Shirt...

...Seeing Double

Introduction

It was time for the summer London Film and Comic Con (LFCC). Dufus was away on holiday that weekend, so it was only Shirt that made plans to attend. Announced on the Saturday were Doctor Watson from ‘The Irregulars’ Royce Pierreson (who Shirt still wanted to meet despite hating the rewriting of the character) and ‘Legend of the Sea Devils’ guest star Arthur Lee (Ji-Hun); with Sunday featuring the twins from ‘The Twin Dilemma’, as well as ‘Lone Cyberman’ Patrick O’Kane. Therefore, tickets were booked for both days.

Saturday

Not expecting to need virtual queueing tickets, for once Shirt arrived an hour after the doors had opened, to find one general admission entrance for all non-Gold Pass holders. The queue was three-four people wide and stretched back for quite a distance. However, it kept moving, and after around a fifteen-twenty minute wait, Shirt was getting his bag checked, his ticket scanned, and his right hand stamped.

Referring to a map printed off at home, Shirt made his way upstairs to the signing areas. Entering the main one, he wandered round checking who was signing where. Arthur Lee was the first to be identified, and Shirt was taken aback by the length of the queue for Chris ‘Arnold Rimmer’ Barrie (who he had considered meeting again to get a photo as he played Holmes in a sketch in ‘Pushing Up Daisies’, a 1984 sketch show, with Gareth Hale as his Watson). However, there was no sign of Royce Pierreson. Shirt therefore did a complete circuit of the upper floor, where there were smaller signing areas, but without success. He therefore called up the Showmasters Forum on his tablet, where someone had posted a link to Royce’s Instagram where he apologised for not being able to attend due to filming overrunning on ‘The Witcher’.

It was therefore back to the main signing area, and Arthur Lee, who happily signed Shirt’s ‘Series 13’ print, adding his character name. He then agreed to a photo, but his steward seemed too busy to take it, so Shirt had to attempt a selfie.

Moving downstairs, Shirt made his way downstairs to the Main Stage, where he was just in time for the Chris Barrie panel. Chris seemed to be pleased to be back at events, speaking positively about the possibility of more ‘Red Dwarf’ and demonstrating his full range of impressions, including the other ‘Boys from the Dwarf’ and the soon-to-be ex-Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

Shirt then proceeded to browse the stalls for about an hour, finding absolutely nothing that he wanted to buy.

It was lunchtime, so Shirt made his way to the exit, checking his hand stamp was still legible, and made his way to the local supermarket a short distance away. It turned out that Shirt had left it too late, and the ‘Meal Deal’ section looked like it had been visited by a plague of locusts, with almost nothing not already purchased by other attendees. Shirt therefore found himself purchasing a ‘Buffalo Chicken and Blue Cheese’ sandwich, finding that whilst he liked each on its own, together his palette threw in the towel, meaning that he nearly had to go back and get another tub of Pineapple pieces to placate his taste buds.

Returning to the venue, Shirt found himself joining an even longer queue than before, meaning that it took almost half-an-hour to get back in, and that he was late for a panel featuring Colin Baker. On arrival, Colin was just talking about whether there will be a 60^th Anniversary sequel to ‘The Fiveish Doctors: Reboot’ (Spoiler: Probably not), before going on to talk about whether he is likely to be in the Anniversary Special (Spoiler: Again, probably not), Patrick Troughton, and criticisms of his era as “too violent”.

Going back upstairs, Chris Barrie’s queue was still gigantic, so Shirt wandered off to the Comicbook Artists Alley. First stop was the Markosia Comics stall which was selling a large number of their graphic novels off at bargain prices, including 'The Young Sherlock Holmes Adventures'. Shirt already had this (somewhere at home), but bought another copy aware that at the other end of the alley, the artist, JL Straw was sitting. He therefore made his way down to her, getting her to sign the title page.

‘This was the first published comic that I ever drew’, she told him.

Shirt was briefly tempted by the large prints that she had of some of the YSHA characters, but decided against them.

Moving back to the other end of the alley, Shirt got Mike Collins to sign ‘The World Shapers’ Graphic Novel, in which he authored ‘Profits of Doom!’, and former MDW editor John Freeman to sign several of his strips, including ‘Planet of the Dead’, which sort of features multiple Doctors and companions.

It was then back to the Main Stage for a ‘Back to the Future’ panel, featuring Claudia Wells (Jennifer - BTTF), Donald Fullilove (Goldie Wilson), Jeffrey Weissman (George McFly – BTTF2 & 3) and Frances McCain (Marty’s grandmother, Stella Baines) [who also appeared as the mother of the main character in other 1980s classics, ‘Gremlins’, ‘Footloose’ and ‘Stand By Me’]. Unfortunately, Christopher Lloyd was too busy elsewhere signing. All spoke enthusiastically about their involvement with the film, and about Michael J. Fox.

Back up to the signing area, and Shirt decided to join a short queue for Devon Murray (Seamus Finnigan in ‘Harry Potter’). Photo of Seamus signed, and Shirt found himself struggling to take another selfie.

