In case you didn’t grow up reading Dr. Seuss like I did, Horton Hears a Who is a story about a
very large elephant who hears a very, very, very tiny civilization living on a
dust mote resting on top of a wildflower. Horton tries to convince his friends
that these tiny beings in fact exist, but they don’t believe him because they
can’t see or hear the microscopic people who inhabit Whoville. Horton doesn’t
give up, and in spite of physical pressure and ridicule to give up his belief
and destroy the wildflower, he perseveres until the tiny Whovillians make
themselves known to all by shouting, “We are here! We are here! We are here!”
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| David Tennant as the 10th Doctor with the TARDIS |
At a “First Friday” event I attended recently at the St.
Louis Science Center’s
Omnimax theater, a full-house of over five hundred fans watched a double bill
of new series Doctor Who episodes
featuring nanotechnology. The line to get into the theater snaked throughout
the Science Center
and out the door. All five hundred plus tickets were distributed—they even had
to turn fans away they said because of the fire code. Many attendees came
dressed in Who inspired costumes and
T-shirts. Many said this was the first time they had realized there were so
many fellow fans in the St. Louis
area who enjoyed the same TV show they did. Many stated they had never heard of
the St. Louis regional science-fiction convention Archon, but they’d attend Archon if they knew other Doctor Who fans and programming would be
there.
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| Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor |
But what’s a classic children’s tale got to do with being a Doctor Who fan and a regional science
fiction convention? Hang in there, and I’ll try to tie in the analogy the best
that I can.
Archon isn’t the largest annual sci-fi convention in the US,
but it has been around the block for quite a few years now—thirty-six years
to be exact. It has hosted literary, artist, performing/filking and media
guests. For purposes of this blog I’ll concentrate on Archon’s media guests. The
fans have turned out in large numbers to see and hear these media guests give talks
and presentations. The fans have waited in long lines for autographs and
photographs. The fans have generally had a good time at Archon discussing and
sharing their love of a particular media guest and/or the movie/TV series
franchise he/she represents. In recent times Archon has hosted media guests
such as multi-talented voice actor Billy West (Futurama) as well as the gang of Cinematic Titanic, featuring many of the original cast of the cult
favorite Mystery Science Theater 3000.
(This year’s media guest just added to
the bottom of the list: Gil Gerard. You remember him from the 1970s TV show Buck
Rogers, don’t you?)
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| Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor with Amy Pond |
With so many wonderful media guests in its past, a sci-fi
buff might assume that Archon is not against inviting media guests to their
convention, right? But it has come to my attention recently that Archon does
not seem interested in hosting a media guest connected to the worldwide
phenomenon known as Doctor Who. Why
is this the case? I haven’t a clue, but perhaps you and your like-minded
friends can help us find out why Archon doesn’t jump on this opportunity to
cash in on the popularity of the world’s longest running science fiction TV franchise.
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| Our wedding cake shaped like a TARDIS |
I use the term worldwide
phenomenon on purpose, for in spite of its origins at the BBC,the
television series now plays on BBC America as well as on various PBS stations
throughout the US.
Doctor Who and its spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures have broken the chains of being cult TV
shows from Great Britain
to become American sci-fi favorites with regular viewers in the many millions
on a weekly basis. The DVDs, audio plays, books, graphic novels and other related
products can be found in Best Buy as
well as your local comic book stores. You could even say it’s given the Star Trek franchise a run for its money.
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| Producer and writer Steven Moffat |
I’m painting this picture so even if you’re not familiar
with the series that you will still see how a media guest from the Doctor Who universe would appeal to many
science fiction fans and not just a tiny handful living on a dust mote resting
atop of a wildflower. Many Who fans would
be willing to travel to the St. Louis
area and pay the Archon membership fees to see these Doctor Who media guests. More memberships to the convention
sold—more money for Archon to host even bigger and better conventions in the
future. A win-win situation.
Here’s where the Horton
Hears a Who analogy comes into
play: It has come to my attention that several Doctor Who connected media guests have actually expressed an
interest in attending Archon. Even better, these actors, producers and writers
of the series were willing to come for free if their travel expenses were
covered, and they’d be willing to travel from within the United
States, since they’d already be in the US
working on other projects.
Yes, that’s right. Who
media guests expressed a desire to attend Archon and were willing to do so for
the price of a domestic airline ticket. Increased sales of Archon memberships
to fans who’d love to see a Doctor Who
media guest would surely cover the price of an airline ticket, right?
The names of Doctor Who
media guests who have voiced an interest in attending Archon? Hold onto your
hats, folks:
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| John Barrowman as Captain Jack |
John Barrowman, Steven Moffat, and Alex Kingston.
Are you able to peel yourself off the floor now?
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| Alex Kingston as Riversong |
Yes, Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood fame, the current producer/head writer of Doctor Who, and the vivacious Riversong
who played a pivotal role in last season’s story arc all wanted to travel to St.
Louis and meet the fans here in the middle of the
country. But, somehow, they were turned away or simply ignored by Archon
representatives.
Fortunately for fans with lots of money and vacation time,
Barrowman and Moffat recently attended Comic-Con in San Diego,
and many of the Torchwood crew will
be at Dragon Con in Atlanta later
this year. These mega-sized sci-fi conventions will benefit from the crowds Who media guests will draw. Alas, those
of us who can’t afford to attend far away mega-cons are out of luck.
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| My novel about Doctor Who fans who meet a mysterious stranger... |
Here’s the call to action: If the BBC is still willing to send a Doctor Who media guest to Archon in the future, would you be
interested in attending and supporting the con with your membership? If you
are, please consider joining with the
local Who fan club, the St Louis CIA, in
signing a petition, sending an email, or letter to the Archon committee
expressing your support for Doctor Who
media guests. This link takes you to Archon's contacts info page. Please be polite and to the point in your communications. If you
have any other ideas on how to bring Who
media guests to Archon, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.
The original Star Trek
fans were able to bring their beloved program back on the air back in the late 60s, so perhaps
a letter writing campaign can demonstrate to the Archon powers-that-be that we
aren’t invisible, dust-mote-dwelling denizens. We are many, and we have
supporters like Horton who aren’t afraid of helping us to make our voices
heard.
Let’s shout together as Doctor
Who fans, “We are here! We are here! We are here!”
