US Doctor Who fans were dejected recently to find out that the ReGeneration Who 5 convention had been cancelled by its organisers. It was planned for the 29th to the 31st of March at the Bethesda North Marriott hotel in Rockville, Maryland. Guests were to include Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred (Ace McShane), Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon), Catherine Tate (Donna Noble), and Terry Molloy (Davros). The disappointing news came just a week before the event was planned to kick off.
Since then, there has been speculation but few facts to explain what went wrong. The only authoritative information we have is that supplied at the time by the organisers, Onezumi Events Inc.:
Important Regeneration Who 5 Information
As a result of a string of last-minute cancellations, we see no alternative but to cancel (Re)Generation Who 5. We want to apologize for this as we tried every way possible to move forward but could not find a way to produce an event of the quality you have come to expect from us.
We will be working with our team to determine if there are any options moving forward.
Please note you will need to contact the hotel directly if have guest room reservations.
Onezumi Events was crowdfunded into life in 2010 on the OnezumiVerse.com blog and is owned by James Harknell, who was the organiser for the convention, which had been running for 5 years. His co-organiser was a woman called Oni Durant, but she may (or not) have ended her connection with the company several months prior to its collapse. OneZumi, for those who don’t know, is an online Lovecraftian horror comic strip. The website for Onezumi Events has been down since March and, it seems, their other project for the year, PotterVerse 2019 is also defunct.
In the absence of any further official statement from James Harknell or anyone else close to the company, all we can do is make the reasonable assumption that they suffered financial problems and were no longer able to function. Some have speculated that the company had been unable to pay money owed to Twelfth Doctor, Peter Capaldi, and that this triggered a breakdown in the other guests’ confidence in the event.
Of course, this is all very regrettable for those who had invested in the convention going ahead: purchasing admission packages, pre-paid photo ops, autographs; not to mention travel and accommodation costs. Stallholders also lost out if they had bought additional stock for which they were left with no alternative venue.
Nor should we forget that this was a missed opportunity for the most important part of conventions: fans getting together to enjoy each other’s company and to enjoy our show together.
