Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
It’s time to share the last set of ‘convention memories’ I have for 2014. This was a special treat for me, as I got to attend a little convention, also called a sci-fi fair, in Fareham in December 2014 run by the organiser called the Timeless Collectors or the Sci-Fi South Collectors. I got to see Sarah Sutton before Christmas that year, which was very exciting. 🙂
And this was two weeks after seeing Sarah Sutton (who plays Nyssa in ‘Doctor Who’) at ‘Timey-Wimey 1’ in Brighton back in November 2014. I’m glad I saw Sarah then, as I wished her a “Happy Birthday” and a “Merry Christmas”. Yes, Sarah celebrates her birthday and Christmas in December. 🙂
I don’t usually attend conventions at Christmas time, but like I said, this was a special treat. The ‘Timeless Collectors’ sci-fi fair was held at Fareham Leisure Centre in Fareham, Hampshire on Saturday the 6th of December 2014. I remember getting up so early to go to Fareham that morning.
I arrived in time for the Fareham sci-fi after catching the train from Cardiff to Fareham. As soon as I got into the leisure centre, I decided to purchase a cup of tea to warm me up, as it was really cold that day. I saw Sarah Sutton right before the convention started, which makes me feel lucky indeed.
After Sarah paid a visit to the ladies, she came over to say “Hello” to me, which was nice. We talked about how freezing it was and it turned out some prop cars were being taken into the leisure centre from outside. I decided to keep my coat on whilst we were in main hall and Sarah agreed that was wise. 🙂
Once I was inside the convention/sci-fi fair itself, I saw quite a number of props/items on display. There was an Ironside Dalek, the TARDIS, and a variety of ‘Doctor Who’ monsters including Meglos, Cybermen, Strax, a Sea Devil, a Zygon, a Silent, a Clockwork Droid, etc. There was another Dalek too.
The car props that were brought into the sci-fi fair included Lightning McQueen from Disney/Pixar’s ‘Cars’, Herbie, the Delorean from ‘Back to the Future’, and a New York police car. There were also some models of Gerry Anderson-related vehicles from TV shows like ‘Thunderbirds’ and ‘Stingray’. 🙂
There were also models of vehicles from ‘Star Trek’, including the starship Voyager, an original series Enterprise shuttlecraft and a Klingon battle-cruiser, as well a couple of ‘Star Wars’ models. These models were put on display for the Starlight children’s charity. I liked seeing the models of Thunderbirds 1, 2 and 3 on the display table.
As well as Sarah Sutton attending the event, there were also ‘Doctor Who’ guests like Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Louise Jameson (Leela) and Terry Molloy (Davros). I also saw Nicholas Briggs who has voiced the Daleks and Cybermen in the TV show and in the Big Finish audios.
There was also Jon Davey who has played Cybermen in the TV series and Sarah Louise Madison who has played Weeping Angels in the TV series. There also happened to be James Bond-007 girls in attendance, including Caroline Munro. I met her that day, as she did the Big Finish audio drama ‘Omega’. 🙂
I had nice chats with Sarah Sutton that day. She signed my deluxe copy of ‘The Light At The End’ for me as well as my book copy of ‘Goth Opera’. It was intriguing to hear from Sarah about how she saw to it that the ‘Goth Opera’ book cover was toned down, as the original cover had more blood on it. 😐
I enjoyed sharing some jokes with Sarah that day and it was nice to share our enjoyment of the ‘Timey-Wimey 1’ convention we attended in Brighton recently, which Louise Jameson herself co-organised. I had some photos with Sarah that day, including a couple of us two standing outside the TARDIS. 🙂
When I saw Colin Baker, he signed both my deluxe copy of ‘The Light At The End’ as well as the DVD box set of ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’. I enjoyed chatting to Colin, especially when joking with him about him forcing his family to watch ‘Vengeance on Varos’ during ‘The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot’. 😀
It was nice to see Louise Jameson again at the convention. I didn’t get a chance to have a photo with her, since her queue of fans was quite long compared to Sarah’s. Thankfully, she signed my deluxe copy of ‘The Light at the End’. I told her how much I enjoyed ‘Timey-Wimey 1’ in Brighton recently. 🙂
It was lovely to see Sophie Aldred again. I’m pleased she signed my deluxe copy of ‘The Light at the End’ and I had a photo with her that day. We talked about how good ‘Timey-Wimey 1’ was and I asked her if any Big Finish audios stood out for her lately. She mentioned ‘Afterlife’, which I’ve yet to hear.
It was good to see Nick Briggs there and I’m amazed he attended that day. Nick signed my deluxe copy of ‘The Light at the End’ as well as my CD cover for ‘Spare Parts’. We chatted quite a bit about Big Finish stuff, ‘The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot’ and the ‘Myth Makers’ interviews he used to be involved in.
I’m pleased I got to see Terry Molloy that day. I managed to get an autograph signature from him as well as a photo with him. Apparently, I asked him what it was like to work with the Peter Davison team in ‘Rat Trap’. I can’t exactly recall what he said, but I’m sure he enjoyed working with the team.
I’m amazed I met Jon Davey and Sarah Lousie Madison that day. I can’t recall exactly what we chatted about, but I did get some autograph signatures from them both. Jon Davey also signed a photo of himself in a Cyberman from the filming of ‘The Next Doctor’ for me, which was very nice.
I had a lovely chat with Caroline Munro. She signed my ‘Omega’ CD cover and she also signed a photo of her and Tom Baker when they starred in ‘The Adventures of Sinbad’ for me. I enjoyed chatting to her about her appearance in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ as well as Sir Roger Moore as James Bond. 🙂
I finished early before the convention ended at 5pm. I left around 2pm that day. Sarah was about to finish early herself as it was getting quieter then. I’m glad I chatted to Sarah before we left for the day and I’m glad we had a couple of photos with her outside the TARDIS. Sarah truly is a highlight for me at these conventions.
The ‘Timeless Collectors’ sci-fi fair was a lovely way to finish off 2014 in terms of attending conventions. I’m glad I saw Sarah Sutton before Christmas in that year and I’m glad I was able to say “Happy Birthday” and “Merry Christmas” to her. It was also lovely to see the other guests in attendance too.
Stay tuned for my ‘convention memories’ blog post on ‘Big Finish Day 6’ in Slough, January 2015.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
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