July 20th
Northumbria Univeristy
Newcastle upon Tyne
The Conference Day One
So the whole reason for this trip being taken now was that I was attending an academic conference about British Telefantasy at Northumbria University. I started the day with a fire alarm in the hostel because of someone burning toast although no one cared about a possible fire and just simply went back to sleep. However the noise was so loud that I rushed to get out the door and in my haste forgot my umbrella and this was the one day it decided to rain. I walked to a nearby cafe which I had passed the day before that had coffee from the Pacific Northwest! I was super excited just like I am whenever a pass a Portland Food in London on on a street called Portland. I did have any coffee but settled for tea and a blueberry muffin. I had a bit of trouble finding the university. I had directions which were crap but thankfully they're were maps on site so I finally made it soaking wet. I sat down next to this guy who it turned out was giving a paper the next day so we got to talking which was nice and unusual for me. We complained about the organization of the conference as registration was at 9am and there was no one there early to put up signs of where to go or anything.
Finally someone came round and led us downstairs. By that time there was about 10-15 of us so half of the group went down in the first elevator with the guide and the rest of us got into the second elevator which was our mistake. We pressed the button went down where the doors refused to open. Normally I'm okay in elevators but not for a long period of time and we had a lot of people in the elevator with us. There were jokes made which eased some of the tension. We tried pressing the emergency button which did nothing but set off a high pitched noise which was deafening. After about 10 mins the doors finally decided to open.
I got registered and then went to the bathroom because now I could properly freak out. A lady in the bathroom asked if I was stressed. It didn't help that I was extremely red from the sunburn.
The conference started with an introduction followed by a keynote speech by Stacey Abbot on the horror legacy of Nigel Kneale. It was quite intriguing talking about uncanny haunting happening not in haunted houses but in ordinary locations where monsters shouldn't be.
Then it was time for the first round of panels. I went to the seconded panel 'The Changing Face of Doctor Who: Regeneration, Power and Culture.' There were four presenters, two of which were from Warwick. Tom Steward talked about Doctor Who and history. Julian Chambliss from Rollins College in the US talked about Doctor Who as a superhero which I think he made a good case for however he also trued to link the success of Doctor Who in the US to what was going on historically in the US in the 1970s. I don't think he provided enough evidence to prove his point and actually ended up discussing it with someone else who agreed with me the next day. Doctor Who first reached the US with Tom Baker but it wasn't an instant success and even the TV movie which was co-produced in the US failed to spark a substantial interest. I would argue only more recently has it made a bigger impact of American culture, two recent shows (Leverage and Eureka) have mentioned Doctor Who and with it showing on BBC America it's more available than it was before on PBS where not every station had the same stories or even complete stories. So I had a problem with his paper but it was still good. Nicolas Pillai talked about John Pertwee the third doctor and name dropping of major figures of Earth's history and finally Claire Jenkins talked about the new doctors and masculinity which I found very interesting given my own research interests.
The first panels were followed by lunch and then I went to the third panel 'Reception and Performance.' Rebecca Williams talked about John Barrowman and his position as a localebrity but it was very evident that she like many in the room dislike Barrowman. I hadn't realized there was a large group of people who hate him. I love him so it was a little hard to take Williams seriously especially because there was a lot of value judgement going on (and I've had conversations about this previously). I just don't know how much value judgement has in an academic setting or why you would choose to study something you hate. I enjoy the shows I'm working on but I'm already getting a little tired of them and I started out really liking them. I can't imagine starting with something or someone I didn't like. Mark Richard Adams discussed fan producers and merchandising and Denzell Richards talked about putting Doctor Who on DVD and problems with restoration. Richard Hewett rounded out the panel by talking about performance in Survivors, again I don't think he choose very good examples for his points but I also have never seen or really heard of Survivors before.
We had a nice break with tea and coffee and the last panel section of the day.
I went to Panel seven 'As English as a Cup of Tea? National Identity and Traditions in Doctor Who and its Spin-offs.' Unfortunately Matt Hills who teaches at Cardiff and I was eager to meet couldn't make it so we only had three papers. Tony Keen discussed the origins of Doctor Who outside of Quatermass which everyone attributes it to. He talked about American influence in the show. What was really funny was he talked about an ABC drama that then during the Q&A Julian, from the first panel, though he was talking about the American Broadcasting Company when in reality he was talking about the Associated British Corporation which I knew making me feel a little knowledgeable. Melissa Beattie an American studying at Cardiff discussed Welsh identity in connection to Torchwood. I didn't like her approach to her presentation. She didn't have a script to read from and so I felt like her point wasn't very clear, especially when one only has 15 mins. David Budgen talked about Doctor Who and the representation of the first world war which I found really intriguing as I think those episodes are some of the best. He was analyzing the types of images of the war as common knowledge and memory and pointed to the fact that most of the people from the war are gone or are soon to be gone. The memory will be wiped much like the Doctor's in the episodes.
There was another keynote address from Peter Wright about 'BBC's adaptation of Peter Dickinson's Changes Trilogy.' It was a good presentation but once again I had not heard of the Changes and knew nothing about it so I was a little lost but Wright's presentation was easy to follow. There was a wine reception and book launch of 'British Science Fiction Film and Television: Critical Essays.' I felt a little out of place until I started talking to this girl from Glasgow who was giving a paper the next day and through her I met two other women who were all giving papers the next day. Two of them, including the one from Glasgow went home to finish their papers but the woman from Edinburgh and I went to the screening of Ghostwatch.
I hadn't heard of Ghostwatch so I hadn't realized what it was or knew anything about it like the controversy that grew up around it but the writer Stephen Volk was there and answered some questions. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it.
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