Full disclosure: sitting on the sidewalk for 13+ hours? It’s really uncomfortable. The sidewalk is hard. It’s dirty. You get dirt under your nails, even if you brought a blanket or cushion to recline on. Sitting close to a dumpster does nothing to help the view. (Although my fellow Whovians did manage to spice things up a bit, as you can see in the picture to the right. A dumpster featuring “BAD WOLF” is suddenly much cooler than you ever thought a dumpster was capable of being.)
Some people were smarter. Some people had the surrounding fans hold their place in line briefly while they ran off to buy chairs. Those people are Vic Izzary and Dave Thomas, who were much more comfortable than most people in the line from there onward.
And then we decorated the chairs the only way that made sense.
What was your first exposure to Doctor Who?
Dave: Seeing Tom Baker on PBS in 1978.
Vic: Yeah, he’s responsible for my first experience.
And what was that?
Vic: That was off the internet, it was the one with Madame de Pompadour.
Dave: Right, I brought “The Girl in the Fireplace” over to his house on DVD.
Vic: It wasn’t a DVD, you burned it off the internet.
Dave: Oohhh….
Vic: It was a really bad copy and we watched it on a computer. And I was riveted.
Dave: We watched the [Doctor Who] Confidential too.
What other types of science fiction and fantasy do you enjoy?
Dave: I like the big, bombastic explosion-y type. I like the superhero oriented stories. To be honest, I like the more cerebral type of shows too. I get a little lost when it’s every week after week and you’ve gotta keep up with it. But for me, I definitely go for more superhero-type things. Spider-Man….
Vic: Yeah, I’m a straight-up Marvel and DC [Comics] nerd. Big time.
Favorite Doctor?
Dave: Two.
Vic: Ten.
Favorite companion?
Dave: Sarah Jane.
Vic: Rose.
(Note: I would like to point out that Vic stopped me at the end of the night and said, “No, I admit it: my favorite companion is Donna!” A gentleman is allowed to change his mind.)
How about favorite villains?
Dave: The villain in “City of Death,” I can’t remember his name… Scaroth!
Vic: Pass.
Is there anything you would like to see them do on the show that they haven’t done?
Vic: They always come up with stuff they haven’t done yet before I can.
Dave: A real multi-Doctor story.
What is something that you like about Doctor Who that you think might not be as popular with other fans?
Dave: For me, it’s in the old version of Doctor Who, I love the bad special effects. The wobbly sets. It adds to the charm.
Vic: I actually like that it’s shot in a residential kind of suburban area. And so every shot kind of looks like it’s in a small town. Cardiff has an “everywhere” look to it, like it could literally be any city, in any town in the world. And I like that because the middle class is everywhere in the world.
(Dave is a writer and blogs for emoviebooks.com. You can also find him on Twitter here.)
Emmet Asher-Perrin actually spent most of that day standing, so the sidewalk lost that round. (Well, maybe her feet lost that round.) You can bug her on Twitter and read more of her work here and elsewhere.
