Chicago TARDIS, the annual convention celebrating all things Doctor Who, will be getting together for the 25th time this coming Thanksgiving weekend at the Westin in Lombard.
It’s a perfect time for such a gathering. Thanksgiving, at its best, is about getting together with family and friends. Conventions like this are get-togethers for the de facto families people build around pop culture icons and heroes.
If you’re not familiar with Doctor Who, I will lather, rinse and repeat here. In the long-running BBC series Doctor Who, the title character travels through the ages, galaxies and universes in the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) – which somehow wound up stuck looking like an old fashioned British, blue police box on the outside.
The Doctor gets involved in all sorts of adventures. With the help of his companions, the Doctor typically saves folks somewhere, usually the Earth, from something bad.
The Doctor is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. The Doctor can regenerate, which is how they explain having 15 or so actors play the role.
Obfuscating, the Doctor has told people Gallifrey is a small town in Ireland. Which figures, since the Irish are known for spinning yarns.
My Best Fest Buddy Tom has been a big fan since WTTW in Chicago showed episodes starring Tom Baker as fourth Doctor, back in the 70s, 80s and beyond.
Tom has helped modeling and prototype master craftsman Clint Borucki from Acme Design in Elgin help put up a prop TARDIS a few times on Thanksgiving Eve, in advance of the Chicago TARDIS convention. It’s used there as a backdrop for people to take photos with guest Doctor Who celebrities.
I know it’s cornball, but I enjoy when I can arrange things like that, like I’m some sort of XXL Jiminy Cricket. Plus, it certainly feels like time flying when it’s time once again for Tom to go This Old House with Clint on the building project.
Anyway, to mark the 25th Chicago TARDIS I interviewed the man who started it, Gene Smith, and Taylor Deatherage, who helps run the event and who does its publicity.
Here’s what they had to say:
How did Chicago TARDIS start?
“I was planning to leave my corporate job that fall, and I opened the Alien Entertainment collectibles store in September of 1999. I knew a small event would work well but had to wait a year as there would be no time to promote it – the internet and social media was just getting going,” Smith said.
A lot of the staff and community members from the now-defunct Visions wanted to continue with a convention of some kind. Doctor Who seemed like the right fandom to carry this,” Deatherage said.
Visions was a Chicago-area convention back in the 1990s, produced by Bob McLaughlin, that focused on British television sci-fi/fantasy shows including Blake’s 7, Robin of Sherwood, Red Dwarf and Doctor Who.
Doctor Who wound up being canceled as a series back in 1990 (and came back rebooted in 2005). The show had such a following that the Visions event featured Jon Pertwee (the third Doctor) and Sylvester McCoy (the seventh Doctor) as the headliners. It was a big hit with fans and the place was packed, Smith recalled.
When Bob McLaughlin decided not to continue with Visions in 1999, it was clear that a convention was still wanted, not only by the staff but the fans.
So Smith reached out to actors he knew to invite them to his first Chicago TARDIS in November 2000
“We had Sylvester McCoy, Mary Tamm (who played Romana I, a travel companion during the Tom Baker era, circa 1978 – 79), and John Leeson (who voiced K9, the Doctor’s robot dog), plus Gary Russell (who edited a Doctor Who magazine in the early 1990s) and Jason Haigh-Ellery, who were just getting Big Finish (audio productions) off the ground,” Smith said.
The gathering drew about 400 guests and was off to a good start, he said.
What’s the largest number of attendees the convention has had?
Deatherage said that was 2013, which marked the 50th anniversary of the show’s debut on the BBC.
“I believe we were basically sold out, as the place was packed and autographs ran past their allotted time for several actors,” Smith said. “We had close to 2,500 attendees in total, I think, plus staff and actors. I don’t think we will top that anytime soon.”
What have been some of the Chicago TARDIS convention’s highlights for you over the years?
“Working inside the Chicago TARDIS is a dream come true for me. I’ve been a Doctor Who fan since the revival in 2005, and I plunged head-first into the fandom from day one,” Deatherage said. “Just seven years later, I would start working with Chicago TARDIS, and I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with many of my favorite Doctors, companions and creators from throughout the show’s history.”
Smith noted quite a few moments that stand out:
- The 40th Anniversary in 2003 with Colin Baker (the sixth Doctor).
- Having Paul McGann in 2004, who was not then doing conventions. McGann was the eighth Doctor, and he played the role in a 1996 TV movie. He had just done a UK event followed by Gallifrey One in LA and then Chicago TARDIS.
