The London Film And Comic Convention Plus The Doctor Who Exhibition< If | Blog | West Dean Victorian Gardens > On Sunday I went to London with my friend Tristan to see the London Film and Comic Convention, and the Doctor Who Exhibition, as a late birthday gift. Both events were on at Earls Court. I met Tristan at the Guildford train station entrance at around 7.45am in the morning. We purchased our train tickets, and caught the train to Waterloo station. Tristan was in a rush to get to Guildford, and he didn’t have time for his breakfast, so he ate a sandwich on the train.
Once we got to Waterloo, we saw that there was a lot of building work going on; many of the shops had been closed. From Waterloo we got on the Underground and caught some tube trains to get to Earls Court. As we left Earls Court Station we saw the entrance to the Earls Court Exhibition Centre on the other side of the road.
A few big posters of Daleks were on the front of the building, which were advertising the Doctor Who Exhibition. Tristan had bought Early Bird tickets for the London Film and Comic Convention, which meant we could get inside the exhibition at 10am, instead of 11am for those who bought the standard tickets. This was due to Tristan wanting to get a load of autographs for himself and one of his friends, so he wanted to get early tickets to meet these famous people, so he did not have to wait a long time to see them. Unfortunately about three hundred other people had also purchased Early Bird tickets. We had to join the queue with the rest of them to wait to get inside. Both of us were right at the back of the queue, which snaked behind the Earls Court building, in a cold windy spot. Luckily there was some entertainment whilst we were queuing, as we saw some Cylons from the original Battlestar Galactica walk past us in the queue. They even had the red light moving from side to side for their eyes, they made all the right sort of sci-fi noises, and occasionally said ‘By your command’, which was a famous Cylon catchphrase from the original show.
Once 10am arrived, the queue moved into the building, and we got to the entrance at around 10.10am. So the queuing was ok in the end. There was a lady at the entrance to collect our entry tickets. As soon as we got inside Tristan dashed to where the famous people were due to sit for the autograph signings, so he could get all the early tickets to meet them. His friend wanted a load of autographs from the guests, which totalled around £120!
Tristan also arranged a photo shoot with himself and the American actor Christopher Llyod. This actor is famous for playing Dr. Emmett L. Brown in the Back to the Future movies. Tristan was wearing a Back to the Future t-shirt especially for his photo shoot.
I queued with Tristan for some of the time whilst he was getting his autographs. I saw some of the famous people with him like Patrick Stewart from Star Trek, Sylvester McCoy from Doctor Who, Claudia Black from Farscape, Margot Kidder from Superman, and Karen Allen from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Whilst Tristan was queuing up for more of his autographs and his photo shoot, I had a walk round the event by myself. I bought a few books at a couple of the stalls. I saw Darth Vader walking round with another shorter Star Wars person, and also some X-Men having a group photo taken with a Jedi. There was a car from the 'Fast and the Furious' movies. I also spotted the De Lorean time machine, which was the car used in the Back to the Future movies. Tristan later had his picture taken sitting inside it.
Once Tristan had finished getting the majority of the autographs he wanted, we looked round the stalls and exhibits together. We saw loads of fun and cool things, like a huge statue of the Hulk, which I stood by and had my picture taken beside it.
I also had my picture taken with the Predator, as well as an Alien with a soldier, who was looking after it. The Alien was very funny, and was scaring people. It made a woman jump by sneezing.
There was also the Tardis, and a Cyberman guarding it. The man inside the Cyberman costume was enjoying himself, as he was stomping round with his big feet, and acting just like a real Cyberman from the Doctor Who TV series.
I had my picture taken beside the Tardis, and the Cyberman lifted me up by holding me from the back of my coat!
Tristan had a ticket numbered around 250 to be in the autograph queue to get Christopher Lloyds autograph. Tristan had done the photo shoot with him earlier. The queue was numbered up to 100 for ages, so Tristan could not join the queue for a few hours. So, we had some lunch, and we decided to go next door to see the Doctor Who Exhibition for an hour, as Tristan wanted to return to his autograph queuing. As we left the Film and Comic Convention we had our hands stamped, so we re-enter there again later on. We walked outside and round to the other entrance of the building. Inside, we handed in our tickets to go in the Doctor Who Exhibition. The Doctor Who Exhibition was really fun to walk round. As we walked through it, there were pictures of all of the actors who have played the Doctor lining the walls. We took turns taking pictures of each other with each Doctor.
We then entered the scene from the episode of Doctor Who called ‘Rose’. We were walking round a shop store room, which had shop dummies. They were moving, and were really in fact the alien menace known as the Autons, who disguised themselves as shop dummies. We took some good photos of each other in there.
There was also the Tardis, with a clever virtual tenth Doctor, as played by David Tennant, standing next to it. The Doctor’s moving and talking face was being projected on a life sized model.
Lots of the monsters from the new series were also there. I saw the Ood, and how they were made, K-9, a witch, a Cat Person, lots of different types of aliens.
There were Cybermen too. I also spotted the Cybercontoller. I pushed a big button, and he came to life.
A lot of the exhibits were interactive. I liked the one of the statue from the episode of Blink, as it appeared when the light came on.
The Tardis interior set was funny too. There was an area with a green backdrop, and a TV screen above it. I was being super imposed inside the Tardis. It was difficult to get good shots, as there was always kids running around inside it. I scarced them off, but I started to regenerate and go transparent after that.
The best exhibit though was the Daleks one. I pushed a button and a Dalek came up through the floor looking like it was hovering, then two more Daleks moved towards it, and they start shooting at each other, with laser effects, smoke, flashing lights, and lots of screams of ‘Exterminate!’
I was hoping to see Davros, the Dalek creator, as he was used in the last season, but he was not there yet. After we looked round the Doctor Who Exhibition, Tristan bought a Cyberman beach towel in the shop.
Then we left to return back to the London Film and Comic Convention next door. The SFX magazine staff had their own stall at the exhibit. They are a popular sci-fi magazine, which writes articles and reviews of various TV shows, films, DVD’s, books and comics. I got given a free badge and a DVD of Pan's Labyrinth from them, which was great. They also took photos of me and Tristan standing in front of the Tardis, and made a fake SFX magazine cover, with us on it. The actor who played the Predator in the movies was also at the SFX stand. He was very tall, almost seven foot high.
Whilst we were waiting for the rest of Tristan’s numbers to come up for the autograph queues, we watched one of the live shows at the stage area. They were judging fans costumes. There were allsorts of different outfits, including Batman, the Joker, Doctor Who, X-Men, Disney, as well as various anime and computer game characters. Some of the women looked quite attractive in their costumes, especially the one dressed as the Princess of Zelda.
Tristan got the rest of his autographs, and then we had a walk round the stalls again. We were getting quite tired and our legs were aching, so we left Earls Court to return back home. It was a fun day!
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