Dragon*Con 2010 - from the perspective of Allison Pond
Hi everyone! Now that Dragon*Con 2010 has receded into memory, I thought I'd do a write-up for the comm, seeing as Series 5 got a lot of love this year and it is, of course, relevant to a lot of members' interests. :) Also, I got to meet some of you!
Warning: lots of photos and some YouTube beneath the cut!
eclecticmuse and I arrived on Thursday afternoon. The con doesn't officially start until Friday morning, but a lot of people like to turn up Thursday to get settled in and get their preregistration badges. The first thing we did upon getting all our stuff to our room was run back downstairs to meet up with wicked0witch, who was already in costume as Time of Angels Amy (though when other Amys started turning up, she went and changed to Faith from Buffy). And yes, while standing near the entrance to the Marriott, a lot of fellow Who costumers started appearing. First up was a trio consisting of Flesh and Stone River, Vincent and the Doctor Amy, and Fez Doctor. eclecticmuse and I got so excited, we ran back upstairs to change into costume too. And then the floodgates opened. Once downstairs again, we didn't move from our spot for something like three hours because other costumers and/or people that we knew kept coming in! They included:
- At least one more Time of Angels Amy;
- the Prydon costuming group's resident Sixth Doctor, a Tenth Doctor, and a Rose (who weren't in costume, but Ryan was basically dressed up as civilian David Tennant);
- Prydon's resident Eighth Doctor (in costume);
- a Fourth Doctor;
- a Tennant/Pertwee mashup (I thought he was doing Austin Powers until I saw the TARDIS key around his neck)
- a trio who costume as Sam Tyler, Annie Cartwright, and the Test Card Girl from Life on Mars (not in costume, so I didn't recognize them from last year--THE GUY LOOKS SO MUCH LIKE JOHN SIMM IT'S CREEPY)
Eventually some of us migrated upstairs, at which point we ran into MORE Who costumers, including another_myself. Hilarity ensued. (eclecticmuse is the Amy on the left.)
This is a picture of all of us blocking the entrance to the High Velocity bar.
And this is us actually posing. (Me with the mop, eclecticmuse next to me, another_myself next to her.)
Friday got the main festivities kicked off, though the first Series 5-related panel, "Tennant vs Smith", didn't take place until... seven that night? In the meantime, have another picture.
(Gwen Cooper, eclecticmuse as Vampires Amy, wicked0witch as Space Florida Amy, our friend Patrick as the Raggedy Doctor, and me... wearing a Seventh Doctor jumper and Amy Pond hairstyle.)
There were rather a lot of people at the Tennant vs Smith panel, enough that a lot of us had to sit on the floor along the walls. I almost expected there to be some ugliness during the discussion (you know how fans can be), but it turned out to be fairly sedate. Mostly they debated the differences between the two eras. Eleven got universal love, even from people who didn't like him at first; Rory got universal love, also from people who didn't like him at first; Amy got close-to-universal love. (Two different people made fun of the way she yells "RORY!" which, I'm sorry, made me laugh.)
And then there was picture-taking of the costumed people at the panel. (LOOK AT THAT ELEVEN KNEELING NEXT TO eclecticmuse. Holy god his chin was PERFECT. "My" Doctor declared he was going back to costuming Three because he couldn't hope to match that perfection.)
Turning in early meant I missed some epic photo opportunities, such as this (WHICH IS THIS BEST PICTURE EVER):
And this (eclecticmuse, you h0r!):
Saturday morning: the Dragon*Con parade. Holy crap, the parade. The Fez Doctors came out in force. (Seriously, there were about ten zillion Fez Doctors at D*C. And if Flickr is to be believed, I didn't even see them all in person.) Andy, the Prydon group leader, informed us later that we were the second-largest group in the parade; we were beaten out by the 501st Legion by only five people. That is a serious accomplishment. (Next year: THE WORLD!)
Here's some parade fun on video, brought to you by our resident Tharil from the serial "Warrior's Gate".
Something you'll NEVER see in "Caves of Androzani": Five, Peri, and Sharaz Jek kick-dancing.
Then me, my Doctor, two more Amys and Matt Smith Doctor (i.e. the one with The Chin) steal the kick-dancing idea.
Peri (eclecticmuse) gets kidnapped. A lot.
The second time I fell down chasing the Master... (You can't hear it, but my Doctor yells "NOT AGAIN!")(Same incident, different angle.)
