Insomniac_Scott

That was me and I'm sorry it felt that way for you. How dare I try to argue with the great all-powerful-being Patrick Stewart? I wasn't trying to argue with him, I was just trying to get him to answer the question and play along with his jokey it's-not-sf arguement. I even said at the start that it was a hard question for me to put into words so just hoped he'd answer it. We all know X-Men is science fiction, he was just teasing. Even DavidB said to me afterwards that he liked my question and that he said it was sf too and Patrick was just joking around. I thought the Geordie guy was argueing anyway, not I. And I had to sit next to him and he would not STFU throughout the whole thing, he was annoying everyone near him with his comments after nearly everything PAtrick said. Don't you remember he walked past Patrick at one point knocking the mic and then argueing with the staff? When he did ask his question later he just started talking s*** before he even got to it and you could see that the female staff member at the front to the left of the stage was getting pissed off and another crew member was even trying to get the mic off him. I don't think it was rude to bring up the bad reviews that a film got, perahps you're being a little melodramatic? It happens all the time to actors even in interviews and I was trying to be serious about it, not mock Brad Dourif for it - he's a grown man, I'm sure he could understand it and it wasn't critically acclaimed, he knew that and he even told me at his desk, "I thought maybe it could have got alot more credit than it did". I wasn't aware that it sounded as if I was trying to sound clever with my questions - I was trying to sound articulate though - perhaps it's just that I'm a very passionate film fan and I knew what I was talking about and wanted to be sure the guests and audience fully understood me. I've been told I have a posh accent though so maybe that's it and was trying to be articulate and clear. Some of the guests even said later on when I saw them at their desks later that they liked my questions which they said were poignant, intelligent and different from the usual fanboy variety and gushings, Brad Dourif included. A couple guests asked if I was a working in film myself too as a result. In future though I'll consider dumbing down my questions. Hey Nicky I have been lurking around the forums for a while, and been going to cons run by Showmasters for the past three years. I feel I have to chip in to this thread because I for one enjoyed ALL the questions you posed at all the talks you were at, and looked forward to you getting up. I even guessed that you were "Nicky" from the forum when you started talking as I have noticed you're one of the most entertaining contributors on the forum over the years, and I was thinking that has to be the same guy! Like you say, why shouldnt you ask questions about films that don't necessarily praise the film or the actors, after all, isn't it better to be honest and say a film is not well received, than to just say how much you loved it or the fans loved parts of it when you know for a fact that isn't the case? I also must say I liked you bringing up Nuke the Fridge and the Monkey moment for the Indy talk, it was cool for someone to put that to Karen Allen and see her reaction. Anyway I only hope there are more people like Nicky at future talks to spice things up a bit and ask well thought out questions that actually lead to entertaining answers. Oh yeah, and I have to take your side of the argument, X Men is science fiction! I also would like to say the talks I enjoyed the most were Pete Postlewhaite, Brad Dourif, the Indy talk, the Aliens talk and Patrick Stewart, who actually justified the extra fee. I would have to say I found Claudia Blacks talk the least entertaining, but thats mostly because I am neither a big Stargate or Farscape fan, nothing personal against her. The only other thing I can say is it sucked that the John Hurt talk got cancelled as that would have been cool, but the quality of the ones I liked did make up for it.

Personally I didn't get any photo shoots with any guests (I'm more an autograph guy), but it sounds like this was a bit of a rush. To be fair to Showmasters, I doubt they could print everyones pictures out on the day for them anyway. I do sympathize with people however who feel somewhat disappointed in the organization of these shoots, I guess that Showmasters really didn't anticipate just how high the demand would be. I feel sorry for the lady with the 5 year old, who caught the guys in a tired mood. I think Showmasters should have maybe limited the amount of tickets for this, as it sounds like they got the guests to do too many, causing detriment to photo quality.

Not much to add really, apart from it was definitely more darker than last year. Was Earls Court 1 meant to be that dark, or was some maintenance work going on this weekend?

