Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 1 - Fish Fingers and Custard Fanzine

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28 Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 1 Convention Report: Invasion – May 2010 I’ve attended the Invasion conventions organised by 10 th Planet Events since 2005, but this year’s event marked a change from the usual format of holding panels and signing sessions throughout the day and instead had the signings in the morning and all the panels in the afternoon. I found this a welcome change and led to the event being way less stressful with the usual convention woes of ‘I’m missing that, because I’m doing this’. My day began with a train journey from my home in Cambridge then a half hour tube journey to Barking, where the convention was being held. Barking Abbey Comprehensive School (where the event was held) is an easy twenty minute straight walk from Barking Station. I’d opted just to get the one autograph and after registering at the front desk, the autograph rooms were easy to find and queues seemed short too. I queued up and got Peter Purves’s scrawl, he was friendly asking everyone where they’d come from to the event. I slightly regretted my decision to get just the one autograph, as I passed by a nearby room which saw Fraser Hines signing, but as I like to get photos signed (and I’m trying to save my money!) I realised there’d be other such opportunities. The weather for the first half of the day was glorious and I sat outside in the sun to eat my lunch and kill time, until the afternoon session started at 1pm. Some have said on Gallifrey Base (and I’m tempted to agree with them) that a bit of entertainment could have been provided to fill the gap between the morning and afternoon sessions - an episode screening or some highlights of previous events would have been welcome. I know from having attended Bad Wolf (another convention ran by 10 th Planet) in the past, that they are not adverse to such an idea. Although the panels were meant to start at 1pm, they were running several minutes late, so I took this opportunity to head to the dealers room and buy a couple of CD’s from Big Finish, who were due on stage first, but told me they’d yet to be called. The Big Finish panel finally kicked off some twenty minutes late and consisted of Marc Platt, Rob Shearman, David Richardson, Lisa Bowerman and Nick Briggs. It was surprisingly interesting, even if the guests were distracted at one point by an attendee falling asleep near the front of the crowd!
29 Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 1 Next on stage was a panel celebrating the 60’s story The Mind Robber, the guests were Fraser Hines, Wendy Padbury and Hamish Wilson. All three of them were very entertaining and kept the crowd laughing and enthralled throughout. Next up were three guests I’d never seen at a con before, in a panel about Terry Nation’s 1960’s Dalek movies - Jill Curzon, Yvonne Antrobus and making her first convention appearance, Shiela Stafal. They all had some interesting things to say about the films, though their memories were clearly jaded by time, but this didn’t matter that much as we got to learn about their long and varied careers. Up next on stage was the Monster Boys panel of Keith Guest, who’d played among others, a Marshman (from the story Full Circle) and Graham Cole who’d played a Cyberman, amongst others, but is now better know as PC Tony Stamp in The Bill. Keith in particular made the point that, during the shoot, Tom Baker had actually helped the Marshmen out by insisting their scenes were shot first so they could get out of costume. The penultimate panel of the day, and the star name for many, were the UNIT boys - Nick Courtney and Richard Franklin. Nick was praised for his recovery from recent health problems, which earned him a round of applause, as did quoting the classic line “Women….not my field!” Richard talked about working on the recent Hornet’s Nest CD’s with Tom Baker and was able to tell us that there would be some more of them. The final panel of the day was Peter Purves, Steven Taylor in the Hartnell era, now better known for his long stint as a Blue Peter presenter. He was the only guest I asked a question of, which led to him regaling us with a very funny Blue Peter anecdote. By this time, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and several of us stood by the exit hoping the rain would ease off, but as I was meeting a friend in a pub near the station - I had to make a move. All in all a very successful event, sadly not as many dealers as in previous years, neither was there a prop/costume display, which had also been a bit of a fixture at these events. There’s another Invasion convention in September, but presently the guest list isn’t attracting me. TIM DRURY (You can view more of Tim’s Invasion photos at http://bit.ly/invasionpics. Tim also hosts his own Doctor Who podcast, ‘Tim’s Take On’ which you can catch at http://timstakeon.libsyn.com or on ITunes).
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Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 1 - Fish Fingers and Custard Fanzine

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