Gary Russell was also on hand, and ran an extremely educational panel specifically on what it was like being part of the writing process on Doctor Who, but also just explaining some fascinating bits about the television industry from a writer's standpoint in general. Russell worked as the script editor during the Eccleston and Tennant runs, edited Doctor Who Magazine for three years, and has written a number of spin-off novels as well as the Doctor Who Encyclopedia. He probably knows more about the entire mythos of the show than anyone else alive, and to hear him explain what it was like to be part of the creative process on a brand so far-reaching was really illuminating.
If you have any plans on ever being a writer, I highly recommend you do what I did and try to bother Russell endlessly when he's trapped behind a table. He makes the seemingly dry process of bringing a script to an editor and the methodology of how a writer's work eventually becomes a television episode into hilarious and engaging story.
"Write well, and don't be a dick," was his specific advice to me. I'll try to remember that.
My last stop of the day was to visit Ken Gerhard, Houston's former goth rock superstar turned monster hunter, for his presentation on the basics of Cryptozoology. I'm a crypto buff from way back in the day because I went to a school that had all the Time Life legendary monster books, but Gerhard actually gets to travel the world interviewing people and touching the corpses of chupacabras. Like with his hands and stuff, not like with a stick as my cowardly ass would.
Gerhard can still command a room, I'll tell you that, and his passion for the world of possible monsters is infectious. I wish he had scheduled a block of programs rather than a single primer as part of the rest of the conventions paranormal track, but you take what you can get sometimes.
His lecture took us over the last 200 years of discovery, where scientists declared all the living large land animals found and told us that we should just concentrate on the fossils that are left to be unearthed. Gerhard's slideshow revealed a menagerie across the spectrum of significantly sized animals that have been discovered even up to a few years ago, and makes a very good case for the possibility that more are out there.
His segment on Bigfoot and the Yeti in particular were illuminating, and though I usually think of hunting for Bigfoot to be the silliest of cryptozoolocial endeavors the calm and concise manner in which Gerhard presented his case was enough to make me reevaluate my stance. As he said himself, it only takes one of more than 3,000 sightings being true to mean the creature exists.
The really mind-blowing part of his talk was his interest in thunderbirds and other large unexplained flying creatures. It's an area of cryptozoology I had honestly never really considered, but Gerhard is digging deep into the accounts of people who were so perplexed by what they saw they didn't report it. I'll need to pick up his book on the subject tomorrow when I return.
Jef will be at Comicpalooza all weekend, and will probably take in a shadow cast performance or mingle with the Bronies.
Jef With One F is a recovering rock star taking it one day at a time. You can read about his adventures in The Bible Spelled Backwards or connect with him on Facebook.