Author: Lauren Davis

Pick up Data Extract Issue #230 at Penrith Collectormania

  By

On Sunday 20 March, the DWCA Shop will be attending the Penrith Collectormania toy fair. Said to be the largest in NSW, if not Australia, the toy fair contains collectables covering a range of different fandoms, hobbies, sports and more!

As well as having the latest DVDs, audio dramas and collectables available on the day, the Shop will also be launching the latest issue of our member-exclusive magazine, Data Extract. The mag is jam-packed with content you won’t find anywhere else, including a recount of the Doctor Who Festival by co-host Rob Lloyd and interviews with ’60s costume designer Alexandra Tynan and geek pop artist Meri Amber (this issue’s cover girl).

DE1

If you’re planning on attending Collectormania and would like to pick up your copy of Data Extract before it is mailed out to everyone else, email shop@doctorwhoaustralia.org with your name and member number. We’ll put aside a copy of the magazine for you for collection on the day, and Meri Amber herself will be there to sign issues!

Please only contact us if you know you’re going to attend, otherwise postage of your issue could be delayed.

The Fair will be held at the Penrith Panthers Pavilion on Mulgoa Road, just down from the Penrith Panthers Club and right next to Aqua Golf. For more information, visit our event page.

Ben Aaronovitch is coming to Sydney and Brisbane

  By

Author Ben Aaronovitch, the writer of Doctor Who TV stories Remembrance of the Daleks and Battlefield, is coming to Sydney and Brisbane for two magical nights of conversation.

Get down and dirty with PC Grant in Rivers of London, go behind the scenes of Doctor Who, and hear from one of the most diverse and exciting SF writers of today as he talks about writing across mediums and adapting work, and the art of storytelling.

ben2

Joining him onstage in Sydney is one of Australia’s most promising emerging voices, Maria Lewis, to discuss urban fantasy, the nitty gritty of contemporary SF, and all it is to be a fan. And in Brisbane, British and World Fantasy Award winner Angela Slatter will be leading proceedings.

From adaptation to comic art, famous properties to original work, don’t miss these fantastic nights of discussion and exploration presented exclusively by Contact2016. Both nights will feature Q&A sessions followed by book signings, with books available for sale.

DWCA members have the opportunity to win a free ticket to the Brisbane event by entering our competition. They will also benefit from discounted entry to both the Brisbane and Sydney events.

When: 6.00pm-8.00pm, Wednesday 23 March | 6.00pm-8.00pm, Thursday 24 March
Where: Hachette Australia, 207 Kent Street, Sydney | Auditorium 2, State Library of Queensland, South Brisbane
Price: DWCA members $15 | Non-members $20
To book: http://contact2016.com/latest_events/in-conversation-with-ben-aaronovitch

 

Happy New Year from the DWCA

  By

The DWCA wishes all its members a Happy New Year. We’ve got plenty planned for the year already, and we hope you’re just as excited as we are to fill 2016 with loads of Doctor Who goodness!

new year

All Sydney-based DWCA events for the year are up on our events page already, including our regular day events and our mid-year trivia night. January will see a few extra events in the Sydney DWCA calendar, with a special New Year dinner on Saturday 9 January, our attendance at the Popcon pop culture convention on Sunday 10 January and our annual Summer Picnic on Saturday 23 January.

New events from our other local groups are being added all the time, as well as all the latest news, merchandise listings, DWCA-exclusive competitions and more. Make sure you check back regularly to keep up to date!

Come do your Christmas shopping at Look Who’s Talking

  By ,

Look Who’s Talking – Part One is on tomorrow, and it will be the last event to feature the DWCA Shop for 2015. So if you want to do some Christmas shopping for all your Whovian friends, now’s the time!

The final release of the classic DVD range – the infinitely quotable The Underwater Menace – will be available for purchase on the day, just a few days after its Australian release. You can even get it signed by the designer of the Fish People (as well as some obscure monsters called the Cybermen) herself, Alexandra Tynan.

The-Underwater-Menace-Australia-DVD

Our second guest, Gary Russell, has his name to a wide range of novels and audio dramas as both a writer and director. There’ll be plenty of releases available for him to sign on the day, but all in limited numbers, so make sure you get in quick!

