Glasgow Who | Doctor Who Blog

We met in the Crystal Palace last Sunday (23rd May) as per usual. As
you may well be aware the group has been expanding a little in recent times. As
such I think it is an ideal time to start thinking about how you want the group
to run and what things you would like to have from the group.

Speaking to everyone at the group on Sunday there were
several things that came out. Here is a list of the sort of things that people
would like to see from the group:

·        
When the show isn’t on we usually meet monthly
– it was suggested that fortnightly might be better

·        
it was suggested that we look at going to events
and shows as a group. This doesn’t have to be Doctor Who related and the type
of things were suggested included:

o  
Doctor Who events such as signings, conventions
and shows.

o  
Visiting other Doctor Who and science fiction
related groups such as the Edinburgh group and even as far afield as Aberdeen
and Tayside.

o  
Going out of pictures or the theatre just for
the sake of it.

o  
Having meetings at other locations

·        
Another suggestion that came out from the group
was about screenings. This could be anything from spin-offs and fan films all
the way through to fan edits or even recording our own commentaries.

·        
Also mentioned was doing more things online and
specifically creating the fan fiction page.

·        
The idea of a fanzine either in physical and/or
online versions was also mentioned.

We can’t promise to put all of this in place because there
are separate issues and challenges that we will have to overcome. What we can
do is start talking and working towards doing some stuff that will make our
group even better.

There are some things that you can do in the first instance.
Firstly you can start talking to each other and us about what you want. We need
a feel for what sort things you would not be interested in and what sort things
you think would be essential for us. So let us know your thoughts.

Secondly of the ideas that came from Sunday is only
representative of the people that were there. If you have more ideas then we
need to hear them so let us know.

Finally, we can’t do this alone so if you have some ideas
then come and talk to us because we would like to help you make our group
better.

 Rintu

Hi everyone!

Sorry I haven’t got round to blogging for a while. I’ve been busily beavering away, making sure by the time May comes around we give you all the best Doctor Who convention ever seen in Scotland!

And I’m now quite remarkably excited to be able to announce our 11th guest for this year’s event.

Quite probably the most popular producer in the history of Doctor Who, the man behind the first “Golden Age” of Doctor Who, none other than Philip Hinchcliffe has kindly agreed to join us in May for a rare convention appearance, subject to work and personal commitments.

Philip was producer of the show between 1974 and 1977 and oversaw Tom’s first three years as the Doctor, producing some of the show’s most iconic and popular episodes during that time.

Our guest list, subject to work and personal commitments, is now;

• Tom Baker - The Fourth Doctor
• Colin Baker - The Sixth Doctor
• Sylvester McCoy - The Seventh Doctor
• Sophie Aldred - Ace
• John Leeson - The voice of K9
• Richard Franklin - Captain Mike Yates
• Philip Hinchcliffe - Producer, 1974-1977
• Andrew Cartmel - Script Editor, 1987-1989
• Tom Goodman-Hill - The Reverend Golightly / The Vespiform (The Unicorn and the Wasp)
• Michael Cochrane - Lord Cranleigh (Black Orchid) - Redvers Fenn-Cooper (Ghost Light)
• Prentis Hancock - Reporter (Spearhead from Space) - Vaber (Planet of the Daleks) - Salamar (Planet of Evil) - Captain of the Guard (The Ribos Operation)

This event marks Tom Baker’s first Doctor Who convention in Scotland since 1993 and will be the first time a Scottish convention has ever had three Doctors on the same guest list!

Add in a rare convention appearance by one of the show’s most popular producers, Philip Hinchcliffe, and a Doctor Who convention debut for Tom Goodman-Hill, along with many huge names from throughout the history of Doctor Who, and it’s an event not to be missed!

Tickets are still available from www.glasgowwho.co.uk/aog4.html and the sooner you buy yours, the sooner we can tell how many more guests we can go for… and how big they’re going to be!

I think we have a truly great guest list shaping up here… it would be a shame for any of you to miss out!

