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STARBURST: EVENT PROFILE
WORDS & PHOTOS: TONY JONES
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eptember 19th, 2015 and fans in their hundreds made their way to Slough for the now regular twice-yearly trip to Big Finish Day. This marked the seventh such event, which provided a full day’s worth of entertainment. As this is now the fourth time Big Finish Day has been held in the Copthorne Hotel, fans had clearly become very familiar with proceedings and the organisation from Tenth Planet Events was as robust as ever, with events running very much to time - or at least starting on time, even if co-executive producer (and voice of the Daleks) Nicholas Briggs has a tendency to overrun the allocated end of his sessions! Each Big Finish Day has a main guest, and this time it was Colin Baker, the Sixth Doctor himself. Colin has recently appeared in a regeneration story, The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure, and several of his companions from that story were present too, including India Fisher (Charley Pollard) and Lisa Greenwood (Flip Jackson). Unlike previous events, the main guest session was last in the programme rather than first up. This meant the day began with a panel marking the popular The Omega Factor [see STARBURST #416]. This was made up of Nick Briggs, David Richardson (Producer), Louise Jameson (Dr Anne Reynolds) and Natasha Gerson (Morag in the show and daughter of creator Jack Gerson). The panel discussed the recording of the recent box set (a second has been announced) and also various anecdotes about the recording of the 1970s TV show. This was followed by a panel from Big Finish themselves that teased fans with trailers from several upcoming releases, including The Prisoner, UNIT - Extinction and The Doom Coalition. Although the last of these is an Eighth Doctor release, fans were delighted to hear Sylvester McCoy make a cameo as the Seventh Doctor. Other panels included Torchwood, Terrahawks, Third Doctor, Novel Adaptations, and The Early Adventures. However, the day wasn’t just about panels; the pre-function street was a continuous flow of three streams of fans; those moving in and out of the main room, those taking advantage of bargain pricing to pick up a few CDs and those queuing for autographs
from the many writers, actors, and others who helped pack the room out. Other parts of the hotel hosted a writers’ room in which Simon Guerrier and others signed copies of The Scientific Secrets of Doctor Who and chatted to fans. Writers Simon Barnard and Paul Morris engaged several fans in conversation about their jointly written Sixth Doctor regeneration story, mostly debating whose part was the best (answer: they were both good!). The packed programme ran through lunch, which meant it was easier to find space to catch up with friends over a quick bite to eat (ignoring the hotel prices). It was in the bar that STARBURST caught up with actor Elliot Chapman, who has been cast as Ben Jackson, companion to the first and second Doctor (the part originally played by the late Michael Craze). His first audio, The Yes Men, has just been released. He was clearly enjoying his second ever Doctor Who convention: “Today’s been a real blast, I’m even recognising people from the first convention I did last year, Pandorica. Everyone’s been really nice and positive about my playing Ben Jackson!” Unlike previous events, there was no cosplay competition, though plenty of people turned up variously dressed as versions of The Doctor, UNIT soldiers, Daleks and even a penguin! If there was a prize for obscurity, it would almost certainly have gone to the person dressed as Peter Cushing’s film version of The Doctor. Other convention artefacts included not one but two TARDISes; one was set up by the hotel entrance alongside both a K9 model and the inevitable Dalek. This TARDIS sported a full copy of Colin Baker’s most famous costume from the TV series. The second was on the stage area as a device for panellists to emerge from as they were introduced for the various talks. STARBURST took the opportunity to catch up with James Goss, producer of the new Torchwood range, and Scott Handcock, director; chatting about the fan reaction to the return of the show, plans for the series and how they found recording with John
Barrowman while he is in the US, being directed by Skype. The conclusion is it all seems like organised chaos, but they are thoroughly enjoying themselves. James summed it up: “It’s all been really great, and we thought we had it all under control until David [Richardson, producer] asked if we could release the second series immediately after the first one finished!” Like any good convention, there was much too much to do in the time. Among the other attractions were a separate room for formal photos with the main guests and another room focused on the Dark Shadows range (based on the 1960s US TV series of the same name). The event may be relatively full, but it was bustling as Lisa Greenwood confirmed: “When I first started as the assistant [Flip] it was all really quick and before I knew it, I was at a Big Finish Day in Barking. Since then I’ve done LA and Chicago, which makes this seem small, but it’s lovely to meet the fans and get their ideas.” Lisa was one of the panellists for the final talk of the day – Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor panel. Colin took questions on everything from I’m a Celebrity to MasterChef (India Fisher, who plays companion Charley Pollard, does the voiceover for the cookery show). He thanked Big Finish for the way his character has been allowed to develop a new lease of life, and was in great (if somewhat cheeky) form. Not only was the event in Slough a triumph, but Big Finish catered for their fans worldwide. The event was continuously tweeted, with the hashtag #bfd7 managing to trend in the UK during the day. Certain parts were also made available live via the Periscope streaming service. Next stop, January, when the guest of honour will be Sylvester McCoy. We look forward to seeing you there! For more information on BIG FINISH DAY 8 on January 16th, 2016 head over to tenthplanetevents.co.uk.