This past weekend I was able to attend the first ever
(Re)Generation Who Convention just outside Baltimore, Maryland at the Hunt
Valley Inn. This 3 day Dr Who Con,
featured a wide range of guests, performers, vendors and programming. Now
realize that when I review a Con, I can only judge it from my perspective and
everyone’s perspective is different at a show.
I like to give my fans a little taste of what I witnessed and experience
at the Con. I like to break my review down into Guests, Performers, Programing,
Vendors and overall feel. One should remember that this was a first year Con
and I will take that in consideration for my overall grade.
Guests:
(Re)Generation Who had a strong and diverse guest list for their
first year. Colin Baker (6th Doctor) & Sylvester McCoy (7th Doctor) were joined by their
companions, Nicola Bryant (Peri Brown) and Sophie Aldred (Ace). It’s a luxury for a first year Con to have
not 1 but 2 Doctors roaming the halls. I was even lucky enough to have my hotel
room right beside Colin Baker’s suite. Hopefully I did not keep him up with my
snoring. These 4 actors are regulars on the Dr Who Convention circuit. One of
the reasons that they are regulars is because that they are very energetic and
very entertaining. Their appeared to be
ample time to get an autograph and picture of your favorite guest. My only
recommendation is that it would be nice if the times the guests were signing
were posted. They would make announcements after panels in the main hall, but
if you weren’t in those panels, then it was a crap shoot to figure out when
your favorite actor would be signing autographs. 
Joining those 4 were Deborah Watling (Victoria), Terry
Molloy (Davros), Andrew Cartmel (Script Editor), Patricia Quinn (from
“Dragonfire”) & Colin Spaull (Mr. Crane).
This was a decent 2nd tier lineup of guests that can really
make or break a Con. Terry Molloy & Collin Spaull are always friendly
guests and can usually be seen a couple times here in the States every year.
The rest of the group is where (Re)Generation who really stands out. Andrew
Cartmel was the script editor for the 7th Doctor era and is not
someone you usually find at a Dr Who Convention in the States. His take on the Doctor, called the
“Masterplan”, was a controversial view
of the Doctor, putting mystery and darkness back into the character. Deborah
Watling, played Victoria, a companion of the 2nd Doctor. I was
unable to attend her panel, but anyone that shared screen time with Patrick
Troughton is special indeed. Lastly, Patricia Quinn is not a usual guest, at
least not on the Dr Who circuit. She is best known for her role as Magenta
from, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, but did appear in the 7th
Doctor episode, “Dragonfire”.
The only complaint with the guest list is that it was very
lacking in current Dr Who actors. Colin Spaull was the only one that has
appeared in the new series. There are
some Dr Who fans out there that have only seen episodes from 2005 and on. I’m
hoping this Con will get those fans to go back and review some of the classic
Who episodes, but another new series guest would have helped.
Performers:
I usually lump musicians, writers, artists & anyone else
into this category. (Re)Generation
actually had a lot of performers for a Con. I actually only caught 2 of them unfortunately,
Matthew Dow Smith and Hannah Harkness. The others I only caught a little bit of them
or I was asleep by the time they came on. I’m getting old, I can’t help
it. Matthew Dow Smith is a writer/artist
for IDW when they had the Dr Who license. He actually was very gracious to do a
sit-down interview with us that we will be posting in the days to come. Hannah Harkness is a comedian from
Philadelphia who uses a lot of geek references in her standup act. She was very
entertaining and funny. I wished more Con goers would have seen her act, it was
very good.
I realize, I didn’t have much to say about the performers,
but when you are at a Con you have to prioritize your time. You can’t see
everything. You have to decide what panels/shows you have to cut from your day
in order to, 1) see the people you came to see 2) eat and 3) sleep. The other
problem was the time that some of the performers were performing. Some of it
was very late into the night and I’m not 21 anymore and need all the beauty
sleep I can get.
Programing:
The programing portion of (Re)Generation Who was solid, but
could have been better. The highlight of the programming was the Tom Baker
Skype interview. I had my doubts about the interview. Anyone that deals with
technology on a regular basis knows that stuff can go wrong, but to
(Re)Generation Who’s credit, it went smoothly. I think they were kind of a
trend setter in this type of programming and I believe we will see more and more
of this in the future. As the years go
by and some of the actors get too old to travel to the US, this will be pretty
much the only way US fans will get to see some of their classic Dr Who actors.
Tom Baker was his usual funny self especially when he was ready for another
question by saying, “Ask me another question, please” over and over during the
interview. The only downside of the interview was the actual questions. The
whole interview was questions that people sent in and they were kind of lacking
in substance. It’s good to have some
audience questions, but it would have been nice to have a solid interviewer up
there asking real questions, so the audience could learn more about Tom and his
time on the show. 
The other parts of the programming were solid. You had your
usual panels with the Doctors, with the companions and then the Doctors with their companions. Like I had
mentioned before, the actors are very comfortable and entertaining on panels
and this was no exception. I would have
liked to attended more panels, but of course you run out of time to see them
all. The only downside to the programing was that could have used a little more
of it. There was the main stage and then only 2 panel rooms. I think a 3rd panel room would
have given Con goers more choices. I was
in the Terry Molloy/Colin Spaull panel and the room was so packed that people
had to stand, because there was no other panels going on at the time because they
were using another panel room to show a movie. 
Vendor Room:
A lot of Dr Who fans, me included, only get to see Dr Who
merchandise at one or maybe 2 places in the towns we live in. Most of us buy
our Dr Who merchandise online. That is why the vendor room is always my
favorite part of any Con and (Re)Generation Who did a fantastic job with the
vendors they selected. It was a good variety of toys, clothing, videos,
handmade items, artists, Big Finish Audio and even tea. Yes, I said tea,
because the show is from the UK, you know. It was nice to see Alien Entertainment in the
vendor room. They are one of the largest US sellers of Dr Who merchandise and
my favorite items, Big Finish Audio adventures.
Also, it was nice to see Geek Boy Press and 21 st Century
Sandshark Studios there, since I’m an admirer of their work.
The only downside to the Vendor room was not a problem this
year, but might be in the future. They held their autograph signings in center
of the vendor room. They were able to space the timing of the guest signings
that did not create a problem this year, but in the future it could cause a
traffic jam. I’m sure (Re)Generation Who will want to increase the number of
guests attending and if you add more people to the Con that room is going to be
a nightmare of people trying to get autographs.
Overall:
Overall, I was impressed with the first (Re)Generation Who
Con. Solid guest lineup, creative programing and a great vendor room makes for
an outstanding Convention. I give (Re)Generation Who a 4.25 Tardis’s out of 5.
I hope they come back next year and hope to see more East Coast Who fans
attending.