Armageddon Melbourne 2011 22-23 of October.
Well what can I say? Armageddon was fantastic, it was held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre of the Banks of the Yarra River in Melbourne Australia, a wonderful venue, with ease of access by public transport and Car. Walking distance from my Accommodation at the YHA Central Hostel, literally straight across the river. Less than 1 minutes’ walk. And with Crown Casino right next door it was perfect for After Convention drinks. But more on that later, Lets get down to telling you about the Convention.
I don’t know what Conventions are like overseas, but in Australia we call them Pop Culture Expo’s, as they are a variety of fandoms, not just Television, but Anime, film, Video games, comics and cartoons. But all the regulars call them ‘Cons’ for short. As a member of the Doctor Who Club of Australia our Conventions are call just that, conventions, but we have a special name for them, which is ‘Whovention”, Clever huh? Anyway back to Melbourne.
So due to my contacts I got in early and for free (yipee) and helped ‘Bump’ in on Friday afternoon, even though I got caught up the Occupy Melbourne Protest’s in Swanton Street, I must admit that was fun. So even though I had been up since 4am drove over an hour to get my flights from Port Macquarie to Melbourne, caught 2 flights, and had drove from Armidale to Kempsey the day before I was full of energy. So after I helped the DWCA set up and caught up with my friends, I decided to explore Melbourne, If you’ve never been to this city before, please do, it’s easy to get around, public transport in the form of Trams, buses and trains are plentiful and the people are really friendly. Melbourne is the cultural centre of Australia, it reminds people a lot of Europe and the UK due to it’s architecture and weather. So pack an umbrella, cause in Melbourne it can be 4 seasons in one day, as I found out!
So on Saturday morning I got up 7.30am, even though I woke up at like 5am due to sheer excitement, and got ready for my day of Cosplaying. I went as a Femme 10th Doctor, complete with converses’, Sonic Screwdriver, Brown Suede long coat and Pinstripes. I wore my hair in Pigtales, as this worked better with my look, and went to meet my fellow convention buddy Martin from Canberra, he went as an excellent 8th Doctor, and walked across the bridge to Armageddon Together, Arm in Arm. It started to spinkle with rain and we went straight to the head of the already long line out to the street, (bonus) and entered.
Here’s a pic of me in my 10th Doctor Cosplay,
The layout for Armageddon was that their was a exhibitors hall, with a space put aside for Autographs and Photos, with a Main Stage upstairs for panels, shows and Cosplaying Comps, as well as a 2nd stage next to the Exhibitors hall for panels as well. There is a huge hallway outside the doors and the convention centre then backs onto the banks of the Yarra River.
So the first thing I did was to catch up with my old friend, Comic Book Artist Stewart McKenny from Brisbane, he was a guest and was selling his amazing Doctor Who prints, as well as his other prints that he’s done for DC Comics and his work on the Star Wars The Clone Wars comics. We had a great chat with him and his partner Wendy, Stewart is a massive Doctor Who fan and we let him jump into our photoshoots, due to his awesome artwork. So after that Martin and I ran over and lined up for Autograph tokens and I was one of the first people in line, thankgod I did, because of the layout, the line for Autograph tokens was nearly a 3 hour wait! I got a Autograph and Photo tokens for Louise Jamison (Leela, companion to the 4th Doctor) and was in fangirl heaven, we then went and walked around and looked at all the stalls before heading over to meet Mark and Morgan Sheppard, as well as I introduced myself to Louise on behalf of the DWCA as she was going to be in Sydney after Armageddon for a mini con night event for the club. Louise was lovely, very sweet and answered my questions about her time on the show, as their wasn’t very many people waiting to see her. She told me that the leather leotard that she wore was a bit tight in the crotch, Tom Baker was very difficult to work with, I quote “He just didn’t want me there. So he was horrible because he could be.” Louise was only in the show for 9 months. She said that she loved working on the Talon’s of Weing Chaiang, as it was such a well written story. And Underworld was great fun too. I said hello to Slyvester McCoy as well, I had already meet him in June at our Whovention event as he was our guest and took great fun in telling me to be quite, wanting to talk on the phone with my mum when she rang, and was taken back when I presented him with a crocheted plushie version of himself that I made for him. He was great, telling me that I didn’t make a wally of myself last time and he enjoyed himself immensely. I then started talking to Mark and Morgan Sheppard who were seated beside Louise, and Mark proceeded to tell me that he was booked to host the Doctor Who Symphony Spectacular in Feburary in Melbourne, but he only got the contract that morning. So I was getting the inside scoop, he also told me that Canton was one of the Doctor’s Friends, and that Canton must have more adventures with the Doctor due to him being invited to Lake Silencio for the Doctor’s Death. So I asked him if he was going back to Doctor Who and he said “Well of course, Canton has to have those adventures doesn’t he?” I asked him why did his dad play his older self, Mark told me, “When Steven (Moffat) told me about Canton and his older self turning up at the death of the Doctor and they wanted to pack heaps of makeup on me and make me look about 70, I said you don’t need to do that, I’ll just ask my dad to play my older self, as we had done that before as he asked me to be his younger self, so he owed me one.” Mark and Morgan were both lovely, they said that Matt Smith was just “Crazy” Arthur Darvill was, and I quote Morgan Sheppard “Amazing, such a talented actor, he’s better than Matt and will go a long way.” And that Alex Kingston is a real class act and so much fun, and Karen Gillian is a real sweetheart. They both loved working on Doctor Who and I even convince Morgan Sheppard to come for a Convention for the DWCA, scoring his email address, and he got mine! I was a very happy fangirl that day!
