sf-lovers (08/05/82)
>From JPM@MIT-AI Thu Aug 5 06:08:04 1982
SF-LOVERS Digest Sunday, 1 Aug 1982 Volume 6 : Issue 30
Today's Topics:
SF Fandom - Comicon/Panopticon West,
Spoiler - Dr Who
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Date: 21-JUL-1982 13:59
From: TSC::COORS::VICKREY
Reply-to: "TSC::COORS::VICKREY c/o" <Young at DEC-Marlboro>
Subject: Convention Report - Comicon/Panopticon West, Chicago
DOCTOR WHO IS GOING PREPPIE!
or
Chicago: Steam Bath '82
I attended Comicon/Panopticon West in Chicago last weekend, and I
thought I'd report back on what happened. For those of you who don't
know (or care), Panopticon is the annual Dr Who convention in Great
Britain; Panopticon West is its North American counterpart.
The guests on the Dr Who side were John Nathan-Turner, (currently the
producer of Dr Who), Sarah Sutton (who plays the Doctor's companion
Nyssa), Anthony Ainley (who plays the Master), and Terry Nation
(inventor of the Daleks). The con had Dr Who videotapes, including
the 3 Peter Davison serials Castrovalva, Black Orchid, and Earthshock,
some classic Jon Pertwee serials, and a couple of Tom Baker's.
Since it was also a comic book convention, there were guests from the
comic book industry, but I didn't attend that part.
Some news from the question & answer session with the Dr Who guests:
World-Life (that's what it sounded like, anyway) has signed up 20
American markets to broadcast the first three Davison years; the first
year to start in January '83, the second in March or April '83, and
the third in March or April '84. They gave the Doctor (and us) a 20th
birthday cake to celebrate.
The twentieth anniversary special is still being worked on, but they
plan to bring back some old companions next year. So far the only one
confirmed is the Brigadier.
Will K-9 come back? Not on Dr Who. Possibly a spin-off.
Will the Doctor ever have a black companion? "Interesting that you
should ask that," Nathan-Turner said. "Stay tuned."
Was the Chameleon Circuit fixed in Logopolis? Stay tuned.
Will their be more Daleks? Stay tuned.
How come a certain villain in Earthshock (see spoiler for details) was
able to fire a weapon inside the TARDIS when it's been long
established that weapons do not fire inside the TARDIS? Stay tuned.
(Nathan-Turner wasn't saying much.)
The guests had two panels, and two autograph sessions. They also
judged the masquerade (Best of Show was a life-size working Dalek, who
got a standing ovation).
The only other Dr Who events were a trivia contest and a play (Doctor
Who and the Day and Night of the Terror of the Return for the Revenge
of the Master, or What Would Have Happened If The BBC Had Brought In
Freddy Frieberger To Produce Dr Who).
These were the highlights.
For the lowlights. Bear in mind that this is the OFFICIAL Dr Who
convention for the North American continent.
The hotel (the Americana-Congress) had air-conditioning. I know; I
found an air-conditioner, put my hand over the vent, and felt a
stirring of air strong enough to push something as heavy as a (very)
small feather. If you were further than 3 inches from an air-
conditioning vent, you steamed. Literally. The hall outside the
video room stayed at about 100 degrees far into the night.
Very early on a line of demarcation was set. On one side, the comic
book collectors, who have been coming to this convention for six years
and liked it the way it was. On the other side, the Dr Who fans, who
came to see Dr Who tapes, talk to the Dr Who guests, and buy Dr Who
merchandise.
The word floating around the con was that there were 700 3-day pre-
registrations (though somebody told me that an ad in Variety put the
number at 4000). If you didn't pre-register, you could buy one-day
passes at the door.
For some strange reason, most of the Dr Who fans attending wanted to
see the Davison serials! (Can you imagine? The con staff obviously
couldn't.) The con had one (!) video room, with 450 seats. The line
for the video room was loooong; the corridor for the video room was
short and narrow. The con staff decided they'd better do something.
So they decided to mark our tickets. Right. First it was as you went
in, and they would show all three Davisons and you would stay there;
then it was for each serial, and they would show the same serial
twice, clearing the room each time so the other batch could get in;
then they decided to number each mark so that when they hit 450 they
could say "Sorry, full up"; then (grrrrrrr) . . . . Anyway, with
persistence and a high tolerance for a gymnasium atmosphere you could
get in on Friday (during Black Orchid a pipe burst and poured water
down the back wall of the video room. Nobody moved.). Saturday,
however . . . .
Convention registration opened at 10; by 9 the line was already
stretching downstairs to the main entrance. By 11 they were
announcing on the PA that possession of a one-day ticket did not
guarantee you would get in to the video room to see the Dr Who tapes
or the big ballroom to see the Dr Who panel and masquerade. By 12
they closed registration for the day. The dealer's rooms swarmed with
less than gruntled Dr Who fans. (They couldn't even buy much as the
really neat stuff sold out Friday.) Every vending machine in the
hotel was emptied early (I think they were refilled once a day); ice
cost a quarter a bucket and most ice machines went quickly out of
order and stayed that way. The autograph session that afternoon was
in a room with only one door - the line going out had to struggle past
the line going in and the guests (they were terrific people) were in
there for an hour and a half, taking an involuntary sauna.
