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”.

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?

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.

London Film and Comic Con - I Need To Be In Three Places At Once...

It's going to be a busy Saturday!!

LFCC Timings

10.00 Louise Jameson – Photo B (buy on day)

10.05 Christopher Lloyd – Photo A

10.15 Camille Coduri – Photo B

11.30 Derek Jacobi – Photo B

11.45 Karen Gillan – Photo A

11.55 Gil Garrard – Photo C

12.20 Erin Gray – Photo C (buy on day)

12.45 Kyla/Holly – Photo C (buy on day)

12.55 Christopher Lambert – Photo A

1.40 Mark Sheppard – Photo B

1.45 Karen Gillan – Photo A

2.35 Mary Tamm – Photo C (buy on day)

2.45 Brent Spiner – Photo B

3.20 Walter Koenig – Photo B

At some point I've got to find the time for Autographs as well!! Fingers crossed the gold ticket does its thing!!

Collectormania Milton Keynes: Monday - It's oh so quiet...

So here we are, Bank Holiday Monday, the final day of C17, didn’t really want to get out of bed (again, was a theme for this event!)

Me with Stuart Milligan

Having got ready I was presented with a view of bad weather and a venue that seemed really empty, oh well. Onwards!

My plan for the day? Well to be honest I didn’t actually have one (apart from checking out of the hotel of course)... Having got fed up with the weather I decided to do something I hadn’t done in a long time, attend an event as me!

Yesterday I’d had my photo with Tony Head (yes Giles from Buffy!!) however I’d not been to get his autograph yet so that was first on my list of things to do. Jemma had tagged along with me and was dressed as Supergirl which did get a smile and the comment of “you must be cold!” to which Jemma sheepishly answered “yes” while wrapping herself up in her cloak. After seeing Tony, Jemma then decided it was time to change back into something a little warmer!

Collectormania Milton Keynes: Sunday - Spoilers Sweetie...

CM:MK Day two, Sunday and we all know what that means... Alex Kingston aka River Song! Being a Sunday, the event didn’t open until 10am which meant I was able to have a lay in, however even with the extra hour I still managed to oversleep!!

Me with Tony Coburn

Today in honour of River I was going for the Silence in the Library look, big hair, blue suit and black (with a hint of red) shirt and dark red (almost black) tie.

Showmasters knew how popular Alex Kingston would be so had a separate queue for her, people were already queuing when I got out of bed, would need a bit of time travel to ensure I got a good number VQ ticket...

With me still quietly praying for a day of no wind the doors opended and thanks to some good timing (timelord, timing... sorry, bad pun) I managed to grab myself VQ ticket 32 for Alex, result!

Knowing my photo with Alex was at Midday I spent most of the morning doing what I could to avoid any sort of breeze!!

Collectormania Milton Keynes: Saturday - Cardboard Cutouts, Death and Shakespeare...

The 6.30am alarm woke me with a bump! (damned comfy Hilton beds!!) After dragging myself out of bed and beginning to get ready it was time to meet Team ‘Til (Tim and Laura) for breakfast. Take it from me the only way to start a convention day is with a cooked breakfast buffet!!

Susan, The Doctor and Death

Skip forward to 9am and I was fully ready and raring to go. I also couldn’t wait to see Tim’s and Laura’s outfits, they were coming as Death and Susan from The Hogfather and, well, they looked amazing!!

Now, I do have one major issue with Milton Keynes and that is the venue, this may sound petty but for me especially the fact it’s open to the elements makes it cold (which I don’t mind) but it also acts like a wind tunnel and to put it simply... wind is UN-FRINGE-FRIENDLY!!

Saturday turned out to be a day of random gifts, the first of which was presented to me by my fellow convention goers, a large flat box approximately 4ft by 2.5ft. To my amazement the contents of the box was.... me!!! Well not the actual me, but a lifesize cardboard version!!  JonJon (long story...) would now have a cardboard companion!!

Collectormania Milton Keynes: First Evening – Tea and Tweets...

I have to confess until recently I hadn’t given CM:MK a great deal of thought, the Friday had been cancelled, the new venue wasn’t ready and I just wasn’t ‘feeling’ the whole event. Then Showmasters played a blinder, there were a number of quality guest announcements and suddenly the excitement was back, this was going to be a good one!

The Bar!!

After having had a very late night (I’d been in London seeing David Tennant again...) Friday morning was difficult, initially I’d toyed with the idea of going to Expo on the Friday but gave that up as a bad plan, so having finally woken up and packed it was time to grab Jemma and head to MK.

The one thing I do really like about MK is that it is easy to get to and the onsite accommodation is faultless, say what you like about Paris, but the Hiltons know how to run a hotel!

As is now becoming a tradition, no sooner were all the bags dropped into room it was time to hit the bar (for a cup of tea...)

The Entertainment and Media Show, Day 2 - Tim's Everywhere!

Once again I was up at 6am (I really need to cut down the amount of time it takes me to get ready in the morning!!!). A quick breakfast and we all met in the hotel reception for 8am.

