So James went off to work this morning, and I was soon up again myself. Turned the television on for Snowy, and headed cross-town, with breakfast second-verse-same-as-first, except I sat alone today and there weren't any bagels. I had bread and butter instead.

And since there was only one Doctor Who panel at this convention, you can bet I was at it. What does the good Doctor have to do with Sherlock Holmes? Well, several people who have played the Doctor have also played Sherlock, including movie Doctor Peter Cushing as well as Tom Baker (who also donned a Sherlock-ish costume in "The Talons of Weng-Chiang."). Plus Mark Gatiss does Sherlock as well as Doctor Who)...and besides, who cares—it's Doctor Who. We talked about the original series and the long gap filled by Big Finish audio productions and then the new series, panelists named their favorite Doctors, folks used to the new series asked for old series' episode suggestions, and all sorts of good Who goodness.

And since I never met a Watson I didn't like (even when Gareth David Lloyd runs into dinosaurs), the next panel had to be "Watsons Through Time," wherein we went from no Watson at all (the silents and William Gillette, because nobody else in the cast could be as important as...William Gillette) to avuncular and absurd Watson (poor Nigel Bruce, of course, who was a better actor than Watson's lines gave him credit for) and to the competent Watson of today. Lots more talk about the Russian series. Must look that up on YouTube.

Next came a panel I had been looking forward to, about the various illustrators of the Sherlock Holmes' stories when they first appeared, from the classic ones by Sydney Paget (sadly, Paget later died a painful death). His brother Walter, whom they originally wanted to illustrate the stories, did one issue, and then the illustrations were turned over to Frank Wiles and even Charles Dana Gibson (creator of the Gibson Girl), and several others. I was quite taken by an illustration of Sherlock Holmes among his books. [Looked it up after I got home and posted it on my Facebook page.]

Next, another fanfiction panel, and I did ask if and where the gen stuff was, and they said it was out there. Must do more digging. This was more about mechanics as well: finding time to write, improving your writing, beta readers, etc.

So now there was a choice. There was an Elizabeth Peters' memorial panel going on, but I found myself wandering toward the room where they were having the trivia contest. Remember the fellow who was on the radio panel, asking the difficult trivia questions? He was running trivia. But I did see Ken Spivey and his daughter Aubrey in the room, and mom Alice had said we ought to team up on the trivia contest. Oh, well, it's just a game.

They were making groups of five, and just as I was coming in, Aubrey asked two young ladies, Abby and Shannon, if they would join her and her dad. Yep, here comes me, the fifth wheel. Soon about six or seven other groups of five were formed, and off we went on a bewildering jumble of facts from canon, radio, films, television, and just about any Sherlockania that struck the "chairman," as the Brits would call him, down to Garfield donning a deerstalker. Luckily, it was multiple choice. Unluckily the scoring was just the way it was when we played trivia at Rockfords, six rounds, bet your high points on the sure answers and save the lower points for ones you weren't sure of. We found out Raymond Massey was Jeremy Brett's father-in-law and that Brett chose his stage surname from the label in one of his first suits, that of Peter Capaldi, Nicholas Briggs, Tom Baker and Colin Baker, only Colin Baker had never played both the Doctor and Holmes, and other such minutia. We held our own the first couple of rounds, had a bad third (or was it fourth?) round, and ended up...

...amazingly, winning! This was due to Abby knowing a bunch of Brett facts and Ken knowing the bonus question, which was about a short, silent spoof of Sherlock Holmes called "The Curse of the Leaping Fish" that had the star, Douglas Fairbanks, stoned on cocaine!

There was one more facet to the contest: the members of the winning team did a "Family Feud" game, and whomever got the most points got the grand prize, a clever jointed marionette that looked like Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch. The other prizes were colored pencil sketches of Jeremy Brett, David Burke and Edward Hardwicke (Brett's two Watsons), and Peter Cushing. Abby got the most points, but she had eyes for nothing but the Brett portrait, so Aubrey, who came in second, got the Cumberbatch prize. I was third and picked the Burke because he was such a good-looking Watson. :-)

And then it was it...the final panel, the "what did we do right/wrong" panel, which was packed. I was squeezed in the back next to New York Lady, and we could hardly hear most of the questions and half of the answers, so I slipped out after about 35 minutes since we were expected at Ken's birthday party and I hadn't wrapped his gift yet!

James had our steaks marinating and had gotten some watermelon to share, so I just had to wrap the gift and we were off. It was a nice party, but I was glad to get home and rest.

And so tomorrow work is afoot...

Labels: art, books, conventions, television, trivia

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