TimeGate 2011 – Day 1 (Friday)

Posted on Jun 15, 2011 in News | 2 comments

We arrived in Atlanta after an exhausting day of holiday weekend traffic. My father and I checked into the Holiday Inn and quickly made our way to our room. It was roughly 8pm and I was due to appear on my first panel at 11pm. Thank goodness, I had enough time to rest, wash up, and change. Re-invigorated by our brief respite, we then made our way down to the lobby around 9:30pm

At first, there was a mix up in registration over my name tag. Turns out there was a patron of TimeGate named Ken Spivey who found it absolutely hilarious that a “Ken Spivey Band” was appearing at the convention. This led to some interesting confusion at the registration desk until Alan came up and straightened the whole situation out. Now with my trusty TimeGate guest pass, I was ready for adventure. I mingled for a bit in the lobby until I found the vendor room. This was a near religious experience for me, for there was so much Doctor Who merchandise gathered together in one place. Truly, this was the day for which I had prepared for my entire life; a time when I, a lowly whovian, would be in the presence of a plethora of reasonably priced Who memorabilia.  Oh, and upon this day fortune favored the bold, for I immediately procured a rare Peter Davison action figure wearing the costume of Tom Baker. After coming down from my action figure induced high, I made my way to my first panel at 11pm.

“Vampire Themes in Doctor Who & Stargate” was my first time speaking, with fellow fan-experts, about the Last Son of Gallifrey. A fan posted a video of this panel, so I do know for a fact that other than introducing myself I did nothing but drink two glasses of water for the first five minutes of the panel. After my apparent thirst was finally quenched, I then added to the conversation with the two Viguie’s and Sacha Dzuba. Those who listened will have to fill in what I do not recall, for I was rather tired from the drive. I do recall, at one point, going on a tangent about the Yssgaroth, the ancient war between Rassilon and the Great Vampires, and the possibility that the Vampires could be viewed as the original Daleks. Debbie made many excellent references to The Curse of Fenric, Scott just wowed the room with his obscure Dr Who trivia, and Sacha made excellent use of his knowledge of “State of Decay.” After the panel was over, I quickly made my way back to my room and fell into a deep torpor which would make even the most ancient vampires envious.

 

This is the video of me drinking water…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6V8nicWHNo