Dom was the most disappointing guest for me. All the other guests (including Heroes, and Patrick Stewart) at the very least looked at me, and said hello, the standard how are you and then good bye etc. Dom however was talking to his agent, or someone else behind him the whole time on Saturday when I got his sig, and didn't attempt to make any eye contact at all. The only time he spoke was to say Thanks just as he handed me back the photo (which I suppose is better than nothing), and then to ask me if I had a sticker, which to be honest I wasn't exactly in the mood to get having just been virtually ignored. I'll be honest though, on the positive side, I watched the Lost talk today, and he was a nice and pleasant guy in that, and even though he was my worst experience on a personal level, I thought his talk with the audience was one of the better ones this con. It would just be nice for Dom to at least try and and acknowledge everyone who gets his autograph, and not get distracted by his agent, or Hayden as someone said above, when you meet him on a personal level. Even if it is hard NOT to be distracted when you're sat next to the Cheerleader herself!

Well I've commented in several threads now, but this one seems good for an overall view of the weekend, so here's mine. Bearing in mind I've now done quite a few of these con's I would consider myself to be a veteran. 1.) Lighting was bad - Beyond Showmasters control I'm sure but like many have said, it wasn't great for taking photos. 2.) Sound system - I seem to recall last years sound system wasn't great, and neither was this years. Some talks were clear (Quadrophenia Reunion), others were quite inaudible (Billy West). 3. ) Cosplay - This is actually a good point. Although I don't exactly have an interest in cosplay, I'm glad Showmasters made an effort to put on some kind of Cosplay parade this year. I'm sure last year there wasn't one (or at least I don't remember one), so well done for doing something for that crowd. 4. ) Quadrophenia talk - Never seen the film, stumbled in the talk while waiting for numbers to go up on autograph queues, but this was very entertaining. It made me actually want to watch the film now, which not many talks manage to do! 5. ) Tom Baker - Great guest, okay so he talked a little too much with everyone, but he was one of the most humourous guests I encountered so I made him a bullet point of his own. 6. ) A Guest turning their back and ignoring me while signing an autograph - I'm afraid one of the bigger guests I found quite rude, turning round talking to their agent, and then handing me back my photo once they had finished their chat. I won't say who they were but they weren't in Heroes and they weren't Patrick Stewart. 7. ) Virtual tickets, especially Sunday - Well as much as I found stampeding for tickets both comical, and kinda exhilrating, on the serious side, I can see why a few people are annoyed about the whole thing. Virtual ticketing systems for gigantic guests from Heroes and Patrick Stewart maybe needed organisation and planning all of their own! 8. ) Lack of atmosphere - Kinda hard to pin this one down, but I felt there was less atmosphere here than last year. There was a little more today what with all the craziness surrounding Heroes, but there still didn't seem to be as much as last year. 9. ) "No Photos Please" - I understand they don't want people taking photos of guests posing because inevitably it delays the queue. I have no problem with that. But whats the problem of just taking photos of the guest whilst in the queue whilst they're signing WITHOUT asking them to pose? Especially as the guests this applied to didn't seem to mind having their picture taken randomly anyway? 10. ) Lack of seating - Again beyond Showmasters control, I'm sure, but now they got another year to try and sort something out with Earls Court about it? Overall I got everything I had aimed for out of the weekend in terms of autographs, and got the big five, which I'm grateful for. It was also still a memorable experience, and unlike some other people who have commented on the forum, I will still return next year despite the problems. It would just be nice if next year some of the comments made on the forum today are taken in to account.

Despite the overall rush in all the Heroes guests in terms of signings, I have to say they were all wonderful and polite. I mean I only had about 30 seconds to at the most a minute with each of them, but they all made eye contact, all said hello, all were positive, and all were worth the money I paid out. The only thing that bugged me a little was the strict enforcement of the no photography rule. I only wanted to video them whilst in queue, and maybe video them signing. I can't see this actually taking up any more of their time as I wouldn't have asked them to pose, or anything. It's just something I like to do when ever I get a guests sig to show my friends that I haven't just wrote it on a picture myself really! Some people really do have trouble believing you can meet these mega celebrities even for 30 seconds at cons like this. Getting virtual tickets for them was a different story, but I've made comments about that in several other threads, and since this is about the Heroes guests themselves, I'm not gonna start talking about that here! Anyway, that wasn't Hayden or any of the other Heroes guest faults, so again I have no bad words to say about them in that respect. Also Hayden looked great today, although I must admit, she seemed even smaller than she was on TV! I guess TV does make you look bigger.

