Zagreus

But this was exactly the point I was trying to emphasise. There's no need for Who fans to give their "expert" opinion whenever anyone makes guest suggestions, because it counts for nothing. It's pure speculation based on personal experience. So to dismiss certain actors whenever they are suggested is just pointless, and slightly dismissive to those doing the suggesting. I know that Keff McCulloch lives in Australia, I know the situation regarding David Saville and Alan Bennion, but anything is possible. People visit the UK, people change their mind about doing signings etc. People who have done private signings have done in-person signings as well, so assuming they are not interested just starts a rumour that people end up taking as fact. In fact, that is the problem with Doctor Who fans when it comes to guest suggestions. They are all too willing to give their own assumptions with an air of authority, which others then take to believe as gospel. Back in 1997 people would have said that Paul McGann would never do a signing, and now he's a regular with SM. I could say right now that Christopher Eccleston will NEVER do a signing, and people will believe it, but I am not Christopher Eccleston and can never speak on his behalf. I suppose it's just habit - when anyone suggests classic Who guests, Chiswick / Barking fans HAVE to point out why they won't ever do it. EVERYONE on my list is a possible guest. P.S. I don't mean any offence with this. It's just a little frustrating knowing that this is the way things work in Doctor Who circles.

Yes, it's a very common thing among Doctor Who fans to immediately shoot down other people's guest suggestions. Whether it's a case of "I know more about these people than you do, so there," or that they are part of the inner circle who attend every Dr Who signing every weekend, or just throwing in their tupence worth, I don't know. But everyone is entitled to their wish list and it does come across a little rude to dismiss and disregard someone's hopes and wishes. No Doctor Who fan, no matter how knowledgable, can speak for any actor and even the most reclusive guest might have a change of heart (as Showmasters have proven in recent years). Would you ever have thought Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger would do meet & greet sessions with their UK fans? Yet both are now entering into that sort of thing. Anyway, this is my own personal wish list. As likely or not the guests may be, it's my wish to one day meet these people. Alan Bennion Edward De Souza Shirley Cooklin Sally Faulkner David Savile Jane Sherwin Tim Preece David Daker Donald Tosh Lynda Barron Tony Selby Lynda Bellingham Sheila Hancock Jasmine Breaks (Jasmine was supposed to go to MK years ago, so I'm desperate to meet her!) Howard Cooke Keff McCulloch Sara Griffiths Edward Peel Ben Aaronovitch (attended LFCC but there was no mention that he was only going to be signing for an hour in the morning! I'm sure I'm not the only one who missed meeting him) Paul Cornell (see above) Lesley Dunlop Kevin Clarke Mark Hardy Mark Ayres Marcus Gilbert Tomek Bork Marek Anton Janet Henfrey Sylvia Sims Ian Hogg Frank Windsor Katharine Schlesinger Sharon Duce Will Barton Julian Holloway

Yeah I was just kidding.

Maybe Debbie Lee Carrington has a role in an upcoming episode?

Looks like my request that these Dr. Who announcements include what role they played has fallen upon deaf ears. In fact, it's getting worse - this one has no IMDB link or working photo!

I'm surprised Derek Deadman has never been to one of these shows, considering his role in Time Bandits, and various other appearances through the 80's. Carmen Munroe too, well know for her starring role in the Channel 4 sitcom "Desmond's." The names suggested above would be perfect guests for LFCC, as many of them are well known for other roles, and most had starring roles in their respective Who stories. I'm sure everyone would prefer that to someone from new Who who was onscreen for 2 minutes. "Rare" doesn't have to mean "man with one line."

Yeah, I'm only interested in Bob Wall, and now Christopher Bowen at this show. I like him for his fantastic performance in Doctor Who. Would be unbelievable if I make the effort to travel down to this show and couldn't even get a photo-shoot with the one of only two guests I like!

Could you perhaps, when putting these Dr Who guest announcement up, list what their Doctor Who credits are? I know there is a link to IMDB, but an at-a-glance resume of their more well-known roles would be better (particularly for the supporting actors).

Hmm yeah...again, it's guests that may please fans of those specific things (James Bond, yet again), but it's not going to tempt anyone outwith that serious circle of collectors. I don't mind these supporting actors from Bond or Star Wars coming, as long as they are in addition to one or two well-known actors. And if the big guests are going to be last-minute surprise announcements, that's not really much use to us as we need to make our choices now regarding attendance and travel.

Although I'm not going to this show, can I just make a suggestion regarding the potential costume photo-shoot? After campaigning for it for years, it was great to finally get one at LFCC. However, it was allocated to a photographer who had his camera on a stand instead of holding it, meaning he was unable to alternate between horizontal and vertical photos, and all the photos taken over the weekend were horizontal. This was a big disappointment for me, and was a real waste of time having Jeremy in the full costume if you're only going to see from the waist upwards. Please Showmasters, if he agrees to take part in this sort of shoot again, can you make sure that the photos show as much of the costume as possible.

