Doctor who guests (LFCC 2023)

[D-C-A]

17 minutes ago, Mfahey79 said:

100% it was one convention too far for him, as he clearly was only relying on muscle memory.

Speaking from personal experience seeing it first hand, there is no way that I would put someone close to me through that

Given his family minus his brother were there I can’t imagine there was any stopping him and with his wife just next to him even if she was signing herself it definitely meant he was in good hands, but he shouldn’t have been allowed to attend, and the knock on effect would mean no Shirley but I could live with it personally.

[D-C-A]

So I’ve just discovered something awful, as it turns out one of my CDs is signed by Gareth Roberts which I now hate, but I can’t replace as it’s got several other names on it, guess Colin Baker is signing over that

[Mfahey79]

Another sad loss, it seems Julian Holloway has passed away in the last couple of days 

[D-C-A]

3 minutes ago, Mfahey79 said:

Another sad loss, it seems Julian Holloway has passed away in the last couple of days 

My simple thoughts are, oh for god sake, I didn’t realise he was 80 but still

[Mfahey79]

And another sad loss as well, Mary Peach was announced this morning. What a sad couple of days

Edited February 19 by Mfahey79

[Mfahey79]

2 hours ago, Mfahey79 said:

And another sad loss as well, Mary Peach was announced this morning. What a sad couple of days

Apparently it happened last month, God bless the family

Edited February 19 by Mfahey79

[D-C-A]

1 hour ago, Mfahey79 said:

And another dad loss as well, Mary Peach was announced this morning. What a sad couple of days

Jesus at this point I just wanna say “sound off whose not dead” but that would just be tempting fate.

[Mfahey79]

On 2/19/2025 at 1:40 PM, D-C-A said:

Jesus at this point I just wanna say “sound off whose not dead” but that would just be tempting fate.

yeah rough few days, Even counting Rick Buckler of The Jam in that as well

[Mfahey79]

We're getting some guests for the summer show tomorrow, so lets hope for a good spread across the series

[D-C-A]

2 minutes ago, Mfahey79 said:

We're getting some guests for the summer show tomorrow, so lets hope for a good spread across the series

Honestly let’s hope so, been a rough week as is

[D-C-A]

Let’s get some discussion anyone were hoping for in particular?

[D-C-A]

Just now, D-C-A said:

Let’s get some discussion anyone were hoping for in particular?

Personally anyone from Series 14 is welcome for me, but Mark Strikson would be a huge one for me at this time, even Peter Davison for a few sets that I need his name on

[Mfahey79]

I want Nick Frost, Primarily for Skeleton Crew at this point but I would sneak him onto my season 8 steelbook. I know Last Christmas is Season 9, but as discussed previous, as only Jenna and Peter grace the cover, only they are going on this

I'd like to see more from season 1 with it being the 20th anniversary, but I have the big 3 on the steelbook, of Christopher, Billie and John. So maybe someone like Tamzin Outhwaite 

I still want Neil Patrick Harris, as long as they make the diamond pass super limited.

[D-C-A]

Just now, Mfahey79 said:

I want Nick Frost, Primarily for Skeleton Crew at this point but I would sneak him onto my season 8 steelbook. I know Last Christmas is Season 9, but as discussed previous, as only Jenna and Peter grace the cover, only they are going on this

I'd like to see more from season 1 with it being the 20th anniversary, but I have the big 3 on the steelbook, of Christopher, Billie and John. So maybe someone like Tamzin Outhwaite 

I still want Neil Patrick Harris, as long as they make the diamond pass super limited.

I think making the diamond pass for NPH limited would then mean he’d be more expensive at least in Theory, and if he was booked I’d imagine it would be hell for two reasons, one there would be a lot of people after him and two that bloody spice girls song.

series 1 people would be cool and with Chris and Billie doing audios together that could be a great combo to have Billie would go onto my Series 1, whilst Chris would be on an Audio unless I decided to cheese it with “The Day of the Doctor” which he is credited in and appears via archive but it is one hell of a cheat and I’m not sure I can justify it myself

[Mfahey79]

43 minutes ago, D-C-A said:

Personally anyone from Series 14 is welcome for me, but Mark Strikson would be a huge one for me at this time, even Peter Davison for a few sets that I need his name on

of the classic series, Mark Striksen would be great, I can add him to my poster, the same as Sarah Sutton. And I'd add them to a couple of dvd's that need their signatures gracing.

