Happy Holidays! January 2025 Update (With News!)
Happy holidays, everyone! We’re grateful for your interest and have plenty of activities over the winter months. We also have news that we will mention at the end of the newsletter.
First, we’re planning a special mid-holiday virtual screening of Joy to the World (the 2025 Christmas special) on Saturday, December 28th at 2:00 pm CST. You’re welcome to join us, and you can RSVP via Facebook or Meetup for Zoom information.
Our first event of 2025 will be a Patreon-sponsored Big Finish Listening Party! Mark Saturday, January 11th at 2:00 pm CST on your calendar for the Tenth Doctor/Donna audio adventure Death and the Queen. Get a heads-up early via Facebook or Meetup.
If you watched The Giggle, you may be curious about when (and how) the Doctor first met the Toymaker. We’ll make it easy for you as we show the animated Celestial Toymaker via Zoom on Sunday, January 19th at 7:00 pm CST. Details are available via Facebook or Meetup.
We will also be part of CONSole Room’s virtual programming from January 30th through February 2nd. You can RSVP for either their free or paid virtual ticket via Eventbrite, and our hybrid panels (meaning that we’ll be online with an in-person panel) will be
Saturday, February 1st, noon CST - It’s Electric (focusing on shows like Leverage, The Ark, The Librarians, and others)
Sunday, February 2nd, 10:30 am CST - Popping the Bubble (a discussion of the recent episode Dot and Bubble); and
Sunday, February 2nd, 3:00 pm CST - Fifty Years of the Fourth Doctor
And now, for the news we promised earlier: as of February 2025, Chicago Doctor Who Meetup will be no more, will cease to be, cue the obvious Monty Python reference.
We’re not ending, we’re rebranding as Chicago Whovians United. (“Whovian” is to Doctor Who as “Trekkie” is to Star Trek - it’s even in the Cambridge Dictionary). We’re updating our website and looking at how this will impact our social media accounts. (We may hold off on changing some of our social media IDs simply to ease the transition). Now that Doctor Who has moved from “that show some people watched on PBS Sunday nights” to “that show on the SyFy channel” to a major pop culture presence, it only seems right to focus more on what brings us together than what keeps us apart.
We’re not changing what we do so much as refining our reason for doing it. We’re Chicago-based but welcome people from around the country and the world. We don’t need to be the be-all and end-all of fandom, and we don’t limit ourselves to one single holiday weekend.
We do what we do because it’s right. It’s kind. And it reflects the values we learned from Doctor Who. We will have more details in our February newsletter, but we invite you to learn more by following us on Bluesky, Facebook, Meetup, and our Facebook group. Become a paid Patreon member for exclusive perks and updates!
As always, we thank you for your support. Hope to see you in 2025!
Happy holidays
Chicago Doctor Who Meetup