Liveblogging ChicagoTARDIS: Saturday (I Aten't Dead edition)

There's a certain irony that I paid the extra fee for a very nice assigned seat, which I have sat in exactly once this con. What panels I made yesterday, I was slumping in the back row for a quick escape.

Bits I should have put in earlier editions:

India Fisher was wearing an op-art 60s-style dress for opening ceremonies; K, a regular congoer, asked her if Colin Baker had given it to her. She claimed to be furious... but repeated the joke several times.

In the first Big Finish panel, Nick Briggs was talking about his gut reaction to spiders - "it's them or me" and how he wants to write a monster that kills humans not out of evil, but a simple gut disgust of them the way he reacts to spiders.

The only panel I was on on Saturday was ( Women of the RTD era. )

I slept through the Paul McGann movie panel, but hear from several sources that he barely remembers it and thus kept his answers to "yes," "no," and "maybe."

Naoko Mori also answered in mostly standard cliches - the actors were a family, John "is a very naughty boy," it was confusing to shoot two episodes at once. Eventually she told some new stories - that she was so ignorant of Doctor Who that she'd tried to look up the word TARDIS in the dictionary and then called her agent, who laughed so hard at her he put the phone down and she had to call back. "I will never work with John Barrowman again because I always end up dying in his arms." (Her other Barrowman quote was "Caring, fun, lovely and always takes his clothes off. It's amazing what you get used to.")

I didn't have the strength to stay through Chicks Dig Time Lords, but I did get to see that there was someone in the audience wearing the costume from the cover. jigglykat nearly died of delight.

I missed much of the second Big Finish panel because I'd been sleeping, ( but I did make it there. )

I wanted to get a McGann autograph, but when I got there, I didn't even have the strength to stand in line. I'll try again today.

The halftime of the Masquerade, while the judges are judging, is ( a Match Game )

And now, under the cut, 9 pictures from the halls and the masquerade. I didn't get shots of the Labcoat!Martha, Astrid, or the 10th Doctor faceoff (2 Doctors, one with Rose behind him, the other with Orangecoat!Martha and Donna). I do have shots of 10 and Martha; Donna, Jack, and the TARDIS; Reinette; Lady Steampunk (a random hall costume); and UNIT. I also got one shot of the several crowd-pleasing Rose and Martha catfights.

Masquerade awards went to Ten and Orangecoat!Martha, Dalek Woman, the female Five and Two from yesterday's photos and more. (I was, uh, unavailable during much of the awards.)

( Photos )

Liveblogging ChicagoTARDIS: Sunday

If I was following the original plan, I'd be on the road by now, but then, the original plan didn't call for me to poison myself half to death. (File under things I never needed to know: Dramamine makes you not throw up. It doesn't make you want to not throw up.)

*ahem*

I was on the Spoilers panel with spastasmagoria and Lars Pearson; three opinionated people means a rocking panel and indeed it rocked, especially for a Sunday morning when most people are dragging. Get a hot topic like spoilers, though, and nobody's dragging long...

Then I went to Rob Shearman reading one of his stories from Love Songs For The Shy and Cynical; the one about there being only so many love songs allowed in the world. It is cynical, and yet lovely and sad.

( Photo of Rob )

Then I was supposed to be at the "Fandumb" panel with spastasmagoria, but I bailed to see the Big Finish Paul McGann panel - Paul, India Fisher, Jason Haigh-Ellery, Nick Briggs, and surprise guest Jake McGann.

( Bad photo )

It started out so slowly that I was wondering if I could gracefully bail and go to where I belonged, but then it picked up.

Notes:
- Jake says he's seen more of the Dr. Who TV movie than his father has.

- India, being asked if she liked being chased by space monsters, said very dryly "How lucky I am that my job is also my hobby."

- BBC7 became interested in broadcasting in 2005 when the show came back; book readings had done well and edited versions of the first season of Eight/Charley were their highest-rated shows ever. So they went ahead with the Eight/Lucie series. BBC pays for part, but Big Finish can do them much more cheaply than BBC could in-house.

- On the meals - someone told them they had a drinking game and took a slug every time the Big Finish meals were mentioned. "He's ratted in five minutes" Nick said.

- At the end of every episode, Paul McGann starts singing the Dr. Who theme.

- Paul swears that the sequel to Lesbian Vampire Killers is "a movie about big gay werewolves" and he's in it.

