Capaldi,along with Ingrid Oliver – who plays the popular Zygon-fighter Osgood – and the wicked Master/Missy actor Michelle Gomez are heading downstairs to do a Q&A with the fans. I walk in the opposite direction,towards the alluring sounds of explosions. Between bangs,a BBC special effects team lets the punters stick their hands into jars of powders and crystals to make their own chemical reactions or to fiddle with a gruesomely severed arm made of rubber."Feel it!"urges SFX trainee Rowena Lewis."It's even got hairs in it!"We may live in a digital age,but rubber remains central to Doctor Who:it's still the best way to give someone a face that looks like a bunch of squid's tentacles.
Of course,there's acres of merchandise nearby:you can get anything from a pencil case to a made-to-order life-size working Dalek for £3400 ($7300). Replica overcoats,as worn by various Doctors,are literally walking off the rack – with fans inside them,obviously – which means that there are increasing numbers of Matt Smiths and David Tennants storming around the displays. But it's not only the recent Doctors who feature;the long knitted scarf worn by Tom Baker,the Fourth Doctor,is selling well at around £60 ($129). It's a bit like those specials – one for the 20th anniversary,one for the 50th – where all the past doctors joined forces. Doctors,doctors everywhere.
Some fans arrived already kitted out for the evening's cosplay competition;you can't help but notice Sarah Carey in her homemade replica of the villainous Missy's purple suit. Sarah seems to be moving rather stiffly as she poses for photos."Well,I'm wearing a corset,"she confides."I found out in an interview that Michelle Gomez wears one,so I thought it made sense."She made that corset herself using steel wires and is eager to tell anyone who will listen – me,in this instance – that she could make this stuff all day if someone gave her a chance."If I could get a job working onDoctor Who …"she sighs sweetly. She has been a fan,she says,ever since she can remember.
One of the striking things about the Doctor Who Festival,in fact,is that it's not all middle-aged men in bad jumpers who probably don't get out much. It's a school day,so there aren't so many children,but there are still a few families along with lots of mixed groups of students,retired folk up from the country,even gaggles of smartly dressed middle-aged women. Every so often a few of the delegates from the Acute and General Medicine trade fair in the next wing of the exhibition centre wander down our way,heads swivelling in amazement. It has to be more fun trying on a lizard mask than looking at the latest defibrillator.
"Most people start beingDoctor Who fans when they are children,"says Moffat."And to a great extent,the show still speaks to that part of you. It has a very particular place in the world in that it is the children's programme that is in no way suitable for children. It doesn't sit in the adult world either – we discuss terrorism and immigration and there's big red calamari in it."What is great,says Gatiss,is its sheer oddness."It's very British in that way."And,as Darren Hoey says with a giggle,"it's just so much fun."
One of the questions the cast are all asked the most,they say,is where they would go if they could get into a real TARDIS and go travelling through space and time. A couple nominate Ancient Rome,but mostly they just want to go back to a time when they were actually alive,but younger. Perhaps that's what we all want.
Michelle Gomez says she would like to back behind the couch with her twin brother again,watchingDoctor Who in a state of delicious terror."We were both obsessed. It's still vivid in my memory because it was really magical,"she remembers."My older brothers would come in and before you knew it there would be four kids there,all of very different ages. I think that is the only thing we did together. That nostalgia is still very much alive."And not just for wicked Missy,obviously:it seems like half of London has arrived at the ExCel centre,with many more expected over the weekend. Like I said,such is the power ofDoctor Who.
The First Official Australian Doctor Who Festival is being held at the Royal Hall of Industries&Hordern Pavilion on Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd November. Series 9 ofDoctor Who screens later this year. Tickets can be purchased atTicketek. Informationdoctorwho.tv.