Returning to the Artists Alley, Roger Langridge, whose style Shirt absolutely adores, was back from a panel. Having several items that he wanted signed, Shirt looked through the items that Roger was selling, although these did not include the ‘Muppet Show’ comic featuring a Sherlockian cover, there was a complete run of ‘The Baker Street Peculiars’ for a bargain price. (Shirt already had these, but wanted these signed also by Roger). Four BSP comics signed on the inside cover, and Shirt was handing over an ‘Arthur Conan Doyle Graphic Classics’ book which features Conan Doyle’s poem ‘Master’ illustrated by Roger, along with ’Arthur and the Bellybutton Diamond’, the second in Alan Coren’s ‘Arthur and the Great Detective’ series, also illustrated by Roger.

“I lucked out getting Alan Coren as my first illustrator job”, mused Roger.

It was then time for Shirt’s final scheduled event, a photo studio with TVM Master, Eric Roberts. (He had also had a photo studio booked with Royce Pierreson, but unlike a large number of attendees did not have to wait for fifteen minutes outside the photo studio before being told that it was cancelled.

The previous photo studio, with ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Sherlock’ star (and son of William Russell), Alfred Enoch, was overrunning, and a large number of people seemed to be milling around. Finally, a steward told Batch 1 to form a queue, followed by Batch 2, but as no-one seemed to be checking batch numbers, anyone who had an Eric Roberts photo studio booked joined it. Shirt had made the mistake of revealing to the steward that he was Batch 3, so had to wait. The queue was stretching all the way to the exit, and had to be broken for safety. Eventually, Shirt was allowed to join the queue, which moved surprisingly fast.

On entering the photo studio and stowing his bag, Shirt saw that Eric was favouring a standing behind, hugging the attendee’s neck pose. Therefore, when it was Shirt’s turn, as directed by Eric, he stood on a mark on the floor, and was enveloped by the Master.

Photo retrieved, and Shirt made a rush for the exit, as time was getting on, and Olympia was turning into a greenhouse. Just over an hour later and he was home.

Sunday

Arriving at a similar time to the day before, Shirt found himself in a similarly long queue. Once inside, Shirt took a left and made his way to the ‘Star Wars’ zone that he had not visited the day before. Here was ‘Lone Cyberman’ Patrick O’Kane (who also appears as a First Order Officer in ‘The Last Jedi’). Having got Patrick to sign his Series 12 poster, and being unhappy with the selfies of the previous day, Shirt managed to get Patrick’s steward (wrong franchise !) to take the photo of the two of them together.

Moving into the main hall, Shirt made his way to main signing area, finding where Andrew and Gavin Conrad (Shirt had passed their parents in the Star Wars zone) were signing. Paying for four autographs, Shirt got first Gavin and then Andrew to sign a photo of the Sylvest twins and his ‘Twin Dilemma’ DVD cover.

‘Who else has signed this ?’, asked Gavin, looking at the DVD cover.

‘Colin, Kevin McNally, Steven Wickham who played a Gastropod, and….’, replied Shirt coming to a halt on being unable to identify the final signature.

‘Helen Blatch ?’ offered Gavin, with Shirt suddenly remembering meeting the Fabian actress.

Andrew commented on Shirt’s GUDI Colin Baker T-Shirt, with Shirt replying how it no longer fits as well as when he bought it, over twenty-five years before.

Having got Andrew’s signatures, Shirt was about to ask for a photo with the two of them, but another fan was currently with Gavin. More excitingly, he had a ‘Twin Dilemma’ rehearsal script which he was getting the twins to sign.

The fan with the script having moved off, Shirt managed to grab both twins for a photo taken by their steward before the next fan stepped up.

Having met the twins, it was time for Old Sixie himself, Colin Baker. Colin greeted Shirt as the old friend/stalker that he is. Shirt then handed over his recently received ‘The Unofficial Doctor Who Annual 1988’, which initially confused Colin.

‘You did write the foreword to it’, said Shirt helpfully.

‘Oh, mine has a different cover’, asked a still confused Colin.

‘Well, yours was the contributors’ (for a split second Shirt almost said collaborators’) edition’

Colin signed on the large blank page at the front of the annual, commenting that his signature matched that on Shirt’s T-shirt.

Shirt again mentioned that it is now a snugger fit.

‘Well, we’ve all put weight on in the past thirty years’, commented Colin, patting his belly.

‘Not you, Colin !’, lied Shirt.

‘You’re very kind - you can come again !’, laughed Colin.

Table photos were not allowed, so Shirt moved off.

Making his way to the Artists Alley, Shirt got artist Jeff Cummins to sign the cover of ‘Doctor Who Discovers Pirates’ (given away with MDW #576).

Also announced for Sunday had been Dave Gibbons, artist on the first MDW comic strips, and Shirt had brought two of the American comic reprints for signing. However, of Mr. Gibbons there was no sign.

Shirt therefore went for a second browse of the stalls for around an hour, again finding nothing that he wanted to purchase. He had been hoping to buy some 10x8s of Mandip Gill & Tom Felton, in case he stage-doored the Criterion Theatre where both are appearing in ‘2:22 – A Ghost Story’. Back at the Artists Alley, there was still no sign of Dave Gibbons, so Shirt decided it was time to leave.

Returning home via Shepherd’s Bush, eating his lunch on the Green, Shirt made a minor detour to a local charity shop where he picked up a TARDIS messenger bag. It had been a hectic and tiring weekend, particularly given the heat.

[PL]