Chicago TARDIS 2007: Field Report!

[prof_pangaea]

Chicago TARDIS 2007
The Field Report!

this weekend was another reminder of why i really need to get a digital camera, if only so i could have taken a picture of nicholas briggs playing with a remote control dalek in the dealer's room. it was a beautiful sight, truly. especially when it wasn't working correctly and he tried shaking the control about with some amount of violence. but in the absence of .imgs i can impart .infos.

sos i shall!

actually, while nick briggs was playing (or attempting to play) with the dalek and getting it to shout EXTERMINATE! (it was rather noisy in the dealer's room) i asked him if he was playing with a toy of his own voice and he said,"No, these are from the movies. These are the daleks that I try to be as good as." one more reason that i need to see those, apart from peter cushing's moustache.

SO:

2007.11.23 (friday):


i took the el from mah friend's place to -- the blue line rosemont stop! after a bit of wandering figured out where i was going and headed into the hotel sometime after eleven am. after registering and stowing away extra layers i proceeded to look like a turtle wearing a tweed jacket, as the ridiculously large green backpack that i carried everywhere tends to suggest. yes, folks, it's bigger than my torso, but then again, i am a rather wee gentleman. meanwhile, everyone thought i was dressed up like whizkid from "the greatest show in the galaxy", when actually i am just really that much of a dork and dress like this all the time. caught the end of the tie-in books panel that lars pearson and christa dickson, who are lovely and wonderful. caught beginning of "history of chicago doctor who fandom", decided that was a bit dense even for me, and instead went to the dining area and extracted a bowl of soup from the voluminous backpack (it has many functions!), eated it and some other foodstuffs, and reflected on the fact that i was by myself in a commissary in a hotel at a doctor who convention and i didn't know a damn person there.

then thought, "oh my goodness, the 'my sarah jane' panel starts in three minutes!" this was a good panel, in that it was an hour of talking about how awesome and hott sarah jane is.

next panel (that i attended) was: "Robert Shearman and Nicholas Briggs". this was obviously made of absolute excellence. i ended up attending all of the shearman and briggs/big finish panels, because they were always incredibly entertaining and illuminating, and not at all because i ended up being a little bit gay for rob shearman.

opening ceremonies were fun, mainly from hearing the crowd roar at "timecrash". and yes, the beard line got quite a bit of approval, AS IT SHOULD, but mainly people were "wheeeeeee davison!!!" there was a shaky beginning to the $25,000 Pyramids of Mars quiz show, but it ended up being pretty fun, except for the part where my team (me and fizzixrat) didn't win because of the INCREDIBLY NAFF questions we got in the last round. the other team got questions like, "who is the actor who plays captain jack? who played rose tyler?" but yes, if you were there, i was the wee guy in the tweed jacket. elbow-patches!

then there were fan films! funtimes. after an hour and a half i bailed out with some peoples i had met (mad_march_hare and others!) sos we could attend the room party dedicated the to the third doctor, at which i presented this toast:

"This toast is dedicated to your amazing hair, and its ever increasing girth."

for some reason the "best toast" prize went to one that was quite beautiful and poetic while remaining whimsical and amusing. go figure. if only i'd had more time i'm sure i could have come up with something appropriate to do with the doctor stripping down to his t-shirt in "the silurians". that was a great scene.

but then it was about midnight and the party wound down and so i trudged back to the el station and spent quite a bit of time getting back downtown for the night. but it was very good.


2007.11.24 (saturday)


didn't make it back until about half eleven the next morning. i had this wonderful plan of getting up quite early so i could get in and watch the second doctor serial "the dominators" in the video room, but when the alarm went off at 7.30 a.m. my body reminded me of how i hadn't slept from tuesday into the thursday on account of working on thanksgiving, and that i'd only had a few hours each night since, and i said, "body, you're quite right. i will sleep more." and so i did. got in for the last bit of "the oncoming squee" panel after the "howe's transcendental toybox" panel was less than captivating to my non-collecting heart. mad_march_hare was there, dressed as the eighth doctor (quite good, too!), and i briefly met fyrdrakken and neadods. ended up sitting next to neadods for the second rob shearman and nick briggs panel, but we never ended up having an actual conversation. actually i didn't see her again and i know she left early the next morning. maybe next year, my dear!

anyway, rob shearman and nick briggs were just as excellent the second time round, and then they were joined by jason haigh-ellery for the big finish panel and it was a whirlwind of awesome. i started trying to come up with something i could get in the dealer's room that i could have all of them sign so as to have an excuse to chat with them during autographs. because i am lame. and i had brought a smidge of money so i ended up getting "the new audio adventures: the inside story" which only covers up to release 50: zagreus (isn't it so amazing that they're up to release 100! not counting all of the spin-offs and mini-series), but is a great read, especially the technical bits like the chapter on sound design:

