The Lords Of Time Convention took place this weekend at the Birmingham Metropole Hilton Hotel. Hosted by Massive Events and Showmasters, it was the first Doctor Who event run by the company.
Friday night brought the opening ceremony followed by a Titanic-themed party giving everyone a chance to pull on their most glam outfits and dance the night away.
Events kicked off at 9.30am on Saturday morning with the photoshoot with Mark Benton (Clive, Rose) and signings by Shaun Dingwall (Pete Tyler, Father's Day), writer James Moran and Nina Toussaint-White (Mels, Let's Kill Hitler). Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon) joined proceedings at 10am, starting with his signing session followed by a photoshoot. The new photo system introduced by Showmasters was a raging success, with the pictures being sent remotely to printers as soon as they were taken and made available almost instantly so that it was often possible to get them signed a few minutes later. With numbers relatively low compared to some other conventions, it was clear from quite early on that the guests had plenty of time to spend with fans and the atmosphere was quickly established as calm, light-hearted and very friendly. The afternoon brought the guest talks; Frazer, who had spent the morning chatting at length to the autograph hunters, flirting with all of the ladies and, as we can happily attest to, distributing the odd sneaky kiss, didn't disappoint in the least. His panel was jam packed with affectionate anecdotes about his time working with Patrick Troughton and the practical jokes that the pair of them pulled on set.
James Moran followed with an hilarious but hugely informative commentary to The Fires Of Pompeii. He also offered a very interesting theory on the fate of the Tenth Doctor: "David Tennant's hair just got bigger and bigger until he was forced to regenerate". James confessed later on during the drinks reception that, somewhat used to appearing at Torchwood conventions, he hadn't anticipated the number of young children that would be attending and anticipated that a number of awkward questions might be asked of parents later on following some of his more risque comments! Mark and Nina gave a talk together, again sharing their experiences on Doctor Who and their other projects - Mark spoke about Waterloo Road and Nina about Switch, her new ITV series co-starring Lacey Turner.
A fairly riotous quiz followed: Shaun and Frazer versus Mark and Nina with an audience member in each team and help from the audience as a whole. Mark and Nina eventually won by only a couple of poiunts, but not before Shaun revealed that he could do a pretty fine impression of his screen wife Camille Coduri (Jackie Tyler). Shaun's panel was the final one before the memorabilia auction followed by the first of the evening gold ticket drinks receptions. Sadly Shaun and Frazer weren't able to attend but Mark, Nina and James provided entertaining company for the ten or so minutes that they visited each group of attendees.
The evening was rounded off by a World War Two themed party.
The Lords Of Time convention was put together around David Tennant's schedule, and on Sunday it was the turn of the man himself to arrive. Anticipation was so high that people were already staking out their position in the signing queue as early as 5am. By the time that David arrived at his desk shortly after 9am, his line was already snaking back out of the door of the sizeable room, with everyone standing in eager anticipation clutching photos, posters, toys, DVDs, even canvas portraits, waiting for that face-to-face meeting. David, casually dressed in jeans, trainers, a Beatles t-shirt and black jacket, and plenty of stubble thanks to his role in Broadchurch, certainly wasn't rushing the fans through and was spending a decent amount in conversation with each one. Rather than speed things up, the organisers and David agreed that he would generously use some of his free time in the afternoon to hold an extra signing session so that nobody would miss out on his signature.
Also in the room were Anthony Head (Mr. Finch, School Reunion), Andrew Hayden-Smith (Jake, The Age Of Steel), Lachele Carl (Trinity Wells, Aliens Of London), Velile Tshabalala (Rosita, The Next Doctor), model maker and special effects genius Mat Irvine (with K-9 in tow) and, for a second day, James Moran. Again there was plenty of time for a satisfactory chat with all guests during their signing sessions, and the photoshoots ran smoothly with only a small amount of delay. An obvious highlight was the appearance of cosplayer Matt Holden in front of David dressed in Benedick's party outfit from Much Ado About Nothing, and David's amazed reaction!
David was also quite surprised by david-tennant.com's revelation that there was a press screening of Nativity 2 the same day, commenting that no-one tells him anything about that sort of thing!. He was happy to hear the positive feedback from our own reviewer though which was texted through to the convention.
David's talk started shortly after the lunch break. We'll be posting a full account in due course, but David answered questions directly from the audience and via question cards. Naturally he talked about his time on Doctor Who, but also covered such diverse subjects as childhood TV, the Much Ado DVD, James Bond, his future theatre wish list and how to make the perfect cup of tea.
Subsequent talks were by Andrew, Lachele and Velile, who formed a panel together, and by Mat Irvine who gave a brilliant account of the technical side of the programme.
A very lucky dozen people were able to join David for the more intimate Guest Encounter: ten who had bid for their place and two more who won the raffle for places. Again, we'll have an account of this, but the chat included talk about David's audiobooks, his favourite non-Shakespearean playwrights, Doctor Who companions, his new projects and his feelings on the media and internet privacy. David also spent some time explaining who the Chuckle Brothers were to the two German and one Italian fan who made up the numbers in the room - not as easy as it sounds!
Anthony Head's talk followed soon after with plenty of talk about Merlin, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the Gold Blend adverts and zombies, but, somewhat bizarrely, as Anthony remarked later on at the drinks reception, no questions about his appearance in Doctor Who.
All of the guests got together for a final panel which rapidly descended into a discussion of adult-themed fanfic and photo manipulations. The guests also chatted about their favourite TV shows of the moment and marvelled at Vel's ability to puff up her tongue! This panel brought us smoothly to the closing ceremony, after which all that remained was the second Gold Ticket Drinks Reception - and once again we'll be bringing you an account of our brief chat with David. Velile, Lachele, Mat, James and Anthony also attended.
And with that, the weekend drew to a close. There was still a final party to attend, but for many, with the prospect of a return the reality of work in the morning, it was time to leave.
If you have any pictures of David that you are happy for us to post, or any stories to tell from the weekend, please email either Sarah or Jill via the addresses on our Contact page and we'll do our best to include them on the site. And look out for our detailed first-hand accounts of the panels and guest encounters to follow shortly.
Also it was fantastic to meet and say hello to so many of our followers and readers in real life. Thanks for all your support and we look forward to seeing you all again at future events!
Hi! I guess I'm the "Italian" you're talking about, sorry if I'm wrong but I think it's me, let me correct this: I'm Swiss! ^^
ReplyDeleteThere was also a very nice Swedish girl with us! And a big Hi to the lovely Germans if you read this!
And yes, thank you to David for those explanations, this helped a LOT! =D
Anyway, thank you very much for the summary, this will keep everything in my mind!
Tiia (Sorry for the anon, I have no account, anywhere on the internet... this will be fixed soon!)
OOOH I sooo want to know what was said about a possible Much Ado DVD!
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