L.I. Who Con 2026

Long Island Who 2026, the annual Doctor Who convention held in Holtsville at the Holiday Inn, was a bittersweet experience. Not only is Doctor Who currently in limbo, but the organizers of this annual celebration of all things Who have run out of money and have no plans to continue. I first attended in 2024, had to miss 2025 (I forget what my conflict was), and booked this year, looking forward to many more. I learned during the con that this would be the last one for a while. This hiatus coincided with the suspension of production on the series itself. Disney Plus dropped its option, leading man Ncuti Gatwa left, and the BBC put the Doctor "out to tender." This is a new show-biz phrase to me. It means they are sending the property out into the universe for any interested producer to sign on and make new episodes. In addition, there are no plans that I know of for the spin-off series The War Between the Land and the Sea to air in the US.

Despite these setbacks, I did have a great time meeting fellow Whovians and stars and personnel from the series I first fell in love with about 50 years ago when the local Philadelphia PBS channel would show Tom Baker episodes with Howard Da Silva narration on Saturday afternoons. 

Sarah Sutton, Peter Davison, Matthew Waterhouse
and Janet Fielding in the Black Orchid
episode of Dr. Who.

Friday Aug. 14 had only a few events. The highlight was a screening of the 5th Doctor episode, Black Orchid, with Peter Davison (5th Doctor) and his wife Elizabeth Morton offering comments like a Mystery Science Theater 3000 riff. The audience was invited to make jokes too. Davison said he thought the writer had a country-house-weekend mystery tucked away in his drawer and refashioned it slightly as a Doctor Who script.

There was an hour of clips of Dr. Who-related material including Katy Manning (Jo Grant from the Dr. #3 era) introducing the top ten favorite episodes, Peter Davison in a coffee commercial, Davison on a chat show throwing a chair in imitation of a Doctor maneuver, etc. Katy did a panel with her friend Jane Goddard who voiced an alien character on an audio adventure and is married to a Dr. Who writer. Both were delightful and we learned that Katy was good friends with Liza Minnelli. She had gone to boarding school with her and she told stories of visiting with Judy Garland and Sid Luft, Garland's husband at the time.

Peter Davison and Elizabeth
Morton watching Black Orchid at
LI Who.

The hotel where the convention was being held was way too expensive, so I stayed in a cheap motel in nearby Ronkonkoma. The smoke detector in my room was chirping and I had to get the janitor to remove it from the wall.

Saturday Aug. 15 was the only full day of events from 10AM to 11PM. In addition to Katy Manning and Peter Davison, guests included Matthew Waterhouse (Adric, companion to Doctors 4 and 5), Frazer Hines (Jamie, companion to Doctor 2), Samir Arrian (appeared in the Lux episode with Doctor 15), Daphne Ashbrook (Dr. Who 1996 TV-movie), and Paul Jerricho (Castellan from The Five Doctors and Arc of Infinity). 

Katy Manning (r.),
Jo Grant from the Doctor #3 era.

I chatted with Katy who is very generous with fans during the autograph sessions ($30 a pop), spending several minutes with each and giving everyone a hug. We talked about Liza's book. I also mentioned I had appeared in a community theater production of Alan Ayckbourne's Bedroom Farce which she did on tour in Africa--or was it Doctor in the House? 

With Peter Davison, I told him I had gotten his autograph at a sci-fi convention called Infinicon about 40 years ago and he said he remembered that convention because George Takei (Lt. Sulu from Star Trek) was always trying to get him to go on a run with him. I was Takei's guest escort and got to go behind the scenes at several panels and events.

There was a screening of a documentary called Doctor on Display, chronicling the Doctor Who traveling exhibit which toured the US in 1986-7. I remember the exhibit at Central Park. I was a member of a NYC-based fan club called UNYT and several of the members volunteered to help out including one who dressed as a Cyberman. Panels included fans getting through the Wilderness Years from the cancellation of the Doctor back in 1989 until it was revived in 2005. I learned that the 1996 TV-movie aired on Fox opposite a highly-touted episode of Roseanne where John Goodman as Dan had a heart attack. Ratings for the Who movie were abysmal and the proposed American series never materialized. 

I collected additional autographs from Matthew and Frazer ($30 each). (Peter Davison wanted $50, but I already had three of his from Infinicon.) Matthew signed 25 Years of Doctor Who and Frazer signed my Cult TV book which is 40 years old and falling apart (It's a paper back.) I really should find a bookbinder to repair it. When I started collecting autographs from the stars of Dr. Who, Star Trek, Mary Tyler Moore Show, MASH, Taxi, Dr. Kildare, The Odd Couple, etc. I kept a list of the celebrity, where I got the autograph and the date. There is a 30-year gap between my last autograph (Georgia Engel of MTM and Barbara Feldon of Get Smart who were in an Off-Broadway show) and Frazer and Manning at this LI Who Con. 

The Sixth Doctor in Cats.

Saturday night concluded with almost all the guests participating in a tipsy version of the Match Game with panelists filling in the blank with such dirty prompts as "While the Fifth Doctor was sleeping, the Master replaced the celery on his lapel with a _____." There was also a costume parade with conventioneers dressed as various doctors, villains, aliens, etc. The best was someone dressed as Doctor #6 as if they had been cast in the musical Cats.

Sunday Aug. 16 had events up until late afternoon. There was a fun fan discussion of pros and cons of all the episodes with the 15th Doctor (Gatwa) and a sit-down with 12 fans and Frazer Hines. He was ingratiating and told us stories of working with Charlie Chaplin, Omar Sharif, and Michael Caine as well as Second Doctor Patrick Troughton. As a child actor, he appeared opposite Chaplin in A King in New York.

The final panel was called "Who to Watch When There's No Who to Watch," with clips on various spin-offs like K9 and Company, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and various film and TV shows to fill the gap until the Doctor returns. I really can't complain because we've had 21 seasons of new episodes on top of the original series. That's a phenomenal run for any TV show. 

Matthew Waterhouse
(Adric opposite Doctor 4 and 5)