After Midnight or How I Met David Tennant

Firstly, I do apologise profusely for the absence of any new posts in the past few days but, have no fear, during the run-up to Christmas this week I'll make up for it. I have an excuse though, I've been at my first convention.

As a long-time Doctor Who fan (it doesn't really need saying, does it?), I adored David Tennant and Billie Piper in their roles as the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler - and so was really quite excited when I had the chance to meet them by accompanying a friend to Midnight, a Doctor Who and Torchwood weekend celebration event run by Starfury Conventions.  It's always a worry when you meet people you've looked up too (especially those you looked up to when you were young) and they turn out to not be that nice. Thankfully, David and Billie were both lovely.

Despite the seemingly endless lines of people waiting to meet them (I queued up twice for each, one autograph and one photo), they were both welcoming; smiling and giving you a 'thank you' - David even shook my hand. What a nice man. Its a bit nerve-racking actually, when waiting to meet such icons of your childhood (I'm slightly flattering myself as I was twelve when they were on screen together) but their friendly nature helped dispel the wariness and made it an even more special occasion and a memory to cherish.

However, even though meeting David and Billie was lots of fun, there was lots of other individuals attending the event who were also fantastic to meet.
As the programme shows above, Torchwood's Eve 'Gwen Cooper' Myles and Gareth 'Ianto Jones' David-Lloyd were also there. Again, both were very friendly at the signings and turned out to be hilarious and more than a little rude in the question-and-answer talk sessions over the weekend. Their friendship that must have seen them through many days on set shone out as they reacted off the audience and each other as they chatted about a variety of subjects from Ianto's death (Gareth making a lot of humour from a moment that once traumatised hundreds of fans), the future of Torchwood and, ahem, John Barrowman's unmentionables.

The names don't stop there though as a number of previously-unmentioned guests turned out to be at the event. Comics writer Tony Lee, Doctor Who novelist James Swallow, Blon Fel Fotch Passemeer-Day Slitheen herself Annette Badland, Who, SJA and Torchwood writer Phil Ford, all-round Doctor Who person Gary Russel, Commander Strax in the flesh Dan Starkey, THE Dalek operator Barnaby Edwards AND Sarah Jane's own Anjli Mohindra were all also there. While all were warm and cheery throughout, I have particular fond memories of Anjli being very lovely at her talk (alone on stage and handling it brilliantly) and giving out skittles to the attendees at the signings. Also, I had an in-depth conversation with Barnaby about 'Asylum of the Daleks', how to recognise him on screen and the new TARDIS. Although I sadly missed it, he was also apparently a bit dapper on the Saturday night party.

I had a whale of a time this weekend. Even with the massive amount of queueing and waiting around, Midnight had a great, relaxed atmosphere. As well as the friendly demeanours of the guests this was also to do with the other convention-goers who were all sociable, excited and made each other feel involved. I imagine the whole time could have been very different and less all-round fun if everyone was shut-off and cynical. Thank you, Doctor Who fans!

Overall, I really enjoyed my first convention. It was a hilarious, entertaining surreal weekend but now I'm back and ready to blog. So keep your eyes peeled - expect the next post at ... sometime soon, when the bell tolls .... sometime. Having met a Time Lord, you'd expect me to know these things.