Cheers!

Al.

For those of you who have been trying to get onto the Forum for the past day or so, there are some gremlins that have transported themselves into our server and it’s taking a little time to get the blighters out of it. We’re using all the ray guns and sonic screwdrivers we can find and we’ll let you know when everything is back up and running…

Well, it’s started.

First up can I saying hello to Louie, Pauline and Christine and thank them for coming to the meeting. Sorry I didn’t get the chance to speak to you Louie but hopefully I will be able to chat more next month.
It’s nice to have new people and it just makes for a different atmosphere to the meetings and I hope this is the start of things to come.
Oh, the Fan Fiction section of the forum has to get into swing again and I’ve totally forgot about it! That’s what happens when other commitments take over and to be perfectly honest I do feel a little guilty.
As I said to Christine on Sunday the group isn’t just a monthly meeting, we have an online presence with the Forum, The Blog, Bebo, Twitter, MySpace, Meetup, Facebook and the website of course. Just because we’re a Glasgow based group doesn’t meet we have to be local in our activity, it’s something we should be getting involved with all the time all through the month and at the end of the day it will enrich the meetings help our events. We have a good group of people who are passionate about Doctor Who at the meetings and lets make a move use of all online sites we are at things and raise our profile, raise our self esteem and ultimately raise the enjoyment of the group.

Fan Fiction mods, I’ll be emailing you shortly…

Barry

I’m getting slack,

It’s not for the want of trying but you try, pizza delivering, podcasting, website building and trying to find the time to watch the Randomiser story every week, it’s a busy time. Never mind, September should be good for me do more things though.

Well the whole Shabang (that’s my intended spelling Alan, :op) starts of for us Glasgow Who guys on Saturday (29th August) with our little stall at collectormania. Unfortunatley I can’t be there to help sell tickets for Nabil’s little visit 27th September but I will be at the meeting the following Sunday (6th September). I wonder what Bryan’s gonna be doing to excite us this time.

Going onto Who things, i must say I’m pleased to see that Nicola Bryant has great support of us mentioning us in DWM this month but there is one thing that hs annoyed me this week,”Doctor Who’s Greatest Moments,” Is it me or does it seem like the Doctor Who Confidential team are running out of ideas. It’s the first time I’ve almost stopped watching something Who related in ages. It was dire.

Oh, maybe I should of put a rant up on the forum. I might just do that.

Till next time

Barry

As you probably know, we will be manning our usual tablefull of Doctor Who goodness at this year’s fabulous Collectormania at the Braehead Arena on 29 and 30 August (that’s next weekend, fact fans!)

We’re fully covered for the Sunday but we need one or two brave souls to help man our table on the Saturday…

If you think you have what it takes to help us sell the group (plus our Nabil Shaban event and a few photos,) let us know!

Ideally, we’re looking for someone who can be there for the whole day… but if you can only make it in the morning, or just in the afternoon, we may be able to fill our slot (ooh err missus!) with two people rather than one! (Yikes!)

Just let us know on this thread (or by PM if you’re shy!) and we’ll let you know the arrangements!

(Please don’t be offended if you ask to help and you’re not chosen - we will hopefully find someone to fill the gap quickly and we’ll have to get arrangements made as quickly as possible… so don’t hang about if you want to help us out!)

Cheers!

Al.

To quote the opening line of Dragonfire - you lucky, lucky people!

 Glasgow is awash with events and activities for the discerning Doctor Who fan over the next month or so.

 We kick off with the next meeting of the local Torchwood fan club this Thursday evening, run by the lovely Leigh. Just pop along to the Crystal Palace from 7pm and look out for people talking Torchwood at the comfy couches by the window. Beers will be imbibed, chat will be partaken of and a good time will generally be had by all comers. Lovely!

