Chalky, Dufus, Lupine & Shirt...

...Meet Tewwance, Wichard and 'Sawah Jane'

The gang were awfully excited. 7^th Galaxy had promised a signing to celebrate the release of the Season 12 Script Book AND the Master Box Set which was to feature Richard Franklin, Elisabeth Sladen, Terrance Dicks AND Barry Letts.

It was a bit of a bummer, therefore, when Barry Letts - the only luminary they hadn't met before, decided he was going to be on holiday instead. Sod!

Being Terrance Dicks, Shirt was rather keen on taking his The Ultimate Adventure poster with him for signing purposes (Mr. Dicks being the illustrious author of that theatrical opus). This did of course mean, bearing in mind Shirt's wonderful abilities of control (just ask Lara Croft), many innocent members of the public found themselves accosted by a rolled-up artistic impression of Colin Baker and some Daleks.

Some weeks earlier, Lupine had been unable to attend a signing and the lads, being the wonderful friends they are, had bought certain items for Lupine with their own hard-earned cash (secure in the knowledge that Lupine would pay them back).

Of course, their wonderful nature's didn't extend as far as actually remembering to bring Lupine's stuff with them to this signing which was the first time they had seen Lupine since the missed signing. Well, he'd just have to wait - wouldn't he!

To make up, however, when Lupine discovered he had a lot less money than he thought he had, the lads offered to lend him the money for the script book - upping the debt he owed. What wonderful friends these lads are.

Having recently shown Terror of the Zygons to his class of escaped lunatics (in an attempt to jazz up the humdrum and ever-so difficult job of a teacher (we DO NOT finish at 3pm!)) Chalky decided to purchase them a reward for not laughing at the Skarasen. A signed photo of Miss Sladen seemed an ideal gift and on presenting it to Miss Sladen, Chalky explained his attempt at warping the minds of a whole new generation.

"I showed that to my class," he commented, as Miss Sladen signed the Terror of the Zygons video cover. Miss Sladen looked up, incredulous.

"Why?!" she exclaimed.

"It was part of a comprehension lesson," Chalky explained. "And some of them liked it so much I let them watch the rest during lunchtimes. They really enjoyed it."

This fact seemed to mollify Miss Sladen's initial alarm.

"That's brilliant!" she cried. "Have you written to the BBC and told them?"

"No," admitted Chalky.

"Well do it!" commanded Miss Sladen. "They need to know!"

Meanwhile, Shirt was managing to get the signatures of celebrities he had failed to buy the required item for - a trick he was getting a little too good at. And so it was that, despite not buying the Master Box Set (although Chalky and Dufus were at a loss to explain why he didn't want to purchase Colony in Space and The Time Monster, which were contained within, being the epitomy of the Pertwee era) Shirt managed to get Mr. Franklin's signature.

Dufus and Lupine passed through with little incident, aside from attempting to make sure that each celebrity signed their name with the correct spelling. Dufus, of course, drooled uncontrollably around Mr. Franklin - but that really is a story for another kind of website...

With a by-now traditional stop in the local burger eatery to purchase vittles and admire the Patricia-Merrick lookalikey waitress, the gang wended their merry way home.

[PL]