The Doctor at Collectormania Milton Keynes

This past weekend saw a big convention in Milton Keynes. In attendance were not only Karen Gillian, in her first convention appearance since finishing work on Doctor Who, but ALL five surviving classic series Doctors.

There was one other Doctor there – my friend Matt Elliott, the stunning Matt Smith look-a-like.

While he was there is met up with a mutual friend who now owns my original prototype Green Greatcoat.
It was a no-brainer Matt would get to try it on!

The coat is a “large” and Matt is a “medium”, so it’s a little big for him – though irritatingly it looks brilliant on him regardless!

The Doctor has landed!

Today I’ve got the first of our special Cardiff photo shoots for you.

This was shot at Southerndown Beach, which is near Bridgend, a few miles around the coast from Cardiff.
It has cropped up in numerous episodes of new Who.

It first was used in Army Of Ghosts and Doomsday, when it was used as an isolated fjord in Norway, its name translating as Bad Wolf Bay (see right, top two images).

Later they return to the bay for the closing scenes of Journey’s End (see right, middle image).

It was then the location where Matt Smith shot his first ever scenes as The Doctor, for the episodes Time Of Angels and Flesh And Stone.
The Byzantium crashed at the top of the cliffs, and the TARDIS landed on the beach below (see right, bottom two images).

In the past few months the crew have been back yet again for filming for episode two of series seven (see below).



For our shoot we are recreating the look of Time Of Angels with Lisa Baxter as our Amy Pond, dressed in the correct costume.

Hope you enjoy our photos. More to follow soon.

The Doctor has ANOTHER new coat!

Filming on the new series continues apace, and it’s been widely reported that Matt Smith’s been seen wearing a new costume!

His costume has gone through a number of subtle changes, with the Harris and Donegal Tweeds of series five being replaced by the Shetland Tweed of series six.
A green moleskin greatcoat made its debut in Let’s Kill Hitler and was seen again in The Girl Who Waited, Closing Time and The Wedding Of River Song.

At the Cardiff convention a teaser trailer premiered, which showed Matt wearing some form of US military coat for the upcoming western episode.
And now we have the first glimpse of yet another coat!

The crew spent two days (30th to 31st May 2012) at Margam Park near Port Talbot to film scenes for what is believed to be an episode towards the end of series seven.

Extras on set were dressed in Victorian clothing, and it is possible that Matt’s new coat is a one-off featuring in this episode alone.

Matt was seen wearing the new aubergine coloured frock coat with a velvet collar, accompanied by a grey waistcoat and his series six G-Star RAW black jeans!
He also sported a new bow tie, though only for some of the scenes being shot.

You can see more of the photos taken in the gallery below.

Doctor Who filming at Margam Park

A meeting of Doctors

Wow - have I got something real cool coming up for you!

I’ve just returned home after an amazing day down in Cardiff doing an all-day photoshoot with two of my favourite Doctor cosplay look-a-likes, with a superb Amy Pond to moderate.

Many of you will know US-based Kevin Coppa (see left) from The Ultimate Tennant Suit I made him, something he proudly wears to many US conventions; you will also have hopefully seen UK-based Matt Elliott (see below), who is the most awesome Eleventh Doctor look-a-like.

Well, I wondered what would happen if I could get the two of them together in the same photo – and now I know!

It didn’t take much persuading to get these guys in the same place together, but it took several weeks of planning to make it happen.

Here’s a little teaser photo for you, with more to follow soon.
We shot about a dozen scenarios, some just portraits; others are hilarious, so watch out for them in this and my Tennant Suit blog.

I won! I WON!

Now this doesn’t happen to me often, but I won myself a competition!

Last year I had read about the Punchdrunk production of The Crash of the Elysium a while back when it was on in Manchester in July 2011. I didn’t know too much about it, but described as an immersive theatre experience, it sounded intriguing. Only thing was, Manchester is a bit of a trek from where I live, so I didn’t go. It was also billed as an adventure for 6 to 12 year old.

Its launch had a surprise visitor when The Doctor himself, Matt Smith turned up, and I read some favourable reviews of it, so in hindsight I felt I had missed out.

Well as part of the lead up to the London Olympics, there is a programme of cultural shows and productions across the UK, and The Crash Of The Elysium is being restaged at a theatre in Ipswich, still a fair way but reachable for me.

Ipswich Arts Festival
The Crash of the Elysium

Client cosplay photoshoot

One of my American clients recent showed me the results of a photoshoot he had taken part in, wearing the blue and burgundy Matt Smith shirts I had made for him!

Here are a selection of the best shots.

New braces - the race is on!

I don’t want to be a spoiler for series seven, but I thought I’d give you a heads-up something now rather than later.

Matt Smith was seen filming somewhere-or-other for scenes in an episode-thingy and had to do some running around (phew - managed to keep that spoiler free!). This gave some fan observers and pappazzai a view of the latest addition to The Doctor’s wardrobe - some new braces.

