We left the M25 (aka ‘London Orbital’), drove past the Travelodge where we would be staying, turned left at the roundabout, and found the entrance to Theobald’s Park. We drove down a long driveway and arrived at the convention centre. We knew we were at the right place when we walked through the doors and saw a Dalek guarding the TARDIS! We mentally prepared ourselves for the onslaught of geekdom.
People were gathering slowly and a decent crowd was forming. The first thing that surprised me was the variety – there were older men in business suits, couples with children, teenagers... I was expecting everyone to be male, obese, wearing a Colin Baker costume that was five sizes too small! We queued up and were given our convention pack which had a schedule of the events over the weekend, as well as several free gifts. In one of the first queues, I started talking to a chap called David (good name!) who lives in London.
After about half an hour, it was time for the first event. We found a seat right at the back of the auditorium realising quite quickly that if we want to get a good view, we need to be a bit quicker. First up was Janet Fielding (Tegan) who emerged from the doors to a round of applause. She declared that Paul McGann (8th Doctor) was running a little late but would be here soon. Her voice hadn’t changed since much since the show, and she had a few funny stories to share before Paul entered. Janet was Paul’s agent at the time that the Doctor Who TV Movie was being cast and it was actually the first casting she did as an agent. Both Janet and Paul seemed to have a nice relationship and it was great hearing about Paul’s time on Doctor Who and some of the stories about the people they worked with.
After the talk, we ventured into the shop for some memorabilia, and then we queued up for Peter Davison’s signing. He was doing a show in London at the same time and so could only come to the convention in the mornings. David was in the queue in front of us and we introduced ourselves to the young girl behind us whose name was Catherine! She is a sports photographer from Sydney and she had come to the UK just for this event. I was quite nervous about meeting Peter, but he was friendly and talkative and we had a brief chat about New Zealand as he signed my book.
There was one American fan who was wearing an amazingly accurate Tom Baker costume. You could see the sad looks on the faces of some of the fans who had tried to do something similar but were forced to change out of their clothes in shame. There were another couple of fans from London who wore excellent David Tennant blue suits with trainers and brown coats. I should have brought my leather jacket as the only Doctor I could probably pull off would be Christopher Eccelston.
I quickly ran to the photo shoot with Paul McGann. Most of the people with the Silver and Gold passes had already been through, so the queue wait was quite short. It was an efficient process – walk up, shake hands, a quick hello and “I’m from New Zealand”, and then “Smile, please”. I felt quite intimidated meeting one of my heroes face to face, but Paul was calm and relaxed which had the same effect on me. If the photographer wasn’t happy with the shot, he’d usually say something like “You were perfect, I was rubbish!” which went down well with the masses.
I rejoined the queue for Janet Fielding. When I told her I was from New Zealand, she told me how she went there once for a convention and no-one showed up! I wasn't sure if she was being serious or not - I hoped it was just an exaggeration.
Next up was Tom Baker’s signing. His queue snaked around the walls but moved quite quickly. I thought I was getting close when I shuffled to the door of his room, but then I saw the queue fold back on itself several times within the room. We met a couple of guys from Melbourne in the Tom Baker queue who had also come specifically for this event. It transpired that they were told about this event by a good friend of theirs in Melbourne whose wife didn’t let him come.
I heard Tom’s laugh booming from the corner long before I actually saw him, but it did send a tingle down my spine – sad, I know! When our turn came, he talked to us for a while about the ads he did for the Tui Brewery and how much he loved visiting New Zealand. His voice was just the same and he had a real larger-than-life presence that seemed to fill the room.
There were a couple of other guests who were only in one scene in Mawdryn Undead – they played young versions of Tegan and Nyssa. I thought the photo shoot would be with both of them, but by the time I queued up, I had missed my photo with Sian. I also met Tim Ingham in the queue (who played Sao Til in the Tonight's the Night Doctor Who alien sketch) and chatted to him for a bit. He was there as a fan today and as a celebrity tomorrow and was probably as excited as I was to meet the classic Doctors.
We had a break for lunch so we popped outside and had a sandwich while looking at the outside of the Georgian mansion and the grounds. The Italian gardens were looking quite bare as spring seemed to start quite late this year. The fact that the daffodils hadn’t flowered yet even made the news! After lunch, I waited in the queue for the Tom Baker photo shoot while Mum had a cup of tea and a look around. I was surprised how tall he was and remembered me from the signing earlier.
We quickly found some seats in the front row of the conference room and waited for Tom Baker’s talk to start. He appeared to thunderous applause and stood for the whole session quite close to us. He was, as expected, a very funny man and had lots of stories that I had never heard before. He could make the whole room laugh with just one googly eyed stare! He pulled out a skull that had been given to him by David Tennant ("one of my distinguished predecessors") which he was most fond of.
After Tom left, the Big Finish crew - Rob Shearman (Writer), Nick Briggs (Producer and Voice of Daleks), Jamie Robertson (Sound), Alex Mallinson (Cover Designer), David Richardson (Producer) and Lisa Bowerman (Director and Bernice Summerfield) - had a talk and it was exciting to hear about their plans for the future of the range. They all seemed like genuine, down to earth people who had a love for the series and weren’t simply doing it for the money.
The rest of the day was spent mainly waiting in queues for signings which wasn’t too much of a problem given that we had queued up with David, Cat and the Australians; the queue seemed to go much quicker when we were talking rather than just standing and waiting. There were five signings in the one room: Paul McGann, Janet Fielding, Sian Pattenden, Lucy Benjamin and Baxter Sullivan. We had nice chats with everyone. Sian and Lucy were amazed at the attention they had received given their minor association with Doctor Who. Baxter is the illustrator of Doctor Whoah in DWM and he was a very funny man. We had a bizarre chat about binary numbers and for some reason had called me “Shy Dave” – I can’t remember why.
After the day wound to a close, we left to go to the Travelodge deciding that the Masquerade Ball might not be our cup of tea. We checked in and moved our gear upstairs before heading down again for dinner. The dinner hall was packed; most of them fans from the convention. We ordered curries and a pint of Tetley’s, and then looked around for a seat. The Australians saw us and invited us to join them. They introduced themselves as Peter and Aron and we had a great time chatting about our jobs, families, and our love for certain TV shows.
Dinner was really nice considering the cheap cost and the Travelodge itself was impressive; very clean, modern and comfortable. We went back to our room and I prepared the couch bed for sleeping in while Mum took the main bed. We sorted out the flight and train ride for Mum’s trip to Scotland, watched a bit of TV (we had a bit of laugh that one of the tasks on ‘Who Dares Wins’ was to name all of the actors who had played Doctor Who on TV), and then I put on an episode of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ before we finally went to sleep.
