Chicago Tardis 2009

This week I had the chance to go to Chicago Tardis. This is a local annual Dr. Who convention held in the western suburbs. The conventions if run by a local retailer Alien Entertainment. I’ve been to their store many times and have left much money there. Great little store with a great selection for its size.

The convention is a little on the small side but they packed it full of a lot of activities. There is a brunch with autograph guest, dealer tables for merchandise, a costume contest, marathon show viewings and of course autographs. It seems that they are able to get at least a few big ‘Who’ names to come and do the signings. This year they had Paul McGann who portrayed the 8th carnation of the Doctor from the 2000 movie. And Daphne Ashbrook who portrayed his companion Doctor Grace Holloway. Last year they had Colin Baker who portrayed the 6th Doctor and Elizabeth Sladen who played the ever lovable Sarah Jane Smith. So they seem to get some one pretty good every year.

As with the entire convention the dealer room was kind of small having only about a dozen dealers altogether but they had some great stuff, especially for those Dr. Who fans. And as far as fans go there were quite a few. The vast majority of those were dressed in some kind of costume from the show. I unfortunately was not able to stay very long so I missed out a lot of things. It seems to me you really have to commit yourself to spending a lot of time at the convention to get the most out of it and that’s ok. If I had planned out the day/weekend better I think I would have gotten a lot more out of it. That’s not to say I didn’t have fun. I did. I enjoyed seeing the people in their different costumes, listening to people talk about past episodes, looking through the tons of merchandise available and just being around my fellow ‘Who geeks’ was fun.

Here's some photos I took while I was there.

Like I said I really didn’t plan this out to well as I did it just on a whim. I thought I would be able to stop by and get autographs from McGann and Ashbrook just showing up but their times were very fixed and I had a prior appointment I had to keep. Fortunately the owner of Alien Entertainment and convention operator took pity on this newbie Chicago Tardis attendee and promised to get me personalized autographed photos. He did not have to all so I want to thank him for doing so.

I’m going to go again next year only I’m going to plan it out a little better. Then I can get to enjoy it to its fullest. I would recommend trying out to anyone else as well. It’s a little pricey to go for one day but if you don’t really like it than you can just do it the once and be done. I think you’ll like it though and like me think about spending more time there.

One piece of bad news, Alien Entertainment is no longer going to have a walk in retail shop. They will only be doing business online under the name Doctor Who Shop.Com. So they are not going out of business but changing the way they do business.

It also appears that they are expanding and doing a convention in New York as well next year. So they continue to grow and I would expect to see sometime in the future to be one of the premier Dr. Who conventions in the U. S. Hey, it means something to us geeks.

Added links for Chicago Tardis, and Daphne Ashbrook to my Dr. Who links under Television Show Links and Doctor Who Shop.Com to my Apparel/Gear Links