InterWho - Whovian Daniel Veal

Hello Sweeties!

It is interview time again!
I had the delight of interviewing whovian Daniel Veal, so grab your favorite snack, sit back and enjoy!

1. Please introduce yourself to our readers and tell us about yourself...
 I'm Dan, huge fan of Doctor Who and gaming and an even bigger fan of Geek Stix. I live in the UK, the home of Doctor Who which is pretty awesome, with my lovely partner whom is also a big geek like myself. I'm also a trainee teacher which is working out great, always wanted to be a teacher and now is my chance. 

2. When did you first become a Whovian?
 Hard to pinpoint the exact moment, but I guess it was when I started re-runs of the older episodes as a kid loving it and getting laughed at by friends for watching this Doctor Who thing, "What even is a Darrlak?" they would say and then 2005 came along my younger brother started watching Doctor Who on BBC 1 with this Christopher Eccleston guy "Bah" I would say, "he's not a Doctor!" watched a re-run of Rose later that week wasn't keen as it wasn't Doctor Who as I knew it, and didn't start watching it every week until The Empty Child. When I got older and had more money I started to collect Doctor Who stuff.

3. What is your favorite Classic Who or New Who episode and why?
 Spearhead from Space, first of Jon Pertwee (My favourite Doctor) and a great episode. I love the whole him in the hospital confusing the hospital staff by having 2 hearts, of course this is found a few times later like in the movie, it is the cause of the Doctor to eventually die as it was "just double exposure". Then the Brigadier (whom I'm looking forward to in DWL), not sure if this truly is the man he has met before or not. Also this story sets up the whole Doctor having a car by him stealing a car that is essentially Bessie in Red, as that led to him having Bessie and of course the Whomobile. Also with the T.A.R.D.I.S being locked down by the Time Lords, the Doctor had to of course steal the car in order to get around. Plus we meet the Nestene Consciousness and Autons, being the Third Doctors first enemy so to speak and these also being the first enemies of the new series with Christopher Eccleston.

4. Series 8 is underway, with a brand new Doctor. What do you think of Peter Capaldi and the series so far?
 Based on what I've seen so far he's my favourite of the new era. He's darker, a lot less romance and very much like Jon Pertwee. Also the episodes just seem better so far.

5. If you could meet just one Doctor Who cast or crew member, who would it be?
 Hmmmm, the hardest question so far. Probably Jon Pertwee with the hopes he still has connections with Sir Ian Fleming so I could meet him too.

6. Who is your favorite Doctor and why?
 If you hadn't guessed already, Jon Pertwee. I like his background story of the whole basically being the real life James Bond working with Sir Ian Fleming during WWII. This also comes through in his Doctor the quirky gadgets as he's trapped here on Earth and needs to do something, with the hand on hand combat scenes also. Theres something about him as the Doctor that I just love.

7. Who is your favorite companion and why?
 I like most of them in their own little ways, yes there are some I just can't stand but its hard to choose. I think it'll have to be Jamie McCrimmon, he was from our past and therefore the technology was even more awe inspiring to him. There is just something about him that I think is great, and love watching him work with the Doctor.

8. If you could travel with The Doctor in his TARDIS to any time and/or place, where would you like to go?
 I would travel to the moon 1969 to be able to watch the moon landing with my own eyes, the point at which humans started to explore space properly.

9. Are you in any other fandoms besides Doctor Who? Such as Torchwood or Sherlock?
 Well I like both Torchwood and Sherlock, in fact I like a lot of things geeky and nerdy. But I would say my top is Doctor Who.

10. Tell us about your business or hobbies even if it is not related to Doctor Who..
 My biggest hobby is gaming, both collecting consoles and playing across a variety of devices. I make Airfix models in my spare time (which I don't have a lot of recently), read and watch films/tv shows. I wish I was more artistic and crafty like Traci but so far I have not found a crafting type hobby that I can really get into and doesn't cost too much.

11. Is there anything you would like to add before we wrap up this interview (such as conventions you gone to, cast you have met, a collection you have, etc)?
 I have gone to NICEcon 2 years in a row and cosplayed as the Doctor (11th and 12th), my partner as Clara and my mate as the 9th Doctor and won the group competition both times. Unfortunately I haven't met many celebrities, but one person I have met is Colin Salmon (Dr Moon in DW and Charles Robinson in James Bond) at the Vice Chancellors awards at my University which was pretty cool. As mentioned before I have a collection of Games Consoles, I started collecting the Doctor Who figures magazine but the figures looked too cheap and was expensive so I stopped, I have all the James Bond car collection and various bits of Doctor Who related stuff. 
I would also like to say that my tip 3 geek stix from Blue Box Balm would be: 
1. Wookie Cookie 
2. I O U 
3. Captain Cheesecake

We would like to send out a BIG THANK YOU to Daniel for allowing us to interview him. 
It is fun getting know fellow geeks!

If you have any questions for Daniel please comment below...