Official Doctor Who Convention – Review, Part 3

(link to Part 2)

Sunday.

The morning dawned with appropriate level of grogginess following a rather late night, and plenty of the local stout having been consumed among new friends. But it was soon washed away with a shower, a pint of coffee and the general excitement of being there. Happily the weather was beautiful once again, so I went for a stroll around the waterfront before heading to the Millenium Centre. There were big queues in evidence as the crowd waited for 9am to roll around and the doors to open. Cleverly, the scanning of pre-booked tickets and the distribution of goody bags took place as the attendees stood in line, so that once the clock struck the hour it was very quick to get all 1,500 fans inside (would have been a nightmare if it was raining though). Given the success of my previous day’s ticket-less infiltration, I was comfortable that I could run through the organised events for the Ood stream without being too distracted by the other activities, so I was all set for a day of excellent conventioning (that’s probably not a real word, but it should be). Anyway, I headed straight to the queue for the “Creators & Directors” panel in the impressive Donald Gordon Theatre.

This panel focussed on the episode “The Girl Who Waited”, appropriately enough given that the Millenium Centre itself had featured in the episode. The session was hosted by Gary Russell and the guests (pictured above, from left to right) were Neill Gorton (Millenium FX), Robert Allsop (Designer), Marcus Wilson (Producer), and Tom MacRae (Writer). This was the kind of detailed analysis that fans adore, giving Tom the opportunity to describe the various stages that the script went through under guidance from Marcus and the team: Interestingly, Tom described television as a writer’s medium while film was a director’s one, illustrating this by saying that he viewed his script as a blueprint from which the show had to be built. Once this blueprint was out there, folk like Neill and Robert would start to plan their approaches. Good point of trivia is that Rob Allsop also worked on the classic series and is the man responsible for, of all things, The Kandyman. Legend.

From that session I went straight in to the 10:45am staging of Danny Hargreaves’ SFX demonstration. This is where the day was most like an episode of Doctor Who Confidential, with Danny being a familiar face to anyone who watched that show. We were treated to explosions, bullets, snow and smoke and were duly entertained by the Eternal Dalek and characterful Cyberman who were on hand to assist (as well as few members of the audience). I genuinely think that the adults enjoyed it as much as the kids. Afterwards and without a moment to lose, I then strode over to the other side of the Millenium Centre where this made my day….

Now there is a nice story about this picture. It obviously isn’t the “official” photo that was paid for (that is ready to mounted in a nice frame and hung somewhere that my wife won’t mind it being on display), however, it was taken by a girl in the queue behind me, who happened to see me later in the day and kindly offered to email it over. Splendid chaps, these Doctor Who fans, all of them. Once the photo with Matt had been taken I had over an hour to kill before the “Meet The Stars” panel was due to start, however, as I walked back in to the Reception area, I saw the queue was already building up. Having done all my “extras” the day before, I figured that I should join the line there and then in order to get seat closer to the front. Even though I wished I had bought some food and drink by this time, I had a pleasant time speaking with some other fans including a Finnish couple from Manchester and the aforementioned photographer. Time flew, we were whisked in and, before we knew it, we were ready to start with back-to-back panels (“Doctor Who Uncut” was due to follow thirty minutes after the “Meet The Stars” session and we were told that staying in seats might be much easier for all concerned). Meet the Stars was wonderful. I could bang on about it for hours but I won’t, instead you can have a list…

