My name's Linda and I'm a massive geek. Oh, the Pratchett quote and list of my tv, movie and book likes already gave it away, didn't it. Gah. This weekend I visited the holy ground of my people, the science fiction/fantasy convention- the SFX Weekender.
It was in Camber Sands, which, if you didn't know (and I didn't) is on the south coast. It's roughly a 5 hour journey from Sheffield. Our bright idea was to set of at 6.30on Friday to try and get there for the first panels at 1pm. Terrible idea. Arrived exhausted and confused, but soon picked up once we had found our chalet (it was clean, and that is about the best I can say for it, but we only slept there, so didn't matter that it was somewhat grim), had a drink and found our way around.
Pontins was overall a bit functional, the food options were hot dogs, and hot dogs with cheese (proving once again that everything is improved by cheese). Later we found downstairs a pizza/burger/chips outlet as well, thereby expanding the foodgroups available to a vegetarian. There was also a canteen, but I didn't venture in.
There were plenty of guests, panels, Q&A's to keep me busy, as well as screenings and shopping. Plus, we had a go on the arcade. There was also a dance troupe with some fantastic costumes wandering around, sometimes amazing, sometimes a little distracting.
I won't go into massive detail about the panels, mostly as I can't remember, but there were panels on whether Dr Who was for children (yes, but also for adults), science in science fiction, vampires on tv, and creating alternative Britain.
As I'm completely unable to talk to anyone even slightly famous, I shied away from book signings or anything even which would require me to speak (as only a strangled uuurrrgh comes out. Not a good look) and enjoyed the Q&A sessions.
George Takei was lovely and could have talked all day, Keeley Hawes was surprisingly flirty and cheeky, (and left one of my fellow guests a little wibbly after signing. Not naming any names), Craig Charles was a great laugh, had us in stitches, the Terry Pratchett and Steven Baxter talk left me excited for the new book and the Being Human panel (Russel Tovey and Toby Whithouse) was a lot of fun.
The big news was the Good Omens is being made into a 4 part tv series, which everyone now knows, thanks to twitter. Rather frustratingly, I was unable to access the internet at all for most of the weekend, so I couldn't access twitter or update anything at the time.
We also went to a couple of screenings, one was skyline and the other was monsters. Both using the alien invasion idea, but one demonstrating how make a cliched and disposable hollywood action/sci fi, the other a really lovely and interesting, using the backdrop of the alien invasion to tell a human story. I'll let you guess which was which. Actually, I won't as you might watch skyline by mistake. Skyline was the bad one. Glad to be of service.
The event culminated in the SFX awards ceremony, which was hosted by the hysterical and surreal Robert Rankin. Most of the winners didn't show up, but there were some nice videos (which are on youtube), but I nearly fell of my chair when Steven Moffatt appeared to accept Dr Who's award. Which, as he said, goes to show that it pays to show up.
Terry Pratchett won a lifetime achievement award, again the video is around on youtube. I hope that the introduction Robert Rankin did is also around somewhere, as it was very moving.
Then we popped back to put on our costumes (mine was rubbish, I was death (again) but accompanied by a roller girl zombie, mad scientist and highwayman) for the final ball, DJ'd by Craig Charles. It was funk and soul, and whilst I would really call myself a fan of either funk and or soul, he really nailed it, and the dancefloor was filled.
As I wasn't so keen on the following DJ, I made my way downstairs to the screening area where I got more drunk and watched Evil Dead 2. How often can you get pissed watching Evil Dead 2, dressed as death, I ask you?
A 5 hour car journey and many hours of sleep later, I'm back to reality. Sucks really, but already booked for next year..
(hope you got the "Never give up - Never Surrender" quote - Galaxy Quest)
