Creature of Mad Enthusiasms

I care too much about Jennifer and the con to vent anywhere with more traffic than LJ but OMG, one of my favorite parts of ChicagoTARDIS is the Thursday night elbow-rub with the guests and It. Was. A. DISASTER!

None of the regulars were there. No Big Finish. No Tony Lee. No "Winston Churchill. The only two stars attending were "Sgt Benton" and "Cap. Yeats" -- and I had to bail when John Levine (Benton) sat right next to a little girl, said "fuck" about 187 times in 10 minutes, insulted her father's pizza and covered it up ("I'm a vegetarian, that has meat, it's disgusting"), told miserable stories about death and hatred in his family and graphically described a murder and did I mention while sitting *right next* to a little girl?

Wow. The best part of the con, the part I pay a lot extra for, the part I leave Thanksgiving dinner for -- now a horrific miscarriage of time and money.

I'm clinging very hard to the memory of sitting next to Tony Lee and Terry Molloy talking shop at one of these gatherings two years ago, because I sure as hell don't want to think too much about this. I'm not even going to tag it with the con name so it won't hit in future searches.

ETA: Nick Briggs hugged me this morning and apologized for the Big Finish guys not being there. I feel a little better.

From the Freema panel, before I forget:

She hasn't had time to watch anything after Catherine Tate, but her brother is hot for Clara

There's a universality to filming - grips all look like grips, etc - but American days are much longer and American craft services much better. "You can ask for, I dunno, an egg white omelette with the tears of a clown."

She wants to play an X-man who can fly.

She's still talking about David farting.

She and Catherine Tate bonded over a mutual love of cereal. Billie Piper was handing out chocolate on the TARDIS set to everyone.

She took an online Which Companion Are You quiz and got Rose Tyler.

She wasn't thrilled with the unrequited love idea and was confused by the marriage to Mickey, but loved the idea of Martha hunting aliens.

She was sorry to not be on the Sarah Jane Adventures, but acting involves a lot of being at a crossroads and realizing that if you take one option, you shut out alternatives (I.e., she took a different job before SJA was mentioned as a possibility and couldn't fit it in.)

A woman told her through floods of tears how much it meant to see a companion of color on Who providing inspiration to women like herself.


ETA to fix autocorrect. In what universe does realizing become realism zing?

So, the promised wrapup post - which is basically a "Tony Lee is an amazing entertainer" post.

At the writing panel, he was talking about how he believes in starting with the second act climax, and then working out how the characters got there in a series of "Why? Because." statements. When he teaches writing, he uses the example "The Sheriff of Nottingham is about to hang Maid Marion. Robin Hood is hidden in the trees..." The next step is not "and Robin does X," it's "why is the Sheriff about to hang Maid Marion? Because..."

He says that the kids tend to come up with things like "she was shoplifting at Tescos." But by the time you figure out how the characters ended up at that scene, you know where they're going. In this case "Maid Marion is a terrible person, Robin Hood is about to shoot her in the face and run off with the Sheriff, who he loves."

Then the how NOT to write panel, he and Andrew Cartmel really cut loose, with the worst advice anyone can give. "Self publishing is best. Look at how many self-published books there are out there compared to published ones!" "Editors are there to cut out all your best bits." Also, "Editors live to be helpful. If you send them an email at 4:00, they will put down everything and read it right away, and if they haven't answered you right away, you're totally in your rights to email again at 4:30." "Better yet, call at 4:30!" "The more copyright notices, the more professional the manuscript looks." (Simon Brett said something similar at Malice Domestic, including the line "She even had the one about how 'The characters in this story bear no resemblance to anyone living or dead' and I thought 'how right you are, lady!'")

And my personal favorite: "With Siri you don't even have to write anymore! Get drunk, dictate the whole thing to her to write up - you don't need to check it, because of course it's perfect - and then say 'Email to editor.' Done!"

For the halftime, Tony did an audience participation street act that he used to do in London called "The Scarlet Blade." He brought up two of the Captains Jack to play the Scarlet Blade (playing conjoined twins, although the mousier of the two tended to hide behind the BlackLeather/BigGun!Jack), a Rory to play the plucky sidekick Bucky, Ballerina!dalek to play the kidnapped princess, and Jack the Ripper to play the evil baron, while the audience provided a whole series of sound effects.

