The marathon continues! As promised in our first installment, please enjoy more photos from the first annual Indy PopCon convention. Same guidelines apply: we’re fans, not pros; corrections and comments welcome; hope they’re enjoyable.
Part Four: people and things related to the world of Doctor Who. After years of avoiding his corner of universe, my wife and I finally relented and began watching the show last winter. We’re now partway through season six and hoping that major events such as Indy PopCon stop sucking up our precious TV-watching time so that we might stand a chance of catching up with the rest of the world before season eight arrives in August. If Netflix would hurry up and add season seven to their roster, that’d be outstandingly helpful to us as well.
Anyway: what once flew over our heads and outside our camera range in previous cons is newly fascinating to us. We’re naturally obligated to commence here with the Ninth Doctor because he’s our “first Doctor”. It’s also the first time I’ve spotted anyone as him at a convention. Accompanying him in the costume contest was an adorable li’l Seventh Doctor.
Between them in the timeline is the Eighth Doctor, who also invites onlookers to his Facebook page. By his side are Captain Riker in dress uniform and a Mandalorian soldier working for Resident Evil‘s Umbrella Corporation. Look, if Disney won’t let them function correctly in the Star Wars Expanded Universe anymore, they gotta work somewhere.
The Tenth Doctor remembered to bring his psychic paper. Well, it’s either that or a card that says he’s the sole founder of Indy PopCon and consequently entitled to all access, privileges, and rights granted thereto. I’m looking straight at it but I can’t tell which it is.
The Eleventh Doctor naturally wore a fez because fezzes are cool. I’m not acquainted with his purple companion, but I’ll trust her if he does.
Among the contest participants were gender-bent Tenth and Eleventh Doctors. The latter eluded our cameras as the duo were prone to running and galavanting much like the real McCoy.
I meant “the real McCoy” colloquially above, of course. Neither of them is the real McCoy, which in this instance was special guest Sylvester McCoy, the Seventh Doctor himself.
We attended McCoy’s Saturday Q&A, about which we ought to tell you more in a future entry, and can verify that at least one fake Doctor met the real McCoy. His hour began with another pair of guests: the li’l Seventh Doctor seen above, and an equally undertall co-conspirator inhabiting McCoy’s most recent big-screen role, the loopy Radagast the Brown from The Hobbit trilogy. Mini-Seven even played the spoons, just like the real McCoy.
We’re told all the Doctor Who stuff at Indy PopCon, including McCoy’s appearance, was made possible by Who North America, billed as the largest US-based Doctor Who website of them all. MCC readers may recall them as our refuge of choice after the Indiana Comic Con crowd threatened to incite Indianapolis’ very first large-scale riot.
(Full disclosure: one of their employees was an acquaintance of ours years before we knew he worked there.)
(Also full disclosure: yes, we’re still bitter about the Indiana Comic Con. We have several months to get over it. It’ll be nice to see that time come around.)
Who North America had rooms set up outside the exhibit hall with other Doctor-related activities for the fans, including but limited to silly cardboard stand-ups that let you playact cheaply as your favorite characters. The other two companions in the first McCoy photo couldn’t resist the urge to goof around. Thus you get a somewhat unconvincing Amy Pond…
…and a rather more disturbing Weeping Angel.
The easiest Doctor to overlook at the con hid in plain sight on a large Lego table, teetering on the No Man’s Land between Lego Hoth and Lego Walking Dead prison. He seemed undecided which scenario could better use his assistance, and instead devoted his time to trying to prove that Lego fezzes are cool.
To be continued!
* * * * *
Links to the other installments in this very special Midlife Crisis Crossover event are enclosed below. Thanks for visiting!
* Part One: The Costume Contest Winners
* Part Two: the Big-Budget Blockbuster Costumes
* Part Three: Costumes from Comics
* Part Five: Gaming and Anime Costumes!
* Part Six: Last Call for Costumes
* Part Seven: the Sylvester McCoy Hour
* Part Eight: What We Did and Who We Met