- On talking to himself (when he's playing different characters in audio) Paul said, "It's kind of natural - you've got voices in your head all the time."

- Paul wants to play a companion. India says she'd love playing the Doctor. Jason and Nick looked thoughtful.

- What attracted Paul to working on Collision was the rest of the cast; he always checks out who his co-workers will be. On the result, he said "My mum liked it."

- At one point, India was vaguely describing a scene. Nick knew the exact title of the story.

- Paul tends to quote Withnail and I on set because all the other actors want to, so he's getting it out of the way.

- About the Eight wig: "I still see that wig in my nightmares."

- Jason wants to do "Companion Idol" and have companions voted off. Paul liked doing the audio with all the different companions.

- When asked their favorites:

JAKE: The one I was in. (Not referring to Immortal Beloved or "the one where I was punched in the nose" but the upcoming Earthly Child.)
PAUL: Shada and the Horror of Glam Rock
INDIA: It was Neverland, but Blue Forgotten Planet has passed it.
NICK: There are too many to choose
JASON: The Cannibalists


( The ChicagoTARDIS mascots )

There may be more - I'm going to one more panel and probably closing.


I'm getting by by the kindness of strange friends, who have given me half a bed and (far more importantly) a passenger/second driver home tomorrow. I keep thinking I might be strong enough to do it, but even if I'm strong enough to get in the car, would I be strong enough to get myself across 713 miles alone?

And now to check up on email & LJ for the first time in 2 days.

Liveblogging ChicagoTARDIS: Sunday pt 2

Since the last update, I got my copy of Invaders from Mars autographed by Paul McGann (I'd wanted to get an autograph yesterday, but I realized that I wasn't strong enough to even stand in line.)

After that, I scooted off to catch the end of the questions panel with Phil Collinson, Gary Russel, Rob Shearman, and Nick Briggs (although I frankly almost walked right out again, because I'd walked into the middle of a "Children of Earth was so brilliant" lovefest. (Interestingly in light of the "It's really really been picked up for another season, cross my heart" info coming from another convention, here Nick said that he said it was a pity that RTD was too busy to work on Torchwood again.)

They were also asked:
- If there would be multi-Doctor reunion show. After saying that they'd like to see it, they started saying which Doctor they'd play. (Phil would be Six.)
- There were shots of Skaro and the wars that made Davros come up with the daleks that were cut due to budget. "Someday someone will do it and it will be brilliant."
- Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways, when the Doctor comes in with a gun and blows away the cameras got turned into "the Doctor comes in with a gun and they look scared."
- Rob wanted more shots of bullets sparking off an impervious dalek but thought that the idea of bullets melting was much more interesting when they did it.

Thoughts on Blink:
- Nick went to see it at Moffat's house before it aired. ("I bet he stopped doing that now." "I'm sure.") His kids were hiding behind the couch, and to deal with the fear, Moffat's son Josh whispered all the really scary bits 2 seconds before they happened.
- Rob says he scares the kids by saying "If you don't shut up, Daddy will make you watch Blink again."

Nick thinks that people are attracted to atypical episodes, which explains Blink even though there was little Doctor in it, but now he can't write a season of atypical episodes.

Rob bitched that Moffat shows off his Hugos. PHIL: "He wears them around his neck." About the one he didn't win - Rob says that he knew in advance he didn't win. "I think he found it a little bit embarassing that he kept winning it... I think he wasn't concerned that Silence in the Library didn't win. I think he thought three was enough."

Nick says that the End of the World episode is one of his favorites.

Phil Collinson wants to executive produce the SJA if he gets the chance.

NICK: (on executive producing) It's not just about having to do the job, but it's also about leadership qualities; you have to be everyone's dad and everyone's headmaster. I would watch Julie and Russell hug everyone around the room."
GARY: She hugged a little too long.
PHIL: I was pleased when Julie left because I stole her house in Cardiff.

How was Human Nature chosen to be an episode and are any other NAs under consideration?
GARY: It was a no-brainer once I heard what the story was. It was beautiful and just perfect. Paul's so clever. Everyone involved in that relished in bringing it to the screen... it really showcases what [David] can do."
PHIL: I think he should do [David Richardson's book; I missed the title.]


The special presentation is Waters of Mars, which is nice enough, but I'm back here checking email again. So I'm out in the lobby with swallowedbysky and Tony Lee handing out Bella candies. (I've got a photo, shall I upload it?)