All geeked out

As mentioned in my last entry, this weekend was the Sci-Fi Weekender X.

First I had to get there.  Train from Boro to Darlington, fine.  Darlington to Peterborough, first class on one of the new Azuma trains that LNER have introduced.  Fine.

Peterborough to Norwich however was where the problem started.  I went to the platform that the sign told me to go to and there’s a bloody freight train there.  No signs of it moving.  Sure enough, we had to change platforms.  Then the train was delayed.  Eventually got to Norwich.

Went to the platform to get the train to Great Yarmouth.  And waited.  And waited.  Then, it came up on the screen that the train had been cancelled and I’d have to wait another hour.  Fucking great.  No tannoy announcement, you’ll note.

Fuck it, time for a pint.  I’d been on the go since 8:20am, it’s now the back of three.

Finally got on the train, got to Great Yarmouth and walked to the holiday camp where the con was being held.  It was easily in walking distance.  Checked in, got my key and my wristband and my VIP pass and found my pod.  If you’ve read my last entry, you’ll know how adorable it is.

I dumped my bag, put on my wristband and headed bacvk to the train station.  Well, just behind it.  There’s an ASDA (supermarket) there.  Got some root beer, back to the pod, put that in the fridge and wandered round.

The actual complex is quite small.  Which had the advantage that it wasn’t easy to get lost.

I went to the restaurant and got something to eat, which totally wasn’t worth the cash I spent on it.  I then went to watch a band called Dirty Rose (excellent), had a few pints, a few random conversations then went to bed.

Friday, I was up early to go for a swim (there is a swimming pool there that we had the use of).  I only managed a few lengths, but that’s fine.  At least I got that in.

Went to queue for the main room for the opening celebration.  Discovered that because I bought a singing pass, I had VIP access and got to queue jump.  Score!  I had a look around the merchandise stand then watched the opening.  Which is when they mentioned having a number for the signings and how that worked.

Bugger.  I went to reception, asked about this and got my number.  What they did with the signings was they would call numbers up in batches of 50 and, if you missed your slot, you could just jump in at the end.

Back to the main hall to hear Sophie Aldred.  This was one of the things I was looking forward to.  She played Ace, the first Doctors assistant I ever watched.  She made her own explosives and took out a Dalek with a baseball bat.  What’s not to like?

Sohpie was brilliant.  Funny, utterly charming and an absolute delight.  Then there was a surprise.  Sylvester McCoy had appeared.  He wasn’t billed, but he turned up, took a seat at one of the signing tables and basically camped out for the day.

McCoy had been in a lot of things.  Most of you will know him as Radagast in The Hobbit films.  But, for me, he will forever be the Doctor.  He played the seventh Doctor and the first one I ever watched.  (Funnily enough, his assistant for most of his run was Ace.)

I queued up, bought a photo for him to sign (as I was at a sci-fi can, naturally I bought a photo of him on a sitcom called Still Game) and paid for a pic with him.  The camera on my phone wasn’t co-operating with the person taking the pics so it ended up being a selfie.

I bought some stuff.  I got two t shirts, one is a Schrodingers Cat one and one says “I’m full of bad ideas”.  I also got a pair of sunglasses where the lenses flip up and there’s clear lenses underneath.

It was then time to queue for Sophie.  I bought a pic from here, chatted to her about the fact her son is called Will (though he apparently prefers William nowadays) and I got a pic with her as well.

I wandered about a bit aimlessly, then realised that the surprise guest was on stage.  It was, of course, Sylvester McCoy.  I, sadly, missed most of his appearance, but did, fortunately, get to hear him speak about ferret legging.  He was also hilarious.

I went back to the pod, crashed for a couple of hours, then went back to the main room.  I caught the end of Area 51 then saw The Elvis Dead.

This, for me was the highlight of the weekend.  Never heard of it before and was pleasantly delighted with what I saw.  What is it?  It’s a retelling of the the film The Evil Dead 2 utilising the songs of Elvis Presley.

I am, of course, not joking.

It was absolutely hilarious, the high point being how he used the song Are You Lonesome Tonight? where he got a huge round of applause just for the opening line.  I later got a selfie with him and he told me that he got the idea from watching Bubbe Ho-Tep.

Next was Professor Elemental.  He’s a chap hop artist.  Not sure what that is?  It’s this:

He was helped out by Area 51 and thoroughly entertained me.  I bought a copy of his new book Tales of Wrong and got a selfie with him as well.  (Yes, I am a whole for getting pics with celebs, what of it?)

He was followed by Pat Sharp DJing.  It was someone famous DJing, to be honest.  After that I went to sleep.

Saturday morning, I headed back to ADSA.  I needed money because I was running low and the cash machines on site all charged for taking money out.  I then went to a panel about the TV show Ghostwatch.

Now, Ghostwatch needs a bit of explanation here.  It aired on Halloween in 1992 and, though scripted, it was presented as live.  It was looking to the possible haunting of a house and was “presented” by Michael Parkinson, a well respected TV interviewer, Sarah Greene and Mike Smith, who were noted TV presenters, and Craig Charles of Red Dwarf fame.  It prompted a load of complaints and has been disowned by the BBC.  Best of my knowledge, it’s never actually been repeated.  Someone made a documentary about it and it was him hosting the panel, which was interesting.

Then, back to the main room for a Professor Elemental panel officially launching his book.  It consisted him reading from the book (the Trip Adviser reviews for places from horror films are brilliant), songs and him talking about his love of horror.  I then had something to eat and headed to the screening room for the documentary about Ghostwatch then Rocky Horror.  Of course, I sang every song.

Back to the second room for Hats Off Gentlemen.  Science based prog rock.  It sounded just ridiculous enough to be interesting and it was, indeed, interesting.  The lead singer warned us that he wasn’t at 100% through illness but, to be honest, I would never have known had he not said.

Watched a bit of the cosplay final and went back to the second room for karaoke.  I got pissed off with one person.  During one song she kept trying to get me to get up and dance.  I did politely say no, but ended up shouting at her to fuck off.  Them, during another song, she actually grabbed my arms and tried to force me to clap along.  I shouted, again, for her to fuck off and added that she needed to stop trying to get me to do shit I didn’t want to do.

Her husband dragged her away, apologised to me then they left.

After that, I had a lot more fun.  Of course I sang.  I did Killing in the Name by Rage Against The Machine and absolutely killed it.  It was brilliant.

Then it was The Swinghoppers.  Who are a swing hop band.  What’s that?  Well, it’s this:

One of the band is entering a huge beatbox competition, so we were treated to that as well.  They were probably my second favourite thing all weekend, certainly out of the stuff I discovered.  Adorably, there was a little girl who basically danced for the entire set.

Then there was a band called Flesh Tetris.  They were, to be frank shit, so I took my leave.

I also got pictures of some of the cosplayers, including Tilly from Star trek: Discovery, Zahpod Beeblebrox, the half arsed Avengers and a Wookie cushion.  Yes, you got that last part right.

Today (well, yesterday now) was about coming home.  Hour wait at Norwich, hour wait at Peterborough, half hour wait at Darlo.  Home in time for His Dark Materials.  Which, as expected, was excellent.

Overall, i had an amazing weekend and it was nice to get away to somewhere not named Aberdeen or Newcastle.

Next entry will be a huge photodump.  Just fair warning.

Will