In addition to Mr. Baker, other guests included Colin Spaull (guest star on Revelations of the Dalkes and the Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel two-part story), Andrew Cartmel (script editor of the show during the Seventh Doctor era) Steve Gostelow (from the documentary 30 Years in the Tardis), Jody Lynn Nye (contributor to the Chick Dig Time Lords anthology) and Kelly Yates (comic artist on Doctor Who: The Forgotten).
Since I work the convention as staff, I don't necessarily get to everything that I would like to, but this year's Timegate was, to put it quite simply, a blast to attend.
On Friday, I arrived a bit earlier than usual and found that I had some time on my hands. I sat down and had a chat with other early arrivals, including one cosplayer who was still working on her Zoe costume, which turned out great by the way!
Later, I sat in on the Britcoms panel, which was quite fun as we focused in on Are You Being Served and Last of the Summer Wine, both of which are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. Granted, for those being technical, the pilot for Are You Being Served aired in 1972 but the full series didn't start until 1973. Still, it was quite a fun panel, and while there's no way to touch upon every Britcom that exists in an hour we did cover quite a few.
After this, I attended the Doctor Who in the 1960's panel. The panel itself was all right, but there just isn't quite enough time to cover the 1960's years in just an hour. The show changes so much during this time and the Troughton era is quite different from the Hartnell era, particularly the early part of the Hartnell era. As the convention grows, I'm hopeful that we'll be able to split off the Classic and New Series into two separate programming tracks, so we can go more into depth during the panels. In this case, it would have been great to have had separate Hartnell and Troughton panels. Perhaps in the future.
My Saturday started with the Iron Man 3 panel, which was quite fun and pretty well attended considering it was at 10am in the morning. I followed that up by visiting Colin Baker, Colin Spaull and Andrew Cartmel for their autograph session. All three were quite personable, I even talked a few minutes with Mr. Cartmel about the wonderful EC Comics from the 1950's.
I also sat in on latter half of the Hobbit panel, along with co-hosting or hosting the Downton Abbey and Copper/Ripper Street panels. The Copper/Ripper Street panel had a small turnout, but that was to be expected since was competing directly with Colin Baker's question and answer in the Main Programming room.
I also co-hosted the Top Gear panel later that day, which was great fun to do. Top Gear is such a fun show and it was great hanging out with fellow fans.
The highlight of Timegate is, in my own opinion, is the Saturday night charity cabaret. The cabaret features music, readings and comedy sketches. Colin Baker read a poem called "It's all Geek to Me", it featured two musical performances (by the Ken Spivey band and Louis Robinson) and a sketch by the group that made the Forgotten Doctor (a local fan made Doctor Who production). Other participants included Moxie Magnus and that of the emcee Professor Satyre. The charity cabaret raised well over $1000 for a local Atlanta food bank, which was the best that it's ever done!
On Sunday, I was able to attend the Remebrance of the Daleks live commentary by Andrew Cartmel, which was quite interesting and informative. I also was able to attend Colin Baker's Sunday's Q+A. Quite a bit of discussion of Colin's Big Finish audio work, of which he's quite proud. Perhaps after I've finished watching all the television stories, I'll need to focus in more on the audio plays.
I was also able to listen to the podcast that was done on Friday night with Colin Baker early on Sunday morning. There were members from several podcasts in attendance at Timegate and they all teamed up to do one big podcast with Colin. Members from Earth Station Who, Transmissions from Atlantis, Two Minute Time Lord, Cultoom Collective and the Articles of the Shadow Proclamation teamed up to provide a suprisingly informative podcast. Special props to Mike, from Earth Station Who, who was able to edit it and get it posted by Saturday. You can listen to this wonderful podcast right here:
http://erthstationone.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/earth-station-who-episode-40-colin-baker-live-from-timegate-2013/
The last major event that I was involved with was the Harry Potter trivia contest. I'd never hosted a trivia contest before, and I think I learned a few things to make it better for next year. Special thanks goes out to Jen for helping with the trivia contest.
Timegate is now over for another year. If you'd like to find out more about what you missed, you can visit the Timegate convention website at http://www.timegatecon.org/index.htm. I'm sure that it will be updated shortly with information regarding next year's event, which is already in the planning stages.
My next convention after the awesomeness that was Timegate will be in less than two weeks. I've got another Doctor Who convention that I can attend that's somewhat nearby: Con Kasterborous in Huntsville, Alabama. Con Kasterbourous' main guests this year are Caitlin Blackwood (Amelia Pond) and Kelly Yates (comic artist on Doctor Who: The Forgotten from IDW Comics). More information at their website here: http://conkasterborous.com/
I've met both Caitlin and Kelly before, but it will be nice to see them again. In addition, I just can't pass up the chance to hang out with fellow Whovians or a chance to indulge in my Doctor Who cosplaying addiction. While I can't make it on Saturday, I'll be attending on Sunday. I'm not sure what costume I'll be doing yet, but I'm looking forward to another wonderful time.
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