"We hook up the studio DAT player via S/PDIF to the PowerMac G4, slave the sequencer clock to the incoming S/PDIF signal and take a digital copy of the DATs in real time. The DAT format allows for index markers to be inserted and the timings of these are noted as the DAT is recorded to hard disc. The recording engineer's script from the audio sessions is annotated with the DAT number -- sometimes there are quite a few tapes for a play -- and index points." (Gareth Jenkins)

then there's a section all about how they record to CD-R on WAV files. and by this point in time they are going almost straight into ProTools, so the DAT stuff is meaningless but i still should have had nick briggs sign the DAT tape that i still carry around in the side pocket of my backpack. (thanks to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Department of Sound!)

but anyway most of the book is NOT about stuff like that so it is safe to read. it's mainly got things like gary russell saying of anthony ainley: "Look, when we pointed out that the money he was asking for was more than twice what we paid the Doctors, his response was, 'I'm worth twice as much as them.' " or bits like, "He also pointed out that the story ended with the clubbers dancing -- and people dancing on a mashed up body could be seen as a little harsh."

what i'm saying is that it's a great book. i spent most of yesterday reading it. BUT ANYWHO.

i caught part of the torchwood panel because "the ethics of spoilers" did not capture my interest, but missed "we love the JNT 80's!", which i would have quite liked to have seen. saw part of the panel with eric and eliza roberts, but bailed on that about fifteen minutes in as well. they'd just got in from bulgaria after some horrendous storms and such, and were pretty tired (and possibly enjoying the solace of grain alcohol). i missed them them the next day as well (it wasn't really a high priority for me, obviously). but they seemed very gracious to the fans and all. anyway, mad_march_hare and her friend jackie and i went and watched the last half of "utopia" instead, which was obviously fantastic in a room full of fans. thanks guys for letting me grab your arms in excitement, because IT IS STILL SO EXCITING EVEN AFTER WATCHING DOZENS OF TIMES. there was a middle-aged gentleman on the other side of the room who kept clapping and rubbing his hands together in glee, which made me happy as well.

and apologies to mad_march_hare, calapine, and whoever else i may have punched in the arm out of vociferous excitement over the weekend. i'm afraid i did it a lot. thankfully i am a weakling, and thus did minimal damage to those involved. i think.

next! rob shearman's play "gobbledegook". it was put on by a group of young teens. it was quite good, and if it were put on by trained actors i think it would be excellent. "but i don't want to be barking!"

then lots of standing around waiting for the masquerade ball to start. talked to many people, which was quite fun. saw the sober version of a nice guy named brad, as opposed to the drunk one i had met the night before at the third doctor party. (they were actually fairly similar. both were amusing). some nice peoples from the SCA. fyrdrakken as well.

thankfully a wise soul recorded the best bit of the masquerade ball, which was the master singing an exciting and villainous rendition of "That's Entertainment", and then thoughtfully put it up on youTube. that master is in full "O HAI GUYZ" gear from "the five doctors", which is rather hard to see with the terrible quality of youTube, so be assured that his costume is great. look closely at the very beginning of the video and you shall see myself pop into the picture all the way to the right, adjusting my glasses. the dorktastic laughing as the master first appears is also me. that's jackie, sitting to my left, dressed like the tenth doctor (sorry i dun know your lj name!), but i'm the one with tennant hair.

then there was the first part of "the match game", the best part being rob shearman dancing to the match game music. and then i left so i could go to the "Alt.sexuality.doctor-whoniverse" panel, which was very interesting as well as hilarious. topics included: the doctor as an alternative to mainstream masculinity (i brought that up!); torchwood; why doctor who has so many gay fans; torchwood; torchwood; torchwood: it's a bit gay; and, the doctor and the master: they're a bit gay (for each other). that last one was me as well. there was lots of good discussion, which continued after the panel was over. also, lars pearson came to me and said:

Lars: "I've really enjoyed seeing you around this weekend, I've really enjoyed your costume -- you are in constume, right?"
prof_: "No, I actually dress this way."
Lars: "No, but you're really in costume."
prof_: [laughing] "No, I do actually dress this way. I'm quite nerdy."
Lars: "No, but you're really dressed like The Whizkid, right?"
prof_: [still laughing] "No."
Lars: *facepalm*

[/paraphrase!] he was super nice! i assured him it caused no offense, especially as i would have totally gone as whizkid if only i had any good bow-ties. all i have are regulars (or clip-ons, oh yes!). then there was hanging out and talking with various peoples, like fangrrrl_squees who had an amazing UNIT costume and also that night a super amazing gender-switch tennant costume. saw rob shearman talking to a number of ladies, hung out for a bit, realised own lameness, then went into a hotel room packed full of peoples watching various who videos, including That Famous One with mark gatiss:
"what about putting questions marks all over the lapels and pullovers?"
"won't that ruin the mystery of the character?"
"yes."
best part being rob shearman coming in during a wonderful lego vid, where the doctor has to buy some part for the TARDIS at a galactic shopping centre. when the doctor gets back his five space dollars or what have you he turns to his lego companion and brandishes the giant plastic coin, saying, "change, and just in the nick of time, too." at which point rob shearman waved his hands in front of his face and yelled, "and that's it! goodnight, everybody!"

ended up staying until 1.30 a.m., realised it was going to take forever to get back on the el, and finally forced myself to leave. but a very nice guy named paul saw me in the lobby and offered me a ride back to my friend's, which i accepted after realising it would probably take an hour and a half to get back otherwise. on the way back we had a conversation where i tried to convince him of how Martha Rules. sleep by 2.00 am (or so). ahhh.


