On Thursday 23 November Doctor Who will have been on our TV screens for 60 years, making it the world’s longest running sci-fi series. In celebration, Homerton College, Cambridge hosted a party in space and time - a Doctor Who themed formal hall complete with a life-size Tardis and ‘living’ dalek!
The dinner for 250 students and special guests was held in the grandeur of Homerton’s modern dining hall. Entering the dining hall through the Tardis, (proving it really is bigger on the inside!), guests were dressed for the occasion in outfits inspired by the show including as various incarnations of the Doctor from Jodie Whittaker to Christopher Eccleston and Tom Baker.
The College’s Charter Choir performed the theme tune from the BBC series and the dalek said Grace! Special guests included stars from the show and science fiction superfans - Ace actress Sophie Aldred companion to the seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy, Ingrid Oliver who played Petronella Osgood and Nicola Bryant who played Peri Brown companion to the fifth Doctor Peter Davison and sixth Doctor Colin Baker. Also present were also joined by Doctor Who writers Una McCormack and Jamie Hailstone.
Dr Robin R Bunce, Fellow in Politics and organiser of the event, said in his speech:
“Simply put Doctor Who is most fun, most exciting, the finest science fiction ever to grace the small screen. For almost 60 years Doctor Who has thrilled us, it has made us think, and it has enlarged our hearts.
Science Fiction is a powerful tool, and explorations of utopia and dystopia even more so. Science Fiction helps us imagine different worlds, alien worlds.
Those of us who want social justice, racial justice, an end to patriarchy, those of us who want peace are in the science fiction business, for the simple reasons that we are imagining alternative realities, we are imagining worlds that don’t exist – at least not yet. Doctor Who gives us the tools to imagine better worlds, and like the very best TV shows help us understand what it means to be human.”
Especial thanks to the organisers Melanie Keene, Una McCormack, Ben Ward and Dr Robin R. Bunce
Theo Hacking who did a stunning job building the TARDIS
Sandy Mill and Emma Themba, who did a lot of the "Dalek wrangling"
Daniel Crosbie who piloted the Dalek
Paul Elliot who designed and built the TARDIS lights
Jasmine Bailey, President of the Cambridge University Doctor Who Society