Multiple Man (JonJon and Tim)

Tim had promised us a new outfit for today and it was going to be something special. Today he would be multiple-man......

To manage this, Tim introduced us to a new member of the group, Jonjon!! A cardboard cut-out of Tim, a brilliant idea!!

Jonjon had a very interesting day, being photographed with loads of different people and ending up in all sorts of places, he even ended up with his own thread on the Showmasters Forum, but that’s another story.........

Anyway, on with day two of Collectormania. Today was Doctor Who day with three Doctors (Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann) and Katy Manning in attendance.

As I am a bit of a Who fan (actually that’s not really a surprise is it?!?) the first thing we all did was went to see the Doctors and Katy. Jemma and Nat were very excited about seeing Paul McGann, I’d only seen him two weeks prior at Dimensions so had a quick chat but didn’t get an autograph for myself.

Upstaged by your own double!

Katy Manning was on great form as always, I’d already seen her the week before at Memorabilia and she spotted me in the queue. When I got to the front she gave me a hug and a kiss, she also wanted to know if she could adopt me!! I had to smile at one comment she made “I see you so often sweetie, people will begin to talk”.

Keeping with the Doctor Who theme it was now time for the Katy Manning photoshoot, as I’ve already mentioned Katy is always really huggy so the picture turned out really well.

Next up, I went over to see Michael Biehn (Hicks in Aliens), he didn’t seems overly awake, but was still fairly chatty, it my picture at the desk he looks half asleep. Luckily in the professional picture he looks far more with it.

The Doctor and Jo Grant (Me and Katy Manning)

Being Sunday today was quiet compared to the day before which in a way was quite good as the queues weren’t too long for any guest.

Before Lucy and I headed off to lunch we went and saw Chris Judge (Teal’c from Stargate). Chris was really nice, as dedication on his autographs he was putting ‘Indeed’ which I (and any Stargate fans reading this will also) found amusing.

After lunch it was time for the Chris Judge photoshoot, this unfortunately made me slightly late for the Doctor Who talk, this meant I ended up sitting towards the back of the seating area, which mean that taking any photo’s was a nightmare, but nevermind. The talk itself was really good; everyone was on good form and had some amusing stories to tell. It was also the first time I’d seen Paul, Colin and Sylv doing a talk together, they played off each other really well.

Catwoman and The Doc, now there is a crossover...

Once the talk had finished I went back to see Katy and get her to sign the picture of me and her. I forget what Katy, Lucy and I were chatting about but the result was an awesome dedication “With love to Matt a good lookin’ fellow indeed”.

By this point in the day, I think it was around 3pm we were all getting quite tired. For some reason the day seemed to be dragging a little, there just seemed something missing. I just couldn’t put my finger on what it was, may have been the larger venue or the fact the some big guests had pulled out, I’m hoping that the next event in March will have a better feel to it. I really enjoyed the event but it just was missing the wow factor (in my opinion).

So feeling tired and having met everyone we wanted to and looked at all the trade stands Lucy and I decided to call it a day at around 4pm. The less said about the train journey home the better..........

And with that it marked the end of my first year on the convention circuit, what a year it’s been!

The Entertainment and Media Show, Day 1 - A year on the circuit...

Being the anniversary of my 1st event Collectormania London (or whatever it’s now called....) holds special meaning for me. Would it live up to my memory of my first event or would I be looking back through rose tinted spectacles. Weellllllll, let’s find out.........

With the late announcement that Philip Glenister and some others had cancelled I was feeling slightly down about the event before I’d even got there, but I wouldn’t let it get me down.

Lucy and I arrived at the Putney Bridge Premier Inn at around 4pm on the Friday, once we were checked in there was only one thing to do.... Bar!

Once there we met up with ‘Team Til’ (for those of you who don’t know, Team Til consists of Laura, Jemma, Nat and Joanna and of course Mr Tim Ingham, aka Sao Til, think back to series one of Tonight the Night and all will become clear), a night of amusement then ensued with many bad jokes, but there was a big disappointment – The Premier Inn had got rid of their Pool Table, Disaster!!

So, onto the day of the event, the alarm went off at a truly ungodly hour (about 5.50am), we met for breakfast at 7am and, to be honest, the food wasn’t great. By 8am everyone was ready to leave, it was also time for the unveiling of Tim and Laura’s first outfits of the weekend, today they would be Gambit and Rogue – Epic, just epic!

A relatively short, cold and uneventful train journey later, we arrived at Olympia, due to the weather the entrance had been moved so queuing would be indoors (result!!). The doors opened at 9am and the event kicked off, time to work out where everything is, get our bearings and buy some autograph vouchers.

Me with Mercedes McNab

The next plan on the agenda was to check what times the various talks and photoshoots were so we could all make sure we were in the right place at the right time. With the day planned out the next order of business was a cup of tea.

The first guests we went to see were the cast of Ashes to Ashes, they were slightly surprised to learn they were doing a photoshoot and a talk; they were even more surprised when the time of their talk was moved from 5.30pm to 10.15am.......