• Matt, Karen and Arthur leapt on to stage. Actual, physical leaping in celebration of Sport Relief. Steven and Caro did not.
• Matt showed that he hadn’t let his footballing past escape him as he successfully executed fifty keepie-uppies again for Sport Relief.
• Jason Mohammed (from BBC Wales and guest spots on the 2005 and 2007 Christmas Specials) was MC.
• The first half included chats on first memories of Doctor Who, some small amount of talk about the current production with one or two snippets of new news, clips of the three main actors’ best scenes by way of asking them about their roles, all the while the chemistry and fun and camaraderie of the stars was plain to see by all.
• Loved the turn of phrase about Rory given by Steven Moffat who said of the character, “I love the fact that when needs must, he can get his centurion on“
• I asked the first question in the Q&A (yay, me!), which was “What are we going to do without Doctor Who Confidential?” This prompted some applause from the audience before Caro answered that, once the tears had dried, they had decided to arm Matt, Karen and Arthur with Flip video cameras (most of the footage unsuitable for broadcast according to Arthur) and that lots of behind the scenes stuff was being worked on that would mainly make its way to the official website. Also, in what I think was an exclusive, that a musical number called ‘The Ballad of Amy and Rory’ was being planned as a celebration of Karen and Arthur’s time aboard the TARDIS and would be on YouTube in September-ish.
• Other questions included (from memory), “What time period is the Doctor’s watch set to?” (love the kid’s questions), “Which Hogwart’s House would the cast be in?” (All Slytherin, if you’re interested), “Why are Karen and Arthur really leaving?” (Been planned for a long time and absolutely by mutual consent), and “What old monster would you most like to bring back?” (brilliantly answered by Steven as follows “I would like to answer that question in the form of a television series returning to your screens later this year.“). If you were there please add extra details to the comments as it’s getting blurry already. Or better still, if you find a video on YouTube please let me know.

Then we got into Doctor Who Uncut. This was a bit similar to the earlier Creators and Directors panel, but came at it from a different angle and focussed on the process of making an episode rather than the script to screen routine. This was hosted by the extremely affable Barnaby Edwards and brought back to the stage Producer, Caro Skinner along with Michael Pickwoad, Julian Simpson, Stephan Perhsson, and Andy Pryor. The latter giving some insight in to the casting of Jemma-Louise Coleman while the others seemed to focus their discussions on the Gangers episodes, due to the trickery of making the monastry from no less than five separate locations in Wales, all giving good insight into the difficulty of production. Of course, the much publicised part of this panel was the world premier of Series Seven footage.

One of the most interesting questions in the Ood Sunday version of this panel was “Will there ever be a 3D episode?“, which brought about an emigmatic “Possibly.” from Caro. Expanding upon this, Stephan explained that the necessary cameras and their size, complexity and other challenges would require double the usual filming duration, not to mention the extra cost. After dipping their toe in the 3D water at the Doctor Who Experience, it would not surprise me if this crystalised in to something real at some point in the not-too-distant future, highly unlikely to be Series Seven though. This was the panel that, on the previous day, we heard the revelation that the Ponds’ last episode (number 5) was to be shot in New York and feature Weeping Angels. As soon as I heard this I jumped to the following conclusion… statues > New York > Staue of Liberty > clearly a Weeping Angel permanently quantum locked thanks to the fact that there is always at least one set of eyes on it. 2+2 = 5, perhaps, but what would you give to see the Statue of Liberty marauding through the streets of lower Manhatten getting all Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man on the residents?

Panels complete and the day nearly done, it was time for one more autograph and two more photos. I headed to the autograph and was slightly bemused to find that there was an option to purchase one autograph with each of the three main stars in the single time-slot and then get entered in to a fast-track queue. If I had known this I may have been tempted with the triumvirate of signatures, but as it was I just got Karen’s auto in my Brilliant Book (I had taken my copy of The Brilliant Book of Doctor Who 2012 in which to collect all my sigs. Eighteen in total after the weekend was done). However, I also added both Matt and Arthur’s photo to my collection after that and, with that, the weekend was over in a flash. Other people have been writing about the weekend and I include a select few of the links at the end of this blog, in case you want to hear what other people thought.

