Shirt…

...Who's The Daddy ?

Another year had gone by, and it was time for Shirt to make his annual pilgrimage to Milton Keynes for ‘Collectormania’ (see CDS…The Doctor Will See You Now, S...Visits a Vila, S...Burn, Baby, Burn, S...Eve of the Daleks, S...Ice Cold Without Alex, S...Is Molly-cuddled & S...Mission: Impossible (Girl)). Guests had been announced covering Shirt’s twin passions of WHO and Holmes (with those in the latter category, all also having a WHO connection), on the Saturday and so a train ticket had been booked well in advance.

Shirt made perfect time across London, arriving far too early for his booked train. Finally being allowed to board, he settled back in his seat to allow Parts One and Two of ‘Scavenger’ (the final part of the latest Sixie/Flip trilogy from Large Endings). Arriving in plenty of time for the timetabled free-bus, Shirt found himself joining a gigantic queue at the bus stop a short distance away, and concerned that he would not manage to get on the first bus and have to wait for another half-an-hour. Glancing at his watch, the bus was now due, but there was no sign of it. Five minutes later, and still no sign. Ten minutes, and still no sign. The two girls behind Shirt (who had both been wearing ‘Los Pollos’ T-shirts) had decided to get a taxi instead. Spurred into action by this, the three fans now behind Shirt asked him whether he wanted to share a taxi with them. Making a habit of sharing taxis to events (see S...Day Four [in the Large Endings’ Hoose]), Shirt agreed.

Moving to the far side of the taxi, Shirt got in, with the female of the group taking the middle of the back seat from the other door. Struggling with his seatbelt, Shirt was terrified that he might accidentally touch the female fan’s shapely purple-tight-clad right leg, but managed to avoid this. A minute later and the taxi was speeding off, wind whistling through the open windows. Just over five minutes later, and they were pulling into a part of the stadium that Shirt did not recognise. The £9 fare split four ways, and they were all making their way towards the stadium.

They had been dropped off next to the hotel attached to the stadium.

“I stayed in the hotel last year, and they left the doors to the stadium open for us”, said the female fan.

The four of them therefore swiftly walked through the hotel reception, and up a flight a stairs to the doors to the stadium itself, which predictably were all locked. Retracing their steps, they found themselves outside again. Shirt made his apologies and strode off, arriving two minutes later at the mythical Conference Centre, that had been spoken of being almost complete for several years.

This proved to be where not only the much less cramped Dealers Room was, but also where the majority of guests were signing.

Walking to the end of the main hall, Shirt found an area full of guests from ‘Game of Thrones’, two of which he wished to meet for their other work, as well as ‘Sherlock’ guest-star, Alfie Enoch.

Deciding to get his bearings, Shirt followed signs to another signing area on a balcony overlooking the main hall, where the WHO guest stars were signing. Following another sign, he found himself in the part of the stadium that he recognised from previous years, and did his usual trick of walking all the way around, picking up a virtual-queuing ticket for Sean Pertwee.

Returning to the main hall, Shirt joined his first queue of the day, for Alfie Enoch, who as well as being both Dean Thomas in the ‘Harry Potter’ films, and Private Bainbridge (‘the bloody guardsman’) in ‘Sherlock: The Sign of Three’, is also William Russell’s son. Shirt noticed that William was sitting at the next signing table to Alfie. Reaching the front of the queue, Shirt selected a still of Alfie as Bainbridge, which he happily signed.

“Can I have a photo with you ?”, asked Shirt, handing his camera to the steward before waiting for an answer.

