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 4 – Stone Angels and Good Wizards

So here we are on the final page of this particular Wales trip, as it was our last day the plan was to make it a busy one!

At 9am we arrive at Southerndown beach, it you watch Doctor Who you should know this place, it’s most well known for being Bad Wolf Bay, it’s also been a location in a number of other episodes, basically if the production team needs a beach they go here! 

When we arrived the tide was quite a way in, as a result the iconic sand beach was underwater, however the stone parts the ‘Time of Angles’ and ‘Dinosaurs on a Spaceship’ were still accessible so Amy and I had a wander over the rocks, I decided that I wanted to get as close to the water as possible, this almost resulted in me getting very wet and also an impromptu Capt. Jack Sparrow impression…

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!!

Dining With The Doctor: My Review of the Unofficial Whovian Cookbook…

I confess, this is new ground for me, I’ve not done many reviews before I’m also not renown for my culinary skills so giving my thoughts on a Doctor Who cookbook is a little out of my comfort zone!.

However, let it never be said that I’m not up for new challenges! As a result when Chris-Rachael Oseland sent me a copy of ‘Dining With The Doctor: The Unofficial Whovian Cookbook’ it was time to don the ‘kiss the cook’ apron and give it a whirl!

The book itself is a colossal 183 pages (in the pdf version I have) and contains a recipe linked to each episode of Doctor Who since it’s return in 2005 all the way up to the 2011 Christmas Special: The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe.

Ten Plus? – Redux

Yesterdays post got some interesting reactions. Some thought it was deep thinking, others a goodbye and others just weren’t sure what to make of it...

Me :)

Well... Don’t panic! I’m not going anywhere (see you can breathe again now). What it was is me looking back over what I’ve done and how much of an influence the man in the pin stripe suit has had.

What I want to do now is move forward from this point, what that does mean is expanding what I do, which will probably result in Ten taking a bit of a back seat for a little while, after all I can’t be me if I’m standing behind a Ten shaped shield.

Allons-y!!

Ten Plus?

How I'm best known. The Doctor

Recently I’ve been putting together a bucket list and it’s got me thinking (dangerous I know). My main thought is what do I want to be known for...

I’ve mentioned before that the Facebook page first launched back in 2010 I envisaged only ever getting a few likes, almost two and a half years later the page has over three thousand three hundred which is totally mad, I’m just me after all!

Back when I first started all I ever did was a few pictures and hang out at events, which while being good fun had a danger of becoming very ‘samey’ within a short space of time. As a result, in October 2010 I did my first event write up which added to what I do...

We Have A Podcast Now, Podcasts Are Cool...

If you follow my Facebook Page or Twitter account you'll probably have noticed that I've launched a new project with with my good friend Tim, we have a Podcast called 'Journeys in Fandom'!

No Matt! Don't make me use the paper!

Episode 1 was released on Sunday (October 7th), with the following synopsis:

"In the first ever episode Tim and Matt introduce themselves and explain just what is Journeys in Fandom. In the main feature of this episode the guys discuss and give a review of the first half of series 7 of Doctor Who. But there is still time for Tim to try an describe wargaming and fail, Matt to insult an entire country and the guys to come up with the best review sound bite for a Doctor Who episode ever."

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...

The Crash of the Elysium

It’s June 15^th and a new exhibit has opened in Ipswich to commemorate the Elysium. A ship launched from our very own docks by Princes Helen and that was lost in 1888 after 50+ voyages.

The exhibit itself has a few remains from the ship and a number of photographs from the time, it’s quite dry but informative, that is until the military burst in...

There has been an incident and they need our help!

The Greatest Show In The Galaxy – The Fanboy Who Waited...

If you’ve read the first part of my GSITG blog you probably noticed it was a bit more formal than you’re used to, well this second part is going to focus purely on the guests and what I got up to, hope you like it!

Jeri Ryan

Me with Jeri Ryan

When Jeri was announced by Showmasters I must confess I was a little excited as she is a rare guest in the UK, to my knowledge she’s only been over once before. To my complete surprise she was then announced by GSITG on the same evening! Woohoo, two bites at the cheery so to speak!

As I knew Jeri was going to be busy I made sure she was the first guest I went to see at GSITG. She really was lovely! Really chatty and came across as really fan friendly, I expected her just to sign my 7of9 picture but instead it was personalised and even had a dedication “Resistance is.... Well, you know”.

