Shirt…
…The Eleventh Shower.
MVH were having another boxset signing. Having spent nearly
seven hours queuing to meet David Tennant & Freema Agyeman for literally
thirty seconds in total (see CDS…Smith and Jones) three years before, Shirt decided to do the same to meet
Eleventh Doctor & Amy Pond, Matt Smith and Karen Gillan. Having met all the
other existent Doctors, he was keen to complete the set !
Utilising the same strategy as the previous year, Shirt got
to the store an hour before the wristbands were due to be given out. Joining a
queue which seemed to have close to the 300 limit in it, Shirt proceeded to
start his first period of waiting. Unfortunately it was raining, and so Shirt
sheltered under his umbrella, listening to the man two places in front
describing how he had made his four year old daughter (who was accompanying him
and was already bored) a fan.
“She watches an episode of ‘Doctor Who’ a day”, the man
proudly declaimed.
‘Whether she wants to or not’, thought Shirt. (Although he
and Chalky had made Mavic Chen a fan, they had not gone as far as making him
watch complete episodes).
At 9am, the queue began slowly moving, as people were
slowly let into the store in small groups to buy the boxset. (Learning from the
previous signing, MVH were not giving you the wristband until you bought the
boxset). At around 9.15am, Shirt entered the store (and the welcome warmth and
dryness), deciding to go for the Limited Edition steelcase edition of the
Season Five boxset. Having paid for the boxset (which was at a price halfway
between the RRP and the price that you could buy it online), and taken his
precious wristband, Shirt had a cursory look around the rest of the store.
Deciding not to begin queuing again immediately, Shirt made
a brief dash to a nearby pound-shop to buy a hat to keep his head and ears warm
in the cold and wet, and to look at the DVDs in an exchange shop. Returning to
MVH, Shirt joined a reasonably short queue. His plan was to ensure that he was
in the first queue inside, so that he would not experience what he had the
previous time, when people who were initially behind him in the queue met the
guests first due to being squashed into the back of existing queues. The rain
was still coming down hard, but as the fans in front and behind both had large
golf umbrellas, Shirt had no need to use his own being completely covered by
them.
Shirt spent the time in the queue, listening to the first
volume of Large Endings’ “Short Trips” audio collection (starting with the stories
for Doctors 5-8), including a story by Sixth Doctor himself, Colin Baker, and
in working out which part of the boxset he wanted signed, deciding on the
booklet.
At around 12.45pm, the queue was shepherded into the store
and the signing area. Shirt was indeed three-quarters of the way along the
first queue. The start of “Victory of the Daleks” appeared to be on a constant
loop on the big screen, but finally, after a lot of messing about on the stage
area, at 1.05pm, the announcement came:
“Ladies and Gentleman, please welcome Matt Smith and Karen
Gillan”.
The arrival of said stars was rendered invisible by the
large number of press photographers who were all standing on the front of the
stage area. Then lots of photos were taken of a lucky young girl who had been
plucked out of the crowd to meet Matt and Karen on camera(s). Photos taken, and
the girl having got loads of items signed, the queue finally began moving
slowly.
Ten minutes later and Shirt was at the front of the queue,
having replaced his camera batteries on the way. He was told by one of the
surly security guards to leave his bag by the barrier, and having done so
walked forward with the booklet of the boxset clasped to the boxset itself to
show that he had bought it.
“Only the boxset can be signed !”, said the jobsworth guard
at the bottom of the stairs.
“But this is the booklet from the boxset !”,
insisted Shirt.
However, such protestations fell on deaf ears, and so Shirt
put the booklet away and gave his boxset to the guard at the top of the stairs,
who placed it in front of Karen.
“Who should I sign this to ?”, asked the lovely Ms. Gillan.
“Shirt”, said Shirt, struggling to line up a shot of Karen
on his camera.
“Make sure that the flash is turned off”, said another
jobsworth.
Having done so, Shirt just managed to take the photo as his
boxset was slid across the table to the Eleventh Doctor himself.
“Shirt ?”, asked Matt.
“Yes”, said Shirt, waiting for his camera to be ready to
take another shot.
Matt signed the boxset with a flourish, but Shirt’s camera
wasn’t ready to take another photo yet.
Picking up the boxset, and moving away from the table, he
attempted to take a photograph looking back, but was hurried down the steps by
another security guard before he could press the shutter button.
Passing the masses still queuing, and picking up his bag on
the way, Shirt made his way out into the still raining
[PL]