Chalky and Shirt…

…and the Unquiet Dalek

Seventh Galaxy had, of late, been announcing signing after signing featuring guests from the recently aired new series of Doctor Who. Chalky had missed a variety of these for various reasons (honeymoons, better things to do and the like), but had managed to meet Annette Badland (Margaret Slitheen), Bruno Langley (Adam), Florence Hoath (Nancy), and Alan David (Sneed).

He was brought out of hiding again by the draw of Corey Johnson (Van Statten), Eve Myles (Gwyneth) and Zoe Thorne (the Gelth). Shirt, although having already met Miss Myles at the Punch Middle was, as always, up for a second date with a beautiful lady, accompanied as she was by a ghost and a millionaire.

A week of so prior to the announcement of Corey Johnson’s presence at the signing, Chalky and Tigger had been watching Hellboy, the comic book film about a creature from another dimension, and Chalky had spotted Mr. Johnson playing a not unsubstantial role as a FBI agent (who unfortunately met a violent death before the end credits rolled). Not having an awful lot of Corey Johnson memorabilia to hand (the new series box set not coming to his sweaty hands until Christmas), he opted to take along this DVD cover. On discussion of this fact with Shirt, they also realised that Mr. Johnson appeared in a favourite film of theirs, The Mummy – again, in a not insubstantial role which meets a sticky end – so, although probably not likely to get signed due to the strict number of items ruling, this cover also joined the meagre offerings Chalky was taking. For Misses Myles and Thorne, Chalky only had the new series script book which he had already got their fellow Unquiet Dead star, Alan David, to sign at a previous event.

On arriving at Seventh Galaxy, Chalky and Shirt went through the usual routine of wandering around the shop and picking up a few items including the requisite photographs of Mr Johnson, Miss Myles and Miss Thorne (a nice two shot of Gwyneth and the Gelth at the séance), and then joined the queue outside.

Sometime later, they had entered the shop and Corey was up first. After presenting him with the photograph and the script book, Chalky handed him the Hellboy DVD cover. Recounting the story of only having watched the film a week or so before, and spotting Mr. Johnson, Chalky convinced him that even guest stars in Doctor Who can have stalkers. Moving on, Chalky got the lovely Zoe to sign his Gelth photo and then the script book, followed by Miss Myles – both charming and personable people. Looking at Miss Thorne and the picture of the Gelth it was hard to see the likenes, especially as Miss Thorne seemed remarkably short! It’s a wonder what the people at the Mill can do with a voice and bit of computer jiggery pokery. Shirt followed behind with his Christopher Eccleston/Billie Piper poster on which he was getting all the new series guests and then they were done.

Leaving the shop, they reflected on the day and wended their unquiet way home.

[AE]