Birmingham Memorabilia/Expo: SBOC and the Jiffers do Birmingham!

After failing horribly to have my poets day, Jemma and I eventually get to the Birmingham Airport Travelodge for 9pm. 

Captains and the Doc

After checking in we head to the lift and up to the room, we share the lift with two girls who are also at the hotel for the event (whose names I later learn are Milly and Danielle). During the lift ride Danielle made a great comment “have you ever been told you look like the lovechild of Clark Kent and David Tennant?”, my reply “weellllll…”.

Wales 2013, Part 2 – ‘Who’ Ya Gonna Call?

It’s Sunday morning and it’s too early, however I’m up and working to once again get my hair to defy gravity for a few hours, so having offered up the correct prayers to the hair gods I’m good to go. Once again Kate was being difficult (she and I will be having words soon…)

Having found the event location and parked up, it was time to spend the day at Cardiff International Comic Expo.

Wales 2013, Part 1 – Here We Are Again…

Everyone knows that Wales is the spiritual home of Doctor Who, so when my friend Amy came to the UK to visit then a pilgrimage was definitely on the cards!

It’s Saturday March 2nd and having picked up Amy from the airport at a horribly early hour it was time to head from London over to where the Welsh come from…

I do have one major issue with driving to South Wales. That issue is the how much it costs to go over the bridge!! £6.20, how much??!! £6.20 really!!

Lords of Time – Tea, So How Should It Be Made...

Yes, this is a blog post about how to correctly make a cup of tea!

How to make tea?!?

Over the course of the Lords of Time weekend a large amount of tea was consumed, especially by me, now the age old question is, how should it be made? Milk first (the correct way!) or milk in second?

This debate raged most of the weekend, the girls from the DT Forum, DavidTennant.com and I locked in stalemate as to who was correct, only one man could sort this, I am of course referring to Mr David Tennant.

During the DT guest talk, the question was asked, so how should tea be made? We all expected a quick reply, what we got was probably the most detailed description of how to make tea I’ve ever heard!

Lords of Time - To Benedick Or Not To Benedick...

David Tennant as a guest at a convention, that’s a no brainer I hear you say! Well, yes normally it would be, but with me flying back from 5 days at Dragon*Con only a couple of days before hand I wasn’t overly sure what sort of state I was going to be in...

So, I arrived back in the UK on Tuesday morning with only about 30% of my voice and not feeling anywhere near 100%... by Friday I was feeling more with it and could actually maintain a conversation without my voice failing, as such Friday lunchtime I decided, why not, may as well go to Lords of Time, hey it’d be rude not too...

Getting to the Hilton around 7pm Liz and I picked up tickets on the door. What did surprise me was what number tickets we ended up with, I was Gold 54 (out of a max of 150) I had a feeling this could be a very quiet event...

Entertainment Media Show, Day 2 – Benedick meets Benedick (aka Matt meets David Tennant!)

So with day one of EMS completed and the series finale of Doctor Who watched it was time to put my mind to day two of EMS.

Why was day two so important, well unless you’ve been living on the moon you’d know that David Tennant himself was going to be there as a guest.

Benedick

Now call me a fanboy all you like, but for me this was epic and I have to confess I was very excited! However, I also had a dilemma... What do you wear to meet someone who you class as an icon??

I’d been pondering this very question from the moment that he was attending was announced. Normally for an event I’d simply don the 10^th Doctor suit and swan about as normal, but this was different, did I really want to meet David Tennant dressed at 10? How would he react and what would he think?

I asked the very question of what to wear to my Facebook Page and they replied with Ten but I still wasn’t really feeling it. I think the fact that the world and it’s mother (classic expression!) would be there dressed as Ten also didn’t really help, when I saw him did I want to be (or not be) remembered as just another Ten?

Doctor Who - In Moff We Trust?

So, here we are, the end of who series 6 is rapidly approaching and there have been a number of wildly differing opinions on Moffat’s time on the show as the man in charge...

Until now I’ve not really ever publically voiced my opinion and, believe it or not, this is actually the third time I’ve written this piece, the previous two times, I’ve gotten to the end and pressed delete rather than save...

It's All About The Hair...

Here's the how to video I did for Tennant hair...

The Wedding of Sao Til

Writing about a wedding, I hear you ask. Bit off topic for you isn’t it? Well... Yes, yes it is, but read on.

I first met Tim (aka Sao Til) in March 2010 when he was a guest at Timequest 2, a Doctor Who convention run by 10th Planet Events. For those of you who don’t know and are wondering why Tim was a guest at the event, he was the winner on the search for a Doctor Who Alien Superstar that was held on John Barrowman’s ‘Tonight’s the Night’.

Much Ado About Something...

It’s a quiet Monday night and I’m at home now fully recovered from my amazing weekend experience, to sum it up in four words: I met David Tennant!!

