It amuses me that, as I was prepping content for this post, I looked back through my blog and realized that, almost exactly a year ago, I was writing another catch-up post about attending the 2022 version of this same convention. Hey, I’ll take the consistency! 🙂

AnyWHO (am I hilarious today or what??), here I am again, catching you up about a lil’ trip I take most years, so it almost feels superfluous to write about. Almost, but not quite. 🙂 Yes, that’s right, it’s my annual trip to glamorous Lombard, Illinois to attend the Chicago TARDIS Doctor Who convention. In a change from last year though, this time I didn’t road trip there from home in the Twin Cities, but rather from my in-laws house in central Wisconsin, where I’d been for Thanksgiving. I did once again go with my friend Bill though, but this time he did the driving, swinging through Wisconsin as it’s (kind of) on the way to Lombard anyway. As I think about all the times I’ve gone to this convention, I’m slightly bemused by the ways I’ve gotten there over the years. I’ve driven from home, I’ve driven (and been driven from) Wisconsin, I’ve flown from home, and one year I even flew there directly from a UK trip! Thankfully though, ALL of those trips have been easy and uneventful and this one was no different. I’m not sure I’ve ever had the privilege of being a passenger though, thus freeing me from all driving responsibility, so that was nice. Thanks for making that happen, Bill!

We didn’t actually get to the convention until mid-afternoon on Friday, which is later than normal, so I had to quickly dump my stuff and get to my convention duties of working with the delightful Janet Fielding. Although I’ve met her a number of times, I’d never worked directly with her as a liaison, but I was happy to do so this year, especially knowing she plays one of my favorite characters from my favorite TV show. Lucky me! 🙂

This was the first convention that “came back” after the pandemic, hosting an in-person event as normal in November 2021, after skipping November 2020 for obvious reasons. That 2021 convention was VERY sparsely attended (understandably!), but I was happy when the 2022 even was more robustly populated. I was hoping the trend would continue in 2023 and thankfully, it did! I don’t recall hearing exactly how many people attended, but you’ll see some bigger crowds in the photos below. I’m sure it also helped that three actors who played the Doctor were guests this time and usually having just one of them gets more people to attend, so I’m sure having three there was even better.

As for my own experience, the weekend was kind of low-key, but still fun. Although I, as usual, didn’t attend many panels, I did see bits of several of them, especially panels my friends were part of. Speaking of which, several of my friends were there, as always, so we spent plenty of time hanging out, plus we had the added bonus of getting to watch NEW Doctor Who on the Saturday night of the convention. The show isn’t normally airing in November, but THIS November happened to be the show’s 60th anniversary, so we got some new episodes to enjoy, including one the weekend of the convention. It was fun to watch it in my room with several friends and then debrief it afterwards! That’s when conventions can be really fun – when you just geek out with your fellow nerds. 🙂

And speaking of geeking, why not geek out to a few photos from the weekend?

In the green room, getting guests ready to go on stage for the opening ceremony. And then those same guests on the main stage!

A panel with two friends as panelists, plus another friend commenting from the audience.

A couple of Saturday morning photos, one in the artists’ area and another of a TARDIS in the hallway. Love a hallway TARDIS. 🙂

Stopping in to see a few minutes of some main stage panels, both featuring actors who played companions to various Doctors.

We had just arrived for Janet’s Saturday autograph session and she was waiting ever so patiently for convention volunteers to bring in the folks who had been waiting for her. Very shortly after, she had the line on the right!

In this panel, there was no interviewer, but rather Janet and Peter (who worked together for nearly their entire time on Doctor Who) had to “interview” each other. They were comically confused by this, so they called Steve on stage, as he does all the programming for the convention, so they could “thank” him properly. 🙂

While Janet had her photo sessions, I of course took some photos of my own.

Dalek Alley is where several Daleks get parked for the weekend (though they certainly make their way around the convention, too!) and I always take a couple photos of them.

I sat in on a couple of smaller panels, both featuring my friend Stacey. On the left, she’s interviewing Carole Ann Ford, who was on the show when it first started, back in 1963! On the right, she and other panelists are talking about Outside In, a book series she edits.

Scenes from two more main stage panels, featuring Doctors, companions, and actors from audio adventures. Have I mentioned there’s a LOT of Doctor Who content out there??

Another requirement at most any convention I go to is to get a selfie with any available TARDIS, so naturally I did that again this year.

And last but not least, I always have to highlight the professional photos I get taken at the convention. Huge thanks to the staff of Chicago TARDIS for allowing those of us who give up our time to volunteer over the weekend the chance to get photos with some of the guests. I’ve never been into collecting autographs, but I love a photo, so I always appreciate the chance to interact with guests like this, even if it’s just for a few moments.

A couple of photos with Carole Ann Ford, both on my own and with my friends Felicity and Ruth Ann. After not seeing Ruth Ann for a couple of years, I was so glad she was able to attend again!

One of the big benefits of this guest lineup is that several of them are from my favorite era of the show! So here’s me with MY Doctor and two of his companions.

As usual, it was all over too quickly and Monday morning soon arrived and, with it, the journey back home (all the way back to MN this time, not just to WI). We got back by mid-afternoon or so, with another convention behind us and another couple in the near future (more on one of those in an upcoming post). In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed reading about this one!