After the parade, it was EPIC DOCTOR WHO PHOTOSHOOT TIEMS. Series 5-relevant shots:
Amys! (Me as Vampires Amy, themegaloo next to me as Time of Angels Amy, wicked0witch with the apple and the handcuffs)
Everyone wearing a Series 5 costume:
I screamed when I saw this guy at the parade staging area:
Re-enacting Amy's Choice (WE COULDN'T NOT):
And then, re-enacting Flesh and Stone with the assistance of two very lovely Weeping Angels:
My Doctor and I get the epic pose shot we never took last year:
Wrong costume. I don't care.
Afterwards, wicked0witch had organized an Amy photoshoot which eclecticmuse and I accidentally derailed by failing to look on both sides of the tenth floor, but we still managed to get some awesome shots anyway. Like so:
Later that night was the Prydon group dinner, during which the amazing happened and one of the Elevens got up and danced with the restaurant belly dancer.
eclecticmuse and I had also decided to purposely play up the fact that we're twins by wearing the same costume, resulting in situations such as the following:
Also, we found some Romans.
On Sunday, basically the very first thing that happened to me was having this gentleman walk by:
Fez Eleven. Wearing a Boba Fett helmet. I actually shrieked "OH MY GOD!" in glee. And he wasn't even the only Star Wars/Doctor Who mashup we saw that day! We also ran into one of the Prydon group's Fourth Doctors in stormtrooper gear:
The apple I'm holding has a slightly weird story. On the corner outside the Hilton, I was tapped on the shoulder and turned to see this guy holding this apple with a smiley in it. Thinking he was just being all 'hay sup fellow fans', we went 'awwwww'. Then he said, "Take it!" So eclecticmuse took it, the guy beamed, and he and his friends went on their way. Inspecting the apple made it obvious that he hadn't only just cut the smiley into it (it was already starting to brown), so we thought, had he cut it and then gone around looking for an Amy to give it to? Yup, slightly weird. We ended up carrying it around as a prop for the rest of the day.
eclecticmuse and I met this Amy in line for the Weasley Twins panel.
And while at the food court, ran into eve11 and her friend as Calvierri girls (brb stealing those dresses):
The major Series 5-related panel for the day was "Mad Man In A Box", which was basically for all things Eleventh Doctor. Here's a video my mother shot of me asking the panelists a question, in which I learned that the fandom at large does NOT apparently pay as much attention to possible continuity errors as the people on Gallifrey Base. :D (I was sort of embarrassed.) Also, it gives you an idea of how BritTrack panels tend to operate. Please excuse my manly voice, and I think the guy said "Hello, Ponds" because eclecticmuse was also there in costume.
Afterwards, while observing the frankly hilarious karaoke taking place at the Hilton, I got this picture with a mini-Eleven who had also been in the parade:
On Monday eclecticmuse and I went back to the dealer room on the suggestion of a guy with Quantum Mechanix, Inc., the company who just got the rights to produce Doctor Who prop replicas--we ran into him while heading to our hotel room the day before and he suggested we check out the sonic screwdriver prototypes they had on display. Let me tell you guys: OH MY GOD. THESE PROTOTYPES. When those things get put on sale, people will be tripping over themselves to buy them. They had three different screwdrivers, two of each--the Fourth Doctor's, Ten's, and Eleven's. The guy at the booth let us handle and examine all of them, even though he said some jackass had broken one of the Eleven screwdrivers the day before by handling it too roughly.
Eleven's had a handle made of ivory and real leather, and the green diode was made of jade; it's roughly the same size as the toy (I got mine out to compare). It didn't yet have sound effects because the guy was still working out where to put the sound chip. It also didn't have an activator button on the leather strip--apparently the actual prop had originally only had an activator button on the base and was meant to be handled that way, but Matt didn't like it, so they added a second button to the main body and he used both. The guy asked our opinion on whether fans would want both buttons on the prototype and we said definitely.
He said that the estimated cost for Eleven's screwdriver (at least, I'm guessing the Four screwdriver would be cheaper due to a simpler design) plus a display base would be $250. Considering the quality of that prototype, I have to say that is damn cheap. And I am incredibly grateful to the guy at the booth for letting us examine it and asking our opinions on what fans would like to see from them. Watch QMX's website for more information.
Bonus photo: me with Frazer Hines, aka Jamie McCrimmon, one of the Second Doctor's companions. OH YEAH.
