That is what the convention called
Utopia uses as its slogan, but it is? Let’s find out shall we?
Utopia is hosted in Oxfordshire, at a
resort called Heythrop Park which is a stately home from the early
18th century ad let tell you it’s worth the money just
for the house and views it provides.
Now then the convention itself. It
opens, officially, on the Friday night and we were treated to a talk
from the organizers of Utopia, a game of Bingo which quickly
dissolved into a free for all with the cards, and a talk through Katy
Manning’s top ten moments in Doctor Who. I’m not ashamed to admit
that for the last two clips I teared up a little. As she was leaving
she caught sight of me, grabbed my hand and said ‘Hello sweetie,
hello cutie’. This actually led me to descend into a gibbering
wreck for, at least, half an hour and caused me to turn a bright
shade of red. Katy then joined the rest of the audience for the two organizers talk.
On the Saturday it was a day of both
highs and lows. Let’s begin with the highs shall we?
Me and Carol started the day by queuing
up for Katy Manning’s autograph, I also took with my knitted doll
of her Doctor, the 3rd one as played by Jon Pertwee. When
I showed it to her she absolutely adored it and I’m only sorry that
I didn’t get a photo with her holding it. After this I retired to
my room to get changed into my brand new cosplay, that of UNIT
officer Sergeant Benton. This was in readiness for my photo with Katy
Manning. I wanted my clothes to be a surprise for her so had to hide
from her once when she was heading our way. Luckily I managed this
and she was happily surprised with my outfit and proclaimed it a
success.
After Katy’s photo shoot it was time
to queue up for the group photo which I wanted. They decided to take
this outside into the lovely sunshine so that we’d have the house
as the back. I was one of the lucky ones and managed to get a nice
photo from it, many didn’t due to the photographer rushing. After
the group shots it was time for the big guest’s photo shoot; Carol
Ann Ford. Unfortunately this is also where the day goes down hill.
During the whole day it was evident
that series events had conspired to set everything back so Fantom
Films were desperately trying to catch up with everything. Me and
Carol joined the queue for Carol Ann and waited, and waited, and
waited. Eventually we were told that she was no longer doing photos
but would still being doing Autos. However, there still a stupidly
long wait, and it turned out that Carol Ann was actually refusing to
come out of the Green Room. Well that did it for me, on principle
that she was being like this I refused to get her autograph.
Disappointing yes and annoying but I am a man of my principles. After
Carol had got her autographs from Carol Ann me and her headed outside
for our meeting with Iris Wildthyme, a wacky time and space
adventuress portrayed by the delectable Katy Manning. Unfortunately,
because of FF trying to recover their lost time, we ended up missing
it. However we were invited to the reading of the latest Iris book on
her traveling bus and Katy also joined us and we actually had a very
enjoyable time, including having photos of Katy and Iris’s
creator, Paul Magrs, in front of the bus.
The evening’s entertainment consisted
of a number of things, firstly we were treated to a screening of Part
One of the re-imagined Power of the Daleks, and allowed a sneak peek
at Part Two. Following on from that was quiz which saw Anneke Wills
pitted against Lisa Bowerman. This was then followed by a quiz of
embarrassing proportions, which saw Barnaby Edwards dancing to Billy
Piper. Being unable to stand the dancing a few of us headed down to
the Billiards room and had a game, which was very enjoyable and
actually saw me playing well surprisingly. The evening came to a
close at around half one in the morning and consisted of a lovely
conversation with the two Dalek Operators that were in residence that
weekend.
Come Sunday and we had a positive
slurry of autographs to get. David Banks was first on my list, the
Cyberleader from the classic series. We had a lovely conversation
about the Cybermen before I moved onto the two Dalek Operators. After
them it was a very lazy day of a quick photo with David Banks and
then just relaxing around the grounds. The evening soon arrived and
the convention was bought to a close to much applause. Me and Carol,
and two others, retired to the restaurant then and proceeded to have
a wonderful meal and a lovely glass of Rose wine. After which we
retired to the bar before heading to our beds.
I should point out a little pettiness
on my part. On the same weekend as this there was another event
running in Peterbourgher, called The Greatest Show in Galaxy, which
was choker block with guests. I’m have to admit that, when Carol
got a text from a friend saying the it had been full of problems on
the first day, I did smile and laugh at that. Yes this was petty of
me but I was at a different convention while another was running and
who might have even ‘nicked’ some guests from Utopia.
Anyway, that aside lets get back to the
event I was at and my thoughts on it as a whole. This was my first
Fantom Films event and it was a very enjoyable one, yes there were
problems, after all no event can go on perfectly. But Fantom Films endeavored to solve these problems as quickly and efficient as they
could. I definitely wouldn’t mind going Utopia again. A definite
thumbs from me and I declare; 8 out of 10.
