The Doctor is in!

Sunday started out with me waiting in a seriously respectable line. I was told that those crazy Whovians starting lining up for the Sunday shows at 1:30pm the day before. Now I'm all for being an enthusiastic fan, but when people start lining up before the current days programs are even over, I call shenanigans on that. I didn't want to give up my Saturday to wait in line ( did you read how awesome my Saturday was? Who would want to miss that! ) and when people start lining up that early it sort of forces everyone else to line up earlier too. I had hoped to get in the notorious Hall H line by midnight, but I started to worry that that would be to late. I had to take a power nap and then run over to the line Saturday night. 

I managed to get in line by 9:30 and was probably about 2 to 3 thousandth in line. There is a huge area covered by tents that holds a large amount of people,then the line stretched across the street, behind the convention center, through the pier, around the island and back again. This line means business folks! http://youtu.be/rrRtUj0-2EU here is a link to a video that someone took while he walked the entire Hall H line on Friday. My spot was at the 1:45 min mark.

 I brought a few blankets and a pillow, some snacks and of course my phone to entertain me while I made myself at home for a night of camping in line.  I wasn't very excited about the idea of sleeping on the street, but it was actually pretty fun. The air was filled with excitement, there were people playing card games, people dancing on the sidewalk, lots of laughing and a feeling of comradery that just makes me smile.  I got to know my neighbors in line. On one side was a couple who lived in the area and were camping out to hold the spot for their friend who couldn't be there. On the other side was a Father and son who came all the way from New York. The son was 10 years old and so adorable dressed up as the 11th doctor.  I had a very lengthy discussion about the various doctors and our favorite episodes with this kid.  Where else can you do this? 

Andrew joined me around 11:30pm and we settled in for the night. -note to self even though the weather is nice, bring a sweatshirt next time I sleep outside- during the night  probably around the 3am zone, the line was visited by some people we all knew...like this guy:

 

Mark Gratiss is a writer for the show and also a writer/actor for Sherlock. 

And the killer of all characters we love, Moffat himself. 

I didn't get a chance to see them but the crowd was wild cheering and screaming for them. I love how they came to show respect to the people so dedicated to the show. In the morning, Mr. Misha Collins came running by on his morning jog, he was a good sport with the fans too. 

The security people woke everyone up at 4:30am and told us to pack up our gear and get ready to move. I guess they had to condense the line to make more room. That was a bummer because I felt like I had just really fallen asleep. After a stop and go session of moving the line, we ended up in the third row of tents on the lawn. This was good news because I knew we were guaranteed to get into the hall in this spot and I was happy about that. 

In the line with Andrew almost time to go inside! 

We finally made it into the hall and got our seats for the day around 9:00. We were in the middle of the hall and had decent seats. The first panel up was Supernatural. I was SO excited to see this. I'm a fan of the show and have been consuming the episodes like they were made of cake. I couldn't wait to see these guys live.

Even though they had a boring moderator, this panel delivered. The cast and crew were funny, and engaging. They had interesting things to talk about. We got to watch a clip from next seasons show and we were able to see the gag reel that will be on the season 8 DVD set. 

Up next was the Breaking Bad panel. I'm a little embarrassed to say that I haven't really watched this show, so I wasn't completely enthralled with the panel. Thanks to my favorite moderator, Chris Hardwick, it was a lot of fun! 

 

We got to see a preview of the first few min of the next seasons opener. Sadly it was lost on me, but it seemed cool. There was a moment when Brian Cranston came on stage wearing a very realistic Walter mask. Evidently he was dressed up as the character he plays and then went walking around the convention floor. I guess people were talking to him and getting pictures with him without even knowing who he was!

 

He had the mask sitting on the table in front of him and it looked like a severed head just sitting there. Then he put the mask over the microphone and started talking into it, it was hilarious. He kept it on the mic for about half the time.

Then the moment we had slept on the sidewalk for....the DOCTOR WHO PANEL. The crowd was so energized in the moments right before it started. People were signing the theme song (more like humming it, but you get the idea). Then the lights went down and we were surrounded by a sea of sonic screw drivers. It was so cool that here I was sitting in a room with almost 7,000 people who all loved this show. This was especially meaningful to me considering most of the people I know don't even know about the show let alone love it like I do. While we were waiting for the panel to start, they had a Doctor Who DJ playing music to go along with scenes from the show. 

Then they brought out the cast and crew ( I was a little disappointed the rumors of Tennant showing up didn't happen). The panel was moderated by Craig Ferguson and it was nice to have someone moderating who was a big fan of the show and knew what he was talking about. 

They showed us a trailer for the 50th anniversary special and it made me want to watch the show RIGHT NOW! Before showing the clip, Moffat told the audience that he would not bring any exclusive showings to Comic Con if they ended up online afterwards. There are a lot of people upset that he hasn't released this footage for the public and some who are mad he showed it to an American audience before showing it to the British fans first. All I have to say about that, is that I'm thrilled I got to see it and consider myself lucky to have the chance to see it surrounded by true fans of the show.

I wish I could have stayed in longer to watch the Community panel, but I had to get back to the main hall and work. I had one heck of a time getting through the crowd and back to Artisits Alley but I learned getting pissy about crowds is just a waste of energy. I checked in to the Artists Alley and had a nice time chatting with the others who worked there. I went and said some goodbyes to a few of the Artist friends I made. Did I tell you that one of the artists gave me a book that he had illustrated and signed it with a sketch of one of the main characters from the book? He also agreed to Skype with my class this year and help teach an art lesson to go along with the book! So cool. I have so much respect for the Artisits here. Many of them spent countless hours making pictures for people on the spot. I don't know how their hands didn't cramp up and wither off with all that work. I feel so darn lucky to have been a small part of that. 

Here is a shot of some of the artists at work. 

I decided to take a break and go get one or two last things before it was over. On my way I went to a booth to snap a picture for Andrew then was headed back to the Alley when I was walking past the Marvel booth. There was a crowd gathering and I was curious about what was going on (you never know what's going to happen at Comic Con, the last time I saw a crowd at that booth Joss Wheaton was there) so I thought I stop and see what the excitement was about. BIG MISTAKE holy mother of holy they said the word FREE and people just went ape shit. I instantly got shoved into this crowd and literally couldn't take a step in any direction. The Marvel people were actually giving away a ton of cool stuff, but there was no way I was going to get any of it because I was surrounded by some very enthusiastic tall guys who made it impossible for me to do anything. That was the only moment I thought I might freak out over the crowd and it was almost scary. Just total chaos; poorly run by the Marvel people. Some people had small kids stuck in that crowd and I'm amazed someone didn't get hurt in that mess. I managed to elbow my way out after about 20 min. Then I high tailed it out of there. Not long after, they made the announcement that the show was officially over. Such a sad thing. 

I got to stay and help take down the booths, helped an artist haul his things out to the cab line and cleaned up what I could. I said my good byes and we went back to Andrews house. Man what a day. I was exhausted mentally and physically in every way. 

I packed up my bags and had to be up at 4:30am the next morning in order to catch my flight. I'll post more on my over all thoughts and feelings from this whole experience next time.