Tag: London

Record crowds join the stars at MCM London Comic Con

Record numbers of visitors flocked to Britain’s leading pop culture event MCM London Comic Con this weekend. The three day show saw 130,560 pass through the doors of Excel London, eclipsing the record-breaking 122,600 attendees at May’s Comic Con and the 110,200 at last October’s event.

 

Essentially this cements MCM London Comic Con’s position as the third largest Comic Con on the planet — just behind illustrious US rivals in New York and San Diego. To add some UK context it’s also around 10,000 more people than attended both the Man United v Man City and Sunderland vs Newcastle matches this weekend — two of premier league football’s biggest derby matches.

 

Visitors to MCM London Comic Con enjoyed a whole host of sci-fi, film, television, comic book, videogame, anime, manga and cosplay content. Featured panels and Q&As included Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss on Sherlock and Doctor Who; Alan Tudyk and Nolan North on new comedy Con Man; Noah Wyle on Librarians; Charlie Higson on Jekyll and Hyde; and Gareth Evans on his acclaimed martial arts movie The Raid.

 

Comic Con also hosted panels by cast and crew from zombie phenomenon The Walking Dead, hit sci-fi series Humans, historical fantasy Da Vinci’s Demons, re-imagined classic Thunderbirds Are Go, Dark Age epic Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands; upcoming horror drama Outcast and CBBC sci-fi show Eve, not to mention screenings of Amazon Original’s The Man in the High Castle and Mr. Robot.

 

Other special guests meeting fans at the show included Arrow‘s Cynthia Addai-Robinson; The Flash’s Candice Patton; Breaking Bad‘s RJ Mitte; Game of Thrones’ Ian McElhinney, Ian Beattie and Eugene Simon; Continuum‘s Victor Webster; Warehouse 13‘s Saul Rubinek; Under The Dome‘s Alexander Koch and Colin Ford; Doctor Who‘s Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy; Red Dwarf’s Robert Llewellyn and Danny John-Jules; Adventure Time’s Jessica DiCicco and Anime Guest of Honour Shigeto Koyama (Big Hero 6, Kill la Kill).

 

Meanwhile, the Comic Village was home to more than 200 talented comic book artists and writers including Bob Layton, John McCrea and Tony Lee; Vidfest’s gathering of online video talent featured The Yogscast, Rooster Teeth and The Hillywood Show amongst many others; and the games zone played host to publishers such as Ubisoft, Bandai Namco, Koei Tecmo, NisA Europe and Rising Star Games, as well the MCM eSports Arena.

 

For more information on the MCM Expo, look here.

Watch our MCM Interview with RJ Mitte here.

Review-The Doctor Who Experience

Hey guys.

Martyn here. On Friday the 1st of April Gerrod and I, along with our friends Mark and Paul, attended The Doctor Who Experience and a great time was had by all.
I’ve been to a few Doctor Who exhibits in the past and The Doctor Who Experience is far more than your average exhibit. As great as it was to have my picture taken next to Eccleson’s leather jacket, Tennant’s converse and Colin Baker’s technicoloured dream coat, what I really wanted and what all fans really wanted was to fly the tardis. I wanted to step inside that little blue box that’s bigger on the inside. I wanted to feel the awe, fear and excitement of taking on some live-action Daleks. In short, I wanted to be a kid again. That’s what the experience does, it makes you feel like a kid.

The greatest part about the experience is seeing the kid’s reactions to it, they are, after all the target audience.

Now, let’s talk about the actual experience. You start off, by watching selected clips of series 5. Which remind you just how good Matt Smith is.
After a while, a crack begins to appear on the screen, the crack from Amy’s wall.

Shortly after passing through the crack in time those famous blue doors, appear. The way they make the TARDIS appear is nothing short of genius, you take a place around the console and…. I’m not going to say anymore as I don’t want to spoil anything…

Now, on to the actual exhibit. It is, understandably aimed at the post-2005 audience, focusing mainly on the friends and enemies the Doctor has acquired since then. But, that doesn’t mean fan’s of the original series will feel left out, the 4th-7th Doctor’s console room is beautiful.
There are original costumes and there are brilliant recreations, such as the 8th Doctor’s costume. You’ll get to see aliens from Ice Warriors to Zygon’s.
Look out for the Face of Boe, he’s hidden away in the screening room.
The greatest part of the exhibit is the interactive parts, you can remix your own version of the theme tune, change your voice to sound like a cyberman or Dalek, learn to walk like a scarecrow or cyberman in the little dance studio

My only critique about the whole event is the photo opportunities. There’s a green screen and for £12- £15, you can have your picture taken in front of various backgrounds, now, in my opinion, the end result doesn’t justify the price, it’s nothing somebody with ten minutes and photoshop, couldn’t knock up. I feel it would have been better, to have another replica eleventh Doctor’s TARDIS and charged people £15 to have their picture taken in that.
But, that’s just my opinion.

After the exhibit, you exit, via the gift shop. Now, I will warn you everything is marked up at the recommended retail price, the 2005 series, will set you back £55.

Overall it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I walked away with a song in my heart and a warm feeling inside