Of course, after the princess was rescued, Tony pointed out that as an author he needed to throw in a twist. So he let the princess become an action heroine, then asked the audience to decide if:
1) The princess is rescued by (the) Jack(s) and goes off with them.
2) The villain kills (the) Jack(s) and Rory. (The villain pointed out that this would take a while, considering.)
3) The Master (we once again had a wonderful "Master" of Ceremony) runs off with (the) Jack(s). At which point the Master pranced across the stage and threw himself into Leather!Jack's arms and they posed there, arms around each other, each with a leg kicked up behind them, grinning madly.

Slowly, inevitably, Jack's hand started wandering south...

I'm not sure what the final decision was, or if there was one, over the roar of the audience's laughter. I think at one point Tony had to stretch it out for the judges, but honestly? Nobody minded!

Oh, and I got my CD signed! A friend with free autographs (due to membership level) got my copy of Live 34 signed for me. Yay!

And that was ChicagoTARDIS. I got the reserved membership for next year - while there wasn't often trouble finding seating, some of the events were very full, and next year's the anniversary. Also, it was announced that there won't be incremental membership price raises through next year - buy it before the end of the year, because otherwise, it's going to slam up to the highest level on January 1.

Also - on the way home, we had one of *those* Southwest flight attendants. "In a moment I'll be dimming the lights to enhance my appearance." And my favorite: "There is no smoking inside the aircraft. However, if you'd like to step outside on our deck, if you can light 'em, you can smoke 'em. Movies we're showing on the deck include Gone With the Wind, Bye Bye Birdie, and Lost."

( 3 photos under cut - tiny!4, femme5 dancing with the TARDIS, and the TARDIS suit. You can't see it, but even his shoes matched! )

A full report will have to wait until I get home; a virtual keyboard is simply not enough for a touch typist to keep up with the hilarity of Tony Lee doing a writing panel, a how not to write panel, and an audience participation halftime show that included Captain Jack copping a feel from The Master.

Tony Lee. Best. Guest. EVER!

The Orman moment, although delayed, did come at the Outside In panel. I bit my tongue when she went on (as she had at opening) about how so vey long she'd been part of fandom, ever so much longer than anyone out there. I almost bit through it when she said that "after all that Internet discussion" she loved and welcomed the voices of the new fans.

Okay, I've got my bitching out, and wow, "bitching" is an autocorrect option, who knew?

The masq ran at a good clip, in part because the talent show is now a separate thing. Best in Show was a fab Madame Vashtra and the Jack the Ripper she killed on stage. Best use of leather went to a very dashing Captain Jack in the black leather, white T and bigass gun ensemble. There were also Skaro O'Hara and a ballerina Dalek who went en pointe across the stage.

On Facebook I have a photo I'll share here when I get home of a knee-high Four marching up to a full-size active Dalek, saying "Hello Dalek!" and hugging it (while the external wrangler whispered frantically "Do NOT back up! DO NOT SWIVEL!"

My Stepson Stole My Sonic Screwdriver is an angrier show than Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf -- although funny, occasionally he hurt my ears shouting. And TBH, I don't find the "I love Doctor Who but OMG my kid goes on forever about Harry Potter, ugh" repeated joke very funny. Been in pan fandom too long.

(By the way? Thinking very seriously about the "Rory Williams: the boy who lived" T-shirt.)

Preregistration starts shortly; going to stand in line.

I'm glad I put a "dear TSA, I bring the wine to dinner" note in my bag, because they broke in and had a good look -- all the bottles were out of the protective wrapping and label up -- but they were all still *there.*

Had a great Thanksgiving meal.

Got registered this morning. After all that, La Orman is not listed on the race panel, although she does list her essay on the program.

Now the big dilemma is -- do I get my favorite BF audio signed by all the main actors? I could, but it'll cost me $40 for Sophie's and Sylvester's autographs. Which I have on something else. And the cd's only worth $25.

Only three panels today, and not much to share about the knitting circle or the con feedback panels. (Me: Get the Master back!) Apparently I missed a kickass panel yesterday when Matthew Waterhouse showed up for "The Perils of Male Companions."

So... I'll go on about the "Fifth Doctor Era QA" which was ostensibly about the Big Finish 5th Doctor range but was mostly about Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, and Matthew Waterhouse ragging on each other with Nick Briggs and Jason Haigh-Ellery getting the occasional word in edgewise.

It started without enough mikes for everyone on stage, so Peter gave his to Janet, then jumped down and sat in the first row. Then he popped up to the (then unoccupied) mike for audience questions and asked "What was your favorite story and what was the plot?" Janet: "That's an excellent question and someday I shall forgive you for it."