2007.11.25 (sunday)


got in for the "liar's panel", in which it was revealed that the hiatus in 2008 is actually because david tennant is going to be pregnant. everyone agreed that we had already read that fic. also agreed: a sarah jane adventures/torchwood crossover where the sja kids have to rescue torchwood would definitely be the most believable crossover possible. it was much fun with complete ridiculousness. next was another "big finish" panel, which was definitely the bees knees, because at this point i had gone to so many of their panels i had lost all sense of shame and kept saying ridiculous things in response to nicholas briggs on stage. so we had a few exchanges such as:

(nick briggs has been talking about the next few releases from big finish, and can't remember what the hell else they are doing)
Nick Briggs: "What else is coming out? Can anyone remind me? Has anyone seen it on the website?"
prof_: "Can we remind you of your job?" [i found this idea very amusing]
Nick Briggs: *laughs*

(a conversation about continuity versus quality of story)
Nick Briggs: "So, yes, there should be a bit of both."
prof_: "Yes, there should be a little bit of quality."
Nick Briggs: *laughs and facepalms* "OK, you're too funny. Get out."

there is quite a lot of excellence from all those panels, but i'm going to put them into a separate post so as to give them proper prominence and also make with the thinks!

afterwards i went to the "gender differences in fandom participation" panel, but i found it rather disappointing as it flew away from the real topic rather early and never quite got back. i left but by the time i had done so "storybook hour" with rob shearman was already over. ;_______; instead i saw mad_march_hare before she left, we went into the dealer's room and talked about how the excellent BBV audio "punchline" really reminded us of rob shearman's work, before the BBV salesmen went over to rob and confirmed that is was. then there might have been a bit where we were talking about it and got really excited and started jumping up and down, but my masculinity will not let me confirm this rumour. this is also when i saw nick briggs playing the with dalek toy. it was good times.

ended up going to the panel about romantic relationships in doctor who, "is this relationship necessary?", because rob shearman was in it. i never said i wasn't shallow. actually it ended up being rather interesting, but i still enjoyed the parts where the other two presenters (one was taraljc, who did a HUGE amount of the alt panels at the show, and the other was another gal i never quite got introduced to, who was also involved in many of the panels) went into overdrive talking about their theories back and forth and then rob shearman was in between them holding his mike and every once in a while saying, "...Yes." he also had some really fascinating information that he imparted but i'll get to that in mah separate post.

then came "the state of doctor who 2007" where the guests all sat in a row and tried to come up with stuff to talk about that they hadn't already covered during the entire weekend. the roberts' were apparently busy (autographs?) but nick briggs wandered in around the end, not realising he was supposed to have been in for the whole panel. then brief closing ceremonies with another rewatch of "timecrash", and all the guests had to go and stand around the TARDIS and let people take loads of pictures of them. i thought, ah, the end of the con. ;____;

BUT. then i saw a lone figure in the seats, reading! on a hunch i came up and asked, "are you scottish?" and indeed she was! and so i met calapine, who i had missed for the entire weekend, and we ended up having a very good conversation about roger delgado, the master, how peter cushing is awesome, how roger delgado is awesome, how i need to see "the time monster", how martha is wonderful, and many other things. in fact we ended up talking for several hours, and then someone passed us by and said, "hey, free cookies in the green room", and so we went there and heyo! thar was nick briggs and rob shearman and a number of the fans who had helped put on the con. and i was being shy about wanting to go and talk to rob shearman, which is really strange, actually. i've never had any problem going up and talking to people like art spiegelman (he drew on my art box!) or gary panter or seth or the guerrilla girls or a number of other artists as well. (although i was super shy with chris ware, which i didn't expect). but, calapine solved this problem by walking over and standing next to him, so i followed and then we all had long fannish conversations about doctor who and such and it RULED. also at one point i challenged rob shearman to a fight to the death.

and then my friend nick, who i've been staying with, called and asked what was up and i realised it was about three hours after i had planned on being back for a night of hanging out and eating homemade pizza and i had to say goodbye to everyone and there were hugs (with rob shearman! ahem.) and promises to keep in touch and then i put on my extra layers and my hat and walked down to the el and called cesario to enthuse about the awesome until the train went underground and i lost the signal.

it was a good weekend.