Shirt…

...Dead-Woods Rage

Naughty Asteroid were having a ‘Doctor Who Fun Day’ to celebrate the start of Series Six of Nu Who the next weekend. As part of the festivities in the London Megastore branch, two of the authors of the latest Eleventh Doctor novels would be doing a signing – James Goss & Una McCormack.

The signing was at lunchtime, and so Shirt made his way up to London mid-morning, and undertook a swift check of nearby local record shops for the limited-edition “Doctor Who and the Daleks” 7” single, available as it was ‘Record Store Day 2011’. [At least that’s his story for why he was wandering around Soho backstreets]. All copies having been bought by early-birds, Shirt made his way to Naughty Asteroid to see what items were on special offer for the day. It seemed that some ‘Pandorica Wave’ Action Figures were reduced, and so Shirt took the opportunity to purchase an ‘Eleventh Doctor with Fez’ and a ‘Pandorica Cyber Guard’. They also had the new Lego-style ‘Character Building’ sets and so Shirt also got a TARDIS set, which included mini Doctor & Amy figures.

Moving downstairs and having had a quick look at the audios, Shirt joined the short queue for the two guests. The two young fans in front were chattering away, and one was dressed as Tom Baker, with a very fetching curly wig.

“I don’t like Tom Baker”, said the other fan.

“Who’s your favourite Doctor, then ?”, asked Tom.

“First is Matt Smith, second is David Tennant, and third is Christopher Eccleston”, said the boy, seemingly using the criteria of recency to make his decision.

‘I bet you’ve never even seen a Fourth Doctor episode’, fumed Shirt internally.

The two continued exchanging inanities, annoying Shirt more and more, until finally it was announced that the signing was to start, but not until an assistant had come along with a tray of Jammie Dodgers.

The queue moved quickly with everyone getting one signature from each guest. The two in front of Shirt were not buying the books, but still got the author’s autographs, seemingly believing that they might have more to do with the television version that they actually did.

Stepping up, Shirt placed “The Way Through the Woods” in front of Una McCormack, which she happily signed ‘To Shirt’. Having previously met her on the release of her previous Eleventh Doctor novel (see S…Twice Bitten), Shirt then moved to James Goss, who was talking to Una about his ‘Torchwood’ novels. First, he placed down “Dead of Winter”, followed by one of James’ ‘Torchwood’ novels (which almost made him explode with pleasure), and finally the two latest ‘Torchwood’ audiobook covers, both written by James.

Moving off, Shirt went upstairs to pay for his books, and to blag a ‘goody bag’ despite not being a child or in costume. This turned out to contain the recent FXS DW Special, a small Eleventh Doctor poster, a pin badge and the first issue of “Torchwood – The Official Comic”. Wending his way home, Shirt managed to have a brief rest, before going out to meet Chalky & Mavic Chen for a church board games night.

[PL]