- Eric Roberts and his wife Eliza in 2008 tried so hard to get to Chicago from Eastern Europe. Roberts had just wrapped filming, where they got hit with a massive snow storm. After more than 30 hours in the commuting system, going through multiple countries the couple arrived with only the clothes on their backs and no luggage. Roberts had a big red stain all over the front of his shirt from the tomato juice that was spilled on him during his trek (Roberts played the Doctor’s arch nemesis, The Master, in the 1996 TV movie.)
- Getting Elisabeth Sladen was huge in 2008 as she was the star of her own show The Sarah Jane Adventures. Sarah Jane traveled with the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker incarnations of the Doctor.
- Pearl Mackie (who played Bill Potts when Peter Capaldi was the 12th Doctor) and Tony Curran (who played VanGogh in an episode) hung out at a karaoke party with fans until 4am in 2018. Smith said he was fast asleep then, but was told about it the next morning when Mackie was late to her 10 a.m. photo session for fans. Mackie and Curran took part in the afterparty on their own. “They finished with the evening party at 9 p.m. and just stayed. Super cool,” Smith said.
- In 2023, Chicago TARDIS hosted Rachel Talalay (director of the Star Beast episode that was to air on the Saturday of the convention) and Carole Ann Ford (who played Doctor Who companion Susan Foreman during the initial version of the series), who had not been to Chicago since the Visions convention days.
What are some of the biggest challenges of producing this event?
“The balance of what people have on their ‘wish list’ and what is possible for us to give to them being a ‘by fans, for fans’ convention,” Deatherage said. “The convention landscape has changed so much since we started as an event, and some people are used to big comic cons where the limitations of a smaller convention do not exist. We strive to give them all we can for the event we are.”
Smith said rising costs are the biggest issue.
“I come from the days when autographs were free to attendees, or a low amount to pay for the photo, and we kept that going until 2007, way past many other events,” Smith said.
Around 2012 Wizard World, now a defunct company, started offering crazy amounts of money to actors. Some were getting $150,000 and up for one day’s work, Smith said, and agents ever since have pushed for more and more.
“As a small event, those prices are unaffordable – but we do find ways to work with many actors that will accept a fair amount,” Smith said.
What do you think the keys have been to keeping the convention going?
Deatherage said continuous community outreach to people of all kinds has been the key to the Chicago TARDIS longevity.
“Doctor Who fandom is extremely diverse in many ways. When you have a 60-year-old TV show and now multimedia fandom, generations of people will be attached to it. Whether or not you watched from the beginning, caught the show on PBS during the classic run when it was first airing in the US, found the books and Big Finish during the wilderness years, or started watching during the 2005 revival – and beyond – new people are pouring into the fandom all the time. Making space for them is key,” she said.
Smith said the keys to the convention’s staying power have been keeping it fresh.
“Finding new guests is always a challenge as there are quite a few people that are looking for the guest experience while others want to just hang out with their ‘Who’ friends and have fun,” Smith said. “Chicago TARDIS is a fan-run convention backed by a business which allows the type of programming we have and the number of guests we get to attend without someone losing their shirt or house if things do not go well. It is the volunteer fans that help create all the different programming we have, without this being an autograph/photo op and dealer room only type of event, like so many conventions are these days.”
What are you looking forward to at this year’s gathering?
“Our guest list is excellent,” Deatherage said. “We have the inDoctornated documentary world premiere happening during the con too, and we’re holding a costume-encouraged, go-all-out ball on Saturday night. That’s just a small portion of what will be in store for the weekend. I’m honestly looking forward to it all.”
Smith said he’s looking forward to just making sure everything runs smoothly behind the scenes.
“Iif no one sees a problem then I’ve done my part. We have a strong lineup, so I think people will get to see some of the guests they want from both classic and modern ‘Who,’ plus a boatload of other programming as well as meeting and making friends.”
Where do you see Chicago TARDIS going beyond 2024?
“We’re going to keep putting the convention on as long as there’s a community around us and enthusiasm for Doctor Who as a fandom,” Deatherage said.
“I personally plan to do a few more, as all good things come to an end,” Smith said. “I am over 60 now, but the future is being prepared for so this can continue. We have many younger people involved now that will bring new ideas into the mix and carry on.”
What do you enjoy about putting on Chicago TARDIS?
“I love being in the community, seeing people I might only see once a year, and seeing the joy and excitement they experience during the convention,” Deatherage said.
“Taylor said it perfectly,” Smith said.
