The Podgate Scandal

So this morning I woke up (after having had a dream that I had already woken up and gone through my normal morning routine, my subconscious tricking me into oversleeping, I guess) and checked my Twitter account. This is one of the joys of the modern world I might add; that I can lie in bed, semi-conscious and still manage to read messages and communicate with the world. Anyway, today I awoke to find a battle of words and ideas raging across the Twitterverse. From what I could divine, a UK based Doctor Who Convention, Time and Again, has given the podcast Doctor Who Online exclusive allowance to interview their guest stars, this was because of Doctor Who Online providing free advertising for the convention. Now for the many other podcasters attending, this is rather insulting; that not only are they not allowed to interview guests but that they are prohibited from recording altogether, photography has also been limited at the convention. This goes against everything fandom stands for, Doctor Who fandom in particular, these are people who are supposed to be loyal to a TV show about a character who resists and fights oppression, who flouts such arbitrary rules. As a podcaster (for those who don't know, I had a now sadly defunct (although perhaps not for much longer...) podcast called Five Rounds Rapid) I can understand how this deal made between Doctor Who Online and Time and Again would piss people off and indeed it has done, hence the Twitter rage that I witnessed this morning. The best course of action from here would be for Doctor Who Online to ask Time and Again to rescind their offer of exclusive interviews and open up recording and interviewing to all attendees, otherwise this convention will likely be associated form now on with the appalling turn of events here and the public backlash against them. Anyway, that was my morning, how was yours?