To be honest, I heard some disgruntlement in the early months since announcement about the steep prices, the lack of activities for younger fans and the overall poor communication that led to much confusion as to the why’s and wherefore’s on the con. However, even as someone who almost never attends conventions, I have to say that the price was completely value-for-money (assuming you have that kind of disposable income to shower on your favourite TV show), and the lack of younger fan activities made the whole thing feel like it was targeted towards a fan like me. A more child-friendly approach would probably have been to the detriment of the event. The early confusion, I have to confess, was a little disconcerting in terms of who you could book to see and when but these are mere ripples on the pond when you consider how much access there was and how much there to do and enjoy. I can honestly say, hand on heart, that this was the best Doctor Who experience that I have had since becoming a fan in 1978. And, just in case you want to see what other people are saying, here are a few reports….

BBC News Report and pictures

The wise words of Cameron at Blogtor Who

Wales Online

SFX Magazine

Toby Whitmore

 

Official Doctor Who Convention – Review, Part 2

(link to Part 1)

Saturday.

My ticket for the Official Doctor Who Convention was in the ‘Sunday Ood’ stream and the main events of the day, in my mind at least, were due to be the three panel discussions taking place in the main theatre. As a frankly magnificent extra, I had also booked on to TARDIS set tour scheduled for 5pm on Saturday. As I was making my plans for the convention, by comparing schedules of the various events (as listed in the previous blog entry) and the times that each of those events were running, it became apparent that I might not be able to fit in everything that I wanted. For example, at 10am on Sunday I could have been half way through the Ood stream’s “Creators & Directors” panel, in the first “SFX Studio” of the day, watching the Prosthetic Demonstration on the Glanfa Foyer stage, or queuing to meet Nick Briggs and Ian McNiece who were scheduled to be doing a signing. This is not to mention the games demonstration, the prop and costumes display, or the obligatory little shop. (“I do love a little shop”).

So, even though some of these events were repeated at various stages throughout the day, I needed a cunning plan. Was it as cunning as a fox who’s just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University? Not really but it worked amazingly well. I arrived in Cardiff in the warm sunshine at about noon, checked in to my hotel, dumped baggage in the room and headed down to the Millenium Centre to get the lie of the land and see what I could see. To be honest, there wasn’t much going on outside the building Doctor Who-wise, although the start/finish of the Sport Relief Mile was being set up that would add to the crowds on the following day. You could see the Ood and Silurian entrances, plenty of standees behind the windows and nice little snippets of dialogue printed on big yellow stickers that all went to inform casual passers-by that there was a Time Lord in town. Now this is where it took an unexpected turn, I wandered up to the chap manning one of the doors intending to ask him how things were going… and he waved me inside, with a cheery “There you go”.

Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I headed in to the foyer to almost immediately bumped in to Dalek-operator extraordinaire and gifted MC, Barnaby Edwards. Photograph, autograph and quick chat followed before I’d even had a chance to look around. Given that I had about four hours to kill between then and the scheduled coach departure for the tour, I decided to make the most of it. The Prosthetic Demonstrations were happening right there in the foyer, so I sat down to enjoy Neil Gorton, Ruari Mears and the team’s handiwork and even got the back of my hand smeared with blue silicon as part of proceedings. It had a Heamovore-ish look to it. No sooner had that ended then the Restoration Team of ‘Content Producer’, Steve Roberts and ‘Director of SVS Resources’, Peter Crocker took to the stage to talk about their work. Before you know it, I was watching a clip of Underwater Menace episode 2 that hasn’t been seen by too many people since 1967. Amazeballs, as they wouldn’t have said back then.

As I strode back down in to the reception area after the Lost Episode Talks had concluded, I noticed a queue for autographs. Peeking to the front, I spied Stephan Pehrsson and Michael Pickwoad, cinematographer and art director respectively: more chats, more autographs and more photos followed. And about an hour later (after trips to the shop and general mooching) I found myself queuing again and this time Raquel Cassidy, Mark Sheppard, Nick Briggs, Gary Russell and Simon Fisher Becker were waiting. Thinking the day could get no better, I figured nothing ventured nothing gained, so I asked a steward where the Props and Costumes display was, not only did I get to see it (a sort of cut down version on what was on show during the Doctor Who Experience) but I also met Stephen Nicholas (Supervising Art Director for the last 7 years) and Lindsay Bonaccorsi (Costume designer), who were just about the nicest people you could hope to meet and we happily talked for ages about their work.