They are distinctively different from series five and six, so worth a mention.

Previously he wore burgundy (and navy) crossover narrow braces with silver clips. These ones, however, are Y shaped, in a brighter red colour, and have much wider straps. The clips look to be gold coloured with black leather connectors.

As far as I’ve seen no-one has yet 100% identified them, but there are a couple of very good options out there if you look around.

The best so far can be found on Amazon.co.uk for £11.95, and are called Mens Scarlet Red Braces Clip on 3.5cm.

Amazon.co.uk
Mens Scarlet Red Braces

Cut sleeves - but not entirely cut price!

One of my readers put my on to this.

I’ve seen a lot of original PS Paul Smith shirts on eBay, some of which have been pretty unique with Striped Cuffs; Plain Cuffs; and even French Cuffs – but I’ve never seen one with NO cuffs! In fact NO SLEEVES - well, short sleeves.

It opened with a £14.99 starting price, and in the last couple of days leapt to £72.

An interesting curio on the Paul Smith shirt.

ITEM DESCRIPTION
Men’s Scroll Stripe Shirt as worn by Matt Smith on Dr Who!!
RARE SOLD OUT ITEM, ONLY EVER SEEN A HANDFUL AVAILABLE ON EBAY & CAN FETCH £200+!!

Item Brand
Paul Smith

Item Size
Label States M
21" from Armpit to Armpit giving a Chest Measurement 42"
Slim Fit

RRP
£120

Colour
Light Grey and Blue Scroll Stripes

Series seven filming - costume SPOILERS

Now I don’t normally like to write entires like this – with SPOILERS – cos I like a bit of surprise when I see the latest Doctor Who episodes for the first time.

However, various bits of filming for series seven have been widely reported in the press, and some images have even been posted by Steven Moffat himself on Twitter.

More recently an official set of images have been published on the official BBC website showing the latest filming taking place in  . . . . SPOILERS!

READ MORE to see a preview of what The Doctor will be wearing epiosde-by-episode in the new series.

Yes, Prime Minister

I was out today doing my job as tour guide for the Unofficial Doctor Who London Locations Tour for Brit Tours.

I had a bus-load of fourteen eager Doctor Who fans to show around London, and we took in the usual sights from episodes of the classic series.

Butlers Wharf (see left) and Windmill Walk were the highlights, since they were used in popular Dalek stories, Resurrection Of The Daleks and Remembrance Of The Daleks, and we also saw St Peter’s Steps near St Pauls (as seen in Invasion) as well as The Globe Theatre (from The Shakespeare Code).

Since the new series is based in Cardiff, not much gets filmed in London these days, so it gives us the Brandon Estate near Kennington (which was where Rose Tyler lived); and John Adam Street around the back of The Strand (which doubled for Downing Street in Aliens Of London).

When we get to John Adam Street I usually have to show the episode clip on my iPad to show how it looked redressed as Downing Street as it a bit of a stretch.

However, today was a bit of an unexpected surprise. As we rounded the corner I could see a film crew with lights and camera tracks littering the street right where we needed to go. They weren’t actually shooting, but to our collective surprise they had dressed the door to look like Number Ten Downing Street – just like in Aliens Of London!!

As a reminder, this is what the street normally looks like, taken when I did  guided tour for Mark Ferris in 2010

I had a word with one of the crew and found they were filming Coup, a four-part tv series for Channel 4 based on A Very British Coup by Chris Mullin.

Cardiff Convention - BBC news report

With the convention drawing to a close, there has been a number of articles appearing online covering the event.

I found the following reports:

The Independent
Doctor Who convention attracts hundreds of fans

Wales.com
First Official Doctor Who Convention in Cardiff

SFX.com
Official Doctor Who Convention: The Verdict

Metro.co.uk
Doctor Who convention brings thousands of fans to Cardiff

One of the best – naturally – is by the BBC itself, on the BBC News Website.

They also had a slideshow of images from the weekend.

I was just thinking, who’s that handsome fella growing out of the Silurian’s neck?

Cardiff Convention - Matt Smith ganger

As well as wanting to get to meet Matt Smith, there was one other Matt I was looking out for tho weekend – Matt Elliott.

“Who?”, I hear you ask. Well, he’s someone you’ll be seeing a bit more of in the future, as he is a dead ringer – or ganger – for Matt Smith.

The first I became aware of him was when a friend linked me to his Facebook page, and I saw some of his great pictures taken at the Waring House housing estate, as seen in Night Terrors.

He was photographed with Lisa Baxter, who you may recognise from the Entertainment Media Show I attended in October.
She was the superb Amy cosplayer, wearing the handbook armour from The Girl Who Waited.

Anyway, I had been wandering around all day Sunday and hadn’t spotted him, so stepped outside after the final event to get some air and maybe some exterior photos before the convention finally started to wind down.

THAT was when I spied Matt, not far from the Torchwood watertower.
I went over and introduced myself and he knew of my blog, being a regular reader.
he was with his girlfriend, her brother and Lisa, who was in one of her Amy outfits.

