Shirt…

...Is There As The Pandorica Opens

‘Spirit Sinema’ had announced their first event to be held in Birmingham – “Pandorica”. As there was not to be a “Bad Wolf” in Birmingham that year, Shirt decided to attend, particularly when Susan Brown from ‘Torchwood: Children of Earth’ (and seemingly every Large Endings release over the past eighteen months) and Raquel Cassidy, from the Season Six two-parter ‘The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People’, were announced. As time went on, Susan Brown was a cancellation, as was Dan Starkey (nu Who Sontaran), but Shirt was still looking forward to the event.

Sensibly, the event did not start until 11.30am, and so Shirt caught a train from London Euston at a reasonable time, arriving in plenty of time. It was raining hard, and so Shirt his way to the venue, via Naughty Asteroid to shelter briefly, and check out what they had new in. Finally finding the pub theatre where the event was taking place, Shirt made his way through the bar area and up a flight of stairs to the merchandise room where registration was taking place, and where the first three guests had begun signing. Getting his convention guide and autograph list, Shirt bought three photos and paid for an extra autograph, before joining the queue to all three guests.

First up with Simon Fisher Becker (Dorium from ‘A Good Man Goes to War’), who happily signed Shirt’s “Series 6” poster and a photograph. Moving along, he found himself before the lovely Christina Chong, who played Lorna Bucket in ‘A Good Man Goes to War’. Poster and a photograph signed, and Shirt was asking the steward to take a photo of him and Christina.

The third guest was Bruno Langley, a late replacement for Susan Brown. Having met him on three previous occasions, Shirt had nothing left for him to sign, and so got his signature on an index card which he would attempt to sell on e-Bay.

Stowing his items, Shirt went upstairs to the theatre where a panel with First Doctor companion and ‘Blue Peter’ presenter, Peter Purves had just begun. Peter spoke enthusiastically about his time on both shows, and even admitted liking Hartnell !!  He also enthused about the Large Endings’ ‘Companion Chronicles’ that he had recorded over the past few years. Panel completed, and Shirt returned to the merchandise room, where he joined a short queue to get Mark Morris’ signature on two Large Endings’ covers, finishing just in time to be sixth in line for Peter Purves who had just started signing.

Handing over a ‘Celestial Toymaker’ CD cover, the ‘Lost in Time’ DVD cover and a copy of Peter’s autobiography, getting his extra autograph crossed off, Shirt chatted jovially with Peter, scared of displaying his lack of knowledge of the Black-and-White era.

Returning upstairs, Shirt caught the end of Bruno Langley’s panel, before watching Simon and Christina’s. Both spoke about the coldness of the building where they filmed the ‘Demons Run’ sequences, and expressed a desire to be ‘resurrected’ somehow so that they could return to the series. Simon also expressed his annoyance at being typecast as “fat man”.

Shirt decided to go out for lunch, and wandered around central Birmingham, getting completely lost, and arriving back at the venue later than he had intended. A long queue had already formed for the afternoon’s signings, outside the merchandise room as they were not to be let in for fifteen minutes. The queue snaked around the second floor landing, before going up the stairs towards the panel room. Shirt therefore joined the queue, which moved very slowly. As he waited, Shirt was entertained by stories from other attendees around their experiences meeting Karen Gillan at London Film and Comic Con.

Finally he made it into the merchandise room. First up was James Goss, followed by John Dorney, who signed a book and two Large Endings’ covers respectively. Next up was Richard Gauntlett who played Urak in ‘Time and the Rani’, who signed Shirt’s DVD and video covers, seemingly pleased to be getting some recognition for being in the furry Tetrap suit.

At a table on her own in the right-hand corner of the room was Raquel Cassidy, who happily signed Shirt’s “Series Six” poster and the cover for ‘The Judgement of Isskar’ (a Large Endings’ release in which she appears). At this point, the interviewer from her upcoming panel came to get her, but not before Shirt managed to get a photo with her.

The final guest in the room was Kate O’Mara, who signed a photograph and Shirt’s ‘Time and the Rani’ DVD cover, seemingly enjoying every moment of the attention. The only guest that Shirt hadn’t met was Terence Bayler from ‘The Ark’ and ‘The War Games’, who was in the photo studio upstairs.

Shirt therefore went back upstairs and settled into a seat in the panel room. First up was Raquel Cassidy, who spoke glowingly not only about being in the TV series, but also about working with Large Endings (the mythical lunch getting a mention). On completion of this panel, Shirt popped down to the merchandise room to find Terence walking out of the door long before his advertised end-time, and so returned to the panel room for the final panel of the day – Kate O’Mara and Richard Gauntlett. Both spoke enthusiastically about ‘Time and the Rani’, whilst Richard also spoke about being in pantomime and hosting variety shows on cruise ships. Both would like to come back as their characters, with Kate being adamant that as the part had been written especially for her by Pip & Jane, nobody else should be allowed to play it.

A final raffle which Shirt was not participating in (and in which one person seemingly won three of the prizes), and the event was over. Shirt having an hour to waste before his booked train, went into the Bullring where he purchased the latest set of ‘Doctor Who: Top Trumps’. Speeding home on the train, listening to ‘Project: Destiny’, Shirt mused on another excellent ‘Spirit Sinema’ event.

[PL]