I have always loved science fiction – and I am very happy to put my hand up to being a card-carrying fan of Star Trek and all its various guises. So along with the geeks, gamers and sci-fi fans of Auckland we attended Armageddon…
I have always loved science fiction and I am very happy to put my hand up to being a card-carrying fan of Star Trek and all its various guises. I have watched every series ever made, from the original series (there were only ever approximately 79 episodes made over three seasons) to the animated one (who remembers that?) to all the various spin-offs of which there are at least four.
I also love animated films and will watch almost anything as long as it isn’t crap. I also loved the original series of Dr Who – I spent many evenings as a 10 year old hiding behind the sofa half watching the scary bits (generally when the daleks arrived). I loved its slightly camp cheesy-ness, and the fact that you just knew it was all made up because you could tell the cybermen just had tinfoil over them, and the daleks only seemed to appear on flat surfaces as their crappy wheels wouldn’t let them go up hills.
Somehow I appear to have passed on this love of these things to my children.
And they are the reason I finally, after fifteen years of pretending I am not a geek, got to go to Armageddon.
I have a 13 year old daughter who is fascinated with the collected works of Tim Burton especially Edward Scissorhands. She is completely obsessed with the anime films of Hayao Miyazaki, her favourite being My Neighbour Totaro (the character recently made an appearance in the last Toy Story 3 movie – just some geek trivia for you).
My 11-year-old son couldn’t be more devoted to the Dr Who series if he tried. He has been known to start conversations with complete strangers with the question ‘Who is your favourite Doctor?’ My youngest son (who is seven) rounds the picture out with quiet obsessions with Pokémon, the original Disney movie ‘Tron’ and the first three Star Wars movies (he refuses to watch the subsequent films – that boy definitely has taste). As a family, we couldn’t be more geeky if we tried.
I had, I have to say, expected the place to be full of obsessive, socially awkward spotty males. But boy was I ever wrong! The first thing that struck us (other than how much WONDERFUL Dr Who stuff there was to buy) was how young everyone was, how many females there were, and how many people were dressed up.
Unsure of how dressed up they could be, my kids played it a little cool this year; my son wore his Dr Who scarf and took his ‘sonic screwdriver,’ Dr Who’s weapon of choice. I think next year there will be some serious thought into costume choices – in fact this the topic of choice in the car on the way home!
I can’t even begin to tell you what stuff is available to watch, listen, experience and buy. It is just so vast! We were given the great tip to arrive early on the first day so we were there at 8.30 and ready and waiting to go through with the first wave at 9am sharp. We got to have a good look at all the merchandise for sale and all the many props and collections of the various fan clubs that were present during the day.
There was a lot of stuff I recognised, but what surprised me was how much stuff I didn’t! Lots and lots of anime, graphic novels and gaming that I had no idea about. But that didn’t make it any less interesting.
The best parts of the day were the more interactive parts. There was a huge range of actors, animators, and designers present for the weekend.
My son told me at the end of the day that he seriously thought that it might have been the best day of his life! He got to meet TWO Doctors (of the 11 Doctors there have been so far), Sylvester McCoy (7th Doctor and last in the what I would call ‘original’ BBC series Doctors) and Paul McGann (8th Doctor who only was in one film which was a flawed experiment with the US). And one Companion, the actor Sophie Aldred, who played the feisty ‘Ace’ with Sylvester McCoy’s 7th Doctor. They were all charming and easy with the many children (and slightly star struck parents – that Paul McGann is simply gorgeous!) and signed photographs for free and chatted to the children. Many of the children were not even born when the programmes/films were made, but it is certainly a mark of their enduring watchability that 30 years later, children still adore then.
My only complaint about the whole weekend was the fact that we waited (as staff told us) for 40 minutes for signings, only to be told they were elsewhere. Then to come back which we did – and waited for easily another 40 minutes (this with 3 squirmy children – and by then a very grumpy husband), only to be told when we were 10 people away that they were closing the signings and to come back 4 hours later… I think not! I was very lucky that I spoke to the right person who managed to drag us into see the Doctors/Companion at the last minute. Disaster diverted! I would say to not be in a hurry to get anywhere over the weekend, and to try and go with a relaxed attitude. It helps!
The smallest child was then dispatched with his father off home – he managed to see every Star Wars thing available for the day.
I stayed on for another three hours to stay and see the discussion panel on Doctor Who later in the day. It was worth the wait – Sylvester McCoy is seriously funny and is a genuinely warm person who the crowd just loved.
My daughter and her friend Poppy met the nice people who run the Star Trek Fan Club who invited them to have fish and chips with them every Friday night and watch Star Trek episodes afterwards. My son discovered that there is a free Dr Who fan club as well. He seriously couldn’t be happier.
I am thrilled to discover that geek is looking tremendously OK, from the Star Trek to Star Wars, from Big Bang Theory to Firefly, from Pokemon to Naruto, from Yu-Gi-Oh to Magic-The Gathering and from Marvel to DC.
I hope you enjoy all the photos that were taken by Madeleine Brighouse and Poppy Fill (both 13 years old).
By Anya Brighouse, 25 October 2010.
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