TimeLash 2015
I attend[ed] the TimeLash , the first Doctor Who convention in Germany with AnnaTao and SchmuseJacke from the HGWAnime last [October] and I’d like to tell you a bit about it.
Funding the Fun
Some time last year three German fans (Simone Violka, Ralf Schmidt and Pascal Salzmann) with roots in Convention Management and the like, decided to try and start a Crowd Funding campaign to be able to organize the very first German Doctor Who Convention.
I read about it on Facebook, I believe, and talked about it with a friend from studying, but she didn’t want to participate, so I canned the plans. During one of the HGWAnime-meetings I casually asked Schmusi and Anna if they had heard about it and they didn’t. Well, it didn’t take long for the seed of curiosity to take root.
[...]
Dalek on the loose
As we arrived on Friday we had some time to find the Convention side before we went to get our groceries for the weekend. The Crew was busy with the last preparations and we took a sneak peek through the windows and already saw a Dalek, standing right in the middle of the room. The anticipation rose and we couldn’t wait for the Convention to start.
As the other Cosplay was planned for Sunday Schmusi and Anna decided to keep it relatively simple with a River Song (Anna) and Dalek (Schmusi) Cosplay, while I simply wore my Cyberman-Shirt. :D
Schmusi’s Cosplay earned a lot of looks and comments, especially the whisk and the plunger (Pümpel in German) she used as improvised weapons. Though we did have to take a de-tour as we realized half-way on the way to the Convention that our Dalek’s memory had a failure as we forgot the plunger. Though it kind of became a running gag, that I competed with the satnav in regards to our arrival time…I mean, we were right when it came to judging the time we needed to get from Greifswald to Kassel. WE anticipated all those traffic jams! >_<
Anyway, aside from weaponry, our Dalek had a very cool hat, that I ended up carrying around most of the time.
The Convention was split in five areas: Panel room, entrance, Signing/Props room, Photo-Session/Wardrobe and Merchandise room.
In the Merchandise room there were several tables from different retailers and one in particular by The Who Shop, the official merchandise shop from London and it was quite exciting when a woman (I believe she is called Alex) at their booth was utterly fascinated by said Dalek hat. :D Though we utterly failed to put it properly on for her and kind of completely wrecked it in the process and we had to duck-tape the different pieces back together – good thing I still had some of it left in my car or as we lovingly called it that weekend: The Tardis-Tortenschachtel (Cake Box).
Anyway, that day before we started exploring all the different areas we sat down to watch the opening ceremony that started with a little delay, but was quite interesting, as this way we managed to see all the guests up on stage. It was quite surreal, especially when we strolled through the Props part of the other area and there just beside/behind us was e.g. The Doctor (Paul McGann) or the voice of the Daleks, Cybermen and many others: Nicholas Briggs (Occasionally he and some of the guests even passed by, which was just as weird). Later we sat in the Panel of former Script Editors Terrence Dicks and Andrew Cartmel for a moment, but decided to leave, when we noticed that even though it was quite interesting to listen to all their stories, it was hard for us – especially Anna – to follow and understand Mr. Dicks, which was really quite unfortunate… :(
[...]
What we did manage to see completely that day was the Entertainment-Show by Toby Hadoke, which pretty much was my highlight of the whole weekend. He was easy to understand, a lot of fun and even if I don’t know all of the Classic Who stuff, his jokes were on point and absolutely hilarious. That show could have gone two more hours and I doubt anyone would have been bored. :D
[...]
The big Finish
Still half asleep I caused a minor uproar when I suddenly announced “Guys, it’s seven o’clock!” after taking a look at my phone. With a grumble Schmusi then reminded me of the clock change and told me that it was still six o’clock. So we kind of woke up before our alarm…oops…
Anyway, as this was the big day for my very first Cosplay and some things weren’t finished at Anna’s we got up early to prepare for the day and still somehow ended up arriving late. But still in time to hear some of Mr. Briggs Panel and it was really great. I even dared to ask a question, but ended up formulating it in the most difficult way possible, but he still answered the question I tried to ask. :D He just seems to be a really likeable person. Though all of the guests seemed likeable. Jason Heigh-Ellery from Big Finish even let us/me talk him into trying out a self-playing piano in the hallway upstairs, the day before, though it was unfortunately already turned off by then. :(
Big Finish by the way had a large booth as well, but as someone who gets easily bored by simply listening to something, I’m afraid non of their work – as amazing as it is – would help me to overcome the urge to do something entirely different while listening and then stop paying attention altogether, which is quite a pity. :(
Still, the writing process interests me quite a bit and [...] I sat down in the writers Panel with Nev Fountain, Terrance Dicks, Andrew Cartmel and Nicholas Briggs. It was quite interesting and far too short…
[...]
The last thing on our list, was the official ending round. [...]
So, a huge thank you for an amazing weekend!
Continue Reading: TimeLash 2015