Photo taken, and Shirt was moving across to Ron Donachie, the Steward in ‘Tooth and Claw’, who had no queue, despite also appearing in ‘Game of Thrones’. Managing to extract his Series 2 poster from his tube, Shirt placed it in front of Ron, who signed it with minimum of conversation. Shirt was initially confused by a photo that seemed to show Ron and (former soap-star) Adam Rickitt, until he realised that it was a ‘Titanic’ image with Leonardo DiCaprio taken from a very poor angle. Thanking Ron, Shirt managed to re-roll his poster, and moved across to the next queue, for Roger Ashton-Griffiths, who appeared as Lestrade in ‘Young Sherlock Holmes’ (and was due to appear in Doctor Who - Series 8, with Mr. Capaldi). On reaching the front of the queue, Shirt found a lack of ‘YSH’ photos (despite one being posted in the forum entry announcing his attendance, and it citing ‘YSH’ as one of his credits on the large sign above his head). He therefore pulled out the DVD cover that he had brought with him.

Roger was pleased to have a change, having been signing ‘Game of Thrones’ posters and DVDs all morning.

“Oh, you’ve got it signed by Nick”, he commented, before signing all over Nick’s face.

Another fan in the queue then obliged by taking two photos of Shirt with Roger.

Returning to the balcony, Shirt found that only two of the three people that he wanted to sign his Series 7B poster were sitting at their tables, and so decided to see how the Sean Pertwee queue was going. The steward told him that they were up to 120, and Shirt’s ticket was 140. However, he was pleased to note that since he had been there last, they had added photos from ‘Elementary’ in which Sean plays Gareth Lestrade in Season 2. [Not having SKY, Shirt had had to try and work out before coming which of the photos in Sean’s forum entry were from ‘Elementary’, and had identified one of him behind railings as being the one through a Google search. Any doubt was dispelled by the image that had been printed off, whilst being almost identical, also featured Johnny Lee Miller]

Back on the balcony, Shirt found all the ‘Day of the Doctor’ guests were back at their tables. First up was Ken Bones, ‘The General’ (head Timelord) in ‘DOTD’ (and voice through ‘the Crack’ in ‘TOTD’), who signed Shirt’s Series 7B poster next to Chris Finch. Next up was his second-in-command, Peter DeJersey, who signed next to Ken.

The final ‘DOTD’ guest was Tristan Beint, who played Tom, Clara’s Coal Hill colleague. Signing the poster, Tristan explained that he had come with his girlfriend, Emma Campbell-Jones (Cass from ‘Night of the Doctor’), whom Shirt had met a few weeks before (see S...Time for a Brew(ster)). Before leaving the balcony, Shirt got Peter Straker to sign his ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ DVD sleeve.

Back in the main stadium, Shirt made his way to Sean Pertwee’s queue, which was up to 130. However, having walked around the stadium once, passing several cosplay Doctors (including a Capaldi with very prominently painted on grey streaks in his hair), on his return was allowed to join the queue, having been asked if he had a personal item that he wanted signed, the implication being that Sean was refusing to sign some items. Shirt initially thought that this might be DW items, but saw Sean sign a picture of all eleven Doctors. The fan four in front of Shirt was dressed as the Third Doctor, and Shirt felt a little uneasy about this, but Sean seemed to have no problems with having a photo taken with someone dressed as his late father. Reaching the front, Shirt picked up the ‘Elementary’ image, which Sean signed from a standing position, bending over the table. A final photo of the day, and Shirt made his way to the Dealers Room.

Having browsed the stalls, and buying only four ‘Elementary’ stills, Shirt made his way outside, and the bus stop for the free bus. This time the bus arrived on time, and Shirt clambered on, moving to the top deck. Ten minutes later and the bus was chugging along to the Station, where three-quarters of the people got off. Refilled, and it made its way to the Shopping Centre, where Shirt struggled to get off due to so many people crammed-in in front of the stairs.

Shirt had plenty of time to waste before his booked train home, and so spent the afternoon at the nearby ODEON and in browsing shops in the Centre. Walking from the Centre to the Station, Shirt passed a Dalek sitting outside a branch of Earthrocks Bookshop. Again arriving in plenty of time for his train, fifteen minutes later, Shirt was enjoying the second two parts of ‘Scavenger’.

As the countryside whizzed past, Shirt mused on a successful day – two Lestrades, two Timelords, a Movellan, a ‘Sherlock’ guest star, and two new series guest stars. It had been a vintage ‘Collectormania’.

[PL]