Now before I get into the whole of experience of Much Ado About Nothing I need to go back in time a bit (insert appropriate Doctor Who joke here...).  What you may (or may not) know is that I’m a lookalike, specifically a 10th Doctor lookalike and up until now I’d never managed to actually meet the man himself, despite several attempts in the last 18 months.

So, when it was announced that Catherine Tate and David Tennant would be taking to the stage as Beatrice and Benedict in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing it was an opportunity that could not be missed.

After doing battle with a crashing internet site and jammed phone lines I was able to book tickets, I confess I got a little over excited while booking and before I knew it I’d booked to go three times! I’d booked the final night (September 3rd) a Friday night in July and a night in May (20th) early on in the run.

Before long it was D-Day (or should that be DT-Day), I made it to London in good time and was at the Wyndham by 3.30pm. Once we’d scouted where the Stage Door was it was time to grab food and have a wander around Covent Garden (this did result in me buying both a flat cap and aviator style sunglasses, both of which are cool!).

Skip on to 7pm and it was time to open the theatre doors, we were amazed by how small the theatre is and how close we were to the stage. We’d got row M tickets and the view was perfect.

The show itself was amazing, really good and enjoyable to watch. I’m not going to go into detail about costumes or what happens as I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t been to see it yet (I don’t know about you but I hate spoilers!). What I will say is that both David and Catherine are epic, they have great chemistry and play off each other really well. One of the true stars of the show had to be Dogberry, Master Constable of the Watch. Nothing is funnier than watching a Shakespearian fist bump accompanied by the word Boom! (Shakespearian Boo-ya?!?).

Merchandise wise there are three things to choose from, a David and Catherine poster (£10), a programme (£3.50) and copy of the script (£6.99), all are really good and well worth the cost.

When the performance came to an end it was time to shoot round to the stage door. By the time we arrived there were already a number of people there, the majority were all clutching their Much Ado programmes but there were also the expected collection of autograph hunters and eBay Dealers...

Nat and I managed to get near enough to the barrier to be in with a chance, there was then the wait until David and Catherine appeared, now there are a couple of advantages to being a fanboy (as opposed to a fangirl), namely I was tall enough to be able to lean in and get both Catherine’s and David’s autograph and get a few pictures as well. It was fab, I’d managed to see both of them and get the autographs I’d wanted, however this high point was cut short when I found out that Nat hadn’t been so lucky, she’d missed out on David, disaster!

It turned out one of the eBay dealers mentioned earlier had shoved a clipboard in the way so Nat had missed out, upon hearing this the decision was made to go back to London the next night, we would have our space on the barrier, and that’s exactly what we did!

Roll on 9pm the next night and we were back in London, and thanks to the friendly fans that were already there we got our space, it was at this point we also randomly spotted Alex Kingston (yes, River Song!) outside the restaurant near the Wyndham, we popped over and briefly said “Hi” she was really nice and quite stunning, she was in a hurry though as she had a taxi waiting so there was no time for a photo, oh well, Collectormania Milton Keynes next week!

10.30pm arrived before we knew it (chatting to the very nice, fellow fangirls Heather, Brittany, Tamara, Ellie and Leanne helped). We had our space on the barrier and had a great experience actually being able to chat to both David and Catherine, get autographs and the best bit was being to get a photo with David as well.

David and Catherine were really nice, they were both chatty and laid back, they were really great and it was a real pleasure to meet them.

As a weekend it’ll take a lot to top! Oh the life of a fanboy...

Me with DT

The Doctor Who Experience - Is It Any Good?

It's now late in the evening on Sunday March 6th, it's been a couple of days since I walked round 'The Doctor Who Experience' so now the initial 'WOW' factor has worn off it's time to have a look back over the experience as a whole and give my thoughts, and don't worry I won't spoil the interactive element if you haven't been yet. 

I've been to a three of the previous Doctor Who Exhibitions (Cardiff, London and Newcastle). My personal favourite was the one held at Earls Court, most likely because it was my first and it just seemed bigger than the others, as such I was intrigued to see how the new 'Experience' would differ from what had come before. 

So, to begin. Tickets..... There were three options. Standard, Silver and Gold. I'd gone for the Gold option (hey, why not!!). 

On arrival to 'The Experience' you get the lift up to the second floor, you can tell it's still fairly new as the staff seemed confused by what a gold ticket did, but I wasn't overly worried by this minor glitch....... 

The 'Experience' itself is split into two sections, the 'interactive adventure' and the exhibition. So not to spoil the adventure part for anyone who's not been I won't say too much about it. However what I will say is that it works, there is a good mix of action and fun as well as fear. If I was 12 again I'd be raving about it. 

The effects are really good and it's pitched well, the only downside with the adventure part was that it was all over a little too quickly, but that's not really a downside is it? 

Matt Smith and Tardis

Once the adventure ends it leads into the exhibition. The first item you encounter is the Pandorica from the end of season 5. It's really impressive up close! 

The exhibition then leads to a life-sized statue of the 11th Doctor standing in front of his Tardis, surrounding it are the costumes of the previous 10 Doctor's. It's a really awesome sight to see, almost 50 years and 11 versions of the same character in the same room. 

