Count Fooku

At the last London event the free talks weren't ticketed, you could just show up and if there wasn't a free seat you could just stand at the back. Worked well I found.

It does suggest that it is true, so Cumberbatch it is then!

My thinking is Martin and/or Amanda are less likely given she was pretty adamant that neither of them would attend the last event, although I believe she has done a panel or two at other events since then. I'm trying to think given that Una and Rupert were announced with no prior warning whether that means that this is an even bigger guest which maybe points to Cumberbatch or possibly Scott. Whoever we get its nice to see some more news on the event, it was getting a bit quiet round here!

The first one is Arwel, I bought a couple of the wallpaper displays which each came with a plaque signed by him

I'm thinking Patrick Stewart is unlikely for this one, he's in a play in London at the time this event is on so I wonder if he would travel to Birmingham even for one day. I wonder if we we will start to see a bit more for this event towards the end of the month/early in Spetember, they have just got one official Star Trek event out of the way, with another one coming up in America soon. Hopefully that means attention will change to the uk after that.

To use a football analogy, I'd say the first 11 line-up looks pretty good at the moment, it's just that the squad could do with being filled out a bit! This event does seem to have been a bit different this time round, in that there hasn't been one big announcement of guests followed by a few more but they've done well in the past so that gives me confidence they'll get it right this time as well.

Sounds a bit like High Fidelity by Elvis Costello, couldn't swear to it though:

At the last London event I got personalisations from everyone, Shatner included. I saw him on Friday evening and Sunday morning, both times I was asked what personalisation I wanted so wasn't even a case of me chancing my arm.

This event is going to bankrupt me, some fantastic looking options there!

I think in the past Amazon have had a stall where you can order box sets at what I think was a slightly discounted price (you just order the set there and it then gets delivered to your house rather than taking it away on the day). Never bought from it myself though so couldn't be sure on the prices. Programmes were £10 at the two previous uk events so I'd guess they will be about the same this time. Other merchandise is the usual, t-shirts, action figures, models, autographs, art prints, posters and photos etc but my experience is there hasn't been huge numbers of stalls so if you are looking for things to buy that you might want to get signed it's as well to buy it before the show. There was an auction last year which sold some interesting items such as props, autographed items etc but nothing was too cheap from memory. As for what to buy, it's down to you really. I have to be honest I think in general terms Star Trek isn't the greatest franchise to buy merchandise for, so for me it's often a case of if anything really takes my fancy.

I had a feeling in the back of my head that it was during the show itself but couldn't remember for sure!

My memory is the William Shatner on the TOS bridge photo at the 2012 event was announced pretty late in the day, possibly even the week of the event. I'd definately like a group one with the TOS crew would be great but I'm not sure how feasible that is, not sure how relations are between some of them these days! Either way, the guest list so far has thrown up the potential for some great combinations. Hopefully we will see a few announced soon.

Great announcement, pretty much the line up I was hoping for taking shape now!

No games being played with this Beverly Hills Cop line-up, great job getting him along!

Blimey, good job!

Brilliant, with or without Eddie Murphy this is a great set of announcements.

Maybe it was something on the website but I had the impression the prop shoot would be the Borg regeneration chamber rather than the bridge, not sure if I've put two and two together and come up with something very random there though!

If it's any help, at the last show I bought a photoshoots ticket for Shatner on the Saturday afternoon on Saturday morning so it was do-able on that occasion.

I've been to several events like this on my own and never found it a problem. In many ways I almost prefer it as it means I can pretty much please myself when it comes to deciding what to do and when.

I'd say that's pretty unlikely, they don't have all the captains confirmed and even if they did, I think the chances of getting them in the uniforms is less than zero!

From what I remember of the 2012 event there were problems with there not being enough space for the free talks but at the last event there was a lot more seating. Even for the talks where there weren't enough seats it was still possible to stand at the back and listen. I think I only had to do that once and that was for a talk with Levar Burton, Michael Dorn and John De Lancie on the Sunday morning. That said of course, different venue this time so less clear what the arrangements will be.

I'm not sure if the question was more about the queues to purchase photos for signing rather than for photoshoots. My memory of the last show was that when the event opened the queues were quite long but quietened down a bit as the day wore on. The difference for that show was though that there was no VT system in place so there wasn't a decision to make on getting VTs or photos first. I think I'm right in saying someone confirmed VTs would be back in place for this show. Personally I'd always get a a at first because once you have that you can go up at any time after the number is called to get your signatures.

I remember Showmasters having a Quadrophenia reunion at a LFACC sone years back, maybe at 2007. Seem to remember another event having a run of guests as well. Does seem to have dried up in recent times, shame because it would be great to see them at an event again.

I've had non Trek items signed at both DST events but I'd certainly bring things like that along with you, aside from the official event ones, there wasn't that many stalls selling unsigned photos and I can't remember seeing any non ST ones.

It's a funny thing, I was much more concerned with booking a hotel for this than I was with buying a ticket for the event, which I still haven't done yet!