Then, a little over a week later, the sheer loveliness of Collectormania Glasgow once more descends upon those of us lucky enough to be in the vicinity of the Braehead Arena over the weekend of 29 August. Doctor Who guests confirmed to date include Peter Davison, Mary Tamm, Sophie Aldred and Dave Prowse… (I’m led to believe the latter has also appeared in some film series or other but I wouldn’t know about that. Star Warts or something. I think it’s the shocking story of celebrities in space contracting a variety of disfiguring carbunkles.) It’s well worth popping along as, apart from anything else, your very own local Dr Who group will once more have a table at the event, plying our wares. (That’s us, by the way, in case you hadn’t guessed…) We should hopefully have some exciting news by then so please pop over and have a chat!

Meanwhile, over in Edinburgh, there’s still time to catch the lovely Katy Manning in her one woman show at the fringe, hot on the heels of the wonderful event Martin and the Edinburgh group arranged at the start of the month.

Then we high tail it into September (already?! It feels as though May’s Army of Guests were only yesterday…) And week one, as always, sees our triumphant return to The Crystal Palace from 7pm onwards on Sunday 5 September. I’m sure uncle Bryan has been slaving away in his meetings lab, concocting something exciting for us all to partake in amidst the booze and chatter… but I shall leave it to his good self to reveal the results of his dabblings…

And, of course, the end of September (the 27th, to be precise) sees our next event of our very own, The Whole Shaban - An Afternoon with Nabil Shaban, between 14:30 and 19:30 at Trader Joe’s on Hope Street. Amidst the traditional blend of interviews, autographs and photographs, we have one or two very exciting little additions… which we can’t tell you about just yet! And all this for just a tenner! Bargain! Buy your tickets quickly or you will miss out on a fantastic day!

And, not wishing to go too far into the future just yet, but fans of the recently released Delta and the Bannermen will be interested to hear that Agent Hawke himself, Morgan Deare, will be appearing in The Stripper at the King’s Theatre in the first week of October. Ticket prices for the play start at a very reasonable £14.75.

So keep your eyes peeled for even more Dalek-table goodness and we’ll see you at one (if not all!) of these fabulous events!

Cheers!

Al.

What a brilliant Sunday (2^nd August)

After wiping the sleep from my eyes I took the bus into the city centre just after 8 and typically it looked like it was going to rain. I took my umbrella and typically I never used it.
Just before 9 I arrived at the Crystal Palace where Alan and John Hughes were already waiting for our lift, Rintu.

Rintu turned up just after 9 and we were in the city of Edinburgh just before 10 and trying to figure out how to get to the Illicit Still. Alan can never remember the way and everyone else was just as bad!

When we did arrive, after going up the road Alan ignored and told us not to go up in the first place, we all arrived at the venue just after 10. Katy Manning was sitting talking to Martin near the front door and she was greeting everyone who came in. Just after 10.30 we all sat down with our coffees (unfortunately drink couldn’t be served until 12.30) and started Katy came onto the stage.

What a witty woman. I have never known someone to be so engaging and she has so many anecdotes of her life and her time on Doctor Who. I never knew she was friends with Liza Minnelli and she’s such a versatile voice artist. She certainly isn’t anything like Jo Grant’s perceived naivety and under all the scattiness there is a very underestimated and intelligent woman. A joy to listen to and I would like to once again on behalf of the group thank Martin and the team in Edinburgh for a brilliant few hours.

Alan also announced in Edinburgh Nabil Shaban will be with us in Glasgow on 27^th September and he’s already posted a lengthy blog for this so I’ll skip over it.

Photos

Well, what about the photos for the new series filming. Is it me or is Karen Gillan just stunning in whatever she wears. There is even a photo of a recurring guest star but I’ll say no more just now, it’s really a spoiler still.

Forum

The Randomiser is swinging into action and the Fan Fiction section of the Forum is still being looked at but our concentration will be on Nabil’s event between now and September 27^th so any new things for the forum will probably be put on the back burner.

