London Film and Comic Con

(This, too, is not a 50 for 50.  For reasons.  Mostly because "go to a Con" was already taken.)

So, about a year ago, Ellen (friend in Germany) and I agreed to meet in London at the London Film and Comic Con (LFCC) this year.  We bought three day passes and waited to see what guests were announced.  

Short form explanation on how LFCC works.  It's mostly photoshoots (for a fee) and autographs (also for a fee).  But the photoshoots can be booked in advance; the autographs you just have to line up for.  (Or, if the guest is busy, you pick up a "virtual queue" ticket, like a deli counter number, and wait for your turn to be called.)  Also, some guests give talks.  (Which are really just Q&A sessions with the audience.)  These are also for a fee, but way less than the photo or autograph.  The only way to get a guaranteed autograph is to buy a package including the autograph AND the photoshoot AND the talk in what they call a "Diamond Pass," which is Really Fucking Expensive.  OK, now you know.

So Ellen and I are waiting to see what guests get announced.  A few weeks before the con, the only ones I'm even vaguely interested in are Peter Capaldi and Val Kilmer.  I can't decide whether to buy the Capaldi photo shoot (and wear my Clara cosplay) or risk a Kilmer autograph line (hoping to get there early enough to get a low virtual queue number) and have him sign a printout of my bad review of him in that horrible Ten Commandments musical.  I decide on the Capaldi photoshoot.  I buy it in advance.

THEN they announce Matt Smith.  Shit, shit... fuck it, second photoshoot.

THEN they announce Sam Neill.  I am sorely tempted, but resist.  Until they announce a Sam Neill Jurassic Park Green Screen photo shoot.  (In front of the gates.  With a raptor.)  Well, you only live once.  (I may have to WORK an extra year past my planned retirement to pay for it all, but I'll only LIVE once.)  I order the Green Screen shoot.

They announce Peter Davison.  He is MUCH cheaper than everyone else, but I've already bought three photos already.  I resist the photoshoot.  I will try for an autograph.  I add up what I've spent and figure I won't be buying much crap on the LFCC floor.  (I read on LFCC message boards that some people have booked 13 photo shoots and 5 diamond passes and I am aghast.  Who ARE these people?)

As it happens, most of my stuff is on Sunday.  The Sam Neill Jurassic Park Green Screen in the morning, and the Capaldi and Smith photos in the afternoon.  Somewhere in all the photoshoot buying, I also ponied up for the David Duchovny talk, which turned out to be Saturday. 

Saturday morning, I turn on the internet and find out the Sam Neill Jurassic Park Green Screen Photo Shoot is cancelled.  Dammit.  I know some people are trading theirs in for a regular Sam Neill photoshoot, but I'm letting it go.  I show up Saturday afternoon, get my bearings, walk the hall, wait for the talk (which I have to leave early anyway, for theatre).  Saturday is the busiest day at LFCC.  Thousands and thousands of people are in this convention hall.  Tens of thousands.  I don't count them.

Saturday fucking afternoon, they get on the loudspeaker and announce they've added David Tennant as a guest for Sunday.

Tens of thousands of people whip out their cell phones and try to buy tickets.  (Some poor fools run to the Sales Desk.  I've been to the Sales Desk.  Don't even.)  I seem to have found a place for my Sam Neill Jurassic Park Photoshoot refund.  I order a photoshoot.  He sells out in record time, and I am very lucky to have the shoot.  We may have crashed the LFCC ticketing website.  (Or the cell phone reception tower nearest the convention hall.)

That night, back in my flat, I order the Peter Davison photoshoot, too.  What had started as a picture with Peter Capaldi while I'm showing off my Clara cosplay has turned into, "Hell, let's get pics with our four favorite Doctors."

And nothing started before 1:00 on Sunday.  But between 1:00 and 5:00, I had four photoshoots, two costume changes, a random one-hour comedy/video thing (which SHOCKINGLY didn't conflict with anything), one ACTUAL wardrobe malfunction (and a very nice lady sewing me back in), and Ellen had got there earlier and picked up a Peter Davison virtual queue ticket for me (number 324) which I was able to cash in while waiting for Matt Smith to come spectacularly late to his photoshoot, and when all was said and done, all of these happened:

(Yeah, photo of a photo.  Sorry about the glare  You gotta love his pose, though.  Truly.)

At the time, he looked like he was grinning.  I have come to the conclusion that a Tennant Grin and a Tennant Teeth-Clenching are very similar in appearance.

Every time someone came up for a photo, he was throwing a sideways "V" sign and getting people to throw it with him.  (Because he's cool and wearing a hoodie.)  AND watching this happen with two people in front of me, I had all of 30 seconds to come up with an alternative, so I asked him to throw this instead.  He obliged, although he had no clue what it was.  I told him it was "I love you" in American Sign Language, and both he and the crew guy seemed impressed, and now I shall taunt Jayne with the photo.

There is no way around it: this is a horrible photo of me.  (I pulled off my glasses at the last second and didn't push my hair back.  When I saw it, I decided to keep the specs on for the rest of the day.)  My G-d, that's a shit photo of me.  But I got it signed by Peter Davison and got to tell him that he was "my" Doctor.   So that was pretty fantastic.  :)