Yesterday I returned from up north, Newcastle in fact, where I had attended a Doctor Who Convention known as Dimensions. Now I’ll be honest and say that I was apprehensive about this Con as my standards were pretty high due the excellent Regenerations Convention I attended in September. Initially things did not go according to plan as I had a hell of a time getting there due to late trains and cancellations. Eventually, though, I arrived at the Holiday Inn at around eleven o’clock on Thursday night, had a quick drink in the bar and then retired to bed. I woke up on the Friday feeling refreshed and looking forward to the day, and weekend that lay in front of me. Due to me choosing to share a room for the weekend with a friend, Miss Frizzy, I checked out of my room and spent most of the day in the bar, having some drinks, reading and finishing off my drawing for Arthur Darvill to sign at Memorabilia next weekend, now this coming weekend.
Eventually people started to arrive and my friend did as well, we checked in, took our stuff to the room and returned to the bar where I met some of her friends, including a lovely couple who had their little girl with them; Freyageddon. Freyageddon was an absolute delight to be around, she particularly loved the Daleks and dragging Daddy Doctor all over the hotel. Anyway, getting back on track, during the night I was accosted by someone with long hair and a goatee, to my shock it was someone I met at Collectormania in October, I just didn’t recognise him out of his Master outfit, he cosplays the Ainley Master. Eventually we made our way over to the main hall where the Con was officially opened, followed by John Levene (Sergent Benton) doing a funny little stand-up act. After John a Doctor Who quiz was held and I was shanghaied into being on my friend’s team, we cam second place which was ok. Afterwards we retired to the bar for a few more drinks before heading up to our room.
The next day, Saturday, we got up bright and early ready for the days events. Overall the day was rather busy with me getting the majority of my autographs, from people like Caitlen Blackwood, Peter Purves and Frazer Hines and more. There were also many professional photos that had to be taken with the guests like the ones mentioned above and others. I’m happy to say that everything was organised fantastically and there were no problems at all. However, as good as the day was it was at night where the weekend took a turn for the better, or worse depending on how you look at it. Me and Miss Frizzy had tickets for the Gala meal that was held on that night, in which you had a celebritiy guest at your table. Well we dressed to the hilt I can say, me in a lovely River Island suit and Miss Frizzy in a breathtaking red dress that I’m sure had everybody drooling. We had the honor of having the wonderful Mr John Levene on our table and he was a delight to talk to and meet. In fact he does in fact warrant his own post on this blog which will follow this one. The meal was simply divine and me and John could do nothing but sing the foods praise to the waiters and waitresses. Afterwards many of us headed to bar and then to the main room where Mr Barry Noble was doing some singing for us. By this point I was quite drunk and most of the night is a blur, however I do know that I got up on the stage many a time during Barry’s singing and danced, getting a number of people up on the stage with me. I eventually dragged myself to bed and collapsed on it, sleeping soundly.
Needless to say that I woke up early on Sunday morning with a banging headache, all I wanted to do was just sleep. However, Miss Frizzy dragged me out of bed and down to breakfast, which helped immensily. Luckily the Sunday was much more laid back compared to the Saturday and I only had one photograph to attend, Colin Baker, and four autographs to get. One of these autographs was from the lovely Ian McNeice who plays Churchill in the two most recent series of Doctor Who. In my photo with him yesterday we both wore each others hats and he asked about how it had come out when I got his autograph. Sadly, I had not obtained the photo at the point and told him as much. When I did get the photo I took it to him so he could see, I must say it was rather amusing to look at. I told him that I had finally got the photo and he held out his hand so he could look at it. Naturally I gave it to him, after a few minutes of looking at it, laughing and talking about it he put it down and signed it , free of charge! I was absolutely delighted and couldn’t stop thanking him. Then he told me and Miss Frizy, who was with me, that he was in the stage play of The King’s Speech and that we should go and see it and then see him after the show, which we now plan to do in February. Moving swiftly on I moved over to John Levene’s table and got a autograph from him which turned into a lovely video message from him. Once again, more detail of this in the next post. As the night drew in we retired to the main room for the closing ceremony and then to the bar where we had tea and then whiled the night away chatting, which gradually became more and more filthy as the night drew on, in fact the Sunday night must be in a separate post due to the nature of the conversation. At around one in the morning me and Miss Frizzy said out good byes and departed for bed.
There really isn’t much to tell about Monday as it was devoted to returning home so I shall move onto the other things at Dimensions. There were plenty of cosplayers out and about during the weekend, numerous fourth Doctors were spied, as was a femme sixth Doctor and a first Doctor. As can be expected, there were a number of eleventh Doctors, myself included, and even some Masters, once again myself included. There were also two fully working Daleks, Bruce and Mac, who were brilliant to talk to and have photos with. Then there were the dealers rooms, where I procured an eleventh Doctor who had been knitted, he was absolutely lovely and I had to have him. I also bought myself the second book in the fantastic author Ruth Wheeler’s trilogy of books, and two Big Finish audiobooks. This also led to me getting my hand drawn Dalek being signed by him.
Overall, the weekend was a massive success and I made loads of new friends, had a brilliant time and it even surpassed Regenerations!
