I have attended the Chicago TARDIS convention five times before. I have met three Doctors (Peter Davison, Colin Baker twice, and Sylvester McCoy), a bunch of writers and a bunch of companions (including the two best ever, Lis Sladen and Sophie Aldred). I have attended a bunch of the talks, accidentally walked into a Sunday brunch, and gotten a photo of me and Colin Baker that forever reminds me of the time I decided that a handlebar mustache was a good call.
I first attended in 2003 when it was a small convention and have seen it grow into a pretty decent sized convention, but I have not attended in a few years because I work a part-time retail job and they frown on letting you have Thanksgiving weekend off. I managed to arrange it so that I could work late and head down for the day. The reason I needed to head down this year? Billie Piper was there.
Billie Piper is one of my Who holy grail autographs. She is the companion in my favorite season of the new series (season 1) and she's not very common. For new series companions, Catherine Tate is probably a harder autograph to get, but I also actively hated her season of the show so I can live without her. Aside from Peter Capaldi and the Paternoster Gang (and I missed one of the three at CT 2013), Billie is right at the top of my want list.
So what is Josh Hartnett's fault? Well, if you would have asked me back in June what I would have Billie sign, it would have been the 10th Doctor/Rose photo that I have signed by David Tennant. Or maybe the Doctor Who Magazine series 1 poster signed by Simon Pegg and Russell T Davies. But that all changed in July when we went to Comic Con. My friend Mark and I took the same cast photo from Penny Dreadful (the new show Billie Piper is on) and we were lucky enough to get the attending cast to sign. Among them was Josh Hartnett who signed across Billie on the photo and then jokingly said to Mark 'it doesn't matter, you'll never get her anyway. She hates these things.' So a couple of weeks later when the TARDIS announced she would be there, I knew I would have to be there to prove Josh wrong.
I couldn't find anyone to go along because of work schedules or plain not wanting to go to Chicago on Black Friday, so I headed down alone. Not too long ago, I would have been nervous about going alone but I wasn't nervous in the slightest. It was a nice car ride down listening to a Big Finish Paul McGann audio adventure, and I rolled in around noon. I regret getting down there so late because Deborah Watling was signing and I missed it. I have autographs from Wendy Padbury and Fraser Hines (the people she signed with) but I am stilling missing her. I got my virtual queue ticket (more on that later) and then walked over to the main auditorium to listen to Camille Coduri talk. When she was done, I walked around the dealer room until it was time for Wendy Padbury's talk. Then I walked over the virtual queue room, not really sure what to expect.
The virtual queue is basically like waiting for a flight. You sit in a room, they call you when your ticket group comes up, and you line up and head in. It went really smoothly, actually. The guy running the line announced that Billie wanted to get these autographs done as quickly as possible and the line started moving incredibly quickly.
As I got close to her, I noticed that the guy about 10 spots in front of me was dressed in drag as Rose from 'The Idiot's Lantern'. He was cracking jokes and Billie could not have looked less entertained. Warning to everyone: Billie Piper does not like it when you cosplay as drag queen Rose.
(Billie being annoyed by drag Rose)
Finally, I got up there and pulled out my Penny Dreadful photo. 'There we go, now it's starting,' she said. (I think I was the first person without a Who photo.) We discussed the show and the other signatures. She seemed amazed at John Logan's awful signature. I told her the Josh Hartnett story and she said 'oh, that sounds like him'. She asked me where I got it signed, and then I said to her 'We'll probably never get Timothy Dalton' and she looked at me and said 'yeah, probably not.' (And I trust her on that). Then I left with Billie Piper's autograph on my Penny Dreadful cast photo. So take that, Josh Hartnett.
Billie Piper was quite lovely, and capped off a fun solo Chicago TARDIS. I think next year I will head down alone on purpose.
When I stopped to put away my photo in the toploader, the guy sitting next to where I was asked me if I just met Billie and then told me that he heard she was out drinking all of the men the night before, which made me think she was a little more awesome than I already did. Now I need Eva Green (who I have met before) and Danny Sapani and I can call this one done, unless some miracle happens and I get Mr. Bond to sign this thing, too.
