Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
It’s time for another ‘convention memories’ post by me. Today, I’m sharing my fourth ‘Doctor Who’ convention experience which was ‘Regenerations 2011’ that took place in September 2011. After enjoying the first ‘Regenerations’ experience in 2010, I was looking forward to another one in 2011.
This was a two-day event held at the Village Hotel in Swansea from Saturday the 17th to Sunday the 18th. The event again was run by Cary Woodward. This ‘Regenerations’ convention felt bigger than the one I went to the previous year, since there were more guests for me to see which was exciting.
I’d just come from my holiday in York with my parents before the ‘Regenerations’ weekend in Swansea that year. It was pretty exciting for me, as I went and stayed overnight for two nights that weekend at the Village Hotel. I was looking forward to seeing guests like Sarah Sutton, Sophie Aldred, Sylvester McCoy, Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury, Deborah Watling, Anneke Wills and more. 🙂
Saturday 17th September 2011
The weekend began on Saturday with an opening ceremony as well as the first panel talk with Anneke Wills (who played Polly in the series). For those of you to know, Anneke Wills and Terry Molloy were instrumental in getting Cary Woodward to start running ‘Doctor Who’ conventions in Swansea, which was really good. I wish we still had ‘Doctor Who’ conventions in Swansea nowadays.
Of course, the highlight of the weekend was me seeing Sarah Sutton (Nyssa in ‘Doctor Who’) for the two days at the convention. Sarah was pleased to see me again. I’d seen her two months ago at the ‘London Film & Comic Con’ in July that year. I had some lovely chats with Sarah during signings. I took a photo of her at her panel desk and I had a photo with her on the Saturday which was superb.
Sarah once again was a sponsored guest by Big Finish at the ‘Regenerations’ event for 2011. I asked Sarah to sign the CD covers of ‘Primeval’, ‘Return to the Web Planet’ and ‘The Darkening Eye’ for me. I complimented Sarah, saying I found her a great narrator for her one-off ‘Companion Chronicle’ called ‘The Darkening Eye’. Sarah was pleased and said, “I like you, Tim!” I felt good when she said that to me. 🙂
I also saw panel talks with Gary Russell who was first interviewed by Charlie Ross and then by Sophie Aldred half-way. 😀 Gary thanked me for asking him a question during the panel talk, which was very nice of him. Incidentally, there were quite a number of Daleks in the panel room. This included one from ‘Planet of the Daleks’ and one from ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’. Daleks are superb to see! 😀
K-9 was also at the convention too! 😀 I later saw a panel talk with Louise Jameson (Leela in ‘Doctor Who’), John Leeson (K-9) and Seán Carlsen for the ‘Gallifrey’ audio series. I also saw Louise during a signing session where she signed ‘Image of the Fendhal’ for me. It was lovely to meet her for the first time back then. Louise wished me a good weekend before I said goodbye to her which was very nice.
I later saw the Big Finish panel talk that included Sarah Sutton, writer Robert Shearman, writer John Dorney, producer David Richardson, Beth Chalmers, Lisa Bowerman and more. I recall Big Finish promoting ‘The Fourth Doctor Adventures’ at the time as well as talking about other products that they’ve produced over the years to 2011. It was lovely and insightful to hear the Big Finish team. 🙂
I’m glad Sarah answered my question during the Big Finish panel which was on whether she enjoyed having more scenes with Peter Davison as the Doctor when she was the solo companion as Nyssa. Sarah said “Yes”, mentioning how crowded the TARDIS was in the TV series and working with Big Finish was a ‘great opportunity’. She still enjoys working with Peter, Janet and Mark though. 😀
I had a nice time chatting to Rob Shearman at the event, talking about his ‘Doctor Who’ episodes including ‘Dalek’. Rob Shearman means a deal to me as it was his ‘Doctor Who’ TV episode that got me into watching the TV series in the first place. I recall having a nice lengthy chat with him about ‘Dalek’ as well as the Big Finish audios, ‘The Space Museum’ and the Mara tales which he clearly likes.
On the Saturday, I had a photo with Sophie Aldred (Ace in ‘Doctor Who’) who was lovely to meet again following the London event in July 2011. I wish I saw more of Sophie during that weekend. Thankfully I’ve been able to make up for it and Sophie was still lovely and friendly to me when I saw her during the photo shoots for the Swansea weekend.
The day ended with some evening entertainment. This included seeing the episode ‘The God Complex’ via BBC One as well as watching some YouTube videos of ‘Doctor Who’ that I enjoyed. There was also a quiz with some of the stars. Frazer Hines was there too for that quiz. I recall people trying to sing songs from ‘The End of the World’ episode. A lot of fun! 😀
Sunday 19th September 2010
The following day which was the Sunday, started off with me attending the Dalek panel talk that featured Nicholas Briggs (the Dalek voice), Barnaby Edwards and Nicholas Pegg (the Dalek operators) which I liked. It was fun to hear these guys share their Dalek and ‘Doctor Who’ nostalgia as well as working in the TV series and Big Finish audios.
I met up with Sarah Sutton again that day and had a photo with her, taken by Big Finish producer David Richardson. It was lovely to chat to Sarah again that day. I enjoyed chatting to her about the Big Finish audios she did as Nyssa in ‘Doctor Who’. Sarah said she hoped to see me again for another a Swansea convention weekend. I’m very glad I got to say goodbye to her before the weekend ended.
I also saw and met Matthew Waterhouse (Adric in ‘Doctor Who’) for the first time that weekend. I found him a great guy to meet. On the Saturday, I purchased a copy of his book ‘Blue Box Boy’ and he signed it for me. On the Sunday, I enjoyed his panel talk which was conducted by Charlie Ross as well as his insight into the ‘Doctor Who’ series overall. I hoped Matthew would reprise Adric in the Big Finish audios back then. 😀
During the weekend, I got to meet Frazer Hines (Jamie) and Wendy Padbury (Zoe), my two favourite ‘Doctor Who’ companions from the Patrick Troughton era. I’m glad I had my DVD covers of ‘The Mind Robber’ and ‘The Invasion’ signed by them. I had nice chats with them too. I also met Nicholas Briggs that weekend and chatted to him about ‘Dalek’ as well as Sarah Sutton. He said she was ‘lovely’ too. 🙂
On the Sunday, I had a photo shoot with Sylvester McCoy (the Seventh Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’) and Sophie Aldred. I also had a photo shoot with Matthew Waterhouse and I had a photo shoot with the four Second Doctor companions – Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines, Deborah Watling (Victoria) and Wendy Padbury. I’m so happy I had a photo with all four of them.
The convention ended with an enjoyable panel talk with Sylvester McCoy. There was then the closing ceremony where all the guests who attended the weekend said goodbye to the fans. The organiser, Cary Woodward, wished us all well and a safe journey home which was very nice of him.
‘Regenerations 2011’ Group Photo – Swansea, September 2011
‘Regenerations 2011’ was a pretty exciting weekend for me back in September 2011. I enjoyed seeing Sarah Sutton for two days as well as other guests like Sophie Aldred, Sylvester McCoy, Matthew Waterhouse, Frazer Hines, Anneke Wills, Deborah Watling, Wendy Padbury, etc. I was looking forward to more conventions later that year since there were two more to follow. 😀
Stay tuned for my next ‘convention memories’ blog post, which will be on the ‘Acceptable In The 80s’ event that I attended back in October 2011.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim. 🙂
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