As I was leaving the Props and Costumes display and reflecting on what had been an amazing few hours, I had a sudden thought that I still didn’t know whether Steven Moffat had arranged to do any kind of signing or personal appearance, so I found the nearest attendent to ask them. A quick word of praise here for all the yellow-shirted staff; they were, to a person, well-informed, polite and cheerful throughout and made the whole event all the better for their professionalism. Anyway, here’s how the conversation went

• Me: “Excuse me. Do you know whether Steven Moffat has arranged to appear?”
• Crew Member: “Yes, he’s just along the corridor and over to the right.”
• Me: “You mean he’s there now?” (Trying not to look incredulous)
• Crew Member: “Yep, let me show you”
• We walked over to the end of a very small queue of 3 or 4 people.
• Crew Member 1 to Crew Member 2: “One final person for the Steven Moffat signing, if you can squeeze him in”
• Crew Member 2 to Crew Member 1: “No problem”

I turned a corner into a room and then this happened….

That left me (a) speechless, (b) delighted, (c) with just enough time to get out to the collection point for the TARDIS tour. Speaking of which, that too was lovely highlight. There were 50 of us squeezed on to a coach and were treated to the first half of “The Doctor’s Wife” on the way to an inconspicuous looking industrial estate. On arrival, we were split in to two groups, one who went straight to the set and the other, going to the infamous (for Doctor Who Confidential viewers) Blue Box Cafe. After half an hour the groups swapped round before getting back on the bus for the second half of Idris’ finest hour and being dropped off in Roald Dahl Plas. That, of course, does not begin to describe how lovely and thrilling and generally wonderful the set visit turned out to be. Look (that’s me in the corner)…

Many more pics of the TARDIS can be seen on my Flickr here.

So, considering that wasn’t even my ‘proper’ day at the convention and considering that I haven’t even mentioned the fact that I had a great evening with some Who-loving Tweeters and ended up in a bar in the early hours of Sunday morning with Matt and Arthur (< fact), I’ll just have to return in Part 3 and tell you all about Sunday soon. Oh, and other folk have been writing about it too…. Guardian link. I’ll try and collate some links for you.

 

Official Doctor Who Convention – Review, Part 1

This past weekend on Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th March, BBC Worldwide, as you are more than likely aware, have hosted The Official Doctor Who Convention in the glorious sunshine that bathed Cardiff Bay’s Millenium Centre. Well, it was sunny outside at any rate. Inside, among the clean, modern, air-conditioned corridors, rooms and theatres, the convention goers couldn’t have cared less about the weather, something more important was happening: The first BBC-run “convention” since the heady days of Longleat in 1983 when it celebrated a now meagre sounding “Twenty Years of a Time Lord”.

Since Doctor Who blasted back on to our screens on this very day in 2005, a number of official events have been hosted alongside the plethora of unofficial gatherings. The Galactic Dinner in aid of Children in Need, musical concerts including a Prom, The Doctor Who Experience currently on hiatus during its relocation, and Doctor Who Live, which was a kind of Doctor Who pantomime have all entertained in there own ways but there is something intangibly different and possibly more exciting when you label something as a “Convention”. And when you go so far as adding an “Official” to the front, then perhaps it just stimulates the Fan Gene in a way other events don’t quite manage, but even I (as someone who studiously avoids conventions) was encouraged to purchase my ticket at the first possible opportunity back in November and set my expectations to “high” accordingly.

