Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
Before the Thirteenth Doctor crash-landed to Earth and met Graham, Ryan and Yaz in Sheffield in ‘The Woman Who Fell to Earth’ in 2018, I visited Sheffield when I attended the ‘Valiant 2015’ convention run by Fantom Films. These are my ‘convention memories’ of this ‘Doctor Who’ event. 🙂
The convention took place on the Saturday the 7th of March 2015, two days after my Mum’s birthday in fact. It was held at the Showroom Workstation in Sheffield. I enjoyed attending ‘Valiant 2015’, as this was another opportunity to see Sarah Sutton, my favourite ‘Doctor Who’ companion. 🙂
Before the event started, the ‘Doctor Who’ fans, including myself, saw a screening of the 2012 short film ‘Power of the Daleks’ (also known as ‘The Power of the Daleks Reimagined’), starring Nick Scovell as the Doctor. This was the first time I’d seen the ‘Power of the Daleks’ short film. It isn’t like ‘The Power of the Daleks’ story with Patrick Troughton’s Doctor.
As well as Sarah Sutton, who plays Nyssa in the TV show and the Big Finish audios, there were also guests like Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Louise Jameson (Leela), Richard Franklin (Captain Mike Yates) and Michael Melia, who played the Terieptil in ‘The Visitation’. I got to see and chat to these guests!
There were also guests like Fernanda Marlowe (who played Corporal Bell in a couple of stories, including ‘The Mind of Evil’ and ‘The Claws of Axos’), Pik-Sen Lim (who played Captain Chin Lee in ‘The Mind of Evil’), writer/script editor Terrance Dicks and writer Bob Baker. Sadly, I didn’t get to see everyone, since it was pretty busy throughout the day. 😀
But I’m pleased I got to have a group photo with all the guests who attended ‘Valiant 2015’ that day. I saw Louise and Sarah as they arrived and got to say “Hello” to them. Louise remembered me as did Sarah, especially from attending ‘Timey Wimey 1’ and the ‘Timeless Collectors’ sci-fi fair in 2014, and ‘Big Finish Day 6’ back in January 2015. 😀
I got to see Sarah for a ‘backstage’ group talk, conducted by Paul W. T. Ballard, one of the Fantom Films organisers. It was lovely to chat to Sarah as well as be with other ‘Doctor Who’ fans. Sarah knew me already and she called me a ‘gentleman’ ( :D) whilst everyone else introduced themselves.
During the ‘backstage’ talk, we chatted to Sarah about her working with David Haig in ‘The Moon Stallion’, about her ‘Dark Shadows’ audio play ‘The Devil Cat’, her being in ‘The Crucible’ in 1981, her being in an episode of ‘Menace’ in 1973, and of course we talked about many ‘Doctor Who’ things. 🙂
At the convention, Sarah suggested I print off a list of Nyssa stories in chronological order for her. I took her suggestion to heart. Since then, I’ve been giving her updated versions of Nyssa’s timeline and ‘The Nyssa Challenge’ page that contains a list of Nyssa stories at conventions over the years. 🙂
I mentioned to Sarah about her being in ‘TravelWise’, which she couldn’t remember at all. It started me off looking for ‘TravelWise’ on VHS in-between seeing Sarah at ‘Valiant 2015’ and seeing her again at ‘H-Con’ in Eastleigh, Hampshire in July 2015. I’ll return to this when it comes to doing my ‘convention memories’ blog post about ‘H-Con’ next time. 🙂
It was sad when the ‘backstage’ group session came to an end. But I got to see Sarah for a signing session where she signed my ‘Four to Doomsday’ DVD cover and my ‘Winter For The Adept’ CD cover. I had some photos taken with Sarah, and I enjoyed her panel talk, conducted by Ian Kubiak. 🙂
I asked Sarah a question during the panel talk about whether being the ‘definite companion’ is to be feisty as opposed to being caring and compassionate. Sarah found that a good question, saying there needs to be a balance in feistiness. She talked about Tegan and thought it better to not be too feisty and argumentative. She also commented that Nyssa has more confidence and her sense of adventure.
Michael Melia also joined Sarah for her panel talk. They talked about both being on the ‘EastEnders’ set, where she did ‘Dimensions In Time’ and he did ‘EastEnders’ itself. I met Michael Melia and had my DVD cover of ‘The Visitation’ signed by him. I also had a photo with Michael Melia at the event. 🙂
I got to see Katy Manning and have my DVD covers of ‘The Mind of Evil’ and ‘Day of the Daleks’ signed by her. I also had a couple of photos with Katy. I saw Louise Jameson and had my CD covers for ‘Trail of the White Worm’/’The Osedian Adventure’ signed by her. I also had a photo with Louise.
Before the end of the day, I got to see Louise Jameson for her panel talk. I also saw Richard Franklin, who signed my DVD covers of ‘The Mind of Evil’ and ‘Day of the Daleks’. I also had a photo with Richard. I chatted to Katy, Louise and Richard about the various ‘Doctor Who’ stories they’ve been in.
I’m saddened I didn’t get to meet Terrance Dicks that day, but I enjoyed his panel talk and I asked him a question about what he thought of ‘The Day of the Doctor’ as a 50th anniversary special for ‘Doctor Who’. He seemed to like it, but he commented the moon being an egg in the episode ‘Kill the Moon’ was ridiculous. 🙂
I look back at ‘Valiant 2015’ with fond memories. It was very busy and it’s sad I didn’t get to see everybody that day. But I’m pleased I saw Sarah Sutton and I got the chance to chat to her during the backstage group session, the photo shoots and the signing sessions. It was quite fulfilling indeed.
It was also nice to start off the day with a screening of the ‘Power of the Daleks’ short film with Nick Scovell. I looked forward to seeing Sarah Sutton again at another convention later in the year 2015. At that point, I didn’t know I was going to meet up with Sarah as well as her Doctor at the same event. 😀
Stay tuned for my ‘convention memories’ blog post on ‘H-Con’ in Eastleigh, Hampshire in July 2015.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
Bradley's Basement 
Thank you, Tim, for sharing your Doctor Who convention memories. I once met John Levene and Anneke Wills at a convention in Toronto. John was quite a good talker. As a treat for everyone, it was also my first chance to see his Sgt. Benton spinoff Wartime.
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Hi scifimike,
Glad you enjoyed my convention memories of ‘Valiant 2015’. I’ve met John Levene a couple of times at conventions and had photos with him. I’ve also met Anneke Wills at conventions and had photos with her (more than with John I add). Thanks for sharing you met them in Toronto. Glad you got to see ‘Wartime’ at that convention. I’ve seen ‘Wartime’, which I’ve reviewed on my blog based on the ‘Wartime Chronicles’ DVD – https://bradleybasement.wordpress.com/2019/05/29/quick-dvd-review-wartime-chronicles/
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
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