Shirt…

...Commits A (Mr) Sin of Omission.

For the third weekend running, Shirt was attending a large signing event, this time ‘Collectormania’ at ENC. Announced were various superheroes including Dean Cain and Helen Slater, but it was for three guests connected to ‘Doctor Who’ that piqued Shirt’s interest, namely Deep Roy (Mr. Sin in ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’), Tony Curran (Vincent in ‘Vincent and the Doctor’) and Marc Warren (Elton in ‘Love and Monsters’, and Danny Blue in 'Hustle', a favourite of Shirt's).

Catching a train from Euston, Shirt spent the journey listening to the first story in ‘The Diary of River Song – Series 2’. Making his way around the ENC, Shirt finally found the entrance hall, and joined the queue for General Entry ready for entrance half-an-hour later, playing on his tablet computer as he waited.

Finally the queue surged into the main hall, and Shirt eventually found the signers on the far wall. There was a gigantic queue for John Barrowman, but Shirt had baulked at paying £45 a signature. Next to him was Marc Warren, and at opposite ends of the signing area were Deep Roy and Tony Curran.

Shirt decided to start with Tony, who he had met previously, wishing to meet him for his appearance as Professor Joshua Vikner, an important character in the fourth season of ‘Elementary’.

Tony was very chatty and so the queue was moving very slowly, causing Shirt to panic that he would be plucked away for his photoshoot sessions just as Shirt reached the front. To make matters worse, a few minutes in, Tony went for a quick ‘comfort break’.

The fan behind Shirt was bemoaning that some of his photoshoots that he had expected to be in the morning were now in the afternoon (following the last minute announcement of Pele and Ernie Hudson, and associated new shoots), meaning that he would be unable to attend them, as he had to be back in London by 6pm for work.

Finally Shirt reached the front and managed to pay for his autograph with only four minutes left before Tony was to be spirited away.

Placing an ‘Elementary’ still that he had got printed in front of Tony, Shirt was pleased that he recognised the role.

“Does Johnny (Lee Miller) ever do events ?”, asked Tony, as he signed.

Shirt answered that he doesn’t, and due to there being a ‘No Posed Photographs’ sign, moved off.

Walking back to Deep Roy’s table, Shirt found that he was being interviewed, and that there were no Mr. Sin (or Oompa Loompa) photos on his table, only ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Star Trek’. A nearby stills seller also had no Mr. Sin photos, so Shirt pulled out his ‘Talons: Special Edition’ DVD cover instead.

There was only a short queue, and soon Shirt was getting his cover signed, and posing for a photo taken by his steward.

Shirt decided to browse the stalls, finding that he was ten minutes too late to have a photo taken with a 1980s replica TARDIS console. Finding many of the same stalls as the previous weekend’s event, he bought nothing.

He then joined a queue for Marc Warren, which had shortened, getting his Series 2 poster signed, and again posing for a photo with him.

Looking around, Shirt decided he was Collectormania’d-out, posting his photos online then returning to the station where he caught a train into central Birmingham to waste some time before he his booked train home. Having visited a couple of comic book shops, Shirt sat down to have a late lunch, noticing that Dufus had posted online under his photos, indicating that he had been free to come but Shirt had forgotten to remind him of the event.

‘I’m sure I sent him a text a couple of weeks ago’, thought Shirt, scrolling back through all his previously sent texts, and not finding such a text.

Mortified, Shirt posted a reply to Dufus, apologising for his oversight.

Catching a train back to Birmingham International, and feeling awful, Shirt had a fifteen minute wait for his train.

The second part of ‘The Diary of River Song 2’ washed over him, as the scenery sped past. However, Shirt was musing on his forgetting to remind Dufus – these events were always so much more fun with two !

[PL]