So first things first, since the announcement we have been drip-fed details about the content of the event and the whys and wherefores of how this thing would hang together. Some puzzling omissions and changes along with regular additions, even up to a few days before the doors opened, meant that planning your time, your travel and your bookings (and thus assessing value for money) was a little grey around the edges to say the least. In short, £99 would get you in for a day, with the events of Saturday being duplicated on the Sunday so that attendees only had to pick one. Tickets were limited to 1,500 per day and then each day’s attendees were further sub-divided into two streams, Silurian and Ood, allowing for two-interlocking series of events and avoiding over-subscribed crushes in the theatre panels.

On offer were the following…

• A handsome looking Tote bag on arrival (including souvenir tickets, DVD, lanyard, exclusive art cards, glossy brochure)
• A “Creators and Directors” discussion panel (focussing on one episode “The Girl Who Waited” with writer, producer and effects team)
• A “Meets The Stars” discussion panel (with Matt, Karen, Arthur, Steven Moffat and Caro Skinner)
• A “Doctor Who Uncut” discussion panel (discussing the end-to-end production process)
• A “Prosthetics Demonstration” (with Neil Gorton and team)
• A “Special Effects” demonstration (with Danny Hargreaves and team)
• Autograph opportunities with a selection of guest stars and behind-the-scenes crew (too numerous to list)
• A display of “Props and Costumes” from the series
• A talk about the work of the Restoration Team (with Steve Roberts)
• Playable demonstrations of the newest two DW video games (The Eternity Clock and Worlds in Time)
• A coach trip to Upper Boat Studios and the TARDIS set itself

All of these were included with the price of admission. In addition, there were add-ons in the form of guaranteed photograph and autograph opportunities with the three main stars of the show, Matt, Karen and Arthur, at £20-£25 a pop. Now, that is pretty expensive kind of money for many people to spend on something that could easily be considered frivolous but I think it turned out to provide genuinely good value.

My plan was to arrive on Saturday late-morning, have a mooch around the outside of the venue and try and figure out the lay of the land. I had my TARDIS tour booked for 5pm and a loose plan to meet up with some Twitter friends in the friends in the evening. And that is almost exactly what happened except for the mooching turned into something immensely more worthwhile. More about that when I return in Part 2 of the review very soon indeed.

In the meantime many many more pictures can be seen over on my Flickr page, where you’ll find 10 sets of pictures from the various parts of my weekend.

(Link to Part 2)

 

Doctor Who Convention – Anticipation

So, the brand spanking new and completely sold out Doctor Who Convention is almost upon us. The one-day event is taking place this weekend (24th and 25th March, with the same programme being run on each day) in the Millenium Center in Cardiff Bay, familiar to all Doctor Who and Torchwood fans. I will be heading down there tomorrow morning in plenty of time for my tour of the TARDIS studio set on Saturday afternoon, followed by a full day of convention activities on Sunday. Keep an eye on my Twitter (@fazzinchi) for updates and back here on the blog as we progress. I get the impression it’s going to be pretty special.

 

Doctor Who Experience – Photoblog and Review

On Saturday (19th Feb 2011), I had the opportunity to go along to one of the first days of the Doctor Who Experience at London’s Olympia venue for a good look around and, well, the experience. To get you in the mood of the event, I will shortly start with a little photoblog but not before apologising for the quality (or lack, thereof) of said photographs. My camera seems to handle outside shots with great aplomb but when inside and especially in gloomily lit environs, the lack of talent of the photographer kind of lets it down. Anyway, here is a brief bit of flavour for you.

The unassuming entrance…

The taking of photographs in the walkthrough sequence is strictly verbotten, so you didn’t get this from me, okay?….

Once the walkthrough was complete, we found ourselves in an area dedicated to the Doctor’s costumes….

There was also a chance to get a bit of green-screen action by being superimposed into a Doctor Who scene or to be sat within the Pandorica….

Then, in one of the highlights of the Experience (for the older fan, at any rate) was the beautifully recreated 5th/6th/7th Doctor’s TARDIS control room….

Then it was time for the monsters to take centre stage….