And I think that's it! I want to give a special shout-out to all the DE members I know for a fact I met (if you're not on this list, TELL ME!):
wicked0witch, another_myself, eve11, themegaloo, and melodious_me.
Warning: lots of photos and some YouTube beneath the cut!
eclecticmuse and I arrived on Thursday afternoon. The con doesn't officially start until Friday morning, but a lot of people like to turn up Thursday to get settled in and get their preregistration badges. The first thing we did upon getting all our stuff to our room was run back downstairs to meet up with wicked0witch, who was already in costume as Time of Angels Amy (though when other Amys started turning up, she went and changed to Faith from Buffy). And yes, while standing near the entrance to the Marriott, a lot of fellow Who costumers started appearing. First up was a trio consisting of Flesh and Stone River, Vincent and the Doctor Amy, and Fez Doctor. eclecticmuse and I got so excited, we ran back upstairs to change into costume too. And then the floodgates opened. Once downstairs again, we didn't move from our spot for something like three hours because other costumers and/or people that we knew kept coming in! They included:
- At least one more Time of Angels Amy;
- the Prydon costuming group's resident Sixth Doctor, a Tenth Doctor, and a Rose (who weren't in costume, but Ryan was basically dressed up as civilian David Tennant);
- Prydon's resident Eighth Doctor (in costume);
- a Fourth Doctor;
- a Tennant/Pertwee mashup (I thought he was doing Austin Powers until I saw the TARDIS key around his neck)
- a trio who costume as Sam Tyler, Annie Cartwright, and the Test Card Girl from Life on Mars (not in costume, so I didn't recognize them from last year--THE GUY LOOKS SO MUCH LIKE JOHN SIMM IT'S CREEPY)
Eventually some of us migrated upstairs, at which point we ran into MORE Who costumers, including another_myself. Hilarity ensued. (eclecticmuse is the Amy on the left.)
This is a picture of all of us blocking the entrance to the High Velocity bar.
And this is us actually posing. (Me with the mop, eclecticmuse next to me, another_myself next to her.)
Friday got the main festivities kicked off, though the first Series 5-related panel, "Tennant vs Smith", didn't take place until... seven that night? In the meantime, have another picture.
(Gwen Cooper, eclecticmuse as Vampires Amy, wicked0witch as Space Florida Amy, our friend Patrick as the Raggedy Doctor, and me... wearing a Seventh Doctor jumper and Amy Pond hairstyle.)
There were rather a lot of people at the Tennant vs Smith panel, enough that a lot of us had to sit on the floor along the walls. I almost expected there to be some ugliness during the discussion (you know how fans can be), but it turned out to be fairly sedate. Mostly they debated the differences between the two eras. Eleven got universal love, even from people who didn't like him at first; Rory got universal love, also from people who didn't like him at first; Amy got close-to-universal love. (Two different people made fun of the way she yells "RORY!" which, I'm sorry, made me laugh.)
And then there was picture-taking of the costumed people at the panel. (LOOK AT THAT ELEVEN KNEELING NEXT TO eclecticmuse. Holy god his chin was PERFECT. "My" Doctor declared he was going back to costuming Three because he couldn't hope to match that perfection.)
Turning in early meant I missed some epic photo opportunities, such as this (WHICH IS THIS BEST PICTURE EVER):
And this (eclecticmuse, you h0r!):
Saturday morning: the Dragon*Con parade. Holy crap, the parade. The Fez Doctors came out in force. (Seriously, there were about ten zillion Fez Doctors at D*C. And if Flickr is to be believed, I didn't even see them all in person.) Andy, the Prydon group leader, informed us later that we were the second-largest group in the parade; we were beaten out by the 501st Legion by only five people. That is a serious accomplishment. (Next year: THE WORLD!)
Here's some parade fun on video, brought to you by our resident Tharil from the serial "Warrior's Gate".
Something you'll NEVER see in "Caves of Androzani": Five, Peri, and Sharaz Jek kick-dancing.
Click to viewThen me, my Doctor, two more Amys and Matt Smith Doctor (i.e. the one with The Chin) steal the kick-dancing idea.
Peri (eclecticmuse) gets kidnapped. A lot.
The second time I fell down chasing the Master... (You can't hear it, but my Doctor yells "NOT AGAIN!")(Same incident, different angle.)
