The All Asked For Who

April 14, 2011 10:25 AM

I'd like to welcome you all lords and ladies, gentlemen, ladies, time-ladies, time-lords, aliens and those of you in the cheap seats to a documentary produced and aired by WYES-TV New Orleans in 1986, focusing on Panopticon, the first US Doctor Who convention. (1, 2, 3) (MLYT, in authentic multi-copy VHS fuzz-o-vision!)

Bonus: A Life in the Day: Tom Baker

posted by fearfulsymmetry (17 comments total)

Bring back Adrick!
posted by Artw at 10:36 AM on April 14, 2011

At least spell it right, you Trekkie!
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 10:39 AM on April 14, 2011 [2 favorites]

/gurgles and falls over like a cyberman rubbed with gold.
posted by Artw at 10:47 AM on April 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by honest knave at 10:56 AM on April 14, 2011

I confess, I never expected to see WYES on the Blue. And I certainly didn't expect it to be a Doctor Who post.
posted by brundlefly at 10:58 AM on April 14, 2011

Whoever told them to use clips from The Talons of Weng Chiang as examples of the show knows their shit. Bravo.
posted by koeselitz at 11:29 AM on April 14, 2011

Wow, I remember that run of Dr. Who conventions with Colin Baker. I think it was the Red Lion Inn in Sacramento and it was kind of a coup for the Sacramento public tv station to get it there. Wasnt *quite* the nerd fest you see there, but pretty close. I certainly wasnt the only fanboy with a 12' long scarf there. I think I was more hoping to find a Nicola Bryant look-a-like than see Colin Baker, but I recall him being very polite and kind of funny.
posted by elendil71 at 11:40 AM on April 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

The thing about being a children’s hero is that you grow up with them. Every time they see me, they’re catapulted back to a time when they were young and happy and they could run upstairs. Everywhere I go people smile at me and it puts me in good spirits. I am very grateful to have once been a children’s hero. Mind you… I have to admit that I am a bit of a sh**ged-out old hero these days.

And this is a large part of why I love Tom Baker: not just for understanding how important his role as a children's hero was, but for being honest enough to say that last bit.
posted by immlass at 11:42 AM on April 14, 2011 [4 favorites]

This is awesome!
posted by magstheaxe at 12:00 PM on April 14, 2011

wait, 1986? New Orleans?

then what convention was it that i went to in the early 80s in Boston, MA where i got to shake Tom Baker's hand and he said i looked like a "sharp lad"?
posted by jammy at 12:35 PM on April 14, 2011

I can't watch the documentary till later, but I was pretty close friends with one of the people who put on Panopticon. He went everywhere in a meticulously assembled Tom Baker as The Doctor outfit, and could easily pass for Baker from a few paces.
posted by localroger at 12:57 PM on April 14, 2011

Also, props for the title which nobody who isn't from New Orleans is going to get :-)
posted by localroger at 12:58 PM on April 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

The Daleks asked, the Cybermen asked, and the Master asked me too!
posted by asperity at 1:14 PM on April 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

localroger: "Also, props for the title which nobody who isn't from New Orleans is going to get :-"

Ha! I didn't even notice the title!
posted by brundlefly at 1:22 PM on April 14, 2011

I've not got my fingers crossed that the next series of Treme will feature a Who convention...

Well stranger things have happened
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:29 PM on April 14, 2011

I finally got around to watching it, and the documentary brings back a lot of memories. My friend Patrick doesn't appear in it but I knew several of the people who do appear on-camera back in the day.

Toward the end of the second YT vid there is a scene of fans getting tossed in the hotel pool. This is a thing that went on as kind of a running gag throughout the whole convention. One of my favorite memories, not just of Panopticon but ever, is of my wife arranging to get herself tossed in the pool. The pool tossing was a very civilized thing, with permission being asked before the tossing occurred, and it went something like this:

Wife: "Y'all are gonna toss me in the pool, aren't you?"

(long pause to allow for running away)

"Well only if you don't run away."

(long interval as wife hands me her purse and jewelry and anything else that might get lost or hurt by water)

"Well I guess I don't have any choice, do I?"

I consider it the Masochistic Pool-Toss of Rassilon to this day.
posted by localroger at 4:36 PM on April 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

I was involved in this totally geeky Dr. Who Party
posted by The Whelk at 5:21 PM on April 20, 2011