Doctor Who Invades New York City

On April 11, 2011 New York City was the proud host to another BBC America Doctor Who Premiere screening, this time for the Series 6 two part opener, along with cast Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Alex Kingston, and Executive Producer Steven Moffat. This screening was the first viewing for fans anywhere. Only the press had seen it before this viewing.

The event itself was 7pm on Monday, but Doctor Who fans kicked off the event by starting the line at 4pm on Sunday. Emma Cameron was the first person in line this year and had this to say about holding the coveted spot.

"I'm very excited to be first in line. It's pretty crazy. I got here with two of my friends way early because we thought if we were going to do this we might as well go all the way and be here first and rough it out. Doctor Who means so much to me. I love it and it's my favorite show and being able to see the cast and have an interaction with them as we see the premiere weeks before anyone else is an amazing once in a lifetime thing."

First 3 in line.
Tristan Shippen, Emma Cameron & Graham Hegeman

My Doctor Who Premiere crew

I personally arrived for this event with my girlfriend and a friend at 7pm Sunday (a full 24 hours before the event, way before I had initially intended on showing up) and was 14th in line. 14th! WOO! Coincidentally I was also 14th last year. I am happy I showed up when I did though because word was spreading quick that the line was formed (mostly people saying false line numbers on facebook and twitter) and the line was soon up to a couple hundred by 4-5am. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by some great people in line who I bonded with over the next 24 hours and became friends with. Though the wait was long and it was hard to get any real sleep in the cold night on the street (I now have a new respect for homeless people) you really didn't feel like you had been waiting 24 hours in the one spot. Over the next day we would share Doctor Who stories, play games, take tons of photographs, and be in some interviews for the BBC America crew. I didn't get to wear my Tenth Doctor cosplay but it was great to see so many other people come out in their own cosplays of the favorite Doctor Who characters. However, nothing prepared us for the surprise we received at 10:30am when Matt, Karen, and Arthur showed up to the theater offering donuts for breakfast! The donuts was an incredibly nice gesture but the fact that they would show up to say hello to their fans that morning shows a lot about their character and appreciation to their fans. Class act in my book. It was definitely an exciting moment and I was able to get photos with all three and a donut from Ms. Amy Pond herself! The cast had arrived later (about 6:30pm) in a beautiful 1950s convertible and of course everyone went nuts. A little too much so as some people tried to jump to the front of the line stating, "Oh we just want to get photos and an autograph and we'll go back to our spots." Well what the heck do you think I've been waiting in line for 24 hours for?! I earned my spot in the front now get back to yours in the back! Sheesh. All the same the cast took some photos and signed one or two things and was ushered inside. This was probably due to how crazy it was because last year they took their time and went down the line signing things for people. One really nice thing though was that when we were let inside we got a really nice Doctor Who logo / BBC-A fitted cap! Awesome. Then besides the cast and producers that were to come on stage later I also spotted Murray Gold in the audience. Very cool!

Myself with Karen, Arthur, gf Jackie, and Matt.

I've been asked by Steven Moffat himself not to spoil anything from the two episodes for other fans but was given full permission to tease you. So without spoiling anything I will say that the first two episodes of Series 6 were some of the best Doctor Who shows I had seen in quite some time. Moffat managed to pull out all the stops and had me on the edge of my seat for 2 hours. Do not think that you are going to watch a nice series opener when viewing these. I guarantee that your jaw will drop half a dozen times and the second episode will leave you literally screaming out, "What?!" On top of that, the puzzle that is River song will grow into new theories and Rory fans will be excited to see that his character is given the chance to grow in these episodes. This gif should give you a good indication what to expect Heart Rate for Doctor Who Series 6 Fan.

The Q&A hosted by Chris Hardwick (Nerdist) was a lot of fun this year. There was plenty of great information given within the Q&A and Emily Asher-Perrin has posted a wonderful transcript of it here. However, if you'd like to sit back and listen to the actual Q&A Chris Hardwick recorded the session and will release it as a podcast on his site soon. Some fun information discovered was that Matt favors a stetson while Karen prefers the fezz. Our jaws will drop at episode 6 and that for Steven Moffat, "as a fan, I would like the Doctor to meet Mr. Spock." Check out the full Q&A for more fun info.

You can check out all the photos I took at the event in my Doctor Who Premiere flickr set.
Thanks for taking the time to read this post on the premiere and feel free to comment with any questions you may have about the event.