The Gallifreyan Newsroom has just returned home after an extraordinary weekend at The Doctor Who festival in London’s Excel centre.

We arrived on a very rainy Saturday morning and immediately did what us Brits do best, join a queue, it was massive too, made up from people of all ages and levels of fandom and indeed countries, I chatted with a young lady who had come over from Germany for this festival.  Some were dressed in everyday clothes, (including me I should add) but some were Cosplayers and very good they were too.  The level of detail that I saw was amazing.  Amongst the standouts were Missy (she was very popular with the Cosplayers and the fourth doctor’s costume.

I met up with two friends of mine, Gavin and Alex.  I had arrived just before them, so I was already in the queue.  I was wondering how on earth we were going to find each other amidst the throng, however Gavin is 6 foot 2 tall, so this issue wasn’t so insurmountable after all. Once we gained entrance into the festival we were given our lanyard at the end of which was ticket. Once we had been given this we were off!  The festival was split into two streams “Dalek” and “Cyberman” this was largely designed to phase people though the venue to avoid everyone arriving at the same point, at the same time.

Our first port of call at 9.45am was ”The Impossible Worlds” presentation. This was a fascinating talk with Stephen Nicholas and Mike Tucker the writers of a book of the same name. Mike of course will be well known to fans of the classic series and new series alike. Stephen has worked on the series since 2004 when new series went back into production. I asked Stephen a question about the current shape of the TARDIS compared with the look and dimensions of its classic counterpart?

He told me that they wanted the new TARDIS prop to be more of a box shape. He then went into great detail on the pains they went through the get the paint colour and texturing was just right. In short these people are hugely talented and the level of detail and thought that goes into the production is outstanding.

Mike Tucker was asked about the TARDIS interior, which of course has changed massively since the classic series days. Back then, he told the audience, the BBC television centre (which, for the most part, is where Doctor Who was filmed) didn’t allow for any “standing sets”.

That is to say, that no sets were permanent, they were put up and taken down after each recording session. The same studio may be used for Top of the Pops or Grandstand before Doctor Who, which accounts for why the TARDIS set was in such a poor state of repair during the latter Sylvester McCoy era. However since 2005 the TARDIS interior has been a permanent fixture, which saves time and therefore money putting it up and down for each recording session.

During the session photos and pages from their book were being put up onto the large video screen to illustrate their talk. I would heartily recommend this book for fans of all ages and in particular if you have an interest in art and design.

After this session had ended we had some time to look around all the many stalls and stands present at the festival. All the old favourites were there, Doctor Who Magazine, This Planet Earth, and BBC Store to name just a few. I did see some very fetching Doctor Who Christmas jumpers being sported around the place, so I think I may need to purchase one soon, in time for the festive period, not to mention our Christmas jumper day at work, which is coming up soon.

I was really impressed with all the various sets that were on show and available to look around. One highlight for me was Davros’s lair which we saw during the Witches Familiar. We were able to enter through those famous Dalek 1960s shaped corridors, at the end of which we saw Davros in his chair surrounded by all the connecting wires leading to his life support system. Other highlights from this area was Clara’s living room, and a snowy “set up” with the TARIDS, where you could have your photo taken whilst the visual effects people shower you with fake BBC “snow”

Those very clever folk from Millennium Effects were also on stage demonstrating their art.  This presentation was moderated by Mark Gatiss. On stage were two of their computer designers, one working in 3D, the other working in 2D.  Their challenge was to create, from scratch a concept design, render it, and show it to the audience at the end of the session.

The Mire made a dramatic appearance on stage, before taking off his head revealing the actor inside the costume.  The designers explained that, the brief for this particular costume was that it should give the impression of a very heavy solid and protective armour.  However in actuality the costume was very light weight in construction, much to the delight of the poor actor inside.  On a table in front of the presenters was an Ice Warrior head, which a member of the audience was invited to wear on the stage.  Before the head was put on some guidance was given on how to walk as an Ice Warrior, making each step seem very heavy and deliberate.

Mark Gatiss described some of the processes that he went through during the making of “The Lazarus Experiment”.  The layering of prosthetics and ageing makeup which, once applied, really forced him to adopt the posture of the age he was supposed to be. He remembers reading a book and somehow forgetting that all this make-up had been applied to his face, and getting something of a shock looking in the mirror at his older self.

Also on stage during this set was our very first look at The Sandman, who at this time hadn’t been seen on television, this being some hours before “Sleep No More” had aired, so that was a real treat.  Mr Sweet from Crimson Horror was also in attendance, and for the first time we were able to see all the cables and little pumps that animated this little creature.