Meri Amber will also have copies of her Doctor Who-themed album ‘Pop Goes the TARDIS’ on sale.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg! The shop will feature some much-anticipated new releases from Big Finish, including UNIT: Extinction, serving as the audio debut for Kate Stewart and Osgood; Torchwood: The Conspiracy, featuring the immortal Captain Jack Harkness; and Doom Coalition 1, which sees the Eighth Doctor gain both a new companion and a new enemy!

unit_extinction_packshot_image_large

Finally, fill up your Christmas stocking with toys and collectables for fans young and old. Whether your preference is for action figures, sonic screwdrivers or slippers, we’ve got the goods. You can even pick up a Weeping Angel to put on your Christmas tree!

All these items and more will be available at Look Who’s Talking – Part One on Sunday 6 December at Burwood Library, Sydney. Picking them up at the event is the best way to guarantee you’ll have them in time for Christmas, so make sure you swing by!

Data Extract and a mystery door prize at Look Who’s Talking

  By

Still wondering whether to attend Look Who’s Talking – Part One this Sunday? Well, everyone who comes through the door on the day has a chance to win our mystery door prize, while attending DWCA members will be the first to receive the latest issue of Data Extract magazine!

de229

Data Extract #229 is full of exclusive content you won’t find anywhere else. The issue includes two pieces of fan fiction (one featuring the DWCA’s own original companion!), a guide to the re-released novels of the Wilderness Years, and an interview with one of the creators of sci-fi audio series Night Terrace.

While DE is free to members, entry into our mystery door prize is open to all who attend the event. But what is this prize, I hear you ask? You’re just going to have to wait to find out what’s inside – but we can give you a hint of what it looks like…

prize
Look Who’s Talking – Part One will be held on Sunday 6 December at Burwood Library, Sydney. Tickets to the event can be purchased in advance through the online DWCA Shop.

Free autographs at Look Who’s Talking

  By

With Look Who’s Talking – Part One only five days away, the DWCA is pleased to confirm that autograph opportunities will be available on the day with our special guests Alexandra Tynan, Gary Russell and Meri Amber.

Attendees will automatically receive one free autograph voucher per guest upon entry to the event. Additional autograph vouchers can be purchased for just $5 each.

Don’t have anything for the guests to sign? No worries! The DWCA Shop will be open on the day, featuring a range of merchandise which has been specially tailored to our guests (check back here later in the week to hear what we’ve got on hand!).

Look Who’s Talking – Part One will be held on Sunday 6 December at Burwood Library, Sydney. Tickets to the event can be acquired through the DWCA Shop.

Cosplay, trivia and monster-making at Look Who’s Talking

  By

The Doctor Who Festival may be over, but it certainly won’t be the last event of the year for Australian Whovians.

The DWCA is pleased to announce a range of activities to take place as part of Look Who’s Talking – Part One, set to take place on Sunday 6 December at Burwood Library, Sydney. On top of featuring several special guests – ‘60s costume designer Alexandra Tynan, writer Gary Russell and singer Meri Amber – the event will be packed with loads of activities to keep you entertained!

Your knowledge of Doctor Who will be put to the test as part of Mastermind, our end-of-year trivia competition. Do you have what it takes to follow in the Doctor’s footsteps and beat your opponents using only your wits? Better start studying now, just to make sure!

For the more creative types, why not practise your skills in our Make-A-Monster competition? Join a team and see if you can create a classic design, in a short amount of time, using a limited set of supplies. Alexandra Tynan will know how you feel!

Finally, what Doctor Who event would be complete without cosplay? Whether you’ve cobbled together an outfit from Vinnies or spend several months sewing it by hand, come show off your unique style in the Wardrobe Room Awards. Remember, you should always dress for the occasion!

Look Who’s Talking will continue in Part Two on the evening of Friday 11 December, which will feature non-fiction writer Robert Smith? and is completely free to attend. Tickets to both parts of the event can be acquired through the DWCA Shop.

Thank you for the Doctor Who Festival

  By

The Doctor Who Club of Australia, on behalf of Australia’s Whovians, would like to thank BBC Worldwide for bringing the Doctor Who Festival to the land Down Under. When the club was founded back in 1976, it’s something that we never would have thought possible.

