Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 1 Next on stage was a panel celebrating the 60’s story The Mind Robber, the guests were Fraser Hines, Wendy Padbury and Hamish Wilson. All three of them were very entertaining and kept the crowd laughing and enthralled throughout. Next up were three guests I’d never seen at a con before, in a panel about Terry Nation’s 1960’s Dalek movies - Jill Curzon, Yvonne Antrobus and making her first convention appearance, Shiela Stafal. They all had some interesting things to say about the films, though their memories were clearly jaded by time, but this didn’t matter that much as we got to learn about their long and varied careers. Up next on stage was the Monster Boys panel of Keith Guest, who’d played among others, a Marshman (from the story Full Circle) and Graham Cole who’d played a Cyberman, amongst others, but is now better know as PC Tony Stamp in The Bill. Keith in particular made the point that, during the shoot, Tom Baker had actually helped the Marshmen out by insisting their scenes were shot first so they could get out of costume. The penultimate panel of the day, and the star name for many, were the UNIT boys - Nick Courtney and Richard Franklin. Nick was praised for his recovery from recent health problems, which earned him a round of applause, as did quoting the classic line “Women….not my field!” Richard talked about working on the recent Hornet’s Nest CD’s with Tom Baker and was able to tell us that there would be some more of them. The final panel of the day was Peter Purves, Steven Taylor in the Hartnell era, now better known for his long stint as a Blue Peter presenter. He was the only guest I asked a question of, which led to him regaling us with a very funny Blue Peter anecdote. By this time, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and several of us stood by the exit hoping the rain would ease off, but as I was meeting a friend in a pub near the station - I had to make a move. All in all a very successful event, sadly not as many dealers as in previous years, neither was there a prop/costume display, which had also been a bit of a fixture at these events. There’s another Invasion convention in September, but presently the guest list isn’t attracting me. TIM DRURY (You can view more of Tim’s Invasion photos at http://bit.ly/invasionpics. Tim also hosts his own Doctor Who podcast, ‘Tim’s Take On’ which you can catch at http://timstakeon.libsyn.com or on ITunes).
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