Chalky, Shirt, Tigger & Mavic Chen…

…Department S

Doctor Who event attendance had become something of a rarity for Chalky and Tigger since the birth of Mavic Chen. Autograph signings and conventions did not lend themselves to the rigour of maintaining nap and feed time schedules and so it had been up to Shirt to continue to carry the torch for the disparate gang.

But Mavic Chen was getting ever older and change was upon the horizon…

Driving home one afternoon, Chalky had switched over to Radio (dramatic pause) Lane. Mavic Chen was failing to drift off in the back of the car and suddenly a familiar voice grated over the adverts. Mavic immediately perked up and Chalky and Tigger pricked up their ears. A Dalek informed them that he would be appearing at the Victorian Hinchcliffe department store in New Malden in a couple of weeks time.

“We have to take him to that!” exclaimed Chalky.

“Indeed!” agreed Tigger. Mavic simply made his noise which meant ‘Dalek’ – something akin to waggling his tongue about and going ‘uuuurrrhhh’.

Chalky rang Shirt and told him about the event. Unsurprisingly, Shirt already knew about it and was intending to go himself, so being able to accompany Mavic Chen meant that him standing in a toy department without any children, would look less like a desire to appear on “Crimewatch”.

Collecting Shirt on route, the gang arrived in New Malden at around 11 o’clock which was when the Dalek was due to make its first appearance. The publicity, and indeed the poster outside the store, advertised a Blue Strategist Dalek. The much derided new design of the Daleks, as featured in “Victory of the Daleks”, was something Chalky and Shirt were intrigued to see. On arriving at the store, Mavic became excited at the sight of a large cut out bronze-style Dalek in the window. So excited in fact that he managed to completely miss the bubbles floating around the entrance – another favourite thing of his.

Moving inside, the gang navigated Mavic’s buggy to the back of the store where the toy department was situated and found an already quite large group of people clustered around a Dalek.

But it wasn’t the advertised Strategist Dalek at all, but an Ironside Dalek – all khaki and classic design. Initially confused, Chalky and Shirt quickly decided that with Remembrance Sunday the following day, maybe this was a deliberate change of plan (the Dalek even sported a poppy) rather than a ‘non-fan’ confusion of simple Who facts.

Chalky and Shirt got into the queue with Mavic and waited for their turn. Mavic had his precious sonic screwdriver – or rather Chalky’s as he had decided he wanted to swop from his birthday present of the 11^th Doctor’s screwdriver to the original design from the RTD era.

As they finally got to the front of the queue, Mavic decided that actually, he didn’t want to meet the Dalek after all because it was scary. After a couple of hurried photographs taken by Shirt on Chalky’s phone, with Chalky getting as close to the Dalek as Mavic would let him, they left the queue and went back to the main part of the toy department looking for Tigger. Tigger had been filling in the forms for the Doctor Who prize draw and had already posted her entry but was holding Chalky’s so he could fill in his email address which Tigger could never quite remember.

After trying to work out whether it was worth presenting Mavic’s Doctor Who picture for a free gift and deciding against it (it was just a chocolate and Mavic would lose his precious picture for the privilege) the gang decided to go for a wander around New Malden, find some lunch and then return to the Dalek for its second appearance at 2 o’clock.

Around the charity shops they managed to find many an old annual (with one bought for Mavic Chen) and a few odds and sods. Eventually it was lunchtime, and with a bit of deliberation settled on KFC. Mavic Chen partook of his usual lunch of Dairylea Dunkers, cucumber and yoghurt whilst Chalky, Tigger and Shirt shared a boneless banquet. After lunch, Tigger filled in even more prize draw forms with various other family members’ names and addresses.

After a bit more browsing, the gang decided to return to the department store a little before 2 o’clock to see if the TARDIS, Doctor and Amy cut outs were still out for photo opportunities without the scary Dalek. They were, a Mavic Chen proceeded to zap them with his sonic screwdriver and nearly knock them over whilst Chalky took quite a few photos.

Eventually, it was time for the Ironside Dalek to return and finding that it was to parade through the toy department, the gang positioned themselves on the parade route. The Dalek appeared and began making ‘humorous’ comments to various children as it moved along. Chalky started filming it on his phone and laughed as one child tried desperately to get past it but found his way blocked by the Dalek’s knobbly skirt. As the Dalek neared Mavic Chen, he got a little upset and instructed Tigger that the Dalek needed to go somewhere else. At that point, another ‘fan’ appeared, shouting various hilarious Victory of the Dalek lines of dialogue at it. As the Dalek replied, it tried to push its way through to its destination with the ‘fan’ following and laughing at his own witticisms.

After the Dalek had disappeared around the corner, the gang decided it was time to leave as Mavic Chen was due a nap and grumpy toddlers and Daleks do not mix.

Mavic Chen had experienced his very first Doctor Who event and Chalky and Shirt were beaming with pride.

[AE]