Chicago TARDIS 2012 Wrap-Up

This weekend was Chicago TARDIS, and this year was the best so far!  We went for the full weekend this year, and I am so glad that we did.  Friday was my birthday (also the anniversary of Doctor Who!) and I decided to leave work a half hour early so that I could get home, change, and get in the virtual queue for the Burn Gorman autograph session.  Burn was so nice to every single fan that he met.  He took the time to talk to everyone, and he seemed to genuinely enjoy himself.  He had a smile on his face the whole time, and when he talked, he put so much energy into everything he said.  There was a 10-year-old boy in front of me, and Burn didn't change his tone of voice, he just talked to the kid like he was an adult.  It was fantastic!  When I got up to him, I told him that Wuthering Heights is one of my favorite books, and that he nailed the part of Hindley in the 2009 Masterpiece Theatre movie.  He smiled wide and said, "oh, you saw that!"  He seemed so pleased, and he laughed and said, "I play a lot of asses!"  He asked how I was enjoying my day, and I said, "Well, today is my birthday, so I'm having a GREAT birthday!"  He wished me a happy birthday, commented that between Thanksgiving, my birthday, and Chicago TARDIS, I must have a lot of celebrating to do this weekend, and he also signed "Happy Birthday" on the photo.  I'm excited that now my "Torchwood boys" autograph collection is complete.

After that I had to run home and go to my in-laws' pre-Christmas party, so that was all I did on Friday.

However, on Saturday, we went to Chicago TARDIS for the noon "Cosplay Support Group" panel.  I was one of the panelists, as was a Captain Jack cosplayer that the Space Gypsies and I had seen at C2E2 singing "The Doctor and I" with John Barrowman.  I had my doubts about the panel, since it was about what to do when your character leaves the show and 99% of the characters have left the show.  I guess it went okay, though; there were a lot of discussions about various characters.

We went to a few panels, and then we came home for dinner and a costume change.  It's so crazy to me - it takes us less time to drive to Chicago TARDIS, park, and go in the building than it takes us to go from our room in the Atlanta Hilton to the Marriott!  After dinner, we headed back to the con for the Masquerade.  There were some great costumes, and while the judges were conferring, Tony Lee organized a last-minute performance he used to do as a street performer called The Scarlet Blade.  He selected people from the audience to play all the different roles - Captain Jack was the hero, a kid dressed as Rory was the sidekick, etc.  It was unbelievably funny, because the hero was supposed to get killed at one point, but since Jack can't die, he kept popping back up.  And the sidekick died a bunch, too, just like Rory.  Everyone was fantastic, and I think it was the most fun I've ever had at a con!

After the Masquerade, we hung around for Toby Hadoke's (HAY-doke) new show My Stepson Stole My Sonic Screwdriver.  It was funny and sometimes poignant, and I didn't even get all the jokes (some were about the classic series, some were about Britain).

Afterwards, we hung out at LobbyCon for a while as the Clockwork Droid and Captain John Hart and chatted with other cosplayers, including this fabulous Silurian who won the Masquerade!  I should have taken my mask off to take a closer look at her mask.  She looked pretty epic.

I always suspected Mary Poppins was a Time Lord.

On Sunday we dressed up in our Inspector Spacetime garb again, parked, and went down to the lobby.  The elevator doors opened upon Sylvester McCoy checking his smart phone.  That was pretty cool, even though we haven't seen any of the Seventh Doctor episodes yet.  Radagast!  We hit a few panels, then went to get autographs from Tony Lee and Toby Hadoke.  Tony loved our Inspector Spacetime costumes and snapped a photo; Toby chatted with us about Running Through Corridors, and how Rob Shearman spelled Matt's name wrong last year.  He drew us a classic series Cyberman in response to the Dalek that Rob had drawn.

And that was about it!  We had a great weekend!  Here are a few more photos from Chicago TARDIS 2012.

The 11th Inspector and Femme Hart

Scarecrow from Family of Blood

The 11th Inspector meets his biggest fan!

Female Clockwork!  We were in IS costume when we saw her, though.