Friday @ MediaWest

MediaWest is smaller and less bustling than usual - the economy is hitting it hard, I think, with people deciding at the nth hour that they can't afford to come. (Gas is $4.08 as of this morning. And I thought $3.15 was highway robbery last year.) However, what has come makes for a nice, relaxing but not boring con.

There is no white-hot ubiquitous fandom this year - Stargate SG-1/Atlantis has finally fallen from that perch, although it is hardly "over." To my amusement, what seems to be taking its place is Torchwood. Torchwood is hot, hot, hot, with lots of panels and some gorgeous artwork. (There's a Karen River Ianto in the art show that may be worth the rest of my con budget.)

Notable door decorations include the Torchwood hub (complete with stuffed pterodactyl hanging from the ceiling outside), something involving vines and fairies, a crossover between Daniel Jackson and Indiana Jones re: the crystal skull told in captioned pictures, Fandoku with actor's pictures, and my personal favorite, the one covered in black with the stark white caption "This is not the door you are looking for. Move along."

Having said several times that I wasn't sure the vid show was something I felt was still relevant to me in a world of YouTube, I went after the last Who panel and was glad I did. There were multifandom vids that I wouldn't have seen otherwise that were delightful. And this year's "song I discovered because of the vids" was a Doctor Who vid to Everlife's "Look Through My Eyes":
You'll see, Trust me
I'll be there watching over you

Just take a look through my eyes
There's a better place
somewhere out there
Just take a look through my eyes
Everything changes
You'll be amazed what you'll find
If you take a look through my eyes

There will be time on this journey
All you'll see is darkness
Out there somewhere daylight finds you
If you keep believing

It started as Rose-Nine, but on the lines "everything changes" either the Doctor or companion changed so that it encompassed Nine, Ten, Rose, Martha, and Donna. Fantastic!

Under the cut, descriptions of the four Who panels. Before the cut - a mention of just how sweet it is to introduce yourself as "I'm Nea... my first Doctor Who fanfic was published in 1981, and my first professional Who fic was published this month."

( Panel Descriptions: Big Finish, Is Anyone Interested in Classic Doctors, Theories on the Time War, Morality )

Today, panels on LJ, Ianto, and women in the Doctor Who franchise. I will also try to draft the "going to conventions without going broke" article (mtgat, look for a filtered post only you'll see) and generally take it easy, because that cough from last night? Not allergies. I've got that doom-laden feeling of wheels spinning in my chest when I breathe.

MediaWest, Saturday

Only one panel I was in - Strong Women in the Whoniverse, in which there was much squee for Rose, Donna, Martha, Harriet, Gwen, Sarah Jane, Maria, et al. (Not so much for Tosh, I'm afraid. I wasn't the only one who wasn't happy with her S2 arc.)

I also went to the two LJ panels (which explained the culture and the concept, mostly) and the Ianto panel ("More Than Just the Tea Boy"). There's not as much to talk about today - all y'all are already familiar with LJ fandom, and Ianto was basically a distillation of fanfic theories and discussion of when he fell in love with Jack vs Lisa (with a side note on whether he had trapped Myfanwy in the warehouse in the first place in order to use her to lure Jack into paying attention to him.)

I've hall crawled a couple of times and taken a look in the dealers room and art show. There's some nice art, but nothing that I MUST, on reflection, own, and the couple of things that I thought I'd come back and get if my books and DVDs sold had gone.

It's been a big relaxacon, which is good, as I'm starting to become sick. That, plus the general quietness of things has me thinking a blasphemous thought... that I will bail the last couple of panels tomorrow afternoon (the Barrowman squee one and the Doctor Who, general discussion one - Ghu knows that the attendees have heard everything I have to say about Doctor Who by now!) and leave the con tomorrow afternoon. I'll miss some things - jennetj's Barrowman room party, the hijinks in the art auction... but missing them in favor of less time on the road Memorial Day and no time off work Tuesday (meaning no compensating overtime to work when I'm feeling sickish) seems like a preferable use of my time.

I don't like being a sensible adult about this. And yet... that's what I'm going to be.