We were up early this morning so I could give Tucker a nice long walk before we left for the day, then James played with him while I used the the bathroom and got ready.

We reached the hotel in time to enjoy the breakfast buffet. Pretty expensive but lots of good food. I had cereal, French toast, some bacon, a bagel and cream cheese, some toast, and some cantaloupe; I saved the bagel for later. James got a homemade omelet.

I was right on time for my first panel, "The Little Ice Age—Could It Happen Again?" Two scientists and an engineer discussed climate change and if we were in a natural warming period and how much human carbon emissions are affecting the warming trend and the problem of sunspots (or rather the lack of same). We discussed continental drift, ice ages, the great warming, and ocean currents. I would have loved to have had science classes like these. I was crazy about geology and anthropology, fossils and early man from when I got into double digits. We had one year of "earth science" in junior high; everything else was biology, chemistry, or physics...frankly, ugh. College didn't serve up anything much better.

As I headed to the next panel room...woot! There are the 221B people selling memberships at $25, just like last year. I was hoping they'd show up. Five minutes later I had a weekend in April lined up. :-)

Following was a fun Doctor Who panel called "You Can't Change History—Or Can You?" There has been an ever fluctuating policy during the series about changing and not changing history, from one of the first stories, "The Aztecs," when Barbara tries to stop human sacrifice as a custom and the Doctor tells her she cannot. Later the idea of "Fixed Points in Time" was instituted—and then pretty much ignored, except to see off Amy and Rory. Of course, the moment the Doctor and his companion show up, right then don't they change history? People see them who didn't before, and perhaps that changes them and their own destiny.

Next came the panel I was looking forward to, "Tricorn Punk." This was coined by D.B. Jackson while talking about his new book Thieftaker (a Colonial-era fantasy that includes magic practitioners). The Patriot Witch series, which I have begun but never finished, is also considered Tricorn punk, as well as Katherine Kurtz's Two Crowns for America and another book called The Two Georges. Of course, the television series Sleepy Hollow falls into that category, so we had an enjoyable quarter of a hour nattering about that as well.

On to the anniversary panel devoted to Lost in Space! We laughed over the bad episodes involving space Vikings, space hippies, hoteliers, dueling robots, and of course human vegetables as well as considering some of the good ones, like "The Keeper," "My Friend, Mr. Nobody," "The Anti-Matter Man," "Hunter's Moon," "The Haunted Lightship," as well as the opening episodes, which were darker than the eventual rest of the series. We also discussed the movie a little, and if it's time for a reboot.

I slipped into the next room for "Ten Years of New Doctor Who." It's hard to believe it's been ten years already! I remember when the news first broke about the new series, and then having to wait while the new episodes were broadcast in Britain, and then finally seeing the first episode at Daniel and Clair's house. When the theme song began I started to cry; it was so good to hear it again! Again, likes, dislikes, companions, special effects, and the whole beautiful package.

It was three o'clock and since I didn't have a panel planned, I had an [overpriced] delicious bowl of chicken noodle soup and a glass of water in the restaurant. It hit the spot, but I went upstairs to the con suite anyway and brought back some cucumbers and carrots as well as a turkey sandwich (and it was real turkey!) and some cheese balls. James was in the lobby when I came down, but he'd already eaten earlier and had a bit or two of sandwich and some carrots and cheese balls before I went on to my next panel.

And here I was back in the Doctor Who room for a panel about the 50th anniversary celebrations. They had "Day of the Doctor" running in the background and every so often the panel and the audience would quiet, mesmerized by what was onscreen, whether it was Kate Lethbridge-Stewart, Osgood, and especially the three Doctors quarreling with each other: Ten, Eleven, and the War Doctor, the latter who's exasperated with both of them. And of course they turned up the sound during the infamous "Twelve Doctors!" "No, Thirteen!" and we first saw Peter Capaldi's eyebrows. Of course we chatted about "Night of the Doctor" (okay, how many people squealed "It's Paul McGann!" when he appeared?) and the hilarious Five-ish Doctors Reboot. (Sylvester name-dropping The Hobbit at every chance! Colin forcing people to watch his episodes! And the John Barrowman CD joke! And Georgia giving birth!) And of course the incomparable Adventure in Space and Time.

James was there for "Colonial Ingrates," otherwise the British side of the Revolutionary War. Not to mention that not every Colonist was for "independency." How even the Continental Congress originally wanted peace. How the British taxes were worse than when they wanted the colonies to pay. Interesting panel except for one historical error: Samuel Adams was not John Adams' brother.

My final panel for the day was about time travel in Doctor Who and other series/movies, so we discussed not only Who but Time Tunnel, Sliders, Voyagers!, Life on Mars, The Time Machine, Time After Time, Somewhere in Time, down to Time Bandits and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, and the mechanism for the time travel, whether scientific or metaphysical, and about the repercussions of such time travel, and if people could actually change things. Well, I'd love to go back and see how things really were, but I don't want to live there; like James I've gotten used to flush toilets, good hygiene, and penicillin! Not to mention clean water. If I had to drink beer like they did in previous centuries, I'd die of dehydration. How do you drink anything that smells that bad?

When I got out of the panel, frankly I thought it was later than it was, so when James asked if I wanted to go home, I said yes. Neither of us had any more panels planned, and Tucker had been locked in his crate all day, just like when we are at work, so we did head home. A surprising amount of traffic for a Saturday night!

After perambulating the puppy we settled down to watch about four episodes of Murphy Brown, including the three-parter where Murphy learns she is pregnant. We also watched the end of The Trouble With Angels, and started to watch the sequel, Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows, which I'd heard about but never seen. After twenty minutes we turned it off; it's truly dreadful, and offensively 1960s. I love Rosalind Russell, but even she couldn't save this turkey.

Labels: books, conventions, friends, history, movies, television

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