Also I was one of the very, very lucky people who got Patricks auto JUST before he left. I literally got in the queue, got to the desk where the pictures were, then they said the queue was shutting down, and Patrick was leaving. Firstly I got virtual ticket number 449 I think, and thinking about it I now consider myself lucky that i got that! This was after taking part in what will probably be remembered as The Comic Con Stampede of 07! This in itself was a nightmare. Luckily I kinda guessed where both the Heroes and Patrick Stewart queues were, and got virtual tickets and autographs for all, but for a newbie, inexperienced, or physically impaired person it was probably a nightmare, and sometimes a little OVERLY crazy to be honest. Anyway, back to Patrick. Luckily they said those of that made it to the desk could get autos, but anyone behind had no chance! I felt really sorry for all those hundreds of people (of which I'm pretty sure there was), who had got a virtual ticket, and were turned away mainly because Patrick had to leave early, rather them having a number that was too high. Even when I finally got to Patrick, he was actually about to get up and leave, and I think one of the crew told him they had allowed a couple of more of us before he could go. Not much to say about the actual experience really, all, I really got to say was "Thanks for staying a couple more minutes Patrick" as he signed, to which he said "You're Welcome", the I left. he was then sticking his baseball cap on as I left the area, where barriers had been formed. The about two minutes later he was rushed out of the building with his people. I personally don't have a problem with guests leaving shows early, but if Showmasters did already know about this (which I have no idea whether they did or not), then I think it wasn't fair to keep quiet about it. It should have been put up as a notice from the start that he was leaving at 2 no matter what. That would have saved A LOT of those poor people behind me in the virtual queue ticket probably queuing up for a ticket that they effectively could never use anyway. If Showmasters didn't know about it, then I guess it's just bad luck.

I have to agree with the poster above, and the other posters above him. First I can see both sides of the coin here. On one side of the coin, Earls Court 1 wasn't exactly an easy place to organise everything in, what with its strange shape. I seem to remember Earls Court 2 was easier to organise last year because its basically just a giant square, rather than some abstract shape. I can also see why it may have been hard for the crew to update any central board with numbers due to the mass crowd forming round the big signers and the need to supervise that area so much maybe. I also guess their reasoning for sticking all the big signers together today was so that people would only have to run / queue to one area, so maybe their heart was in the right place at least. Now for the other side of the coin. Once the people DID start running in, warning signals maybe should have gone off that more organisation, and more crews were needed. I think the crew need radios if its like this again next year, so that they can amass in case of such a demand for tickets?!? Radios would also come in handy when you can't get to any central area to communicate virtual ticket numbers. Luckily because I had been in the day before I kinda guessed where everyone might be, and got virtual tickets for all Heroes guests below 200, and one for Patrick in the 400 range, all of which led to autographs. For someone who had never been there though, or not very experienced there wasn't exactly much chance! The when they did get there, as many pointed out, the signs saying the numbers they were up to were really hard t see, unless you;re up close, which led to....yep, more crowding! It might have been wiser for Showmasters to get some of the crew outside the building handing out virtual tickets BEFORE the show started, given the huge public demand for these five particular guests, that would have stopped the stampede, and ensured everyone who got their as early as possible were guaranteed a low number. I'm not sure if this is even possible, but it's a suggestion for next year anyway. I understand crew volunteer, so maybe there wasn't any available that could do it before the doors opened, who knows. I guess the whole system was kinda memorable in both good and bad ways this year! At least we can say we were all part of (and survived!) the Epic London Stampede for Heroes on their World Tour I guess!?!

Hi, well I've lingered on this forum for a couple of years, and been to a few Showmasters conventions now (I think this was my fourth), and I have to say today was manic! So manic in fact that it has actually encouraged me to post for the first time. I have to agree with some posters above that Showmasters didn't quite anticipate the level of public interest there would probably be with the Heroes Guests and Patrick Stewart. In all the cons I've been to, I don't think I have ever had to run so fast just to get a virtual ticket, and face a virtual stampede just to make it there! I must admit, it made it quite memorable, and luckily getting in at 10:10 (after waiting since 7:20!) ensured that I at least got virtual tickets for all the Heroes cast and Patrick with autographs successfully acquired, but it was kinda scary as well! I wish I had videoed my running towards the signing area because I'm sure it would have made for a comical clip on my You Tube account, and probably some great publicity for this whole Heroes world tour thing too. Personally I had a couple of bug bears about the show overall, but I think I might post those in another thread as this is the Sunday thread. So in regards to Sunday I would sum it up as memorable, exhausting, surreal and crazy all rolled in to one.