Next Martin and I went wandering and we met other Doctor Who cosplayers, Lot’s of Fourth Doctors, Tenth and Eleven’s, their was a Five, Six and my friend was Amy from The Beast Below Episode and also 2 full life sized Daleks and a Cyberman and my friend Kalinda was a Dalek girl! We even had a girl as a K9! We all went to check out the Delorian from Back to the Future, so all of us took turns having our picture taken in it, here’s a pic of me versus my friend Kalinda as the Dalek Girl, and some pics of us cosplaying with other people we met,
Here’s a pic of my friend Martin as 8 and Steve who we met on the day, he’s a great Four, with the Lego TARDIS we found!
And some Pics of Mark and Morgan Sheppard,
Next we kept wandering and found an 11 who made his own TARDIS, complete with lights, sounds and it kept moving every hour, so when we wanted to do a photoshoot we had to run around to find it, and sometimes we didn’t!
Here’s a pic of me with the TARDIS,
We had a short Photoshoot at 1pm then went to see Rob Llyod’s Show “Who me” which is his one man show about his obsession with Doctor Who, when he discovered when he was at University studying Drama and Teaching, He’s from a country town called Dubbo so I know full well how he felt being so isolated as a Whovian, as I live in Armidale myself, which is a country town. It was hilarious, insightful and well done, he put’s himself on trial to see weather Doctor Who improved or ruined his life. He realized that is helped him through some of the worst time’s in his life and helped him to meet his future wife. If you ever get to see this show, it’s a must as a Whovian, I found I learnt a lot about myself as a fan, as Rob hit’s the nail on the head when it comes to explaining this obsession that we have with this great show.
Here’s a pic of me and Rob,
And of our photoshoot on day 1,
We then went and watched the Kamehamana contest, this is imitation of the way they fight on Dragonball Z, It was hilarious and a lot of fun, a kid about 8 years old won it, against full grown adults, including Batman! They yell, scream and jump around. One of our Fours got in on the action, it was great. We then watched the Cosplay Parade and it was amazing watching all the great Cosplays. Doctor Who was featured, but more Star wars and Batman in this one as well as Anime, computer games and steampunk. There was a version of Mario and Luigi as princesses like Princess Peach, when they were asked why they dressed up as Mario and Luigi princesses, instead of Peach, they said and I quote, “Because they’re Sluts!” The whole place just went into hysterics. It was priceless.
Here’s a pic of the said princesses,
And of this monstrousity, each wing weighed 18 kilos each,
There was Daria, Kickgirl and Bumblebee on stilts, Check this out!
We then ended the day across the Road at the Casino, had drink with Stewart Mckenny and a night at the Burlesque, run by Gotham Fatale. Nerdy geeky burlesque is awesome!! They want me to do a Doctor Who Burlesque, I so want to be Tegan for that!!
Day 2 started early again and Martin and I went both as Capt Jack, My Femme Jack was very popular, I brought a replica Toy machine gun too on the day to complete the Cosplay as my Indiana Jones one was crap. It was hot and sunny and in 3 kilo WRAF Great Coat in 27 degree celicus heat with about 6 hours sleep and running on Adrenaline I was tuckered out by the end of the day, Martin and I found a Ten Femme Doctor and we went around Cosplaying again. Here’s some pics for you to check out
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My headband is made from RAF capt stripe ribbon and a button, it was very popular! And here’s my friend Wayne as Three!