Peter is going to an event I've done the last few years, so will be aiming to get him there

I've mentioned him before but Rico Ross would be a great guest to land

[D-C-A]

As I’m on “Planet of Fire” I am reminded that Nicola Bryant is again a high priority name for me, with no less than 7 signatures required for me from her being:

- Caves of Androzani

- the Twin Dilemma

- attack of the cybermen

- Revelation of the Daleks

- the Davros Collection

- The Light at the end

 

the last one would have two one for the character artwork page and the second for the actor page which has Sarah Sutton and Sophie Aldred on it as well

[Mfahey79]

3 minutes ago, D-C-A said:

I think making the diamond pass for NPH limited would then mean he’d be more expensive at least in Theory, and if he was booked I’d imagine it would be hell for two reasons, one there would be a lot of people after him and two that bloody spice girls song.

I think to win back trust, they need a massive guest, and properly manage it to a micro level, limited tickets, proper queue management. So they can say to guests and attendees. Look we've listened, we've learnt and we can get the top tier guests and deliver a top experience.

[Mfahey79]

Just now, Mfahey79 said:

I think to win back trust, they need a massive guest, and properly manage it to a micro level, limited tickets, proper queue management. So they can say to guests and attendees. Look we've listened, we've learnt and we can get the top tier guests and deliver a top experience.

And I'm not saying it has to be Neil Patrick Harris just using him as an example

[D-C-A]

Just now, Mfahey79 said:

I think to win back trust, they need a massive guest, and properly manage it to a micro level, limited tickets, proper queue management. So they can say to guests and attendees. Look we've listened, we've learnt and we can get the top tier guests and deliver a top experience.

Knowing what would happen is that their would still be a large majority of people not pleased, because you’d get those asking why we’re the tickets so limited on NPH or you’d get the other end where people will ask why they’ve over sold again, the former is the better option, that said despite my reservations about the character he plays (personally I do not believe that Mr Harris captures the Toymaker at all, and that is partly due to RTDs writing) I would still love to have him.

[Mfahey79]

They just need to show that they can handle the large guests again, whether that's by restricting the diamond passes so that it limits how many are sold. And also not have x amount of batches of additional shoots so this is also capped.

It will then enable them to better manager the schedules and queues. And show that they have learnt and are able to handle things, rather than let everything descend into chaos like the Joseph Quinn queue, or the truncated schedule of Ncuti

It will enable the guest to potentially get to virtual tickets or open queue and give a chance for the non diamond passes to meet them

[D-C-A]

40 minutes ago, Mfahey79 said:

They just need to show that they can handle the large guests again, whether that's by restricting the diamond passes so that it limits how many are sold. And also not have x amount of batches of additional shoots so this is also capped.

It will then enable them to better manager the schedules and queues. And show that they have learnt and are able to handle things, rather than let everything descend into chaos like the Joseph Quinn queue, or the truncated schedule of Ncuti

It will enable the guest to potentially get to virtual tickets or open queue and give a chance for the non diamond passes to meet them

Lets start out by saying my thoughts on this are so heavy that i've cracked out the laptop to type this all out.

secondly 100% i whole-heartedly agree with you but i wanna add my 2 cents on the matter.

With Joseph Quinn it is safe to say that Showmasters grossly under estimated how popular he was going to turn out, whilst i was interested in him (Reasons will follow) thus i never followed how quick he sold out, BUT i do recall that show-masters announced that there would be more batches, to my knowledge they've not done that since even with Ncuti, and then they had the issue of then selling more tickets and exceeding capacity of the venue to where you could barely move inside over the Saturday and Sunday, and then several people were being held outside, his attendance on the Sunday helped this but it was still a mess.

now for my reasons, i was honest kinda annoyed by the absolute rudeness of some of the less civil attendees when trying to move through the guest hall, and the just overall entitlement of such even when there wasn't even a booking from said attendees just the expectation that they've entered the hall and now are going to get to meet Quinn, the other reason is more of a personal one as a lot of people stated since Stranger Things Season 4 the number of people who suddenly found themselves liking Quinn and his character of Eddie, even when they historically would have bullied people who are like the character (Myself falling into the later category) call it pathetic but its a genuine peeve for myself.

