{"id":73181,"date":"2015-11-06T00:18:29","date_gmt":"2015-11-06T07:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wend.ca\/?p=73181"},"modified":"2020-03-22T12:13:47","modified_gmt":"2020-03-22T16:13:47","slug":"a-dalek-in-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wend.ca\/?p=73181","title":{"rendered":"A Dalek in Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"

I first noticed the Dalek on October 19. I know the exact day because I dropped my camera, shattered the outside casing, and needed to find a replacement. I walked down Yonge street in hopes of finding a camera store… because this seemed like a logical place to look in a city that I barely know.<\/p>\n

During my meander down Yonge, I saw a Dalek peering out of the old Eaton’s building in College Park. It seemed to be oddly placed and it was dark inside. And, this wasn’t a Halloween or party decoration… I was a real Dalek from the Doctor Who TV Series. What was it doing here? Why was it standing askew inside an old building that seemed to be under construction? I glanced at the Dalek a few more times and cursed myself for not having a working camera in hand. I vowed to return at a later date to take a photo of the machine. <\/p>\n

Then I forgot about it until a few days later when people started pinging me. Doctor Who is in Toronto… and no one knows why <\/em> they said. There were speculation and observations… but no one knew why a Dalek was sitting in a dark building on Yonge street.<\/p>\n

We would find out more about the Dalek on October 29th, when the building officially opened to the public as the British Consulate-General’s first-ever “Pop-Up Consulate” in Toronto. <\/p>\n

The pop-up is only on Yonge for 12-days in celebration of the strong links between Canada and the UK. Called 12 Days of GREAT<\/em>, there’s more than Doctor Who in the building: there’s James Bond (some of the movie cars are on display — including a Norton Dominator SS motorcycle that will be used in the next movie), there’s the Beatles (coupled with a Beatles tour of the city which mimics their 1964 visit to the city) with a Ringo Starr appearance on Bloor (I saw him), and many other British cultural\/societal contributions.<\/p>\n

The most important of all of these contributions is the Magna Carta<\/a><\/em> and the Charter of the Forest<\/a><\/em>, which are on display at Fort York until November 7th.<\/p>\n

In all, I’m glad that I discovered this Dalek. It really opened the door to a whole bunch of interesting things that are happening in Toronto in October\/November.<\/p>\n