neadods | 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. Now, although the panel description was talking about how the female characters "failed" compared to Rose (I didn't write this, Rose fans) my argument was that all of the female characters of the RTD era, including several one-note comedy characters like Jackie, ended up as fully-developed, realistic women. They may have been underserved by the stories they were given, but they themselves were all interesting and well-rounded people. IMO, the only female character who was given a fate that I, as a woman, find creepy and "fail" as all hell is Rose herself, who went from self-determined to utterly focused on the Doctor, and whose advice from the Doctor went from "have a wonderful life" to "look after this clone of me" - essentially changing his orders from having a life of her own to devoting her life to a man.

There isn't enough "ew" I can type.

Alas, I had to bail halfway though; someone brought in a slice of pizza to eat - eating in panels is fairly common as there is no lunch break in the schedule. However, it's spaghetti that did me in, so it's going to be a long time before I can smell tomato sauce with oregano without running.

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 in time to make a plea that they keep the audio format. (Someone had asked on Friday if they'd consider going to video.) Nick Briggs pointed out that he'd done audios as a kid - wrote the script and did all the voices. "Nick, you're still doing that," Jason Haigh-Ellery pointed out.

They talked about how they're now working on scripts 6 months out because of new compliance rules after that shock jock aired obscene phone calls on the BBC. (When asked for spoilers, they said "The Doctor will land on a new planet." "The TARDIS will go out of control." There were also jokes about writing an all-cliche story: Cliche of the Daleks.)

Nick also said that he's known Gary Russell since '84 and thus there aren't long negotiations if there's something they can't do; he just gets a phone call saying, "Nick. No."

There were huge cheers for the idea of a Charley series, just as there had been big pressure to bring her back on Friday.

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, with con members vs a team of guests including Nick Briggs and Tony Lee. Tony was caught flatfooted when the entire audience yelled "How strange were they?" after the "They were so strange prompt" - but bounced up, grabbed the MC's microphone, and started working the crowd. "Okay, yell it again. No, this section, I'm not feeling it. Just you. Now just these 10 rows." He kept reducing it down until he pointed into the audience and said in tones of doom, "It's YOU!" Then he bounced back to the table, saying "Now I get this game!"

Orangecoat!Martha (ETA:

qchan) was one of the contestants, and was given "One of Gwen's [blank] is a camera." She said "breasts."

TONY: We all thought that, but we didn't write it.
NICK: I feel such a tit.

As Martha laughed she curled her hands up to her chest, prompting Tony to say "Now you're miming it... and ones of impossible size."

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.)

Lady Steampunk. She said she'd been asked to be in the Masquerade, but preferred to watch.