Our next big panel presentation was “Meet The Writers” which was moderated by Mathew Sweet (who will be familiar to listeners of Big Finish, as the writer of several of their stories) Steven Moffat lead the line-up and was joined by Peter Harness (Kill The Moon, The Zygon Invasion / Inversion and Sarah Dollard, a new writer to Doctor Who, who has written ”Face The Raven” (formally known as “Trap Street” in early drafts) This was a very interesting discussion with all the writers giving us insights into their own individual styles of writing and their own very unique techniques of transferring their ideas from their head onto paper and then to transfer that into a form that the actors can perform.

Each person, Steven Moffat in particular went into great detail about what happens when writers hit the dreaded “writers block” In his own words he confided to the assembled audience that the main reason why this happens for him, is that something has gone “wrong” with his prose at some point, thus bringing the narrative to a complete halt. He then went on to explain the process of either starting again with a page one re-write or at the very least unpicking the story to find where it had lost its way. One little technique, which was taken from the Doctor Who official programme, is that Steven always stands up to write when he is coming to the end of a script, such is his excitement and enthusiasm.

Of course many of the audience wanted to ask questions, a popular topic was how to get into writing. In the main the answers given were really uncomplicated. A person needs to “really want to write” and “there are no real barriers other than our own imagination and ability to convey that on paper and to keep on doing it, even though rejections will be common place.
Another question, and one that was asked on more than one panel was, “What Doctor Who story, from the missing episodes, would you like to see returned the most. Both Peter Harness and Steven Moffat opted for “The Power of the Daleks”. Steven’s reason was, that as a writer, he has had to write opening stories for two doctors, namely Matt Smith and Peter Capalidi, however he would love to see how David Whitaker set about the almost impossible task i.e. how to write for a new doctor for the very first time. Sarah Dollard, not being so steeped in the history of Doctor Who wasn’t able to come up with an answer for this one.

Once this presentation was over we stayed in our seats, as the next panel was the big one, the one everybody had been waiting for, “Meet The Cast” which starred Jenna Coleman, Michele Gomez, Ingrid Oliver and the twelfth doctor himself Peter Capaldi. I have to admit, dear reader, to feeling just a tad bit emotional when our host, Toby Hadoke announced them onto the stage. Clearly I was not alone in this as lots of members of the audience made the point before asking their questions and in the words of one young person, I can’t believe that I am speaking, and you are listing, to me” and that was the sentiment echoed by many people.

Each member of the panel were so entertaining and all were very vocal in saying how sorry they are that Jenna Coleman has decided to move on from Doctor Who. One audience member asked the panel which former companion they would most like to see return to the series and as one, they all replied Clara. One young girl was so sad to see Clara leave she had put together a scrapbook dedicated to her hero and presented it to Jenna during the session, a moment I’m sure neither of them will ever forget, Jenna was visibly moved by this. Steven Moffat made the point on a number of occasions that it still hurts being “dumped” said in the style of someone braking off a relationship, which I suppose it is in strange kind of way. Although it was said with a certain twinkle in his eye, one can’t help but wonder whether there was any truth behind this? I suspect a little.

When asked that perennial old question “what’s your favourite story” Steven Moffat skilfully dodged this, by saying, “that really long story, you know, which started with An Unearthly Child and ended with whatever the current episode is. Peter was similarly coy about his favourite story too, however he did make the point that his favourites do tend to change over time, but “Evil of the Daleks” did get a mention in the mix, so we will run with that for the time being.

Michele Gomez was asked whether she had looked at previous incarnations of The Master and did she take anything from the past into her current role? She claimed that she hasn’t watched anything as she didn’t want to feel in any way intimidated by the past, something she confessed she was feeling on stage answering questions from audience members who, clearly had far more knowledge about The Master’s back-story than she has.

A burning issue, which I’m sure more than one person was thinking about concerned who the new companion might be. Would he be male, would she be female OR have we already met this person (cough Osgood cough) Steven was quite rightly guarded about answering this question, however, The Gallifreyan Newsroom can exclusively reveal that whoever it is, they will be new into the series, a fresh start, which refreshes the series anew.

The whole Doctor Who festival was very well organised, very polished as one would expect from the BBC and by the look of everyone I met, an event that everyone enjoyed. Once this festival wraps, which at time of writing is now (Sunday November 15th 2015) they pack up and fly to Australia. Their festival begins on the 21st of November.

As something of a curtain raiser, I was invited to report on both our festival and to look forward to the Australian festival by ABC local radio presenter Rhianna Patrick. We had an excellent interview live on the radio this morning, (evening in OZ (where I was able to convey some of the highlights of the UK event and give the listeners a little flavour of what they can expect next week.