STACK Jun #128

14 / 108

O n May 16, the Hub Productions brought
us to the Melbourne Convention and
Exhibition Centre (MCEC), where we
spent the entire day revelling in Doctor Who
magnificence.
Headlining the national tour were stars of
the long-running sci-fi series: Matt Smith (The
11th Doctor), Karen Gillan (Amy Pond), and Alex
Kingston (River Song). The day kicked off with
the trio making themselves available for photo
opportunities, offering fans the chance to get up
close and personal with their heroes.
If forking out for photos with overwhelmed
celebs wasn’t your thing, the Plenary at MCEC
offered a run of episodes from Seasons 5 and
6 for your enjoyment, enabling you to
sit back and hype yourself up for the
moment when you’d be in the same
room as the stars.
Then, the time came. Just after lunch,
Karen Gillan and Alex Kingston were
introduced to rapturous applause
for an hour-long Q&A with fans.
Rocking up in their true-blue cork
hats, the pair answered questions
on everything from their behind-
the-scenes interaction and mother-
daughter relationships, to what
their favourite outfits were. The
onscreen mother and daughter
revealed their saddest on-set
moment was filming The Angels
Take Manhattan, when Matt was sitting
on a tombstone in a graveyard listening to
Close to You by The Carpenters. Typical.
Naturally Gillan was also quizzed about
her role as Nebula in Marvel’s Guardians
of the Galaxy, while Kingston revealed
how she had convinced Scottish actor Iain
Glen to take the role of Jorah Mormont
in Game of Thrones , when he was still
unsure. “I’d read the first three books and
I said to him, ‘you have to do this,’” she
laughed.
Then it was time for ‘The Oncoming
Storm’ to enter, centre stage. As cool in
real life as he is as the Doctor, Matt Smith
possessed a relaxed attitude you rarely
see in celebrities. We discovered that
he finds long pauses between questions
awkward and would prefer to sing to
fill them. He used his time to talk about
what inspired him in his acting, as well
as what he’s doing now that his role
as TV’s Time Lord is over. (Smith can
be seen in the film Lost River, out this
month on DVD.)
Still spinning from having breathed
the same air as those considered Royalty to us
Whovians, there was an opportunity to grab
autographs from the trio before heading home
to revisit their onscreen personas in the comfort
of our own living rooms. Come along, Pond.
012 MARCH 2015 JB Hi-Fi
visit NEWS EXTRAS
WHONIVERSE
Photos taken by Aleisha Hobson, edited by Mark Jennaway of MJenn Photography
Matt Smith
Alex Kingston and Karen Gillan