Shirt…

Oh, The Horror of It All !!

Having enjoyed “Revelation Revealed”, a one day event dedicated to “Revelation of the Daleks”, Shirt was interested in another event organised by 'Spirit Sinema', dedicated to his favourite part of the Tom Baker era, namely ‘the Hinchcliffe years’. The addition of several guests relating to his two favourite Tom stories – “The Robots of Death” (the murder-mystery one) and “The Talons of Weng-Chiang” (the Sherlockian one) – meant that his attendance was all but confirmed. However, the announcement that not only would Christopher ‘Jago’ Benjamin be attending, but joining him would be Trevor ‘Litefoot’ Baxter, meant that Shirt was a definite, wanting to see the quintessential (Robert) Holmesian double-act reunited. Dufus was originally going to attend as well, particularly as he could participate in a murder-mystery for Shirt’s birthday the night before, but financial constraints and family problems conspired to prevent his attendance. Just before the event, a last-minute guest change was announced, swapping Judith ‘Female Eldrad’ Paris for Stephen ‘Male Eldrad’ Thorne. Shirt was beside himself at this news, as he already had Judith on all his appropriate items, and was keen to meeting Stephen again, as he played the second Inspector Lestrade in the Clive Merrison ‘Sherlock Holmes’ radio plays.

Having failed dismally to solve the Cluedo-themed murder mystery the previous night (click here for photos), Shirt slowly made his way on the District Line to the small theatre that was hosting the event. Arriving ten minutes before it was due to start, he took his seat, reading the event programme that had been provided. The event started punctually, just as his finished this.

The first panel comprised Stephen Thorne, Martin ‘Styggron’ Friend and Dennis Chinnery (from “Genesis of the Daleks”), the first two comparing notes on playing monsters. As he spoke, Shirt realised that Stephen had been the Paul Kasey of his time, playing all manner of monsters, mainly because the costume department had his measurements. Dennis also revealed a talent for painting, and told the assembled fans that he was intending to produce a painting illustrating his three ‘Doctor Who’ roles.

The first panel completed, and it was time for the first set of autographs. By joining three queues, Shirt got Stephen on his “Hand of Fear” DVD cover and “The Ghosts of N-Space” sleeve (having discovered that he had got all the appropriate Merrison covers signed on the previous occasion that he met Stephen), Martin on his “The Android Invasion” video sleeve and Red Dwarf DVD cover (Martin plays Einstein in ‘Meltdown’), and Dennis Chinnery in his “The Seventies”.

The next panel featured the two policeman from “Talons” – Conrad Asquith and David McKail - who unsurprisingly had a limited number of anecdotes Next up was the man himself, Philip Hinchcliffe, accompanied by Robert Banks-Stewart, writer of “Terror of the Zygons” and “The Seeds of Doom” (and creator of ‘Shoestring’ and ‘Bergerac’). Both gave an excellent insight into the era that brought such a large number of ‘classic’ WHO stories to the screen. They also discussed their appearances on screen as the ‘alternative faces’ of the Doctor in “The Brain of Morbius”, both bemoaning the wigs that they were provided with. Robert Holmes’ contribution to the era was also highly praised by both men.

The next signing session saw Shirt get the two policeman on his “Talons” DVD and video covers (having to move to the inside of the latter due to lack of room), whilst Robert signed video covers for his two stories, and Philip a “Brain of Morbius” DVD cover (the DVD having been kindly given to Shirt as a birthday present by Chalky, Tigger and Mavic Chen, the evening before) and the “Talons” video cover on which his previous signature had been obscured by John Bennett’s at a previous Seventh Galaxy event.

The penultimate panel featured two behind-the-scenes staff, costume designer John Bloomfield, and production designer Christine Ruscoe. Both spoke at length about how they found themselves in these roles, and the importance of their work for the finished production. The limelight which had been taken by a large Mr. Sin model, was then stolen by John who produced original drawings for the Doctor and Leela’s costumes for “Talons”, Magnus Greel’s costume, and Leela’s costume from her debut story, “The Face of Evil”. Cue much oohing-and-ahhing from the assembled fans, and a sigh of disappointment when he revealed that the copyright was owned by the BBC so that he could not produce postcards of them (having tried to do so with designs from a previous BBC production). He also revealed that he built Mr. Sin and the ‘rat’ in his front room, with the aid of his son.

The final panel started, and it seemed that the best had been saved for last. Both Christopher Benjamin and Trevor Baxter were in fine spirits, feigning animosity between themselves, possibly buoyed along by their recent reunion to record the Large Endings audio – “The Mahogany Murderers”. The interviewer eventually gave up trying to ask them questions, leaving them to their snide comments and points-scoring. It was close, but Shirt gave the victory to Christopher, for his comments about turning down a play written by Trevor. However, it was all done with ‘a twinkle’ indicating that it was all in jest. Shirt could not remember the last time that he had laughed so much at a panel. Christopher also spoke about “The Unicorn and the Wasp”.

The final autograph session found Shirt getting John on his “Talons” DVD cover and “The Face of Evil” video cover, Christine on “The Hand of Fear” and “Pyramids of Mars” DVD covers, Christopher on the inside of the “Talons” video sleeve and “Inferno” DVD cover (Shirt realised that he had stupidly forgotten to bring his Series 4 poster), and Trevor on the “Talons” DVD cover and inside of the video sleeve.

Wending his way home, happy and tired, Shirt mused on another superb event by 'Spirit Sinema', and looked forward to the release of “The Mahogany Murderers”. Benjamin and Baxter clearly were the best WHO double act of all time, now who did he need to pester to get the spin-off series recommissioned ?

[PL]