Chalky, Shirt & Lupine...

...On the Planet of Giant Cybermen Tombs

The signings were starting to fall into a bit of a pattern.

* Chalky wouldn't bother ringing Enigma because he knew she wouldn't be interested in the celebrity appearing.

* Dufus would be somewhere else - his 'Yes I Am/No I'm Not' move to Birmingham taking up much of his indecision time and causing him to neglect some signings - feeling that he needed to wean himself from his addiction slowly.

* Lupine would be late to the signing due to a mixture of late nights, poor public transport and plain bad luck.

* Shirt would be free on the Saturday for the signing.

(Actually, that last one has been true since the start of these silly escapades...)

And so when 7^th Galaxy announced a double signing featuring Carole Ann Ford and Deborah Watling to promote the release of Planet of Giants on video and The Tomb of the Cybermen on DVD, Chalky was unsurprised when all of the above occurred.

Initially, Chalky wasn't sure if he would go. He didn't really need Carole Ann Ford's signature and wasn't planning on buying The Tomb of the Cybermen DVD anyway.

Shirt was also reluctant, due to his seemingly genetic loathing of the black-and-white era of Doctor Who.

But then, their resolve had never been that powerful, and besides Lupine wanted to go - so they went.

Chalky and Shirt arrived slightly shocked to find a long queue. They reasoned that the release of a 'proper' video or DVD will always attract more fans. With two videos between them (Shirt taking advantage of Dufus's absence to 'be Dufus' - as it were) they joined the queue by the scary big headed mural and waited for the arrival of Lupine.

Chalky and Shirt had been entertaining themselves in the meantime by admiring the brand new colour of the fountain (a sort of muddy, Lucozade colour) and watching the filming of a high-tech pop video on the floor below.

"What are those two guys doing?" asked Chalky, spying a guy pretending to play an electric guitar whilst the other filmed him.

Shirt and Chalky chortled away as they watched pop history in the making.

"Oooh, they should film a bit on the escalator!" suggested Chalky. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later the pop combo were ascending the escalator in full musical throttle.

Eventually, Lupine did arrive, although not before becoming stuck in traffic in a taxi (which he'd taken thinking it would take less time than the train - hah! The poor misguided fool). Unfortunately, by this time, Chalky and Shirt were at the front of the queue and Lupine had to join the back.

Inside, Chalky managed to regale Miss Ford with the inane comment,

"That's all your existing stories released now, isn't it?"

Miss Ford agreed - probably as unaware as Chalky that he had forgotten the science fiction genius that is The Sensorites.

As Shirt moved in for the kill, he asked Miss Ford what her feelings were on Soul's Ark (a short-lived (thankfully) series of adventures featuring Colin Baker and Wendy Padbury as a Tesco's Own Brand Mulder and Scully - with Miss Ford in the Mitch Pilleggi role!).

"It was diabolical," spat Miss Ford, screwing her face up. Shirt was relieved that he wasn't the only one.

Neither Chalky or Shirt felt cheeky enough to get an item signed by Miss Watling, not having bought the DVD.

However, when Lupine FINALLY got into the shop, no moral or ethical sensibility stopped him and he came out waving a still-wet Deborah Watling at Chalky and Shirt.....

...a still-wet AUTOGRAPH!!

Saying their goodbyes to Lupine, Chalky and Shirt went home to Dufus's pad to betray their Doctor Who fan credentials by willingly watching the pilot episode of the new Star Trek series, Enterprise.

They were at pains to admit it was actually quite good. But that's enough of that Trekkie talk.

[AE]