Armed with £100 spending money, on Sunday 19th July I joined my friends and journeyed up to London’s Earl’s Court.

The reason I wished to attend this year’s event was to meet Michael Ironside. The man is a huge idol of mine, having grown up watching the guy in countless TV shows and films.I was also kind of curious to meet Scott Bakula and Jewel Staite; Bakula because I was a huge fan of “Quantum Leap” as a kid, and Ms Staite as I adore “Firefly” and “Serenity”.

Well, I did meet all three of them (to the tune of £55) and got my autographed photos. Mr Ironside was a total gentleman, he was more than happy to pose for a photograph, and talked to me for a good few minutes (mainly about “Starship Troopers”).

I doubt some of these celebs genuinely wanted to meet the fans and were just there because they could charge £15 per autograph to about a thousand fans. Requests for photos were, in most cases, politely rebuffed (interestingy, by stars who were doing professional photo shoots later in the event for an additional charge).

Two friends I attended with met the tough-guy character actor, Danny Trejo, who was, they informed me, a sweetheart. Stargate’s Michael Shanks also seemed like a pretty nice guy. The two twins from the recent “Harry Potter” and some kid from “Twilight: New Moon” were getting a hell of a lot of attention. I don’t know who the “Twilight” guy was, but he was actually climbing over the table to get his photo taken with his fans. It’s a shame that everybody couldn’t be like that.

Other guests included Paul McGann (who I wish, in hindsight, I’d gone up to meet, as I love “Withnail & I”), Eve Myles from “Torchwood”, Hugh Quarshie from “The Phantom Menace”, and a few bit-parters from “Blake’s 7”.

One highlight was there were many guys walking round in quite convincing movie costumes. This was the best part for me – getting my photo taken with the monsters from “Predator” and “Alien”, “Darth Vader”, a stormtrooper, and a cylon.

There were trader stalls aswell, all kinds of memoribilia. You name it, you could pretty much get it. Movie props, animation cells from “He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe” and “The Real Ghostbusters”, autographed photos (a genuine autographed photo of Christopher Reeve was going for something like £2,000!). Comic books, DVDs, blu-rays.

The coolest prop on display was the actual Camaro from the first “Transformers” movie and it was great to get my photo next to that. But other than that, there was a display case with some rather unimpressive props from the “Terminator” movies, and the Car-Bug from Dave’s recent Red Dwarf special.

To say it was a disappointment is an understatement. It’s the first convention thing I’ve ever been to. And the experience hurt. My wallet, my pride and my soul.

Until next time, BUK BUK!

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