Happy Birthday, Doctor!

Today is the 51st anniversary of Doctor Who.

A year ago, I was at the ExCel Centre for the Fiftieth celebrations.

Not surprisingly, for an event with several thousand attendees, a certain amount of queuing was involved. Initially, we joined the other ‘Weeping Angels’ in a holding area. After a while we were allowed to proceed to the registration hall. En route we passed a number of cafés, but decided not to stop for breakfast until after we had registered. This proved to be something of a mistake, as although registration was swift – our tickets were scanned and we were handed our badges and lanyards, we were then held in a huge queue in the hall for half an hour.

 Once we got moving again we grabbed a drink and a pastry and made our way to the ‘Classic Lounge’ for a panel with Frazer Hines and Debbie Watling. The Classic Lounge area was at some distance from the main hall and exhibition area and felt like an old-style convention. Frazer and Debbie were good value, as ever. The recent recovery of tapes of Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear provided a talking point. Debbie Watling revealed her nervousness about the helicopter scene in Enemy of the World. She got Frazer to promise he would let her sit in the middle, but on the take he outran her, leaving her with the precarious outside seat. It was so cold on the location for the supposed Australian beach that Frazer’s knees turned blue. His then girlfriend, Susan George, who was visiting, had to massage them back to life (or at least that was his excuse).

Our next event was a Panel in the main auditorium. After queuing for a while, we finally took our seats for what proved to be a Panel with the surviving Doctors from the ‘classic’ series: Messrs Baker, Tom; Davison; Baker, Colin; McCoy and McGann. This Panel was hosted by Nicholas (‘Get lost Nick, you Bald Git’ – you see, I can’t stop myself) Briggs. There was also a sign language interpreter on stage, and the Doctors, having discovered the previous day that the sign for ‘Nicola Bryant’s cleavage’ (Peter Davison’s last sight before regeneration) was rather entertaining, took mischievous delight in mentioning it as often as possible. Unfortunately, this Panel, which had started late, ended at the scheduled time, leaving us feeling slightly short changed.

We remained in our seats for another Panel, this time with the current team: producer Marcus Wilson, Steven Moffat, Jenna Coleman and Matt Smith. Steven Moffat once again exhibited his talent for giving nothing whatsoever away, though he did joke about Matt leaving ‘to pursue a career in musical theatre.’ (Matt appeared in ‘American Psycho’ the musical.)

After a quick lunch (the organisers had made sure there were plenty of catering outlets, with one hall devoted to food stalls supplementing the ExCeL’s in-house facilities), we ventured into the main exhibition area. (We had avoided the area earlier, as Graham Norton was doing a live broadcast of his Saturday morning Radio Two Show. That man’s ability to gatecrash Doctor Who is remarkable.) Once inside the exhibition hall we found a costume and prop exhibition, which included both classic and new series, as well as The Sarah Jane Adventures and An Adventure in Time and Space. There was also an opportunity to play with a ring modulator in order to talk like a Dalek. My companion took the opportunity to recite a risqué limerick. There were also demonstrations of make-up and workshops on how to walk like a monster, as well as some smaller panels. I caught the end of one panel with Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton. The merchandising area offered anything you could possibly want, from books, audios and DVDs, to expensive limited edition sonic screwdriver sets and replica Doctor coats. 

Our next event was another Classic Lounge panel, this time with William Russell and Carole Ann Ford. This was interesting, but slightly marred by a problem with William Russell’s microphone. After that, there was a special effects demonstration with Danny Hargreaves in the main auditorium. However, as we had already seen a similar demonstration in Cardiff, I was persuaded instead to go to a screening of the final episode of The Three Doctors, with live commentary by Terrance Dicks. This was very entertaining, although the reminiscences in the commentary bore little relation to what was actually on the screen. After a final look round the exhibition, we left the event. It had been fascinating, though not quite as enjoyable as the previous year’s Cardiff event, which had had the added attraction of taking place in a Doctor Who location – the Millennium Centre - and had also provided the once in a lifetime opportunity to visit the TARDIS set at the Upper Boat studio and play with the console.

In the evening we returned to the ExCeL Centre for a live screening of Day of the Doctor. This naturally enough involved another long queue. In front of us in the queue was someone dressed as a Time Lord, and I was a bit worried that we would end up sitting behind him, but in the event we had a good view. The screening was introduced by a short panel, which included Dalek operators Barnaby Edwards and Nicholas Pegg. Most of the other ‘celebrity’ guests had decamped to the BFI -we had earlier passed Colin Baker on an escalator as he was leaving the event to go to the screening there. Nevertheless, The Day of the Doctor was the highlight of the day – a truly wonderful episode.

Queuing for the 'Day of the Doctor' screening

See you at the Sixtieth Anniversary!