But unfortunately, those reasons are of no interest to us. They remain between the potential guest and the organiser. As customers, we are only interested in whether there is something worth spending our money on or not. We're not going to pay for hotel, transport and entry tickets based purely on the intention to get good guests.

I'd have to agree with this...it's like the polar opposite of LFCCC. I know it's always been a quieter, more specific show, but to be at the point where regulars SM attendees have no reason to attend, well...

Yaphet Koto and Bruce Dern?

I'd like just a few more well-known actors to be added. I've no interest in pilots/space pilots, and although I love Bond movies I have no interest in the minor players from them. Same with Gerry Anderson guests. Guy Siner has just been to the last Showmasters show, and Michael Cochrane was at a recent Autographica. I'm interested in Bob Wall, but to be honest the rest of the guests are too genre-specific for me to have any interest in meeting them. I know these guests will appeal to the Autographica regulars, but I think adding 2 or 3 well-known Hollywood actors might tempt a few more people to make the journey to Birmingham.

I think we've all started topics similar to this one over the past year or so, but it doesn't seem to do any good.

If you mean the photographer with the Hawaiian shirts, that was Malcolm. I did have an email address for him, but haven't been able to get any replies from it the last few times I've emailed him, so I hope everything's OK with him.

Yeah, definite bias towards the more popular shows unfortunately. Which is a shame as Bad Wolf and Autographica do have more deceased actors, making them even more sought after.

That could explain it. It's not that they look bad, it's just that the brightness and contrast seem to be a bit off and it's more noticeable that the background is separate from the foreground. Same with the TARDIS console pics. It needs to be a bit darker and more contrasted to blend the two together.

The one concern I have is the Diamond passes possibly limiting what normal passes can get. DSTL has the various packages, but the last time I went for that I found it to be a bit of a waste. Free autographs I wasn't interested in, access to talks that conflicted with what I DID need to get. This time I am just customising my own package, buying each separate item I need and avoiding the stuff I don't need. I would like it if this was similar, and each person could customise their own personal weekend, avoiding whatever things they don't need. But I'm concerned that with Diamond guests possibly having limited photoshoot or auto sessions will mean that you NEED to fork out for things you don't want or need just to be able to get an autograph or photo.

I was having a look through the Comic Con pics of the throne & Dave Prowse, and was surprised by the Saturday shots which seemed to have a painted back-drop rather than green-screen. That's what it looked like anyway. I thought it was always intended to be a green-screen shoot? No disrespect to those who got the Saturday shoots, but I think the green-screen ones from Sunday look a lot more realistic (although, if you look closely at the digital images, it does seem to be a lot more jagged around the edges than the Tardis shoot I got at C21 - maybe there is a "soft-edge" ability that hadn't been turned on for the throne shoots?)

The problem is, it's sometimes something I am not 100% happy with, but to someone else it might seem fine. My picture is a bit off to the right with Michael's arm going off the edge. To the average guy on the street that might seem fine, but to someone with photography experience it's a bit disappointing. Same with the soft-focus photos that have been more common of late. Can we go back and ask that it's re-done if that's the way the photographer does his/her photos?

I was looking at my Friday Michael Madsen pic as it seemed very lop-sided when it was taken. It looks like a fair few of the photos are at a really bad slant, and none of them were re-taken. It's as I said at the time - the photographer in area D having his camera on a pole just doesn't work. Well, it works for him as he doesn't need to hold a camera, but for the rest of us in fast moving photo shoots, it can result in very poorly framed photos as he doesn't take the time to check them. Even the ones that look ok, still look like they are tilted slightly to the left. If there had been the usual quality control at the printer, a lot of people my have been sent round again, but they were just dishing out the pics as quickly as possible. Think the quality control for certain photo areas needs to be looked at if this many photographers are used again.

Maybe this could be the time to out-do your competitors and do a Showmasters-style Willy Wonka reunion? I've wanted to meet the Wonka kids (and Gene Wilder) for ages, and I'm surprised SM hasn't had any for their shows so far.

I remember years ago suggesting Bruce Lee co-stars like Bob Wall, Jim Kelly, Bolo Yeung etc. Sadly two of the main actors from Enter the Dragon have since died, and Kareem Abdul Jabaar is unlikely to come over. Best making to most of those who are still possible. Luckily, after his Showmasters cancellation, I was able to meet John Saxon at another show and he was a great guy, but there's still so many I'd love to meet. I personally would love to meet James Tien - he's a legend from Hong Kong action movies. I wonder if even someone like Sammo Hung or Yuen Biao could be brought over for some sort of show.

I'd love it if there was a very basic rewards scheme on the online store. Forget about people getting priority for this thing or that - how about just a basic reward points system to tempt more people into buying tickets in advance of the show? You earn points on purchases through the store, which you then redeem against future purchases. Even if it was a matter of pennies, every little helps.