And 2 Capt Jacks with my Femme 10 Doctor Friend Crystal hanging out with Hans Solo. The 501st Stormtrooper legion was at Amageddon and they are a awesome bunch of Coplayers and do so much for charity.
Next we have a great Cyberman and a Ood,
Next we have a some photos’ of our Massive Doctor Who Photoshoot with Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn and the Joker as well as Stewart McKenny!
After this shoot, which went for an hour, in the midday sun, we we’re all pretty hot and sweaty so we had a break for lunch, then went to the Slyvester McCoy panel, it was great! Slyvester even let me ask a question this time around as I was all hurt when he didn’t let me last time! We had a mini shoot with the Dalek that turned up. I asked Slyvester if he had seen the Pandorica Open’s speech on Youtube that was suppose to be him, it turns out it was! He did it at DragonCon this year and was annoyed that they put it on the net, the people that did it just shoved it in his face and asked to read it, he had no idea that it was Matt Smith’s speech, my friend Martin and I told him it was fantastic and better than Matt’s, he pretends that he can’t hear us and runs over with the mic and we yell into it, “yours is better!” Slyvester doesn’t stay still when he does panels, he walks around, darting here and there, Answering questions, making jokes and telling stories, he just loves it, If you’ve never been to his panels, go, even if you’ve never seen his episodes, he’s such good value, and loves the new Who too, he wants the 50th Anniversary to have as many past doctors and companions to come back in Cameo roles, like spot the Retro Who! He loves Matt Smith and is Jealous of David Tennant cracking onto Georgia Moffat, he’s know Georgia since she was a little girl and says that she’s a delightful person and has grown into a lovely young woman, and is happy that’s she’s happy. And he can’t speak about his work with Peter Jackson on The Hobbit, he kept shutting himself up by covering his mouth and mumbling behind it, to everyones laughter.
This is a pic of Slyvester with my friend Mim as Ace, he was so excited that their was a Ace and invited her up on the stage!
Next we went to the Louise Jamison Panel, it was lovely and she was very honest about her time on the show, Tom Baker was impossible to work with, refusing to follow scripts and being downright awful. She stood up to him once and wished she did it more often as he was nice to her the next day. Louise loves the Big Finish Gallifrey Series as this has allowed her to explore Leela more, as she wanted her character to be able to show her intelligence more, uneducated but intelligent, is how she described Leela and the Gallifrey Series shows that, she thinks it’s beautiful and loves doing it. She talked about her work on Doc Martin, she said that Martin Clunes was wonderful to work with and playing is wicked mother in law was a hoot! Louise loved working on Eastenders as well, but her treatment and subsequent contract termination was awful, she was treated like a number and it was shocking, though her ‘family’ on Eastenders she bonded with like her own, Running around the studio showing people her Character’s Daughter’s O levels with great excitement! Louise being a single mum with 2 Sons at home to support she could relate very well to her on screen character. Eastenders put her children through college. Louise also likes’ Slyvester’s idea about the 50th, but she wants Leela to return with a football team of Children behind her and meeting the Doctor again.
Louise at the Panel, looking lovely, her shoes were gorgeous!
We then continued to walk around and look at stuff, crammed in some more cosplaying watched the Trans Tasman Cosplay Cup final, it’s between Australia and New Zealand and this was to decide who was to go to New Zealand to represent Australia, They were a team of girls that did a Tron/Xena Warrior princess mashup that won. So their Xena cosplayer went. I met more people and I made so many friends that day and keep in contact with them through Facebook, What can I say? Armageddon was fantastic, a great convention with great guests and great cosplayers. We left about 7pm and went back to real life, if only Australia had as many conventions as the States, we could cosplay more often, not just every 6 or 12 months, but alas this Whovian will just have to keep saving so she can travel over to your side of the world dear reader and see what you do over there!
If your’re ever in Australia for a Convention, try and find me, I would love to meet you and chat, laugh and cosplay together. Thanks for reading guys.
Lisa Carroll AKA @Sunflashnurse on Twitter and Sunflashnurse on Livejournal as well as Sunflashnurse Creations on Facebook.