A Whole Lot of Doctor Who Cons

I am a classic Doctor Who fan. I know that I’ve hidden it well, but it’s true. :)

For over a decade, I’ve been a regular at Doctor Who conventions in Chicago and Massachusetts. Towards the end of the Wilderness Years, I was fairly convinced that Doctor Who events would eventually come to an end; the fans were getting older, and interest was waning. I remember many conversations that I had with fans, pros, and con-runners where we all agreed that the end was near. Of course, most of us didn’t think that the show would ever return either.

The big three (Chicago TARDIS, Gallifrey One, and United Fan Con under a new name) still chug on after all of these years. Added to them is a new convention called Timegate. It’s a modest event in Atlanta that’s a Stargate/Doctor Who con. Gally had a similar modest beginning, so hopefully this is a con that will continue to grow.

There's also a new media convention venture called Jumpcon. It’s a “traveling” convention that is attempting to have a show every weekend in different parts of the country. The guests are booked in blocks of cities. So far, the prices are reasonable. Most of their guests are of the second-Klingon-on-the-right variety, but they also have some significant guests from Hercules, Babylon 5, Highlander and classic Doctor Who.

I’m not sure if this will work. Media cons have had a lot of trouble in the last decade staying out of bankruptcy. What makes it cool in the short term, however, is that the next twelve months will see the greatest number of Doctor Who related conventions in North America since the late 1980s. The real surprise is that none of these events have any new Doctor Who or Torchwood actor guests. I expect that to change.

In case you’re interested, here is the list. Please pass this around to your Doctor Who loving f-lists. The only way that these events will continue is if the fans show up. I’m just listing the Doctor Who related guests for each convention. If I missed one, plese let me know.

( Doctor Who Events )

Rough Day

It’s a rough morning around here. As most of you know, my grandmother Kitty’s health has been rapidly deteriorating over the last few weeks. Things got really bad yesterday. She developed pneumonia while at a residential rehabilitation center, and she was rushed back to the ER. She is currently in ICU as they battle to get her oxygen levels up. This is a bad combination with her congestive heart failure. My wonderful Uncle hughtaylor has flown back in to be with the family.

We’re all handling this badly. It's close-knit family unit, and my mom, uncle, and aunt have never experienced the loss of a parent. It’s pretty rough on them. I’m also very close to my grandmother and grandfather, so this isn’t exactly a day in the park for me.

In other new, my daughter had a cold-cough-vomit at 3 am. rarelylynne and I are exhausted. The girl is fine and lazing around watch cartoons. Lynne has to lead a workshop.

But hey, at least I got new Doctor Who DVDs. You take the good where you can find it.

ETA: It turns out that it's blood clots in the lungs and not pneumonia. My grandmother is also not responding to treatment.