Website

The website as you already know crashed on Monday (27^th July) and didn’t come back up until the following day. We are working behind the scenes to improve this and prevent such a major server failure from happening again. Using a hammer and spade just doesn’t do the job in fixing server quickly nowadays…

There are mumblings that the gremlins of the group are doing something. I’ll let our events gremlin say more…

Till next time I’ll leave you a picture of Rintu, Me and Alan with Katy. Guess which one has had the drink!

Barry

Hello, hello, hello you lovely, lovely people!

Hot on the heels of the frankly fabulous Katy Manning event which was hosted by our friends at the Edinburgh local group this past weekend (what do you mean you weren’t there? You missed a fantastic day…,) we’re pleased to announce that the events bandwagon is rolling once more in a Glasgow-wise direction.

In fact, with so many brilliant guest events this year in Scotland (what do you mean you weren’t at Army of Guests in May either??!! You didn’t know about Collectormania next month??!! You’re just not trying hard enough..!!) you could even say it’s a bit of a Sil-ly season for Scottish fans…

Especially when, on Sunday 27 September 2009, from 14:30 to 19:30, Glasgow Who, The Glasgow Doctor Who Society, proudly present The Whole Shaban, a unique chance to meet actor, writer and director Nabil Shaban, the man behind the most iconic villain of the 1980s, Sil, the profiteering Mentor from the planet Thoros Beta.

Nabil made two appearances in classic Doctor Who - his debut in 1985’s Vengeance on Varos, followed by Mindwarp, part of the following season’s epic Trial of a Time Lord.

So Varos, so goodos!

Nabil has had a fascinating career, ranging from Dr Who to films with Patrick Swayze and Clive Owen to competing with David Tennant for the 2005 Theatre Critics of Scotland Best Actor award, and we’re delighted to be able to welcome such a fascinating guest to Glasgow.

The event will have the usual blend of interviews, photo opportunities and autograph sessions, along with competitions and much, much more! You could even say it’s an event the way they’re Mentor be…

Standard Tickets are just £10.00 and include admission and one free autograph. Gold Tickets are also available for £20.00 and include front row seats, an extra free autograph and first place in all queues. (NB - There are only 6 Gold Tickets available and 2 have already been sold! So Nab yours before they’re all gone!)

To buy your tickets by post, send a cheque (made payable to “Glasgow Who”) to Alan G McWhan, Top Right Flat, 12 Percy Street, Cessnock, Glasgow, G51 1NY along with details of where to send your tickets

To buy in person, come along to our next regular meeting at the Crystal Palace, (Sunday 6 September 2009 from 7pm,) or keep an eye out for additional meetings

To buy online, visit http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/glasgowwho/nabil.html or visit our main website at http://www.glasgowwho.co.uk and follow the links

There are also places for just 4 lucky attendees to join Nabil for lunch before or dinner after the event! Attendance at each of these exclusive meals costs just £5 per person plus the price of your meal! (NB You must have a ticket for the main event in order to book a place at either meal. We cannot guarantee the availability of Marsh Minnows at either meal.)

As there are only 4 places at each meal, you’d (Thoros) Beta be quick if you want to take part…!

Full details are available, as ever, from our main website at http://www.glasgowwho.co.uk, and you can join in the discussion of the event on the forum at http://forum.glasgowwho.co.uk

So join us on 27 September 2009 for The Whole Shaban!

Go on - give us your Sil of approval!

Cheers!

Al.

(This announcement has been sponsored by The Glasgow and Surrounding Areas Awful Pun Society.)

Don’t worry guys I’m still here, things are getting a little busier for me thats all…

I have been busy on the forum this morning and to see the latest photo from the BBC Website Karen Gillian looks stunning in her 60’s style clothes and Matt Smith is looking very old-style professer.

They’ve started filming this morning so they’ll be lots to talk about on the Forum

 Speaking of the forum, The Randomiser is gearing nicely. Ok Ambassadors of Death is not a story I can actually watch but I’ve already put my review on for Destiny of the Daleks so I’m more involved this week on a story I can actually talk about at length!

A rather short post from me ‘cos apart from that there’s not much I can really comment about this week. 

Till next time.

 Barry