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

[rusty-armour.livejournal.com]

ooooh you lucky girl.

Yes, I was extremely lucky! This was an opportunity I couldn't possibly miss! :-D

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 :)

Dan Starkey is not only awesome as Strax, but as Dan Starkey as well. *g* From what I can tell, he absolutely loves playing Strax. He was a Doctor Who fan before he got the part and actually asked his agent if he could get him a part on Doctor Who as a birthday present. Anywaaaaay, I could tell he was a fan when he decided to check out those Dalek models, and he seems like a genuinely nice and down-to-earth kind of fellow. He's also funny and smart and gives a great panel. :-D

And you got to see Graeme Harper one of my favourite Who directors.

I was sorry not to be there for his whole panel, but what I saw and heard was really good. It was really sweet towards the end because he had such nice things to say about Peter Davison. He said that Peter Davison is the kind of actor who really listens to his co-stars when he acts and is very much about teamwork and seeing that everyone shines. Of course, I also respect Graeme Harper as a director. He's probably one of my favourites too. :-)

Glad you got to see Peter Davison, he does seem marvellous :)

The Peter Davison panel was a joy, though I may be saying that because I've been a fan for sooooo long. Still, I think everyone in the room was thrilled to see him. He was really funny and engaging and really fed off the audience. And he seemed happy to answer most questions and even particular requests. Well...maybe not the one about reading Colin Baker's lines, but he did invite a fan to come up on stage to give him a hug. :-)