Conventions!

Doctor Who conventions are odd things; you’d think that by their very nature they’d be universally liked amongst fans but this really isn’t the case. Some people I know who I would class as fairly passionate fans of the series absolutely detest conventions and everything associated with them – oh well, just goes to show that we’re an odd bunch. Personally, I’m not a regular convention-goer, though I have enjoyed the few that I’ve been to over the years. I won’t go into great detail here so as not to bore anyone to tears, but for the moment I’d like to recall my very first convention experience as it was great fun!

The first convention I ever attended was at Rutlish High School in Merton Park, near Wimbledon, which incidentally is where John Major went to school (oh yes, you read correctly - JOHN MAJOR! I don’t often name drop but when I do it’s always internationally renowned multi-megastars!). It must have been around 1989 as far as I can remember, so I was around 17 years old and this was the period when I was most enthusiastic about the show, and we’d learnt about the event through the DWAS, of which Andrew and I were both members at the time. On our way to the event, I can clearly recall how excited Andrew and I were at not

only being amongst other die-hard Doctor Who fans, but also at meeting some of the stars that had appeared in the programme. Amongst the guests at the convention were John Nathan-Turner, Gary Downie, Wendy Padbury, Nicholas Courtney, Peter Miles and Michael Wisher. This was the first time I had seen JN-T in the flesh, and he immediately struck me not only as extremely knowledgeable on the show, but also fiercely loyal and protective of his position as producer. Gary Downie was initially unfamiliar to me, but I recognised his name once I knew his role in the production team. His contribution to the event was very interesting, as I had always been fascinated by the behind-the-scenes aspects of the show and television production in general. I had no idea at the time of his much closer relationship with JN-T, a fact that I only discovered shortly after John’s untimely death.

At this point I had only seen Wendy Padbury in The Seeds of Death, but I still enjoyed her recollections from her time on the show. It was quite amusing when someone asked her why she had not been involved in The Two Doctors, and she replied that she had never been approached by the BBC and did not even know of the story’s existence! As for Nick Courtney and Michael Wisher, I had by this time become familiar with both of these actors’ contribution to Doctor Who, and in a strange way it felt like I had known them for ages when I actually saw them for the first time a few feet in front of me (this feeling was even more apparent when I first saw Jon Pertwee in The Ultimate Adventure stage play), but it didn’t spoil the excitement of meeting them for the first time. Michael Wisher was fascinating to listen to, and had a fantastic way of speaking which made him sound slightly sinister (an obvious advantage bearing in mind his various roles in the show). I found Nicholas Courtney a completely different character, very warm and friendly with a great sense of humour. I’m not saying that Michael Wisher wasn’t nice, but he just appeared to be slightly detached and aloof. Nick made sure he very much involved himself in the proceedings, later chairing a charity auction of various props and artefacts from the series. I distinctly recall when he started the auction with the first item (which if I remember rightly was a blow-up of the photo of Sylvester McCoy used in the 1987 title sequence), he held it up aloft and his booming voice echoed around the hall with the line "Now, who will start me off at ten pounds?" I’ve met Nick Courtney a few times since then, as I’m sure have most of you who are reading this, and he always comes across as a very likeable person.

There were two compares at the Rutlish School event, bearing in mind that by Doctor Who convention standards it was a tiny gathering, and they were Nicholas Briggs and Gary Russell. This was the first time I had met either of these two, and in fact I’d never even heard of Nick Briggs before. I only learnt then that they were involved with some of the spin-off video productions, and of course Gary went on to become editor of DWM for a while. Nick Briggs is an excellent interviewer, and possesses a very dry sense of humour similar to my own which of course gave him immediate admiration from me. As for Gary Russell, I remember sitting there looking at him thinking that his face and name were very familiar but I couldn’t remember where I’d seen him before. Later on during the day I suddenly realised that he had played the character of Dick in the television adaptation of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five a few years earlier. I was absolutely astounded! I couldn’t help giggling every time I saw him for the rest of the day, recalling him as the 10 year-old spotty kid attired in embarrassingly 1970’s fashion.

I don’t really remember a lot else from this event, other than my purchasing a copy of Paddy Kingsland’s Corridor of Eternity, an audio cassette of his incidental scores for Castrovalva and Mawdryn Undead. I eventually played the tape so many times that it was chewed up by one of my cassette players, so I’ve had to dub it from Andrew’s dubbed copy which he took from my original tape! Andrew bought Dominic Glynn’s Black Light, a similar collection of his scores from the series, and I should think both items are now extremely rare amongst Doctor Who merchandise. Although this event was a very small affair compared with the various PanoptiCons which we subsequently attended, I look back at the Rutlish School convention with fond memories, mostly because it was a lot more cosy and personal than the bigger events. There couldn’t have been more than 20 or 30 attendees throughout the whole day so we had much more of a one-on-one experience with the guests.

Next Episode: Exhibitions!