So, there you have it. That’s the look of the place, but what about the feel. (And yes, SPOILERS are included)

There are posters on the Underground and on the side of buses, reviews in the newspapers (including one that I read, which was a little less than complimentary in the Independent), and there are billboards on the side of the Olympia venue leaving visitors to the nation’s capital in no doubt that there is a new Doctor Who Exhibition in town. Following, Doctor Who Live and Doctor Who Prom in 2010, there seems to have been a more co-ordintaed and higher class feel about official DW events since the Moffat era began. I am unsure whether this a pure coincidence or not but fan activities, albeit a little too child friendly for my 40-year-old tastes, are definitely a cut above the average and those that describe the last six years of DW fandom as being “The Golden Age” are not far off the mark. On entry to the Olympia venue, ticket holders are directed down a small corridor to a lift where an attendant takes you down. Now, I’m not sure where I got this expectation from but I was expecting to enter a Doctor Who world from the moment the lift doors opened. Perhaps it was tales of my brother’s visit to the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas many moons ago, when the cafe area of the experience was decked out like Quark’s Bar and the “experience” was all consuming. However, in Olympia, there was a cafe with a standard cafe menu and a few Dalek stickers sprinkled liberally round the walls, a cloakroom area and a desk, where beleaguered looking attendants answered questions and dished out goody bags to the assembled masses. It was not the most awe-inspiring start.

However, once the “experience” bit began things picked up pretty quickly. Or should I say slowly, despite having a 3pm ticket and getting there well in advance, we still found ourselves queuing for another ten or fifteen minutes once inside. But then the doors opened and the two of us and all the other shoppers filed in to a small cinema style area where a “Best Bits” montage began to play. Murray Gold’s music along with plenty of Series Five action drew us in to the Doctor’s world and the crack in time and space that was a feature of the last series became very real as the genuine crack in the wall of the cinema split apart and allowed us into a small section of Starship UK’s museum. Some cleaver effects and scene setting followed before the TARDIS materialised and, via one of many specially shot Matt Smith sequences, the Doctor instructed us to enter and we found ourselves face-to-face with the new TARDIS console. In quick succession we found ourselves in a Dalek encounter, a forest of Weeping Angels and a genuinely impressive 3D movie for the conclusion that made me think that it might not be the last occurrence of this fashionable new medium we see in the world of Who.

The Exhibition was a delight. Having been to Brighton Pier, Earl’s Court and Land’s End versions in recent years, I was expecting much the same as before. And, truth be told, that is exactly what we got, although this time it was bigger and better. All eleven Doctor’s outfits were there along with a whole selection of modern companions. There was not just one but two TARDIS interiors (the 9th/10th Docs plus the lovingly recreated 5th/6th/7th as well). And then there were the monsters. Large sections with an array of Daleks, glass cabinets with a series of five cyber heads (reminding me of van Statten’s museum), Slitheen, Ood, gas-mask zombies, New Earth cat-people, as well as the classic series’ K1 robot, Ice Warrior, Zygon and all sorts. Just to add the final touches there were a few interactive areas showcasing the sounds of the series, the choreography, and the aforementioned photo opportunity. All in all, worth the price of entry alone.

The final part of the trip was the shop. I love a little shop (although I don’t think I’m the first person to say that). This one was a little disappointing as it didn’t have any exclusive stuff for sale, although I understand that is being rectified. The shelves were somewhat sparse, which makes me think that they had either been selling stuff in fairly high volumes or they had got their stock a bit wrong. As expected, there was not much in terms of bargains. As our visit was part of the opening weekend, we treated ourselves to a Premium ticket that entitled us to a goody bag each. Contained within were some nice mementos of a limited edition Cyberman print, a glossy brochure and an “I was one of the first to enter the Doctor Who Experience” lanyard and badge combination. All nice enough. In summary. Experience 10/10, Exhibition 9/10, Shop 3/10, Facilities 4/10. And given it’s the first two categories that matter, then it was a fantastic way for a Doctor Who fan to spend twenty quid and a couple of hours.