The 7 Essential Steps to Throwing the Geekdom Party of the Year

Now you need to choose a good location. Sometimes, your house/apartment will do. And other times, you need to kick it up a notch. When picking a location, make sure you keep a few things in mind: Will you be able to decorate? Will it cost money? Are you technically allowed to be there and throw a party? Is a friend's place better suited than yours? Can it fit enough people?

The location you choose should be theme-appropriate and people-appropriate. Throwing a Doctor Who party but want to move it outside? Try a nearby lake and create a Western atmosphere. Whovians will instantly appreciate the reference.

Once you've picked a location, you need to decorate! Nothing creates a cooler atmosphere than decorations. Because come on - how cool would it be to have a TARDIS in your living room? Even better - a TARDIS room! Just put a Police Box poster on the door and string christmas lights along the walls... it'll be the perfect place to transition to when your guests get drunk enough to start dancing.

Now about those guests... the people really do make the party, and for everybody to enjoy themselves you need to invite the right people. Fandom parties are, after all, for the fans. But it's also the perfect place to convert new fans! It's always good to have a mix of (for example) established Whovians and casual Whovians, with a few unaware significant others thrown in.

Make sure you keep in mind your chosen location when creating your guest list. If your tiny apartment can't comfortably fit more than 15 people, then don't send out invitations to 50. And if you're in a wide open space and plan on dancing, then only having 10 attendees can start to feel a little bit slow.

And if you have the time, do send out invitations! Make sure you include the time, place, dress code (cosplay time!), and expectations. If you want each guest to contribute something to the party, then specify on your invitations to bring along a themed food item.

Ah, the food. By far one of the best aspects of any party, definitely the tastiest, and probably the most creative. Food, done right, can even be the majority of your decorations!

Whovians: fishy custard is a must! And I can personally attest to the fact that it is suprisingly tasty and extremely easy. If you don't want to make the custard from scratch, buying it from the store is easy enough. And everyone should know how to make fishsticks. 

Cupcakes can be adapted to represent just about any fandom - from dalek cupcakes to wizard hat cupcakes, they all taste just as good. That goes for big cakes, too. Want some normal food? Bake a dish of lasagna and then draw eyes and lips on top for a Cassandra Casserole! Turn carrots into wands and shape rice into adipose... or just about anything else white.

This goes for drinks as well - turn normal screwdrivers into Sonic Screwdrivers! Get some curacao (that blue liqueur) and your guests can get drunk on the soul of the TARDIS. The possibilities are endless.

Using the internet and your imagination, you'll be able to come up with far too many food and drink ideas. And then you can give each guest an item to bring, and assemble the themed dishes together in a foodie pre-party.

No matter how baller your food is, guests are going to need some kind of organized entertainment to get the party started. There are any number of games that can be easily adapted to any fandom. Here are a few:

• Have a deck of notecards full of characters. Each person gets a character card taped to their forehead. Then everybody goes around the room (or around a table) asking yes or no questions in order to figure out who they are. When they figure it out, they can grab a new card! You can declare a "winner" if necessary by seeing who has collected the most cards. 

• Themed version of Bang: remember Mafia? Where you sat around in a circle waiting to be killed and guessing who might point at you during the 'night'? This game gets so much cooler when you give everyone a role and a power. The rules of mafia apply, but everyone gets to do something. For example, if you get the mafia role of "Cyberman" you may have the power of temporarily converting a citizen to a mafia member for one round. Or if you get the citizen role of "Sonic Screwdriver" you can discover if a person is a mafia member or not during the night round. Be inventive!

• A themed game of charades... or cranium... or apples to apples... or any other normal board game that could be adapted to suit your theme.

• And don't forget about costume contests! If your party is going to be cosplay friendly, it's always a good idea to reward people for good costumes. 

Got some ideas? Good. Still not enough? You can find any number of games on the internet, or just by looking at your board game shelf.

The whole party has been building up to this: the viewing. Perhaps this party was timed to coincide with the season premiere, or a special episode (How many Doctor Who parties do you think there were for the 50th Anniversary episode?). Or maybe you just want to rewatch some old favorites. Regardless, there comes a time when the action winds down and the anticipation winds up. 

If the viewing is a big part of your party, then it's a good idea to put some special thought into location. Maybe you have a friend with a really good TV. Or maybe you know somebody with a big projector screen. Or, you could be really lucky and know somebody with a home theater or private access to a real theater. Regardless, it's a good idea to apply the rule "the bigger the better."

Seating can also be a major issue. Whether you collect all of the pillows in the house and pile them into the living room, or ask everyone to bring a favorite pouf or bean bag, you want to make sure your guests will stay comfy for the whole episode/movie. 

So dim the lights, ready the (themed?) popcorn, and get comfy. It's time to remember what this fandom is all about.

The viewing is obviously the pinnacle of the evening. But it doesn't have to be the end... and it shouldn't be! Because after you've just watched a mindblowing new episode, or revisited your favorite movie, who doesn't want to talk about it? Before your guests leave, inject some intellectualism and encourage a debate.

But of course there's more to it than just a nerdy discussion among friends. It's also clean-up time. Because what's worse than waking up to a mess made by 50 people... that you have to clean up yourself? Ask everybody to pick up after themselves as you spur the discussion along. You can even make a game out of it - in order to chime in, a guest has to first pick up five pieces of trash.

It may not seem like the best idea to your guests at first, but an enthusiastic debate is a great distraction from cleaning up. You'll thank yourself the next day, I promise.