a dick
- to con staff
So after that, a few of us went out for Chinese and took awkward selfies with a turkey in a parking lot.
That's a story for another time, perhaps.
Peter Davison
I get the impression that Petey was the Superstar Guest of the con, considering his solo panel was so packed that they wouldn't let anyone without an All-Access pass into the main programming hall after a certain point. I hung out in the Overflow room for a bit during the Q&A, hearing the Anthony-Ainley-diving-behind-a-rock-during-The-Five-Doctors story before moving on.
At some point that weekend, we had a brief Elevator Passing. I'd just gotten into an elevator and he was about to get into another one, when we looked at each other over the heads of the rest of the crowd. It was an odd moment, composed mainly of me trying to process that Peter Davison was looking right at me and holy crap how am I maintaining eye contact this long, and then he smiled at me. I smiled back and in the throes of "Peter Davison is smiling at me from across an elevator enclave okay what do" I...saluted him. With my left hand. Which is not my dominant hand. Sooo...that happened.
And yes, as you can see above, I got him to sign the infamous Adric, Read the Book comic. There was no way I'd be able to explain that to him (even though there was an uneasily long gap between meeting him and meeting Colin where I was just...standing silently in front of him while we waited for the line to move), so I just handed it to him for signing. He had no comment, just laughter. Also, I got to thank him for All Creatures Great and Small, because that show was my comfort food show for most of my sophomore year of college.
I REALLY wanted to go to his Live Director's Commentary of The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, but I didn't know when that was. But I did mange to get in for the Three Doctors panel with him, Colin, and Paul on Sunday afternoon. By some miracle (probably having to do with being in an aisle seat), I also made it relatively early onto the Q&A line. Someone before me asked Peter if he'd considered ever writing a full episode of Doctor Who (to which he said he'd hate to see how long that would take, considering how long he spent writing the Five(ish) Doctors), and someone else asked Colin what it was like playing an unsympathetic Doctor right after Peter's time playing one of the most sympathetic Doctors. I opened my question by reassuring Colin that his Big Finish audios made Six very sympathetic (which prompted a burst of cheers from the crowd over which I blurted "I'M STILL NOT EMOTIONALLY OVER THE END OF THE FIRST HALF OF PROJECT: LAZARUS!") and then this happened:
Me: "So, after watching The Five(ish) Doctors, it occurred to me that I would LOVE to see a feature-length road-trip movie with you guys..."
Crowd: "*Bursts into cheers*"
Me: "...and apparently a lot of other people would, too! So, is there any chance of that happening?"
Petey: "*stands up* I'd better just go start writing right now..."
Part 4: Thanking Freema Agyeman, Hugging Paul McGann, and That One Time Daphne Ashbrook Saved a Girl by Punching Things: A Three-Part Tale of Awesome People
Doctor Who - Kindred Spirits by ~PrincessHannah on deviantART
Let's jump right in.
Freema Agyeman
FIRST NEW WHO COMPANION! So as you guys may know, there are few things in Doctor Who fandom I understand less than Martha-hate. She's smart, she's badass, she spends the entire season 3 finale walking the earth for a whole goddamn year...gahhhh, I love her. One of the complaints I hear lobbed against her the most is "but she gave up a life traveling with the Doctor!!???!!!??!" but see...that's actually one of the things I admire the most about her. And when I met Freema on Sunday, I finally got to tell her what Martha meant to me.
"I finished your season of Doctor Who right after I'd gotten over a guy who didn't like me back, and you were the first woman on television who told me that it was okay to leave. So, thank you for being Martha Jones when I needed a Martha Jones in my life!"
I shook her hand, and she smiled and said that that was the intention that Russell T Davies went in with when he wrote that scene, and that he'd be really happy to hear that as well.
Thank you, Freema. And thank you, Martha.
Daphne Ashbrook
Especially after she ran the immensely fun RegenerEIGHT watch-along of the TV movie this summer (and sent me a commemorative Seal of Rassilon!), I was really looking forward to meeting Daphne. She was fantastic. During her panel on Friday, I asked her if she would recommend that other Whofolk do similar events. She said that it might be trickier for everyone else since they had more material to choose from (still, if anything like RegenerEIGHT does come up again, I'm all over it. That afternoon was a blast).
But let me tell you about this thing where she got to be a badass.
So. It's Friday night, about 6:30 PM. We're already half-way through the photo/autograph overtime, so I already believe that everyone in the cast is actually a superhero. I'm on the last stretch of the line curving into the autograph/photo room, and there's a family of four behind me. Average nuclear family, mom, dad, son, daughter. At some point the girl says she needs to go to the bathroom, so she rushes over on her own. A few minutes later, her mom goes after her. When they come back, they're saying something about the girl getting trapped in the stall and how someone got her out by "punching the door." I chuckle a little to myself, thinking "wow, that's one way to do it." Pretty soon, I'm in the room and getting my stuff signed. (Daphne loved the art, and even asked to take a picture of it!) As I moved down the line, probably about when I was between Nicola and Frazer, I see the family reach Daphne out of the corner of my eye...and I hear "you were the one I rescued from the bathroom!"
And she signed the girl's picture with "you make me feel like a superhero!"
Guys. Daphne Ashbrook rescued a girl from a bathroom stall by punching it and I think everyone should know that this was a thing that happened.
Paul McGann
First there was his panel on Friday, where I was honestly kind of worried about him because he said he was jet-lagged and not feeling well. But I did get to go up during the Q&A and give a heartfelt "thank you for coming back to us!" re: Night of the Doctor, because getting Eight back really did mean a tremendous amount to me. He replied with a smile and "thank Moffat!" Then I asked him if he could do a full-length television episode with one of his audio companions, which one would it be. He couldn't pick just one, because they were all great and he didn't want to make any of them feel left out (bless 'im).
So...I really wanted to hug him when I went to get his autograph, partly because of this story which is easily one of the most amazing and heartwarming fan-meeting-cast stories I've ever read, but also because of that burning urge I felt after Night of the Doctor to bury my face in his/Eight's chest and cry "you came back to us!" Sunday afternoon rolled around, I got my stuff for Petey and Colin signed, and then I finally made it to Paul. I was going to make some comment about how I hoped he was feeling better, or that I was amazed he and the others powered through Friday night the way they did, but unfortunately all that went out the window when I finally met him and just went "...hi Paul" and gave him the art. He loved it, even giving me a quick quip of "shoes!" and then my brain went "hurry Hannah here's your chance."
Me: "May I please hug you?"
Paul: "I was going to jump up and hug you anyway!"
guys
guys he wanted
to
hug
me.
So the hug was amazeballs, even though it was across the table, and I was basically walking on air for the rest of the day. Also when I
was turning to leave he said "till we meet again!" and I could only respond with "till we meet again, sir!"
As you can probably tell, that pretty much made my whole weekend. And there was also this thing that happened where I called out the name of a play where he played a five-year-old girl.