Chicago TARDIS 2004

These pictures were taken on my brand new Olympus Digital camera.  1/2 the pics I took didn't make the grade, but here are the ones that did come out well or OK.  For reference purposes, I will be describing the pictures like so:
1     2
3     4

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2004

So here is the main room Friday morning before the con begins.
1. A life-size model Dalek built for Gene Smith, the man who runs the convention.
2. The main stage and seating.
3. More seating and my mixer board.
4.  It wouldn't be Chicago TARDIS without the TARDIS.  This was built in the late 80's by the fan group "The Federation."  They made tons of fan videos back in the day.  The core three member, Steve Hill, Jennifer Adam-Kelley, and Rob Warnock, help run the convention.



1 & 2.  A sort of panorama of the stage and side.  To the right of the Dalek you see the tech area, the domain I co-habited with Tech Co-ordinator Mike Olson and various other convention staff who stopped in at times.  The TARDIS walls were also built by Mike and some other friends.
3. Jennifer Adams-Kelley on the stage for the CT 2004 Fire-up, a sort of introduction to the con events.
4. Steve Hill (of the Doctor Who Image Archive fame) co-hosting the Fire-up with Jennifer and Mike Olson.  Here he is about to show everying the cool toy he borrowed from his workplace to use for Who, Lose, or Draw.



1. Who, Lose, or Draw in action of the electronic projector.
2. The audience,
3 & 4. Steve doing his co-hosting thing.



1.  The first real panel of the day...and it was about Angel of all things.  Ironically there were a fair amount of people there.  Onstage is Lar Pearson and his love Christa Dickson from Mad Norwegian Press.  Don't let the Buffy/Angel thing put you off, Lars is huge Doctor Who fan and has written many non-fiction books.  And on a side note:  the little TARDIS LOG note pads you see on the projection screen are from ones I made in college.  I was happy to see them get used to introduce the panels.
2. The Going Pro as a Writer Panel with L-R John Drew, Arnold Blumberg, Scott Alan Woodard, and Kathy Sullivan.
3. Peter Purves, who played Steven Taylor from the William Hartnell era of Who, interviewed by Lars.
4. Lars hits the floor for questions while Peter answers.



1. The Guest Stars Panel with Yee Jee Tso (Chang Lee from the 1996 Doctor Who TV Movie), Stewart Beven (Prof. Clifford Jones from the Jon Pertwee story The Green Death), and Terry Molloy (Davros from the three Dalek stories in the 80's and onwards).
2 & 3. The Big Finish panel with India Fisher (8th Doctor companion Charley Pollard in the Big Finish audios), Jason Haigh-Ellery and Gary Russell, the two men behind Big Finish.
4. The audience for Opening Ceremonies.



1. The guests backstage before opening ceremonies.
2. Could this be exclusive footage from the new Doctor Who series? Or is it a farce?
3. In the purple shirt is Kevin and in the green shirt if Tom Beck, veterans of many conventions.
4.  Jennifer starting up opening ceremonies.



1. Almost all of my opening ceremonies pics were bad, save for this one of the 8th Doctor himself, Paul McGann.
2.  The Backstage area sans guests.
3. The new game show of the year, Master's Wild (based on the Joker's Wilds TV game show).  Steve Hill hosts and Rob Warnock (standing on the right) is the table, er, assistant.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2004

1. First panel of the day, The Doctor Who Spin-offs panel with Arnold and Lars.
2. Peter Purves doing if first solo panel.  He said he normally gets interviewed, but chose this time to do it himself and he enjoyed himself alot.  A few people said that Peter reminded them of Phil Donahue from back in the day.
3. Rob Sherman - The Man, The Myth, The Reality.  He is interviewed by Shaun Lyon, curator of the Gallifrey One website, newpage, and Gallifrey convention.  Writer for various Doctor Who related projects, from BBC books, Big Finish Audios, and now the new Doctor Who series.  His story is the one the brings back the old-school Dalek.
4. Gary Russell borrowing my iBook to listen for a track to use as a preview for the Making of the Juggernauts panel.



1 & 2. The Making of "the Juggernauts" panel with producer Jason Haigh-Ellery, writer Scott Alan Woodard, and after sneaking off from an autograph session, Davros himself, Terry Molloy,
3. And interview by Lars with Stewart Beven.
4. The Looking for Doctor Who: The New Series panel with Shaun, Jason, and Rob S.



1 & 2. The Eighth Doctor Panel with Jason, India, Paul McGann, Gary, and eventually Yee Jee.
3 & 4. Ever seen Mystery Science Theater 3000?  Well this is the version used at cons called Mysterious Theater 337 and they make fun of Doctor Who stories.  This year is was the 1996 Doctor Who TV Movie with guest star, a Cyberman (played by Scott Alan Woodard)!

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2004

1. The food table for the Sunday brunch with the guests.
2.  I was at the table with Yee Jee.
3 & 4. The table to our back left with India and further over with Paul McGann.



1.  Directly beind out table was Peter Purves.
2. My photo with Yee Jee.
3. A very blurry photo of a baby with a scarf around it having her photo taken by the TARDIS.  A few moments earlier she was in front of the Dalek.
4. India inviewing Paul,



1. Paul being interviewed, part 2.
2. Paul McGann accepting a painting I did of his Doctor back in college.  He warmly received it.  I also helped make his weekend, since mentioning something to me and Mike after opeing ceremonies that he wanted to check out our tech area and equipment, with helping with running the theme for an audio play done live by fans at the beginning of Closing Ceremonies.  Paul was a happy little boy.  He also talked to Mike and myself about iPods, and it turns out Paul is Mac guy. :D
3. The after-con party. L-R Brian Kimmel, the hands of Gina Kimmel (newlyweds), Nick Seidler, and Steve Hill.



1. Gary Russell joining us for a few rounds of Who, Lose, or Draw.  On the left is Brad Megles.
2. Nick, Steve, Scot, and Mike Olson.
3. Your host, tired and worn out and dreading the 3 hour drive back to Peoria, IL.

It was a wonderful convention, barring the technical problems that we had mainly with Mike's PC and Rob Warnock's sampler not saving samplers.  Other than that, it was great fun and I was honored to help make Paul McGann's weekend special.

©2004 Bill Rudloff / Time Vortex Productions