So thank you for landing the Lego TARDIS on Bondi Pavilion in the lead-up to the festival, no doubt confusing many non-Whovian beach-goers in the process.

DoctorWhoLegoTardisBondi-12

Image credit: Alex Gabbott.

Thank you for packing each day with so many activities that we wish we could have used that Lego TARDIS to go back in time and do it all again.

Thank you for the panels, photographs and autographs, enabling us to meet our heroes from both in front of and behind the camera.

Thank you for giving us up-close looks at the props, costumes and sets, showing just how much detail is put into creating the world of each episode.

Thank you for teaching us how to act like a Sontaran, build a Sandman and blow up a Cyberman.

Thank you for bringing out an amazing group of guests, including Peter Capaldi, Sylvester McCoy, Ingrid Oliver, Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss, Dan Starkey, Jon Davey, Danny Hargreaves, Charlie Bluett and Daniel Nettheim.

Thank you for recruiting a great bunch of local Whovians to host the various panels, plus their Auslan interpreters, as well as the volunteers who helped guide us through the day from beginning to end.

Finally, thank you for making us Aussie fans feel like we’re a part of something special. It’s really humbling to know that of all the Who-loving countries in the entire world, ours is the one you chose to give this experience to. We hope you enjoyed it just as much as we did.

Gary Russell and Meri Amber join Look Who’s Talking

  By

The DWCA has announced two more guests for our special end-of-year event Look Who’s Talking – Part One, to be held on Sunday 6 December at Burwood Library, Sydney.

Joining classic series costume designer Alexandra Tynan will be Doctor Who writer, director, script editor and producer Gary Russell, along with self-described “geek pop singer-songwriter” Meri Amber.

                                   garyr     meri amber

Gary Russell’s contributions to the Whoniverse span over 30 years and dozens of productions, with his latest effort coming in the form of the Twelfth Doctor novel ‘Big Bang Generation’. Appropriately set in Sydney in December 2015, the book marks a major milestone in Doctor Who history – the first meeting of a new series Doctor with Wilderness Years companion Bernice “Benny” Summerfield!

The event will also feature geek pop singer Meri Amber, who will be performing a selection of original songs from her Doctor Who-themed album ‘Pop Goes the TARDIS’. Meri has previously performed at Oz Comic-Con and Armageddon, as well as doing pre-show foyer entertainment for the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular, and we look forward to sharing her music with a whole new audience!

Look Who’s Talking will continue in Part Two on the evening of Friday 11 December, which will feature non-fiction writer Robert Smith? and is completely free to attend. Tickets to both parts of the event can be acquired through the DWCA Shop.

DWCA Presents Look Who’s Talking – An Event in Two Parts

  By

The Doctor Who Club of Australia is celebrating the end of 2015 with a brand new event – so special we had to split it over two days!

Look Who’s Talking: Part One will take place on Sunday 6 December from 10am at Burwood Library, located within walking distance of Burwood Station. The day will feature all the usual DWCA fun, including games, discussions and competitions. Most importantly, though, we will be launching The Underwater Menace on DVD – available to purchase from the Club Shop on the day – with none other than Troughton-era costume designer Alexandra Tynan!

Alexandra (known as Sandra Reid during her time on Doctor Who) worked on eight stories during the ‘60s, from The Tenth Planet up to The Tomb of the Cybermen. We look forward to hearing how she developed the unique looks of the Second Doctor, the Fish People, and of course the Cybermen!

moonbase

Part One will end at 5pm on Sunday, but Look Who’s Talking will only be half over. Part Two will commence on the evening of Friday 11 December – this time at The City of Sydney RSL, located a short walk from Town Hall Station. This event will be a more laid-back affair – like a bigger version of our regular ‘Tavern’ nights – but will also feature a special guest: non-fiction writer Robert Smith?.

Robert has recently released two new Doctor Who-based books: ‘The Doctors Are In’ and ‘Outside In 2’. The Doctors Are In, co-authored with Graeme Burk, is a guide to the Doctor himself – who he is, how he came to be, how he has changed, and why we love him. Outside In 2, meanwhile, is a collection of 125 perspectives on 125 New Who stories from 125 different writers. We’re sure Robert will have plenty of anecdotes to tell us about these latest efforts!

Tickets to one or both parts of the event can be purchased through the DWCA Shop.