After the parade, it was EPIC DOCTOR WHO PHOTOSHOOT TIEMS. Series 5-relevant shots:
Amys! (Me as Vampires Amy, themegaloo next to me as Time of Angels Amy, wicked0witch with the apple and the handcuffs)
Everyone wearing a Series 5 costume:
I screamed when I saw this guy at the parade staging area:
Re-enacting Amy's Choice (WE COULDN'T NOT):
And then, re-enacting Flesh and Stone with the assistance of two very lovely Weeping Angels:
My Doctor and I get the epic pose shot we never took last year:
Wrong costume. I don't care.
Afterwards, wicked0witch had organized an Amy photoshoot which eclecticmuse and I accidentally derailed by failing to look on both sides of the tenth floor, but we still managed to get some awesome shots anyway. Like so:
Later that night was the Prydon group dinner, during which the amazing happened and one of the Elevens got up and danced with the restaurant belly dancer.
eclecticmuse and I had also decided to purposely play up the fact that we're twins by wearing the same costume, resulting in situations such as the following:
Also, we found some Romans.
On Sunday, basically the very first thing that happened to me was having this gentleman walk by:
Fez Eleven. Wearing a Boba Fett helmet. I actually shrieked "OH MY GOD!" in glee. And he wasn't even the only Star Wars/Doctor Who mashup we saw that day! We also ran into one of the Prydon group's Fourth Doctors in stormtrooper gear:
The apple I'm holding has a slightly weird story. On the corner outside the Hilton, I was tapped on the shoulder and turned to see this guy holding this apple with a smiley in it. Thinking he was just being all 'hay sup fellow fans', we went 'awwwww'. Then he said, "Take it!" So eclecticmuse took it, the guy beamed, and he and his friends went on their way. Inspecting the apple made it obvious that he hadn't only just cut the smiley into it (it was already starting to brown), so we thought, had he cut it and then gone around looking for an Amy to give it to? Yup, slightly weird. We ended up carrying it around as a prop for the rest of the day.
eclecticmuse and I met this Amy in line for the Weasley Twins panel.
And while at the food court, ran into eve11 and her friend as Calvierri girls (brb stealing those dresses):
The major Series 5-related panel for the day was "Mad Man In A Box", which was basically for all things Eleventh Doctor. Here's a video my mother shot of me asking the panelists a question, in which I learned that the fandom at large does NOT apparently pay as much attention to possible continuity errors as the people on Gallifrey Base. :D (I was sort of embarrassed.) Also, it gives you an idea of how BritTrack panels tend to operate. Please excuse my manly voice, and I think the guy said "Hello, Ponds" because eclecticmuse was also there in costume.
Afterwards, while observing the frankly hilarious karaoke taking place at the Hilton, I got this picture with a mini-Eleven who had also been in the parade:
On Monday eclecticmuse and I went back to the dealer room on the suggestion of a guy with Quantum Mechanix, Inc., the company who just got the rights to produce Doctor Who prop replicas--we ran into him while heading to our hotel room the day before and he suggested we check out the sonic screwdriver prototypes they had on display. Let me tell you guys: OH MY GOD. THESE PROTOTYPES. When those things get put on sale, people will be tripping over themselves to buy them. They had three different screwdrivers, two of each--the Fourth Doctor's, Ten's, and Eleven's. The guy at the booth let us handle and examine all of them, even though he said some jackass had broken one of the Eleven screwdrivers the day before by handling it too roughly.
Eleven's had a handle made of ivory and real leather, and the green diode was made of jade; it's roughly the same size as the toy (I got mine out to compare). It didn't yet have sound effects because the guy was still working out where to put the sound chip. It also didn't have an activator button on the leather strip--apparently the actual prop had originally only had an activator button on the base and was meant to be handled that way, but Matt didn't like it, so they added a second button to the main body and he used both. The guy asked our opinion on whether fans would want both buttons on the prototype and we said definitely.
He said that the estimated cost for Eleven's screwdriver (at least, I'm guessing the Four screwdriver would be cheaper due to a simpler design) plus a display base would be $250. Considering the quality of that prototype, I have to say that is damn cheap. And I am incredibly grateful to the guy at the booth for letting us examine it and asking our opinions on what fans would like to see from them. Watch QMX's website for more information.
Bonus photo: me with Frazer Hines, aka Jamie McCrimmon, one of the Second Doctor's companions. OH YEAH.
And I think that's it! I want to give a special shout-out to all the DE members I know for a fact I met (if you're not on this list, TELL ME!):
wicked0witch, another_myself, eve11, themegaloo, and melodious_me.