apollofan

I'm sure in the Downing Street briefing on Monday Boris said that the government would be issuing guidance later this month to help business to prepare for the next set of restrictions to be lifted in June. Lets hope that all goes well with the recent test events such as the BRIT awards.

If you take a Covid home test rapid flow test and register your result on the NHS website they send you the test result by email and text so I guess that may have to be shown to gain entry. They couldn't possible test everyone on the door. It must take me half an hour to do my own test and wait for the result so we would never all get into the building in time. Guess we just have to be patient and see how things go over the next three months.

I look at the date set for all restrictions to be lifted by June as an 'aspiration' of the government rather than a target date that will be met.

Hi I'm sure this years lfcc is likely to be cancelled.As others have said upthread it'll be a question of insurance and some kind of business confidentiality to sort out before any official word can be made. One thing I would say that applies to myself as a self employed tradesmen working in residential properties, following government guidelines on returning to work,as well keeping distance from my customers, I must have all door and windows open when I'm working in any property to create good air flow and ventilation and I can't see any possibility of that at Olympia, especially in the autograph area..... if you know what I mean? Lol

Dora Spangles

Just a heads up for anyone travelling to London spring comiccon by train via King's Cross Station that it will be closed all weekend due to engineering work.No trains will be running so you would need to find an alternative way to get to London if you are travelling from Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, North East England and Edinburgh. My guess would be to travel into London St. Pancras via the Leicester, Derby, Sheffield line with East Midland trains. https://www.lner.co.uk/travel-information/travelling-later/kings-cross-upgrade/

Wherever a convention is held its going to be easier for some than other to travel there. We all can't have a venue on our own doorstep. We've travelled down to previous DST events at Excel London in the past from Durham and the earlier you book your accommodation and travel the cheaper it appears to be. There are many hotels right next to the venue and their prices come nowhere near to the prices in Central London. At the moment it appears that they are not taking bookings as far in advance as November 2020. What we need to do is look every week at hotels to check when they do start to take bookings. London has a fantastic public transport system (but Crossrail still may not be open by next year). Rather than driving maybe think about travelling by air or train. We've a lot of experience travelling by train from the North East of England where the price of a one way ticket can be £21 for an advanced ticket up to £150 for an 'on the day' ticket purchase. So once again buy in advance as far as you can to get the best possible price. Looking forward to this event and seeing everyone there again.

So far as I could see today all the photos on the sales desk were Trek.

I would recommend going to his talk this morning. You never know what your going get if he is in form. Just don't ask him to say a lengendary Captain Kirk line!

I got a VQ number 90 at 9.30 this morning and went back to his table half an hour later and it was an open queue. I'm in the autograph area now and Lee still has an open queue.

I arrived this morning at 8.45am and the hall in the queuing area was nearly full but I was in at 9.25am so you should be OK but I wouldn't leave it any later to arrive.

To the best of my knowledge London Overground services are running all weekend calling at Olympia. The line closures that are taking place on Sunday on the Overground are up in North East London and the services from Clapham Junction that head east towards Surrey Quays then up towards North East London. Anyone travelling from the south coast on Southern Trains or South West Trains should be fine to change at Clapham Junction for an Overground service to Olympia. Southern is running their Milton Keynes to East Croydon service on Saturday that calls at Olympia but on Sunday is only running a very limited service from Clapham Junction to Shepherds Bush only. Hope this helps.

You've got some great photos there Rob. The Discovery cast look like they're having a good time there.

I was at the event yesterday and there's more dealers here than the last time. Didn't notice any Cirroc photos on the dealers tables but I wasn't looking that closely but there is a good selection of photos on the official table at £3 each. Very good value I thought.

Fred Haise was a pleasure to meet this afternoon. He spent some time writing some short words on the photos that I had for him to sign. "My ride to the Moon" on the Saturn 5 floodlit photo is my favourite. He spoke about the First Man movie and showed us photographs of his dogs when the conversation got round to pets. I would recommend meeting Fred if you get the chance and to go to his talks this weekend. He has a real life story of survival to tell and chances to meet people like Fred don't come very often.

The timetable does not get published until around a week before the event going by past experience. I would wait until then before you buy your photoshoot as they can start as soon as the event opens. I hope it works out for you. It's a bit of a pain that trains don't run very early on a Sunday.

Hi. Yes. Plenty of cosplay goes on at DST. I would say around a third of people put on a starfleet uniform of some kind. Around one in ten go for makeup too so there's always Klingons, Vulcans etc. If you're thinking about cosplay then go for it. You'll have so much fun. Be prepared for people asking for a photo of you, all part of the fun. Last time at Birmingham I cosplayed as an Andorian and my pet Tribble even cosplayed as an Andorian! Back in 2014 at Excel London I cosplayed as Data,had a cuddly toy ginger cat with me and learnt 'Ode to Spot' but got cold feet about saying that poem in front of a crowd of people at the fancy dress competion so didn't enter the competition that I regret to this day. It helps if you have someone to help you with makeup if that's what you're thinking of doing. Hope this helps and you go to DST this year. Enjoy.

I have to agree with the sound quality in Tier 6 for Shatners World. When Mr.Shatner made a joke the front half of the hall would laugh while there was near silence from the back half of the hall. We just couldn't hear back there!

With only a few days to go now I was wondering how everyone that's making a costume or alien makeup are getting on? I'm just putting the finishing touches to my Andorian wig and antenna and testing the blue makeup. I'm visiting my barber tomorrow so he can trim the wig. Thank goodness he's a fan too! I'm also bringing a Tribble cosplaying as an Andorian too as when I attended DST 2014 as Data with Spot the soft toy ginger cat it went down very well with other fans.

Travelling down from Chester-le-Street, County Durham by car on Friday morning. Normally a 3.5 hour drive but with busy morning weekday traffic and roadworks on the A1 and M1 we expect this to turn into a 5 hour drive.