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!

Norcon - A Local Show At Last!

Having driven back from Weston Super Mare the night before I was understandably a little tired, it was also raining heavily on the morning, not a good way to start a day........

Me with Warwick Davies

Got to UEA where the event was being held at around 10.15, finally got out of my car at about 10.30 (I really hate rain, my hair hates rain even more!!)

So having spent 15 mins hiding from the rain Lucy and I finally went into the event, really didn’t know what to expect so it would be an experience, my reason for going (apart from it being local) was to have a catch up with Terry Molloy (as you may or may not know, he’s the reason I got into all this).

A convention in a uni common room/student union, this was a new one for me, not a bad venue all told, it was a shame there wasn’t a bit more signage within the uni to tell people where to go, but that’s probably me just being picky.

For me doing Stars of Time the day before took something away from Norwich Sci-fi Day, a number of the guests were the same, but I can’t hold it against the event, let’s face it, Stars of Time was the other side of the country!!

Autograph signing...

There was only one real downside to Norwich Sci-fi was the layout of the room, it was set in a sort of S shape, it was the best layout due to the sunken stage area but it did mean walking round was slightly difficult a you ended up walking from one end to the other then had to turn round and walk back to the entrance door, personally I’m a fan of circles, but that’s just me :)

The major plus side of having an event in a student union was the cost of food and drinks, i.e. really cheap!

When I arrived my first port of call was to grab a cuppa, have a sit down and generally take in the surroundings. While sitting drinking the aforementioned cup of tea I was approached by two girls from the University Live-wire service to have a chat on camera about events.

It appears that this was a weekend for autographs, I must have signed about a dozen 10th Doctor Battles in Time cards, it’s a very strange feeling signing pics of DT!!

I had my catch up with Terry Molloy, was good to see him again, last time I saw him was back at Regenerations in September, it’s always good when guests remember your name.

10 and 5. It's Timecrash all over again!

As well as Terry Molloy I also got to meet Chris Barrie (Rimmer – Red Dwarf), this was the first time I’d met him, I’d been to events he’d been at before but had never got round to meeting him. Seeing Chris Barrie made Lucy very happy as she is a big fan of his! In addition to Chris I was also able to meet Warwick Davies (Willow!!) which was very cool.

While I was there I did meet some new people including members of the Norwich Time Travellers, a Doctor Who fan group. It's always good to meet new people who have similar interests.

All in all a good day, doing two events in the same weekend definitely took something away from this one though, I’ll be waiting to see what they have planned for next year.