Daleks, doctorates and buffet the cod supper slayer
- Publication: News Letter
- Date: 2007-03-03
- Author: Charlie Warmington
- Page: 36
- Language: English
UNSURE of my route on a recent journalistic enterprise to a sci-fi and fantasy event, I paused to consider my course and check my bearings.
When a young lady accompanied by a Dalek, or vice versa, materialised I knew I was trekking in the right direction and followed them both.
It's not every day there's an opportunity to boldly go where no News Letter man has gone before but I can now say I've been there, done it and even have the T-shirt.
The latter was black cotton emblazoned with a stark white portrait of a seriously spooky space alien.
It adorned the self-confessed "dark lord" of high society, nay higher; of outer space itself! T-shirt man was Shane Kerlin, "chairbeing" of the Queen's University Science Fiction and Fantasy Society (QUBSF).
The Dalek's companion was astrophysicist Emma Nichols.
He, she, me and it did what no Dalek has done before and went upstairs to a conference room in the student's union, inhabited by some thirty society enthusiasts.
"There are Doctor Who fans, Buffy/Angel/Firefly fans, Star Wars, Star Trek and Battle Star Galactica fans," computer expert Shane, from Park near Claudy, explained, "and, equally, there are people who detest such shows".
Emma, from Ballymena, has an M.Sci. in "the physics of stars nebulae" and is further embarking on a chemistry doctorate, but is equally enthusiastic about Buffy.
Having diplomatically corrected my spelling of her icon - I'd written Buffet! - she told me "there's a huge fan fiction sub-culture on the web writing their own stories about characters like Buffy."
This procedure is referred to as a Fanfic publishing Webfic; all these fic facts were straining my spelling!
Emma writes 2,000-3,000 words of Webfic a month, sometimes more. "It's a learning process," she said, "I get feedback from the readers and I once got a nice message from one of Dr Who's writers."
I wondered what the Doctor's scriptwriter would think of 'Buffet'; presumably I'd be exterminated!
Belfast anthropology and archaeology student Mary McCaughey is another of the half-dozen women society members.
"Six is more than we used to have," Mary and Emma agreed, "but we'd like more women to join. We'll protect them! The problem is that all this is portrayed more in the media as a guy's thing."
Beneath posters of Superman and Spiderman society members were playing board games with names like Mah Jong. Super Munchkin and Fireborn.
There was an unusual piece of geometric structuralism on a table.
Looking like a futuristic sculpture it was introduced to me as Star Trek chess, a sort of astronomical variation on the theme with a number of square and circular boards intermingling, connected with slender struts. Disquieted by its inherent complexity I gave it a wide berth.
Someone was avidly reading a sci-fi comic and the now whirring Dalek was hurling metallic insults while poking its menacing protuberances at a half finished bottle of Coke.
A game of galactic something-or-other was in progress at an adjacent table.
But behind this literally fantastic fun was the devotion to literary fantasy.
"There is a public perception that sci-fi people are nerds, that we're weird and childish," Shane Kerlin admitted
"But good sci-fl and fantasy is of historic importance, and really makes you think." He illustrated this with his mobile phone, explaining that its concept was written about in sci-fi stories over half a century ago. "Sci-fi is fiction that takes a scientific premise and explores how it would change society. Fantasy is where the natural laws of the universe are changed and the outcome speculated upon."
And Shane then told me that it's all a con! "WorldCon is an international sci-fi/fantasy gathering that moves from continent to continent each year and two years ago was held in Glasgow. NovaCon is a November convention generally held in Birmingham, and EasterCon is held over Easter in different locations."
There are a number of clubs and societies in Northern Ireland and MeCon is their annual convention in August.
The Queen's University Society raised £200 for charity last November, and on March 10 coming they're holding a Buffy day in aid of Cancer Research UK.
The evening meeting continued with a heated discussion about comic characters that became films, and watched one.
I walked home in the cold rain ate my cod supper standing beside a radiator; a bit like a buffet!
For further information on QUBSF visit: http://quis.qub.ac.ukifanta.sy/
Caption: FANTASY LAND: the type of folk you might bump into at a Queen's University Science Fiction and Fantasy Society convention
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- APA 6th ed.: Warmington, Charlie (2007-03-03). Daleks, doctorates and buffet the cod supper slayer. News Letter p. 36.
- MLA 7th ed.: Warmington, Charlie. "Daleks, doctorates and buffet the cod supper slayer." News Letter [add city] 2007-03-03, 36. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Warmington, Charlie. "Daleks, doctorates and buffet the cod supper slayer." News Letter, edition, sec., 2007-03-03
- Turabian: Warmington, Charlie. "Daleks, doctorates and buffet the cod supper slayer." News Letter, 2007-03-03, section, 36 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Daleks, doctorates and buffet the cod supper slayer | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Daleks,_doctorates_and_buffet_the_cod_supper_slayer | work=News Letter | pages=36 | date=2007-03-03 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=5 December 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Daleks, doctorates and buffet the cod supper slayer | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Daleks,_doctorates_and_buffet_the_cod_supper_slayer | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=5 December 2025}}</ref>
