Guest line-up was awesome. Paul McGann, Peter Davison & Colin Baker. 3 Doctors at one convention is very hard to do. Not only having 3 Doctors, but bringing in classic companions, Louise Jameson, Frazer Hines, Sarah Sutton, Nicola Bryant & Daphne Ashbrook put it over the top. Then add some current Dr Who actors like Dan Starkey, Richard Hope & Nina Toussaint-White. Then the line-up from Big Finish and throw in some writers like Tony Lee makes this guest line-up epic. Then to top it off, they bring in Freema Agyeman! Wow, is all I can say.Now the drawback to having such great guests is that it can create lots of problems for attendees to get photos and autographs. This is where Chicago Tardis did not do well. I think they should have allowed less people to attend the convention or find a bigger space. This would have made for a better experience for the fans. I think they tried their best and the actors actually went out of their way to make sure all the fans who wanted photos and autographs were seen. If you are going to have a superstar line-up, like they did, then you need a bigger space.
The main stage panels were great. The actors did a fantastic job telling stories and jokes and even doing a Christmas carol. There is so much going on though, that it's hard to see all the panels or one had to leave during it to make sure one got their photo/autograph that they wanted. My favorite main stage panel was the Q&A with Dan Starkey who plays Strax. He was very funny and you can tell he's a big fan of Dr Who before he was even on the show. He actually did some of the Q&A using Strax's voice. Hilarious. One of my other favorite panels was Frazer Hines. He has some of the best stories and does an awesome job of impersonating Patrick Troughton. Just watching him, you can tell that he loves what he did on the show and loves what the show has become.
I did not get to see much of the side panels because of everything that is going on the convention. What I saw was kinda lacking in substance and guests. There were very few panels, I wanted to see. The one I did go to it was hard to hear them because there was no microphone in the room.
Cosplay was great. You can see some of the pictures we took in our costume play section. The Chicago's costume contest is called the Masquerade Ball. The place was packed for this competition. I was surprised that some of the great costumes I saw earlier in the day were not on stage. I'm not sure if they didn't sign up or didn't meet the requirements for the competition. The overall winner was a couple dressed as Matt Smith and Jenna Louise Coleman in "The Snowmen". Pretty decent costume.During the halftime portion of the Masquerade Ball was the Dr Who improv group WHOPROV who acted out a story with suggestions from an audience member. This was better then the actual contest, I thought. The actors did a fantastic job.
Lastly, Chicago Tardis raised $2900 for the Illinois Food Bank with their silent auction and their live auction. Your's truly spent almost $600 on a poster signed by 17 people from the show including Patrick Troughton Jon Petrwee Elisabeth Sladen & many others. I have pictures of the poster on our Facebook page.
Overall, I give the Chicago Tardis a 3.5 Tardis's out of 5. It was a solid convention. The highlight for us was having Louise Jameson insist that we be allowed to interview her for our site. She ushered us back to the green room for the interview even though we knew Chicago Tardis did not want us there. While backstage we saw Freema Agyeman walk in and hug Peter Davison. Sarah Sutton and Frazer Hines were hanging out. I will always remember how Louise went out of her way to help us. She is a class act. The other highlight was seeing Frazer Hines wearing our logo pin on stage for the closing ceremonies.