Now for Ncuti, announcing him wasn't by any means a bad move, i can't remember the last time Showmasters announced a guest mid event over the speakers, and to that matter one so popular they were 65% sold out within 36 hours, even when i spent said 36 hours bricking it that i'd miss out, but this evidently was something we all showed genuine concern over as we knew from the word go it was going to be messy, from the civil fans who knew that things weren't going to be easy, to the uncivil ones who were going to be making things uneasy either from entitlement or from just over excitement.

of course once Ncuti Sold out we all prayed that was going to be it, and further to that point we on numerous occasion said that it would be bad news if Millie Gibson was booked, which they then did go and book her, at this point there were 10 sold out Batches of Diamond pass and 10 batches of standard Photos all sold out, but then Millie's announcement saw Ncuti sell another 4 batches of Diamond and Photos along with 4 Batches of Duo Photos, meaning that the main guest was now on 14 batches of both Diamond and Photo.

now an seemingly unrelated but contributing factor to the whole sordid affair was that they eventually had 5 Diamond pass Guests, Ncuti Gatwa, Millie Gibson, Michael Sheen (Booked at a notably controversial time, separate topic of discussion in a little, would love to talk about it), Natalie Dormer and Richard Dreyfus, at one point of these 5, only Dreyfus was booked for the sunday, but he was also the only one who was doing the weekend, everyone was just Saturday, until Millie was suddenly announced for Sunday as well, what we initially believed was good news, but was a harbinger.

then within the week of the event, Dreyfus was postponed to Spring (Now July) meaning 4 diamond pass guests and only 1 on the Sunday, then it dropped, Ncuti Gatwa was now doing Sunday, but only half days per day, i mention this chain of events for a simple reason, unless you were a die hard dedicated guest and had some deep pockets, you were likely only attending the Saturday as you would have been after Ncuti Gatwa (And via extension Millie Gibson), this is important to remember.

so day of the event and the crowd is as at bursting point we now only have a 5 hour window per day to get through countless people that have prepaid and booked whatever they've book for Ncuti Gatwa, and of course it all went foul up, Saturday Ncuti signed for an hour maximum before he was whisked off to start the photos, which meant back to back from around 11:30 AM to about 2PM he was doing nothing but photos, the announcement and story was clear Ncuti wouldn't be able to get through everyone, so people were either told they WOULD be seen, or that they would be required to make a return on the Sunday, so by 2PM the crowd was told the bad News Ncuti like Elvis had left the building.

so Sunday was now going to be heavily dedicated towards signing with a heavy range of Photos left untaken.

Showmasters take on the situation was if you were still due anything related to Ncuti you could return Sunday free of charge, but let me take you back to the lack of a draw for Sunday to begin with, this meant that for around 85% of those who hadn't obtained everything if anything on Saturday, returning for Sunday was an idea that could be best described as a nightmare and an impossibility, some people could afford the last minute second day trip, whilst most couldn't travel, hotel and other expenses ruled it out, meaning that whilst they would see up to £296 returned to them, they could still be out a hotel, train and entry tickets for a guest they paid to meet and never did, the refund for these people simply was not good enough.

All in all the choice to book a guest and then proceed to add more tickets on for them was bad enough, the addition of losing a significant portion of time was what allowed for disaster to occur, and with the lack of a Sunday draw added fuel to the fire.

so what can we learn from this?

1. now Whilst asking for a full weekend booking is unreasonable but should be something that is to be attempted to try and allow for levitation of traffic.

2. the numbers once capped should remain capped, once a guest is sold out your only bet is to try and get the guest on the day but don't go in with hopes held high.

3. Limiting the numbers on diamond pass, they allegedly did this Spring with Billie Piper thus people were now able to get her on the day without the need, however the results are in my opinion inadmissible on account of a train strike and the lack of attendance, this is something that needs attempting on a big event and with more people in attendance

4. making sure that if their will be an unscheduled second day or a day change, that there is a big enough draw to were a weekend ticket would be a wiser choice than a singular day ticket.

5. Extra staff per photo area, and the ability to disperse people who are waiting unduly or if they're place in the pecking order is going to be a while.

[D-C-A]

Now for what i said about Michael Sheen being booked at a controversial time given that it was around the time Neil Gaimans allegations hit their height, and whilst Sheen has a career that far exceeds "Good Omens" and even appeared in a Doctor who episode hence he was on this page at one time or another, he was heavily promoted around a show not riddled with controversy, and whilst every good omen fan I've met will only recognise Terry Pratchett as the writer (My Partner going as far to cover Gaimans name on her book) it can still be viewed as a controversial move.

everyone's thoughts if civil would be most appreciated

[Mfahey79]

From £15 an autograph last time, to £45 and a diamond pass

[D-C-A]

Prices arent live yet, so i cant do it but i have found some stuff that isn't obvious at least

[D-C-A]

Also seems they're doing a star wars Zone again so that means we have a lovely chance of snapping up some small timers.