Doctor Who fans plan massive virtual pub quiz over Easter Weekend
The long-running Quiz of Rassilon is heading online – and here’s how you can take part
Doctor Who fans just keep on finding ways to beat the self-isolation blues and boredom, with Whovians organising rewatches of episodes, attending virtual conventions and enjoying newly-released content from the production team over the past few weeks of lockdown.
Now, though, they can finally engage in every Doctor Who fan’s favourite activity – proving how much arcane trivia they know – because long-running real-life pub quiz The Quiz of Rassilon (which has hosted Doctor Who trivia nights since 2010) has announced that it’ll be hosting an online version of the event over the Easter Weekend.
“The Quiz has always been a place where fans from all corners of the fandom can come together for a bit of fun and to talk about their favourite show,” Quiz of Rassilon co-creator Michael Williams told RadioTimes.com.
“We wanted to keep this spirit alive by creating an event where everyone could be with their friends and battle it out together over tricky Doctor Who trivia!”
Called Doctor Who and the Quiz of Rassilon, the event will take place at 7:00pm BST on Easter Sunday, and will require fans to get online with videoconferencing service Zoom where they can join a “room” full of Doctor Who fans keen to quiz their hearts out.
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The quiz itself will feature a number of special guest hosts and questions based on series 12 finale The Timeless Children, 2005’s Rose, classic episode Evil of the Daleks and many other weird and wonderful rounds, and is a little more involved than your average online pub quiz.
For one thing, fans will have to properly register by sending their team name and email address to quizofrassilon@gmail.com, getting requests in before midday on Saturday 11th April. Following this, on Sunday afternoon teams will receive an email with a link and instructions to join the quiz along with the first question, the answer to which will provide them access.
During the quiz itself most participants (who are expected to number in the hundreds) will have their microphones muted in the main hosting room, with each team given their own “private TARDIS” (in other words a separate videocall meeting) where they can confer, chat and screen share, before they’re pulled back to the main call after a few minutes.
“We've designed this Quiz using Zoom's 'breakout rooms' feature which gives teams the opportunity to have their usual table at the Pub where they can discuss between themselves and enjoy some time with their friends,” explained Williams.
And to make sure everyone’s keeping honest, all answers will have to be submitted at the end of every round on a timed “Black Scroll of Rassilon” – so no changing them at the last moment!
Overall, it sounds like a truly epic event for any Doctor Who fan to be a part of – and according to Williams, they’re expecting a few new faces as well.
“During such an uncertain time we feel it's so important to keep connected and try to focus our positive energy together to keep spirits up,” he said.
“The fact we're online means we have been able to go even further afield and give pals across the world the opportunity to take part.”
Clearly, even in the darkest times Doctor Who can still bring people together. Assuming they’ve swotted up enough on The Deadly Assassin, of course…
Doctor Who and the Quiz of Rassilon begins on Sunday 12th April at 6.45pm BST. For more details of how to sign up, click here.