Following on from the costumes are the Screwdrivers and Tardis Keys as well as few props from the more recent series including the 'wing mirror, invisible monster seeing device thingy' from Vincent and The Doctor. 

Moving round there is then a Cyberman and Cybercontroller, a great place for a photo op! However, there is a far bigger distraction to draw the eye, the complete Tardis interior used by the 9th and 10th Doctors. 

The Tardis. My Tardis!

It's a really awe inspiring sight and you're able to get really close to the whole thing, it's almost like being on the actual Tardis and, for me, it's was quite an emotional experience. The only thing that took away from it for me was that 10's Regeneration sequence plays on a loop in the background. Personally I'd prefer it if there was a bit of a gap and the Doctors theme played as backing music instead (a suggestion I've made to the curator). 

After being dragged away from the Tardis interior we then got to see costumes from the Master, Timelords and all the recent companions, a real good selection of things to see! 

This then leads onto another Tardis set, this time from Peter Davison’s Era and next to that is the Tardis from Tom Bakers day. 

Following on from the costumes and Tardises, Tardi..... (Erm, what is the plural for Tardis??) come the monsters, more specifically, Daleks. Davros is first, accompanied by the Dalek version of 'Who do you think you are' starting with the 60's Dalek up to the modern day 'LGBT' Dalek. 

After the Daleks is then a selection of both classic and new series monsters. In addition to the monsters there are also a couple of interactive areas, one of which teaches you how to walk like a scarecrow from Human Nature/Family of Blood which was kinda cool. 

Designers Area

In the same area as the monsters is also a mock up of the design offices as well as the mock up sculpts of the Ood heads. 

The final part of the exhibition is the little shop (love a little shop!). The downside to this shop though it is a tad on the expensive side, £55 for a Who season on DVD is a bit much in my opinion......... there is a good selection of stuff though. 

As for the tickets that I mentioned at the beginning, if you haven't been yet I'd recommend just going for the standard pass, the gold does get you a programme (that separately is £10) and a limited edition print but I'm not convinced it's worth the extra. 

Overall, the new 'Doctor Who Experience' is well worth a visit. The exhibition part isn't as big as some of the previous ones but it is very well done and has some elements that should not be missed (Tardis interior!!!). 

The staff are really nice and enjoy being there and are more than happy to chat about the exhibit. While in the coffee shop we had the curator pull up a chair and ask us what we thought would make it better! 

One tip, avoid weekends or school holidays like the plague!! When I went there were only about 12 people in there so you could spend lots of time looking at everything and not feel crowded or rushed. 

I'll be going again for definite. 

How This All Began....

I've recently been asked how I got into the whole Doctor Who look-a-like thing, well here goes.

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away..... (insert Star Wars intro music)

Clearing the fog from my memory, we need to go back to April 2007, I think it was my birthday but the exact date is a little hazy......

It was a Saturday night and I was in London visiting some of my friends, towards the end of the evening we ended up sat in The Walnut Tree, a Weatherspoons pub located in Leytonstone High Street. Sat at a table in the middle of the pub chatting I was surprised to have a random, slightly drunk (and from memory not unattractive girl) stumble over to me and proclaim “Did you know you look like David Tennant?!?”

I think my reply was ‘That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me’. After that I didn’t give it another thought as she’d had a few.........

One of the first pictures of me as the Doctor back in 2008

Skip forward a few months to August and it happened again, this time it was at home, my house mate of the time had friends round, I’d come home wearing a (pin stripe) suit and the same comment was made.... Ok I thought to myself, perhaps there is something to this.

So based on this my hair style began to change and I developed Tennant style sideburns. From this point the comments started to come more regularly, the best ones being when people walk past and then whisper to their friends “was it me, or.....”

Around March 2008 I decided that I needed to make more of the DT resemblance and got myself a 10th Doc suit and coat (back then it cost me just over £30 off of eBay, the suit wasn’t great but the coat looked fine).

By this point I’d also got a new housemate (Michelle) who, as it happens, worked for BBC Radio Suffolk. For the 2008 Suffolk Show they were going to broadcast live from the show and have a Doctor Who display in tent. Michelle said that I should go along in my Tennant gear as it would be good fun.

On Radio Suffolk with Terry Molloy

The result, I hadn't expected. It was manic, I’d never before been photographed so many times! As part of the event Terry Molloy (Davros, Classic Who) was there signing, he was also due to be interviewed about his career as well as the return of Davros to Doctor Who.

What I wasn’t expecting was that I’d end up on the radio too, chatting with Terry!!

After the radio interview (which at that point was one of the most nerve racking things I’d done), Terry gave me some valuable advice.

“Get an agent and make the most of it while you can, there’s probably only about 18 months of Tennant left (this was prior to David’s leaving announcement)”

So that’s exactly what I did, the rest as they say is history............

Me now, the look has improved!