What a wonderful weekend indeed! A Dr. Who convention came to the Twin Cities for the first time in 20 years in a new incarnation known as CONsole Room. In attendance were a host of authors and writers including Christopher Bahn, Dr. Arnold T. Blumberg, Graeme Burk, Lars Pearson, Robert Smith?, and Kathryn Sullivan. The guests of honor were the brilliant Sophie Aldred who played Ace opposite Sylvester McCoy’s seventh Doctor and the wonderful Deborah Watling who played Victoria Waterfield opposite Patrick Troughton’s second Doctor. Most importantly, however, was that over 500 people attended the event that promises to appear next year and hopefully for years to come.
CONsole Room happened at the Hilton in Bloomington right outside the MSP Airport. And while not an event the size of the recent Wizard World that happened a couple weeks ago at the Minneapolis Convention Center, I am so happy that I attended this wonderfully quaint little affair with hopes that CONsole Room will just continue to grow and grow and grow. At the same time, I adored the unassuming smallness of the convention, as it allowed for some more intimate and meaningful conversations with Aldred and Watling that was impossible to experience at Wizard World when all people wanted to ask Matt Smith to a crowd of hundreds was what his favorite football team was.
Even more so, though, everyone who attended were the warmest and kindest people ever, and they all knew that they were a part of something quite special. It was so nice to be surrounded by people who listened intently as Deborah Watling told us stories of how her favorite scene to film was when she saved the world from a certain furious seaweed monster from the deep by using her amplified screams, or how Sophie Aldred told us stories of how she became involved with Tree Fu Tom, a children’s show that aims to help children who live with dyspraxia improve their motor skills.
In addition to the guests of honor and the eclectic mix of writers, there were numerous panels throughout the weekend that discussed topics from the Sarah Jane Adventures, cosplay, the missing episodes of the 1960s, to the music of the show. I was honored to be on panels that discussed horror in Dr. Who, the various producers of the series, and how newcomers to the Whoniverse can possibly even begin to acquaint themselves with this massive realm. Everyone had a genuine interest in what we all talked about, be it what each producership brought to the series to what episode will probably most likely never be seen ever again (“The Feast of Steven,” sadly) due to the BBC’s shortsighted practice of erasing videotapes and destroying film prints of the early episodes.
We definitely were all geeks among geeks, and what a fine thing that is, to be sure! There aren’t many places where I can say a sentence like, “Philip Hinchliffe is, without a doubt, my favorite producer of the entire series, and he presided over the strongest three years the program ever had,” to a room full of people who, first of all, don’t flinch at such a sentence, but also genuinely wanted to know why I think that. And how fantastic it was that, while in the dealer’s room, I could purchase three volumes of About Time, an analytical anthology to Dr. Who’s long history on television, at a discounted price while also talking with the dealer about our favorite essays in the anthology.
So, CONsole Room 2014 has come and gone, and I can’t wait for CONsole Room 2015. (Is it really already going to be 2015? It feels like 1999 was just two years ago.) And if you attended this year and had a fabulous time (and I didn’t seen anyone there who didn’t look like they were having a fabulous time), spread the word. This was a convention bigger on the inside, and I look forward to the dimensions within to continue to grow.