That was the last Big Finish question they actually got for about a quarter of an hour, as Jason and Nick occasionally mourned. (Janet's favorite bit of the new series - which she loves, because she feels 45 minutes gives you so much more time to develop character without rushing to the next cliffhanger in 20 minutes -- is Rose touching the dalek in Dalek. She mentioned that several times yesterday too, how powerfully emotional a scene that was.)

When they did get to talk Big Finish, they got to talk a bit about how they got into character without costumes or props (Peter: You just do it, really) and the perils of falling into Radio Acting with modulated voices instead of making the listener feel it. Nick, who records the rehearsals because sometimes he feels that's the best, least over-rehearsed take, said that Peter never read the scripts in advance. Peter said he'd never read the TV scripts in advance either, so his whole Doctor was based on never reading the script.

This evolved into a discussion of how Peter tends to overbook and be late, leading to people reading his part in readthrough. Matthew and Janet gave him crap about that. Janet: "I come back and he's working five jobs!" Peter: "I did that just for you." Janet: "We'd believe it if you weren't late all the time." Matthew: "Remember when he was late because of a gerbil in his kitchen?" Peter and Janet: "It was a mole!" Matthew: "It was a gerbil in my book."

This continued evolving until Janet *very* reluctantly said how good she thought Peter was as an actor, compared to the performances turned in by people playing Peter until he showed up.

Janet's favorite audio was The Cradle of the Snake; Peter didn't pick a favorite, although he mentioned Spare Parts many times. Matthew had been brought in to be a voice for the Dark Shadows series, and I have to admit, although my usual reaction to the Dark Shadows promos is "stop smoking the curtains" I went and picked up that audio in the dealer's room. (And a bunch of other things. This took me over budget, although not cripplingly so; I hope I don't end up regretting that.)

With barely two hours left of the official convention, I hope I finally get to see calapine! I haven't seen her all weekend!

Before I talk about the con, some random links of interest:

sadbhyl on twitter: "Sat, 02:36: RT @cabin_pressure: Made me laugh: The first rule of Thesaurus Club is, you don't talk about, mention, speak of, discuss or chat about Thesaurus Club..."

Benedict Cumberbatch describes his holiday in the Seychelles Swimsuit pictures, y'all!.

Okay! Friday at ChicagoTARDIS was more interesting than I'd expected it to be, considering. Hung a bit with nnwest and dark_aegis talking Sherlock fic in general (if Aegis is going to admit liking the latest werewolf fic, then it's not just me and I'll rec it with the next set of links) and the stuff we're doing for Pyramids Press in specific.

Kevin dragooned me for his NASA talk so that there would be at least one warm body in the audience. I found it really interesting, actually, with compare-to-reality discussions of what was expected of the Mars rovers vs what they've got, and the photos of what the Hubble can show vs what is hoped for the next telescope.

Robert Shearman's 1-on-1 is a not-to be missed experience, so I didn't miss it. (I would later get The Best book autograph from Rob; I don't know how to get it from Tubso to LJ, so it will be posted later.) Missed a lot of the Big Finish Q&A because I was on a search for lunch (which I ate in the back of the auditorium; it is hard to get lunch at this con). Intend to make up for lost time today at the "Not the Who" panels because I'm really more interested in their Holmes line and the announcement that they're going to start marketing The Scarifyers.

Went to the tumblr panel, but didn't come out feeling that I had a blueprint of how to start from scratch. (Also? Don't talk about how strange Sherlock fandom is with the jam jokes and the cat sweater meme and then talk about tumblrs called "Peter Davison's Toes" or "Peter Davison's Eyebrows." I'm just sayin'.)

Peter Davison's question and answer session was fun, but the most fun really was the final question, when a strong Australian accent asked "Who was your favorite companion?" "You leave me up here alone for an hour and you ask me who my favorite companion is?" he roared at Janet Fielding. "IT WAS SARAH SUTTON!"

TBH, I left the Nick Courtney tribute in 5 minutes, hinked out horribly by the giggly "I've been in fandom so long, I went to these cons and have these old interviews" self-congratulatory attitude of the presenters. It's supposed to be about mourning NIck, not praising your fandom cred!

