Reversed Polarity!

[rusty_armour]

On Saturday, I had the privilege of attending Reversed Polarity, a Doctor Who 50th anniversary convention. I was interested as soon as I heard about it, but learning that Peter Davison (my favourite Doctor) would be attending was definitely the clincher -- not that I really needed one. As usual, I met up with lazigyrl and njc2007, who kindly allowed me to crash with her on Saturday night. And, as usual, we all had a blast.

After we grabbed breakfast and I registered, we went to this great writing workshop run by J.M. Frey called "World and Culture Building". Then, as the workshop ended early, we were able to go to "Building the TARDIS and Worshipping the Emperor," a panel run by Mark Townsend (the brains behind Dalek Dreadnaught) and Paul Aves. After a wonderful panel with Dan Starkey (Strax), lazigyrl and I checked out some of the models on display and did some shopping in the Marketplace. We then took a look at the Charity Auction Display and supported Gilda's Club by voting for our favourite Doctor Who villain. I voted for the Master (big surprise) and lazigyrl voted for the Daleks (my second choice). We caught the end of the Graeme Harper panel to make sure we got seats for everyone before the Peter Davison panel, which was awesome because it was Peter Davison. The poor man was asked some rather strange but humourous questions. These were two of my favourites:

What was it like having to stick your arm up all those cows in All Creatures Great and Small?

What's it like being related to David Tennant?

One of the funniest moments was when someone asked Peter Davison to read lines from a Colin Baker episode, which he did really well, if somewhat begrudgingly. As I said to lazigyrl afterwards, the panel made me love Peter Davison even more.

Following the Peter Davison panel was the Dalek Dating Game, which was as surreal and hilarious as you might expect. The highlight was njc2007 being picked to be one of the three bachelorettes/companions when the Tenth Doctor was a contestant. However, we all agreed that the whole thing was worth watching for the villain stage of the show. A kid dressed up as an Adipose said his method of killing the Doctor would be to tear off all his limbs and feed them to him. The next big laughs came during the Masquerade, which featured some fantastic contestants as well. At the Retro Dance Party, we were all thrilled when Dalek Dreadnaught rolled on to the dance floor, rocking and spinning and issuing powerful blasts of co2.

There are probably more details I should include, but I'm lazy and I have several pictures to share, pictures that are much more interesting than what I've just written.




Mark Townsend displaying a very hard-to-find TARDIS lamp




Another TARDIS lamp model




All that's left of Paul Aves' TARDIS. It fell apart after being exposed to
three Canadian winters. The next model is going to be kept under a carport.







Daleks...obviously




A "Victory of the Daleks" Dalek




lazigyrl with the same Dalek. Take note of lazigyrl's ingenious costume.
She marked her limbs the way Amy Pond did every time she spotted the Silence.







Dan Starkey checking out the Daleks




Lucky shot of Dan Starkey! lazigyrl and I were
extremely fortunate to be in the area when we were!

Watch on YouTube

During his panel, Dan Starkey said he was making up Sontaran Christmas carols
during the filming of the last Christmas special. In fact, one of the songs
he came up with was used in the episode. Anywaaaay, Dan Starkey mentioned
that there was a YouTube vid of his carols, so, naturally, I dug it up.




K-9!




The Silence and a Dalek




Ooops. Poor Dalek.




Weeping Angel




Cyberman




TARDIS console




Another TARDIS console













Some close ups of TARDIS consoles because it's the TARDIS and I can




Some TARDIS console poetry




Graeme Harper, a Doctor Who director




Peter Davison!




More Peter Davison!




The TARDIS




HUGE Emperor Dalek




njc2007 (in her brilliant TARDIS costume) beside the Emperor Dalek




Dalek Dating Game set




Dalek Dating Game in progress




Dating Game contestants




Masquerade with "Bad Wolf" version of the TARDIS




Dance off competition between Davros and the Doctors




Wonderful costumes inspired by "Victory of the Daleks". Apparently,
human Daleks made it beyond Manhattan and into WWII Britain. Who knew?