The Greatest Show In The Galaxy – Well Was It?

We all know that claiming to be the best is always problematic... If you’re at the top the only place you can go is down, so when an event is called ‘The Greatest Show In The Galaxy’ (GSITG) it sets itself a pretty mammoth task...

GSITG was organised by a new events company called Treble Ace Events, and as their first show it first came on my radar when they announced a number of Star Trek guests (it also helped that the event was due to take place relatively locally to me in Peterborough).

After the initial guest announcements I gave the event website the occasional glance, slowly but surely more and more guests appeared... Before long there was a massive line up including some big and rare names! I have no idea how the Treble Ace team managed to secure all the guests but it really was an impressive list!

So, a week prior to the event I bit the bullet and order myself a ‘Fast Track’ pass and write out up my ‘must meet list’.

Tea in the Tardis (S2) - A Veritable Doctor Stew!

Welcome back to ‘Tea in the Tardis’ originally episode 2 of series 2 was going to be with the team from ComicWho... However as I've got a bit behind with things they are currently away on honeymoon (congratulations guys!!), as such I’ll be chatting to the Team at Doctor Stew instead.

Doctor Stew I hear you say? What’s that then? Well, picture this, what would happen if Stewie from Family Guy was the Doctor...

However as we all know there are dark things that lurk in the universe as such things did not end well for the original Doctor Stew. Our Doc was forced to face the dark overlord known as Foxtraxi, he lost...

A whole buncha Doctors

So team, in the beginning what made you decide to originally merge Stewie from Family Guy with the Doctor to create the first generation of Doctor Stew?

Kevin: I was sitting down one night watching Doctor Who remembered Family Guy was gonna come on later, and that’s when it hit me: 'Stew' rhymed with 'WHO'! So I sketched up a quick image of what Stewie would look like as the Doctor... And it got such good feedback, that I though "Hey, why not try to do a little animated spoof?" That’s when I decided to do the series 5 Parody, and the rest is history!

Corsham Sci-fi Day – We Need A Bigger Boat...

I’ll never work out why I always struggle to do a write up for Corsham, but I always do, but here goes...

If you read by blog about Corsham Sci-fi 2011 you’ll already know that I love this event! My comment last year was (and I quote) “a review cannot just say “AWESOME!!” in massive letters...” and I had a feeling this year would be no different!

Corsham Countdown!

This was my third time at Corsham (I know time flies!!) and this time it was going to be a bit of a special one, why? It was also my 30th birthday!

When Corsham 2011 came to an end there was a section on the Charity Sci-fi Forum asking for guest suggests for next year. As always I had a suggestion, no prizes for guessing who! Yes, Nicola Bryant.

What I hadn’t banked on was the answer... If you want her to be there Matt, then you need to invite her! You don’t need to tell me twice, email was sent and then it was a case of waiting for a reply...

To my great relief, Nicola replied and was available for the event and was also able to attend the pre event meal the night before. This was going to be a good birthday!

Tea In The Tardis (S1) - A Picture Paints A Thousand Words...

March is drawing to a close and I find myself on the third of my ‘Tea in the Tardis’ series.

For this latest instalment I’m joined by Michael David Key of Mike’s Star Trek and Doctor Who Art.

Mike, stars and signed pictures

I was first contacted by Mike back in July 2010 following him seeing a picture of me with Jeremy Bullock (Boba Fett from Star Wars). Mike had a request for me, if he mailed me some of his pictures would I be able to get them signed by the stars when I was at events...

That was 20 months ago, since then I’ve got a number of drawings signed for him and been able to witness some great reactions to them. Mike now also has his own Facebook page, that has now grown from a few followers to a highly popular place that contains not only Mike’s standard drawings but also a number of cartoons and other illustrations as well.

So with the introduction finished let’s talk pictures!

Who’s That Girl?

According to various sources it looks like Auntie will be announcing who the new Doctor Who companion will be tomorrow...

New Companion - But who will it be?

Now while I can see this causing great excitement I find myself in the odd position of not actually wanting to know who it’s going to be. To me it’s almost like a mini spoiler, I’d rather it just happen rather than it being announced ages in advance...

