Comments on: Dragon*Con 2011

By: Calli Arcale

Calli Arcale — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:48:37 +0000

MarcusBailius — Peter Jackson is a massive Whovian (I’m guessing it was somewhat painful to accept that indeed, Ian McKellan would make a better Gandalf than Tom Baker; Tom Baker had auditioned for the part, but it’s hard to beat McKellan). There’s a story floating around on the Internet; apparently early in filming, he invited a couple of people from the production over to his house, which is stuffed with cool things he’s collected through the years, most of it nerdy. He apparently likes to do this, just to see the reaction from people. On this occasion, one of the guests was Sylvester McCoy, and he was anxious to see how long it would take him to spot one of his prize pieces — the actual question-mark sweater McCoy had worn as the Doctor. McCoy was apparently suitably impressed, and touched that it had meant so much to Jackson.

“Ghost Light” is one of my fave McCoy stories, along with “Silver Nemesis” and “Battlefield”. And though I didn’t like it the first time I saw it, I really like “Greatest Show in the Galaxy” now.

By: MarcusBailius

MarcusBailius — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:50:06 +0000

Should point out, that Sylvester McCoy will be Radagast the Brown in the Peter Jackson films of “The Hobbit”…

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 05:58:03 +0000

Sylvester McCoy was an Ace doctor!

Sounds like you had a lot of fun BA.

@4. Darrell : “Ghost Light” is one of my favorite Sylvester McCoy era stories.

Mine would have to be ‘Dragonfire’ or maybe ‘Survival’ the Cheetah people one and the last Who episode for many years. I also loved the ‘Silver Nemesis’ ep too. Ah, memories.

By: Grand Lunar

Grand Lunar — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 03:25:55 +0000

Putting together “old school Doctor Who fan” and the image itself lead to to already think “Is that Sylvester McCoy?!”
Good to see I was right!

And great for you to meet him!
It’d be great for you to appear with the other Doctors like this as well (where they allow cameras).

Sadly, I’ve never been to a science fiction con. Nor have I the social aptitude for even going to one, not even today.
So, I shall admire those that DO have the fortitude for such events from afar.

By: DigitalAxis

DigitalAxis — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:36:28 +0000

And thank YOU, Phil, for signing that NASA handout for my girlfriend. She has it framed now.

As for McCoy… I did see the simulcast of one of his chat sessions and was reminded how Doctor Who had a tendency to cast comedians as The Doctor. McCoy is a very funny man. …and a very serious Doctor. Interesting how that works.
It’d be interesting to see him on the new Doctor Who… as Mysterious Man #2, say.

By: Darrell

Darrell — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 22:57:16 +0000

Jealous! “Ghost Light” is one of my favorite Sylvester McCoy era stories.

By: Joel

Joel — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 21:59:46 +0000

@1 Keith Bowden: Have to agree with you there Keith. Sylv is easily my second favourite Doctor (Hartnell being the first).

My sister’s met him as well, you know. And the rest of the surviving Doctors up to 8.

By: Mike from Atlanta

Mike from Atlanta — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:25:55 +0000

Thanks Phil for coming out to the Con and making it that much more interesting.

I practically lived in the reality track rooms at the Hilton (Science/Space/Skeptics/EFF). I thought the quality of the speakers were pretty amazing.

When I took a break and had a few at the bar in the Marriott, it was like the bar scene in the first Star Wars movie. Sensory overload. It literally took days to recover from DragonCon. Next year I’ll have to split time at the lake and the Con on Labor Day weekend just to decompress.

By: Keith Bowden

Keith Bowden — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 19:57:40 +0000

Very cool! Sylvester McCoy is a vastly underrated Doctor – his first season was shaky script-wise and so underfunded you could almost see the “ACME” on the cardboard. But the final seasons revealed his Doctor definitely had a dark side and we got to see Daleks fly for the first time on his watch. It was so excellent that he was able to pass the torch (however briefly) to Paul McGann in the US telefilm.

/Whovian geekout