Doctor Who Invasion 2008 Convention< The Return To The MOS As VIPs | Blog | My Date With God > On Saturday 1st March I decided to part with forty quid and tag along with Tristan to a Doctor Who convention called ’Invasion 2008’ held at Castle Green in London. We left Tristan’s house in Elstead at about 5.30am in the morning that day, so we could get there by train early, to register at the event. Tristan parked his car in Guildford, and then we caught the train to Waterloo Station.
When we arrived at Waterloo Station, we bought some breakfast there and headed towards the Underground train station. I got myself a tasty hot croissant, which was filled with creamy cheese and mushrooms, I ended up spilling some of it down my trousers whilst sat eating it on the Tube train. During our long Tube train journey, we saw a drug addict sitting in front of us at the end of the carriage. He was openly doing drugs of some kind, and was getting quite wired, as he kept standing up, looking a bit weird and swaying about. This worried my friend Tristan a little bit. But, we luckily arrived at our final station not long after that. We had to walk through the station and across a dodgy looking council housing estate. We wondered if we were walking the right way, as it was just a council estate with no signs anywhere pointing to the right way to where the Doctor Who convention was held. I was starting to get worried that we could get mugged or abducted by the locals if we got lost.
A large building appeared in the distance, looking much like a new factory, or a warehouse building. It was Castle Green, the location of the Doctor Who convention called "Invasion". We entered the building. There were quite a few people standing in a queue. An American lady with long ginger curly hair, big square glasses and no style was standing in front of me in the queue. Another person standing in front of me was a short fat man, who was wearing an old Doctor Who T-shirt and stunk a bit, he also had a seriously hairy neck and back, as it was poking out in thick tufts from his T-shirt neck hole. There were also many normal young families with their kids, which would be fans of the lastest new series. As we got to the end of the queue, we arrived to where the organisers were sat. I was surprised that I had to part with more cash, as I thought the forty quid that I paid online covered everything at the event. Tristan wanted to have a coffee break with some of the Doctor Who actors, and I wanted my photo taken with Tom Baker, which is why it apparently cost even more.
Once I had parted with my hard earned cash, we entered the convention area. Inside there was a large stage, with lots of seats, plus a few stalls selling Doctor Who merchandise behind the back seating area. We had a look round the stalls. I bought a Doctor Who DVD set, which had three old stories featuring Jon Pertwee and Peter Davison as the Doctor’s, with the Silurians and Sea Devils as the monsters. I love the Sea Devils, as they first appeared in a 70’s story coming out of the sea towards the shore, wearing blue string vests with faces like large turtles. I also bought a Tom Baker photograph dressed as the Doctor from the 1970’s. I bought the photo as a birthday present for a friend, as I was hoping to get it signed by Tom Baker that day. I’ll write a bit more about this signed photo a bit later on.
So, after we looked at the stalls, we sat at the front by the stage. We took a few photos of each other and of the Daleks, Davros and Cybermen, who were sat on the stage facing us.
A Doctor Who themed video montage appeared on the big screen on stage, with the familiar music playing on the speakers. Then the first lot of actors came onto the stage to be interviewed.
The first set of actors to come on stage were all young children aged from about 8 to 12. They had all starred in various roles in the new Doctor Who series. The man interviewing them had his mike set to too low, so we couldn’t hear them.
It was then time for me to get my photograph taken with Tom Baker. Everybody went at the same time, so it was fairly badly organised, as a very large queue formed. I had to queue for quite a while, but luckily I got there before many people did. The organisers realised they made an error, so they rushed people through to get their picture's taken. There were some costumes and props to use for the photo shoot with Tom, but they were never used. I was rushed in. We said hello and Tom Baker commented to say that he liked my jumper. A photographer took a photo of us sat together. Tom Baker shacked my hand and that was £20 gone. I later collected the photo and it looked dreadful. It was shot too close for comfort. I look like someone who is mentally retarded, and Tom Baker looks a bit lost. I have a better picture of me and Tom Baker, which was taken for free at a different event by my friend Tristan on my own camera.
After that I saw a black guy dressed as a woman walking round the convention area, looking very camp, which was quite strange to see, as he looked very out of place. He was apparently the stunt double of the 10th Doctor’s companion Martha Jones. Martha is a woman in the series, so I don’t understand how a man could play her, as she did not look that manly to me in the series. Not long after that, it was time for the coffee morning break, with some actors that had been in the Doctor Who series. I went to join Tristan for the coffee break with some of the stars, which cost us a fiver each. We sat in a small room on chairs in a circle with about 30 other fans. One of the stars got a coffee, but we didn’t, so it was not really a proper coffee morning. There were four stars that had appeared in the show, Sophie Aldred who played the seventh Doctor’s companion ’Ace’ back in the 80’s, Sylvia Syms, who was in the seventh Doctor's story called ’Ghost Light’ (plus a number of famous feature films), Jean Marsh who was in quite a few old Doctor Who stories, plus some old chap with dark hair who never spoke. Sylvia Simms was the most awful woman I ever met. She kept on talking over the other actors, not giving them chance to speak. Sylvia has a huge ego and a loud squawky voice, so she should have played a Dalek in the series! It was all a bit sh*t to be honest. So, I was glad when the coffee morning was over, as we didn’t even get any coffee, we just sat there listening to Sylvia Simms spouting out complete and utter bile for half an hour. We then watched a few more talks back at the stage area from various actors. Tom Baker did a great spot on stage and everyone laughed at his jokes and cheered, it was the highlight of the event.
Tom Baker, tells the tale of a woman who rushed up to him on a train and confessed her undying love for him
Then after the stage talks the organisers cleared everyone out of the convention area, to prepare for the signing event for the fans with the stars. I had some lunch and drinks outside the convention area with Tristan in the café to wait for the start. I noticed a queue forming, Tristan didn’t seem concerned, but I was. We eventually joined the queue, but we had to go outside the building to do so. The queue was massive with hundreds of people, and the queue snaked round and round forever. We were right near the end of it. Myself and Tristan ended up being stuck in the queue for hours, everyone one was queuing to meet Tom Baker to get his autograph. It was really badly organised to let everyone queue at once like that. By the time I got near the front of the queue, the best stars like Tom Baker had gone home! I was seriously p*ssed off at that point, as I bought the picture of Tom Baker earlier, which was to get signed for a friend as a birthday present, plus my legs were starting to ache too. We spoke to an organiser and he said he’d post me the signed picture, but over a month has past, and I never got it. So, my friend missed out on getting their birthday present. I should have asked for my forty quid back! Tristan tried to lighten my mood by buying me some sweets in a Dalek tin, which was a kind gesture. Ater going there I decided to never to tag along with a friend to a convention ever again. Although I will still go to the big events like Memorabilia, and the Doctor Who Exhibition at Earls Court, as they are not conventions and are professionally run.
In conclusion, I think conventions are a huge rip off to meet stars for about thirty seconds and paying £20 just to get a signed picture. They also attract some rather odd people too, myself not included!
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