What I don’t like about the whole ‘who’s going to be the new companion’ saga is that all the guessing lists are all established actresses. Personally I would like to see a complete unknown take the role, which, for me would make the companion easier to bond with.

Bear with me here while I explain. The issue I have with well known actors and actresses in tv series roles is that it can become about the actor first and the part second (although I accept this is not always the case). With an unknown actor as we know nothing about them it’s easier to bond to the character first.

Tea In The Tardis (S1) - Two Matt's...

Here’s a bit of a different post, recently I met another Matt, namely Matt Elliott (ME) who makes a truly amazing Matt Smith lookalike.

The original picture Matt sent me

So here’s an interview/chat that we did for my blog about how he got into this crazy world of Doctor Who events...

MH: So then Matt, are you a lifelong Doctor Who fan or are you new to the whole thing?

ME: I've never really seen any of the original series as I'm too young, although I do remember being scared of the theme tune after hearing it at a very young age. I would try and catch episodes when I could of the new series but my appreciation for the series definitely increased after Matt Smith was announced as the new doctor.

MH: Ah, so a newbie to the world of Doctor Who then, from what you’ve seen of the show do you have a favourite Doctor and a favourite companion?

ME: It has to be the 11th Doctor but I probably am biased.

My Return To Wales: Part 1, I think I’ve Been Here Before...

From where I live Wales is a bit of a trek (this may be an understatement...) so as  I was off to the SFX Weekender Leanne and I decided to have a bit of a Welsh holiday beforehand, well makes sense, Wales is the spiritual home of Doctor Who...

The Millennium Centre

The original plan was to get to Wales for Tuesday lunchtime, however after a slightly disastrous train journey back from London the night before we were slightly later leaving than we’d hoped (however unexpected Peter Davison in Legally Blonde had made up for it).

So, even with Kate getting slightly lost and having a minor ‘hissy fit’ we made it to Cardiff in the early evening. After a quick cup of tea we headed down to Cardiff Bay to look at some of the Who locations based around there. It was so cold!! Normally I don’t get cold (it must the 25% Northerner in me) however even I have to confess it was a tad nippy!!

John Levene – Guest of the Weekend 2011

For those of you who have read my blog you may have heard of the ‘Guest of the Weekend Award’ that has been mentioned for many events that I’ve been to. (If you’ve no ideas what I’m on about click here!)

Me with John at Spring Memorabilia

I’d talked with Tim a while back about making an actual physical award however with the best laid plans it never actually happened...

Not to let a good idea go wasted I instead decided to create an award for the person that really stuck in my mind, call it guest of the year if you want.

Before the idea of the award had really truly formed I already knew who the winner was, there was no decision needed it just felt right.

MCM Expo London Film and Comic Con and Memorabilia - Day One, Martha and The Doctor

My previous post got the moans and grumbles out of the way, now onto the event itself!

Expo and Memorabilia are two very different shows. Expo is all about anime, costumes and ‘free hugs’... Memorabilia is more of the classic signing event; they also differ a lot in how busy they are. Expo is manic (50K plus people) where as Mem attracts far less. Expo also seems to attract a younger crowd (well that’s how it felt to me).

The big draw for Memorabilia for me was Freema Agyeman, she’s never done an event before so this was an opportunity not to be missed. As there weren’t that many people at Memorabilia her queue wasn’t overly long (I’m done moaning about queues now). Freema was fab, she was really chatty and came across as really enjoying the whole experience. Now that she’s done an event I hope she’ll appear at more in the future.

Entertainment Media Show, Day 1 – Has It Really Been Two Years?

Approximately two years ago the ‘Entertainment Media Show featuring Collectormania London’ (EMS) was simply known as Collectormania London, it was also the first convention event I ever went to so this event (in name rather than strict timing) was my 2^nd anniversary for being on the convention scene...

Why does this always happen to me?

Originally I was going to go for my standard 10^th Doctor look for this event, then the British weather intervened and we had an unseasonal October heat wave , so the Doctor gear was out and Benedick was in (complete with white paint!).

So Saturday morning Jemma was given the highly amusing show of me preparing to be Benedick, following on from Benedicks first outing at Glasgow (and another viewing of Much Ado About Nothing)  I’d got a better idea of how to apply the paint without having too many hand prints.