By Sunday I think the word got out - there did not seem to be so many
people. The video room was still SRO; by the last show, the con staff
had come up with the final policy - get your ticket numbered, then get
the hell off that floor and stay off until showtime or we'll take your
ticket away. (If this sounds ridiculously hostile, believe me, they
were.) The dealers began to pack; the air-conditioning made a minor
comeback and got the temperature down to 95; the guests did another
autograph session (marvelous people), the trivia contest took place,
and the comic book dealers began marking their stuff down to try to
move it.
Next Year - Columbus, Ohio. (Yes, the hallmark of a true fan is her
masochism.) I talked to the organizers for that one and was somewhat
encouraged. For one thing, the people who organized this con won't be
involved (hooray!). Next year they are promising: 1) working
air-conditioning; 2) free ice; 3) more than one video room; 4) limited
registration; 5) no comic books. What the hay.
------------------------------
Date: Wednesday, August 4, 1982 3:12PM
From: Jim McGrath (The Moderator) <JPM at MIT-AI>
Subject: SPOILER WARNING! SPOILER WARNING!
The last messages in this digest discuss some plot details in the TV
series Dr. Who. Some readers may not wish to read on.
------------------------------
Date: 21-JUL-1982 14:02
From: TSC::COORS::VICKREY
Reply-to: "TSC::COORS::VICKREY c/o" <Young at DEC-Marlboro>
Subject: Dr Who Spoiler
****SPOILER****SPOILER****SPOILER****SPOILER****SPOILER****SPOILER****
Be warned - this submission gives away details from the newest (19th)
season of Dr Who, as learned at Panopticon West.
The audience, having made it into the video room, was in a mood to
enjoy. We applauded: 1) the opening music; 2) the closing music; 3)
John Nathan-Turner's credit as producer; 4) the materialization of the
TARDIS; 5) the de-materialization of the TARDIS; 6) the appearance of
the Doctor; 7) the re-appearance of the Master; 8) the re-appearance
of the Cybermen; etc. The only negative reaction came in Castrovalva:
when the Doctor unraveled his scarf, there was a joint and heart-felt
"Oh nooooooo".
Castrovalva, the first serial of the new season, concerns the Doctor's
troubles with his newest regeneration. This is the third of the
trilogy of stories concerning the return of the Master (The Keeper of
Traken and Logopolis being the first two). The Doctor troubles with
this regeneration (enabling Peter Davison to give instantly
recognizable impressions of his four predecessors) force him to go to
Castrovalva for convalescence. The Master kidnaps Adric to make use
of his mathematical abilities to entrap the Doctor there. The Doctor,
who is also suffering memory loss, knows that one of his companions is
missing, but can't remember who it is. Castrovalva turns out to be a
lair of the Master, and escape is very difficult.
Sometime between Castrovalva and Black Orchid the Doctor loses his
sonic screwdriver.
Black Orchid, the fifth serial, is a nice, quiet little 2-parter that
just sorta sits there. It takes the form of the English-country-
house-party-whodunnit-and-what-is-that-thing-locked-up-in-the-attic-
anyway? The highlights of this one are the Doctor making a big score
at cricket, Tegan doing the Charleston, and the entire cast making a
grand entrance in a Rolls Silver Ghost.
Earthshock, the sixth serial, has already (and deservedly) become a
classic. This one involves the return of the Cybermen (and gives us
flashbacks to the three previous Doctors that the Cybermen dealt
with). A very interesting and understated detail in this one was the
total lack of gender discrimination among the Earthlings. The CO of
the troop of soldiers was a man, the no-nonsense sergeant was a woman,
and both the captain and exec of the freighter were also women. The
mix in both the troops and the crew of the freighter was very even.
The Cybermen attempt to invade the Earth (again) and come
frighteningly close this time, smuggling themselves in on a freighter.
When the Doctor foils that plan they turn the ship into a missile on a
collision course with Earth and force the Doctor to take them out in
the TARDIS, leaving Adric behind on the freighter. The Doctor, Tegan,
and Nyssa manage to overcome the Cybermen, but in the process the
Cybermen weapons damage the TARDIS (yes, weapons aren't supposed to
work inside the TARDIS; this is supposed to be explained in a later
show) and they are unable to go and pick up Adric. Adric works out
the code to deactivate the ship, but takes the freighter hopping back
through time in the process. A damaged Cyberman left behind destroys
the controls before Adric can key in the final deactivation sequence.
The freighter crashes into the Earth at the time of the dinosaurs with
Adric still aboard.
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End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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