Regeneration Who 2 was another huge success for Oni Hartstein and James Harknell!
The con had brought in major Doctor Who guests like Peter Davison, the Fifth Doctor; Terry Molloy, Davros; Colin Baker, Sixtth Doctor; Nicholas Briggs, voice of the Daleks and many other villians or creatures within the Who-verse; Nicola Bryant, Sixth Doctor companion; and just so many more!!
The panels that I attended were wonderful and moderators were great at asking relevant questions and keeping on topic.
The vendors and artists were pretty awesome as usual. Great products and artwork for sale.
As with most cons, I usually go for the celebrity hunt. But this year I was actually more about the panels. I did meet Peter Davison for a selfie with my now-fiance, but overall, I really surprised myself by not "needing" any autographs or photo ops this time. I have met most if not all the celebs already at previous conventions. So, I focused more on the panels this con.
Friday's panels, for me, started with the Fifth Doctor, Peter Davison; moderated by Nicholas Briggs. Peter talked about his time as the Doctor of course but also talked a lot about the special he did for the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, the Five-ish Doctors. I audio-recorded most of his panel but I am not sure how to edit it to add here haha! Peter is so funny and loves talking with his fans. He's really great with them.
After taking a nice dinner break, I came back to attend the "Freaking Out" panel that a friend was helping to moderate. It was about anxiety at conventions, or associated with attending cons in general. It was really helpful for those in the room to discuss anxieties and how to cope with them. But also I found interesting, was a couple audience members also discussed that it may not be them whom are dealing with anxieties but someone they care about and how to help that person cope at a con (or in life in general as some issues applied for both life in and out of cons). I found myself nodding to a lot of issues that the panelists talked about, agreeing that either I have those same anxieties, or how to cope with them in certain ways, or the way we behave in general based on our insecurities or anxieties. Stephen Webb, Clay Dockery, and Decca Dent did a fabulous job addressing everyone's issues and how to cope. Highly recommend if it's offered in another convention or future RegenWho again.
Saturday started with an awesome "Geek Chic" panel that more friends were moderating again. Being a geeky girl, ahem my blog name hehe, it was great to listen to others who loved dressing up geeky in everyday fashion. They of course touched upon cosplay in general, as all of them do cosplay at conventions and such. But then also related in how they have so many pieces that are normal everyday clothing, bought from second-hand stores or bog box stores, that when they wear those pieces alone, they still get recognized as a specific character. But there are ways to not just look like your favorite characters but rather what you can do to just accessorize your outfits with geeky items like scarves, ties, cardigans, shoes, jewelry, etc. So you may not want to go out looking like a character, but you can still show off your fandoms with little hints of flair. Stephen Webb, Kristin Sirota, Christine Evans, and Decca Dent did great in explaining it all, especially with a lovely slideshow!
I went to the "Doctor Who Travel Guide" which explained many of the places you can go in the UK, United States, and Canada to visit places either Doctor Who (and spin-off Torchwood) have taped or took place at. It was great to hear about the places like museums or exterior locations where they have taped and how to incorporate it into your travels. I've been lucky enough to travel overseas to London and Wales for the main discussion points, but it was before I was that deep into Doctor Who to find the places they filmed. Other than Wales, which was the main reason I traveled there. My friend and I at the time, took a bus to Wales to see the Torchwood hub and had friends who gave us a personalized tour of Cardiff and where they grew up. So now that more seasons of Who and Torchwood and even Sherlock have aired, I'd love to visit more of the places Brian Savoie talked about or to look at with different eyes. One day I'll save up enough to go back and revisit!
Then came my own "panel". I did a live-to-tape taping of our web series "Captain Kyle's Cosplay Spotlight" with host Kyle Williamson and guest cosplayer, Angela Pritchett. It took some time to set up the room of course to tape everything and light everything correctly or as good as we could given the room dynamics. But Angela was fun and engaging as Osgood. And we had a really good audience count for being at a convention taping! The episode will air sometime this fall on SciFiGeekProductions Youtube page! Then it was a very fast breakdown as another panel of course needed the room right after us. But it was definitely fun!
Somewhere in the weekend I also went to Angela Pritchett's book signing! She has an awesome second cookbook inspired by Doctor Who! I have the first one and missed out on getting the second one on site so Amazon it is for me! Haha! She handed out a sample peanut butter cookie from the books recipes. It was so yummy! Fun and delicious recipes! Buy her books!!
I went to the Davros Variety Show. It was so much fun! Terry Molloy is of course the most entertaining! But I loved the ukele performances by Cat Smith and Angela Pritchett. The singing from Hannah Harkness is always funny! So that was a great time! I hope they have something similar again next year!
Gallifrey Squares was something I missed the previous year so I needed to go this year!! The room was still crowded but not standing room only busy. Found seats and watched the fun begin! There were a couple ladies who had too much to drink near me and were acting up, mostly just being loud and shouting out answers and general obnoxiousness. But once their friend was done being "on stage" they left. And then I could enjoy the rest of the game show. It was a lot of fun. Great questions, trivia and such. And I loved everyone who was in cosplay! So much fun!
Sunday was a down day for us. Got up, packed the car and checked out and then just wandered the vendor room for a bit. Didn't really hit any other panels. With the semi-long drive home, we got on the road around lunch time. That meant I would miss Oni and James' closing panel though again. But such is life. Maybe next year!
RegenerationWho is really the only con I actually want to do everything a con has to offer! I love the celebs of course. Meeting them and getting autographs or photos are fab with them. And Regen always gets great guests! And I of course love shopping, so the vendor's room is always a fav to walk around in and try to spend money on local artists and such. And of course I get to see friends from afar. But it's the one con (and Intervention) that I actually enjoy going to the panels. They have wonderful guest speakers, discussions, interesting topics, and topics to entice anyone's interests! So it really is just a wonderful con to go to. I can't wait for Intervention Con in Sept and RegenWho 3!!!! Thanks for a great con Oni & James and your quality staff!!!
P.S. - Next year's guests are already lining up and it's going to be magnificent! Michelle Gomez, who plays Missy, is going to be there! I will finally get to meet her!!! My "namesake" hehe. So my hotel and tickets have already been bought! And I'll be first to get her autograph/photo ticket if there are presales! heehee Cannot wait for next year!!