It didn’t take too much persuading to get them to pose for me, with the Millennium Centre as a background. We did a couple of shots of Amy and Matt together, before I got Amy to drop back a bit, giving some more dynamics to the composition.

My favourite image from this set-up is below.

Cardiff Convention - Sunday signings

Having given myself the luxury of a ticket for both the Saturday AND Sunday of the convention, it means I could focus on different things each day.

Yesterday I made the effort to be as close to the front as possible for the three panels, and got some great pictures in the process (see left).
I attended the SFX demo; prosthetic demo and Restoration Team lectures in the lobby, so by the end of the day I felt I had got my money’s worth there.

Today my focus is elsewhere, and although I will attend the panels again, I’m less concerned about being first through the door.

This morning I took the TARDIS set visit, which was seriously the coolest thing ever (see right). It topped anything that happened yesterday, and I can’t see much exceeding it today, but we’ll see.

We got back from Upper Boat in good time, and I joined the queue for the Meet The Stars panel. This time I was near the back, which was fine. The discussion was amazingly similar to yesterday, so I was able to soak up the atmosphere of the event.

This view gives you some idea of the size and grander of the venue, as well as the size of the audience.

So today I decided I’d spend a lot more time autograph chasing. Later I’m due to meet Matt Smith for both photo and autograph, but in the meantime I’m after some of the other guests.

These were signing for free in the lobby, with a regular circulation of guest on offer.

I had a real nice chat with Nicholas Briggs, who I had previously seen at both Chicago TARDIS last November and again at Gallifrey One in February. I said how we have met more than once and tried not to sound like a stalker!

Cardiff Convention - TARDIS set tour

Yesterday was a surprisingly smooth event. I got in on schedule and pretty much everything ran like clockwork throughout the day.

First on my schedule for today is the TARDIS tour. I elected to go early on Sunday morning to minimise it clashing with any of the main events.
There is a coach to take us to and from the studios, and I have an allocated place on the 8.15am departure, so I don’t need to rush down to the Millennium Centre like I did yesterday. The clocks go forward today as well, so by doing this tour it gives me a more relaxed start to my second day.

Well that was the original plan.

A few weeks before the event everyone had an email that the coach would leave at 8am rather than 8.15am, which was okay.
I got there in good time and the queue had already formed so I found the end and was quickly checked in by the waiting crew.

8am came and no sign of the bus.

Time was ticking on and 8.15am was not far off. Looks like I didn't need to rush after all.

8.20am and still no sign of the bus.

One of the crew came to apologise, as the bus was delayed due to road closures in connection with the Sports Relief Charity Mile, which starts and finishes right by the Cardiff Bay water tower.

8.30am and still no bus, but we were now asked to walk around the corner to meet the bus.

8.40am and in the distance we glimpse the bus. It can be seen two blocks away - being stopped by security who seem to be asking it to turnaround!

The bus doses a three-point-turn, and starts reversing down the road towards us. We then all move down the road to meet it, and FINALLY we we off - 45 minutes late.


It takes a good 30 minutes to get to the Upper Boat Studios, which are some non-descript units of an industrial estate.
We are divided into two groups, to make our on set time more comfortable.

I'm in the red group - the second to get on set - so while we wait we have a coffee in the Blue Box Cafe, often seen on Doctor Who Confidential. It sounds glamorous, but it's more of a Welsh version of The Apprentice Bridge Cafe.

While I'm in there one of the tour guides, who are all Upper Boat staff, remarked on my tweed, noticing it was more accurate than most she had seen, which was flattering.

Finishing my tea it was finally time go on set!
We walk around to the main entrance, and down some corridors before turning into the studio. To a collective gasp we are confronted by the back of the set, constructed of wood and scaffolding, with a bright internal glow.

Around the side there is a series of ramps up to the TARDIS exterior doors, and following a quick briefing we were invited in.

WOW!

Cardiff Convention - cosplayers

The costuming part of conventions are very different on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

Halloween in America is almost as big as Christmas, and there has developed a modern tradition of dressing up in all manner of costumes, not necessarily as witches, ghosts or vampires.
I think it is this ethos that has permeated into the costuming side of American Doctor Who conventions.

In the UK, on the other hand, we don’t have the ingrained desire to dress up, so our conventions have a much lower percentage of cosplayers in attendance.

Until recently,  I hadn’t actually done that many Doctor Who conventions in the UK. In fact, I’ve been to more in the US than home-grown ones!

So it was this months Official Cardiff Convention was a contrast to Gallifrey One a couple of months back.

That said, I saw a number of Amy Ponds, but here are my two favourites.
As it happened I caught up with them later in the day for a great photo shoot outside the Millennium Centre. Check out Matt Smith Ganger.

Wherever there is an Amy Pond, there is sure to be an equal number of Matt Smiths, and Cardiff was no exception.
Bow ties and tweeds were out in force, along with the obligatory sonic screwdriver.