Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley.
My best mate from school, Stephen, fancied a trip to Birmingham. Once I told him that Jodie Whittaker (the Thirteenth Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’) was going to attend ‘Collectormania 27 – Film & Comic Con Birmingham’ at the NEC, Birmingham in September 2022, we agreed to meet up there. 🙂
‘Collectormania 27 – Film & Comic Con Birmingham’ at the NEC in September 2022
Earlier this year in February 2022, I saw Jodie at the ‘London Comic Con Spring’. Since Birmingham is smaller compared to London, I hoped there would be less crowd problems and I would enjoy seeing Jodie Whittaker at Birmingham compared to London. Thankfully, I turned out to be right about that.
I enjoyed attending ‘Collectormania 27’ at the NEC last Saturday. It was a 2-day event from 3rd to 4th of September, but like ‘London Comic Con Spring’ in 2022, Jodie attended the Saturday only. Therefore, I decided to attend the Saturday only, as there were more ‘Doctor Who’ stars on the day.
As well as Jodie, there was also Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor), Sylvester McCoy (the Seventh Doctor), Sacha Dhawan (the Master) and Jo Martin (the Fugitive Doctor). There was also Marina Sirtis who played Deanna Troi in ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’. Other guests like Hermione Norris (from ‘Kill the Moon’), Jimmy Vee and Vinnie Jones were there at the event. Sadly, I didn’t get to meet them. 😦
It was a fun-filled day that turned out mostly as I had planned. It was lovely to see Jodie Whittaker again before her swansong ‘Doctor Who’ episode in the BBC Centenary Special gets shown in October 2022. Let me share with you some highlights of attending ‘Collectormania 27’ last Saturday.
I stayed overnight from Friday to Saturday at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole hotel, which was nice to do. I even saw Colin Baker briefly at breakfast. 😀 At the NEC, going into the event, I went to pick up my diamond pass for Jodie. I’m glad I was able to get a diamond pass for Jodie at this event.
I know diamond passes can be pretty expensive (and I won’t be seeing Jodie Whittaker at every convention she attends – I’m currently holding back on seeing David Tennant and Matt Smith at ‘London Comic Con Winter’ in November this year), but it was very worthwhile to do at Birmingham.
I got to see Jodie Whittaker sooner than expected for a signing session with my diamond pass. I had my Series 12 Blu-ray box set cover signed by Jodie and had a nice chat with her. I told her how much I enjoyed her as the Thirteenth Doctor and Jodie recognised my Welsh accent, as I’m from Cardiff. 😀
I next saw Sacha Dhawan (who plays the Master in the Jodie Whittaker era of ‘Doctor Who’) and he too signed my Series 12 Blu-ray box set cover. I had a nice chat with Sacha as well, telling him that I enjoyed his reveal as the Master at the end of ‘Part One’ of ‘Spyfall’ and that I didn’t see it coming. 🙂
I met up with Colin Baker, who signed my Season 22 Blu-ray booklet. We had a nice chat about Season 22 and what could have been had the TV show not been suspended in 1985 and Colin being able to do the original Season 23 with stories like ‘The Nightmare Fair’ and ‘Mission to Magnus’. 🙂
I also met up with Sylvester McCoy, who signed my Season 24 Blu-ray booklet. I enjoyed chatting with Sylvester about his experiences of making Season 24 and how I enjoyed it, despite not many fans liking it. We also chatted about ‘The Hobbit’ film trilogy, which my parents and I saw recently. 😀
After that, I went to have a couple of photo shoots. The first one was with Jodie Whittaker and Sacha Dhawan. I then had a photo shoot with Jodie Whittaker in the TARDIS. Sadly, it was a just a green screen that me and Jodie were standing against and there was no TARDIS console situated between us. 😦
My best mate Stephen arrived at the event at 12pm and we went to see some panel talks. The first one was with Jo Martin. I enjoyed her recalling her son’s first reaction to her as the Doctor in ‘Fugitive of the Judoon’. Next, there was a panel talk with Sylvester McCoy and he was very entertaining throughout.
After those panel talks, Stephen and I had lunch. 😀 We then looked around the place to check out what was on offer at the stalls. Sadly, I didn’t get to buy anything from the event. Stephen enjoyed himself, as he took photos of cosplayers and some of the guests like Jodie and Colin with his mobile.
I took a few photos of cosplayers attending the event, including one dressed up as an orange dinosaur ( 😀 ), one as Batman and one as Spider-Man. I soon had a couple more photo shoots. The first was with Jodie Whittaker and Jo Martin and the second was with Jodie Whittaker on her own. 🙂
I later met up with Marina Sirtis at her signing table. I had a photo with Marina at ‘Destination Star Trek Birmingham’ back in October 2018, but I didn’t get a chance to meet her. I had a nice time chatting to Marina at this comic con, and she signed my original DVD cover of ‘Star Trek: First Contact’. 🙂
We chatted about ‘First Contact’ being the best of out of the four ‘TNG’ movies. It was interesting to hear from Marina that she didn’t enjoy ‘Insurrection’. I told her how much I enjoyed her in Season 1 of ‘Star Trek: Picard’ and she shared that she and other ‘TNG’ cast members were going to be in Season 3.
Marina Sirtis in ‘The Orville’.
I also told Marina how much I enjoyed her in an episode of ‘The Orville’. She kindly gave me a free photo of her character in ‘The Orville’, which was very nice of her. 🙂 Afterwards, I had a photo shoot with the four Doctors of ‘Doctor Who’, including Jodie Whittaker, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Jo Martin.
To finish off the day, I met up with Jo Martin and had my Series 12 Blu-ray box set cover signed by her. I shared with Jo how nicely surprised I was by her reveal as the Fugitive Doctor in ‘Fugitive of the Judoon’. I’m pleased I was able to get all the things that I wanted signed at the Birmingham event. 🙂
‘Collectormania 27 – Film & Comic Con Birmingham’ turned out to be a better experience as a Showmasters event this year compared to ‘London Comic Con Spring’ earlier this year. I’m pleased I’ve been able to meet Jodie Whittaker again at a convention and have some photo shoots with her.
I’m looking forward to my next convention, which will hopefully be a smaller and intimate event. I’m also hoping to see Sarah Sutton (who plays Nyssa, my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ companion) as well as Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor) at the next convention/comic con, since it was lovely to see them at Newcastle this year.
I’m pleased my best mate Stephen enjoyed himself at Birmingham recently as well as me. 🙂
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
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