For the Ashes talk we managed to get ourselves on the front row (well, the row behind the gold only chairs, which remained empty). The talk itself started slowly, for the first time ever I asked a question!! Someone had to be first, so it may as well have been me.

Overall the talk was good with all 6 of the Ashes guys being on good form with a few good stories, Micky B did a great job of running round as compare as well which was needed. It did also make me smile when a few Doctor Who comments were send it my direction.

Michael Barber

Now it was time for walk round, there was a reason for this, track down Sonila Vjeshta (one of the Vampire Girls from S5 of Doctor Who). Sonila was lovely and I had a picture with her at the desk as she wasn’t doing a photoshoot.

Next on my list of people to meet was Mercedes McNab (Harmony from Buffy), she was really nice but it was obvious she wasn’t feeling at all well, she was happy to do pictures at the desk but without flash.

Following on from Mercedes I wandered over to where Carl Weathers was based (“it’s Apollo Creeeeed!”, this became a meme for the weekend!!), it was a very formal meeting, but definitely worth it!!

While on the subject of Carl Weathers, after another tea stop it was time for his photoshoot, Tim joined me in the queue, we both weren’t sure what the shoot would be like, be is a big named guest, would it be seated, formal or what... When we got to the front of the queue we were pleasantly surprised to find he was really good fun and doing all sorts of various poses, the most popular to being the handshake from Predator and a boxing stance (it’s Apollo Creeeeed!), both Tim and I went for the Predator handshake, although neither of us are really bulky enough to pull it off properly!!

There next photoshoot I had was with Mercedes so to pass the time until then we went to see Alice Krige (Borg Queen from Star Trek), we had to fight the urge to ask if the Borg run on Vista or Windows 7. Alice was chatty and good to talk to, a really nice guest.

Rogue, The Doctor and Gambit

Onto the Mercedes McNab photoshoot, I’d managed to get to almost the front of the queue which was good, I was also hoping for a hugging picture, which standing in the queue chatting the Robert ‘King of Photoshoots’ Sterry I had a phone call from Jemma, she was stuck outside as there was a rumoured fire in the Pizza Express in Olympia. A slight moment of confusion then arose as no alarm sounded but a quiet tannoy announcement asking everyone to leave; everyone completely ignored this, at which point the event staff started moving people towards the exits. When we got to the exit we were then turned round and told to go back in.

The whole episode did make me wonder what would happen if it had been a proper fire as opposed to a burnt pizza.....

To top it off when we got back to the Mercedes queue we’d gone from the front to the back! From seeing Mercedes earlier it was clear she wasn’t feeling well, after as few minutes we were told that she was unable to continue with the shoot and it may take place later. I was now feeling very glad I’d got a picture at the desk!

Me with Mason Kayne (young Gene Hunt)

So, with no photoshoot to do we decided now would be a good time for some lunch. On the way over to the cafeteria we bumped in Michael Barber (Ashes to Ashes), Nat and Joanna ended up chatting to him, he then did something I hadn’t expected, he took out his camera and asked me for a photo!!

With lunch out of the way it was then time to see if Mercedes had recovered enough to do her photoshoot, luckily she had but you could tell she wasn’t feeling great, but all credit to her she got through all the pictures and was chatty and did poses for people. She really impressed me as she was on good form despite feeling ill, a great guest who I’d like to see again (she was meant to be back on the Sunday but wasn’t well enough to attend).

After seeing Mercedes it was time to go and see the Ashes to Ashes cast. First up was Mason Kayne (young Gene Hunt), he was there is the costume from the show which I thought was really cool. While chatting to him, I had a flashback from earlier as he also asked me for a picture!! Mason was easy to chat to and really nice, almost forgot to get him to actually do an autograph for me (that’ll teach me for getting carried away chatting).

Having finished chatting to Mason and also getting Micky B’s autograph it was time to go and support Jay and Richard in the Cosplay Skit Competition. I’ve never watched a skit comp before so it was a new experience....

Jay did a short comedy intro and then sang the Ghostbusters theme (he was dressed as a ghostbuster so it made sense), Rich then went next and did a short piece as Capt. Jack which worked quite well and culminated with him running off with a member of the audiences video camera which I found highly amusing.

One of the other skits worth a mention was done by Charlie (dressed as Alex Drake), it was a Alex monologue which summed up the entire plot of Ashes which was really good.

Charlie was awarded second place and Jay was the winner, the cash prize he then donated to charity which I thought was a great gesture.

The day was now beginning to come to a close so we headed back to the Ashes guys and I finished getting all their autographs and pictures with each of them. The Ashes guys (Mason Kayne, Michael Barber, Steve Mason, Steve Munroe, Jack Walters and Rikki Gann) were all really friendly and good to chat to, absolutely brilliant guests.

With that, feeling quite tired we all headed back to the hotel for an evening sitting in the bar and reminiscing about the day we’d just had. A truly epic day!