The Brain of Morbius




Nyssa and the Fifth Doctor




Doctor Who calendar that was impossible to resist




I probably could have resisted this keychain, but I didn't want to




Reversed Polarity shirt that I accidentally ordered along with my con membership

Comments

[radiogaga80.livejournal.com]

Ah... so that's what you were up to last weekend! :D
I find it pretty hilarious that a TARDIS can withstand burning planets, acid beaches, Dalek attacks and pretty much everything else but not 3 Canadian winters.*g*
And how wonderful to have met your favorite Doctor in the flesh - you must have been in geek heaven! :)
Thank you for sharing your story and those wonderful photos!

[fengirl88.livejournal.com]

Yay!!! So glad you had a great time. Wonderful pics too.

[grassle.livejournal.com]

Looks F A B fab! What brill pics! That dance off looks so hilarious! My Doctors were Jon Pertwee (what do you think of the petition for his son, Sean, to be a Doctor?!) and Tom Baker, but woah, Peter! I found him so sexy! Your post made me reread the fic where Jim turns Speedy's into a Dr Who-themed night spot and Lestrade has to start working there "wearing a long brown wig, a chunky tribal necklace and a ripped faux leather loincloth dress and had a knife strapped to his thigh. Yes, he was Leela, savage companion to the 4th Doctor Who."



(BTW, meant to tell you I got talking to someone recently who was writing a thesis on Kipling and Ideas of Empire and who LOVED Stalky and Co, so natch I directed her to your fic! She'd never heard of fanfic or erm, slash fiction or anything (v. academic person) so I imagine she'll be thrilled! So if you get a new reader wanting to ref you in her work, saying an American lady (I'm not but was posing as one for my company - it's complicated -) running a sort of matching service in a booth (it's not what it sounds like) sent you, that'll be me.)

Big hugs.
g

[pyrateanny.livejournal.com]

Hey, Rusty!

Wow, it sounds like you had a fabulous time at the convention! The costumes and the props are very impressive. I think I like the TARDIS console made of cardboard and duct tape best, because it's so ingenious and so surprisingly authentic looking, even though it's constructed out of simple everyday items. And how exciting that you got to see your favourite Doctor, Peter Davidson!

[lazigyrl.livejournal.com]

The Daleks beat the Master when they scrapped past him in a last minute surge of votes. :)

On Sunday, Peter, when asked what he weirdest request from a fan at a convention was, may have referred back to the day before and something about doing a certain sixth's doctor's speech.

[njc2007.livejournal.com]

It was fun...and having you join us made it even more fun. Peter Davison is still sexy as hell.

Did you notice "creepy Santa" in the group shot? He's the farthest away from me. I can laugh about him now, but he was creepy.

[karen9.livejournal.com]

You do such fun things! The photos are great - so clear - and what you wrote is interesting. I like all the shiny Daleks, the Tardis and the Tardis Consoles. njc2007's costume is amazing! I like the keychain and the calendar.

It looks like you had a good time. It's great that you got to see your favourite Doctor.

[funkyinfishnet.livejournal.com]

ooooh you lucky girl. Yay Dan Starkey, he is so awesome as Strax. He's clearly having a ball playing that part and seems like a delight to boot :) And you got to see Graeme Harper one of my favourite Who directors. Glad you got to see Peter Davison, he does seem marvellous :)

[jackycomelately.livejournal.com]

It looks like you had a blast!

Oooooo.... writing workshop, world building, that sounds fascinating.

"What was it like having to stick your arm up all those cows in All Creatures Great and Small?"

Seriously? Hee! How in the world did he answer?

Well, really, not much could survive three Canadian winters. There was a reason roads were brutally bad back home.

Love njc2007's costume! Brilliant and it looks very comfy which is a damn hard combination to achieve!

The Dalek Dating Game sounds hilarious (although somewhat dangerous). "You are not acceptable. Terminate!"