But for me, the biggest thing was being able to talk to Dr. Paul Booth of DePaul University on his research study "trying to learn more about the role that the academic study of fans has had on fan practices." I marched up to his table in the dealer's room and said "I'm credited in Textual Poachers, I was there for Enterprising Women, I know about the transvestite-and-slash debacle, and we ARE going to talk!" We talked for half an hour and I want to go back and talk some more. Most of what I banged on about was the difference between descriptive studies (fans do x) and prescriptive ones (fans do x because they are y) and how the latter is incredibly offensive because it infantalizes us - we are self-aware and intelligent! - and is usually someone else's bias being imposed upon us. And I put in a bit about my "fandom is a gene" theory.

Today: The Making of the Doctor's Wife; Is Doctor Who Feminist; two Big Finish panels; Goodbye My Sarah Jane; Mark Sheppard's only talk; Masquerade, Mysterious Theater 337, and Paul Booth needs pepper spray to keep me from throwing more opinions at him.

Had a thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat with wonderful friends, then proved how much
I love 'em... by running off to hobnob at ChicagoTARDIS. Fortunately, they're all fannish, so I think they are still my friends.

I had a chance to say something to Gareth D-L because he was the first person I saw at the reception. Fortunately I also had the wisdom to realize I was startled and tired and would only say something stupid, so I passed by and caught up with Rob Shearman instead, because he is lovely and I only ever get to see him here. After a quick round of my other reception tradition (reminding calapine that she does actually know me), I sat in listening to Rob and Tony Lee teasing Tommy Knight. Tom is frustrated that he has no action figure - he wants to go into the store and buy himse- I mean, Luke Smith. He says if he does, he'll make it kiss a slitheen. (He also made it clear that he knows just WHAT some fans would do with it and a Clyde figure!). Rob and Tony told him he'd never get one until the character was written out, so they started making up death scenes and mutilated action figures ("It's poseable - you can move the arms for shock or agonizing pain.")

Today I made Toby Haydoke's whole year by skipping an autograph with Rob to get his, instead of the other way around. I'm mad at myself for forgetting my Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf cd and I'm too cheap to buy a second copy just for an autograph, so I had Toby sign the back of my con badge and I'll slip it into the case.

Gareth & Kai Owen panel in 10 minutes, so I'll swing by later. Please forgive typos, as am still adjusting badly to ipad onscreen keyboard. It is funny - last year everyone had different netbooks in the lobby. Now everyone has an ipad. Tony Lee was showing me some excellent apps.

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.

There wasn't much new that came out of Regeneration Blues (talking about favorite regenerations and learning to deal with regeneration), Days of Future Passed (thoughts on RTD), and Reporter of Bannerman Road (SJA); if you've been online, you've heard it all.

The Torchwood Babiez panel was rocking with absolute silliness, and y'all need to join me in sending waves of psychic energy to jigglykat to get her to draw that cartoon of 10 Doctor babiez standing around a crib with a bow-tied mini Matt Smith in it, because that would be beyond adorable!

I bought Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical and got it autographed... but I was talking to Rob while he signed with a sharpie; when I went to look at it later, it was unreadable because the ink had soaked in!

There are cosplayers: ( Five pictures under here. )

I didn't get a shot of the Charley cosplayer in the R101 jacket holding a Ramsey "vortisaur" doll (although I am sitting right next to her as she sews buttons on a coat.)

Interesting tidbits from Big Finish's panel:
- They are interested in spreading out from tie-ins, but sales of Phantom have been disappointing; the tie-ins have a built-in audience.
- There was a lot of pressure from the audience to bring Charlie back in some manner. India said she'd bribed us all.
- There were so many Sarah Jane-era monsters in the Eight/Lucie stories because Big Finish could use them and nobody else had reused them, and BF had already done daleks and cybermen.
- India was teasing Nick because he tried to read email *on the panel* under the guise of sending a help request for someone who couldn't get their download subscription to start on the right issue.

...augh, there was a lot more, but the shenanigans of the opening ceremony pushed it out of the mental buffer.

Opening ceremony: Nick Briggs was marched up the center aisle by the Dalek Woman. Later, he was talking about how he'd proposed to his girlfriend last year, and how maybe he'd propose to someone else -which is when Rob Shearman started waving at him. "And maybe have another baby," Nick said, ignoring him. Rob nodded and continued to wave.

Lee Jee Tso took a victory lap around the stage, accompanying himself with a boombox beat.

And Paul McGann made his first appearance, tied to Daphne Ashbrook with a 4th Doctor scarf.