mae@aplvax.UUCP (06/20/84)
I just got back from Panopticon West '84, a wonderful Doctor Who convention. With only 11 hours sleep over the past 3 days and a 9 hour drive home I feel somewhat like I've reached the third stage of spectrox toxemia, but I wanted to pass on some news to those in this newsgroup that have been worried by the rumors about a change to the appearance of the TARDIS. Producer John Nathan-Turner said that a change from the police box shape had been considered but that fan outrage was so great the idea has been abandoned. ---- I wrote the above Monday, but a bolt of lightning intervened and crashed the system before I could post it. Feeling a little less numb today, I'll continue: Got to see the last three 21st season serials - "The Planet of Fire", introduced new companion Peri Brown, returned Turlough to his own planet, and once again defeated (and destroyed?) the Master. "The Caves of Androzani", a Phantom of the Opera type story that ends with the Doctor's fifth regeneration. also explained the celery (it turns purple in the presense of certain toxic substances, too bad it didn't detect the raw spectrox) "The Twin Dilemma", the first story with the 6th Doctor, once again having some trouble adapting to the regeneration. Liked Colin Baker a lot as the Doctor. Also saw - "The Arc of Infinity", in which Colin Baker played Commander Maxil of the Chancellory guard, and got to shoot the 5th Doctor. "Frontier in Space", a Pertwee serial not in syndication because 4 of the 6 episodes exist only in black and white. "Death to the Daleks", also with Pertwee. Two stories picked so far for the 22nd season are "Attack of the Cybermen" and "Vengeance on Veros". Both the art show and the costume call included some excellent entries. The art auction got a little too rich for my pocketbook, (I spent all my money on 'zines in the dealer's rooms) but there are some excellent artists out there who deserved every bit of the recognition they received. I did bid on charity items at the auction and got one of the autographed 'zines from the reading room. The con made quite a bit of money for this year's charity - the Special Olympics. There were always at least two things going on that I wanted to do, in addition to making time to do the Dealer's room and look through the art show. In summary - A very busy con and a great time was had by all. Next year's Time Festival con will be in New Orleans - see you there! Mary Anne Espenshade ...!seismo!umcp-cs!aplvax!mae