I traveled to San Antonio just for David Tennant. The other guests I acquired were gravy. I have really enjoyed the relaunch of Dr Who.
By far, David Tennant is my favorite Doctor (Tom Baker is in a whole other
category so I’m omitting him for this conversation.).
I had never been to an Alamo City ComicCon before and I heard
they over sell their VIPs badges. The overselling
means the general admission fan (steerage) might not get a chance to get an autograph.
I accept that. I know that risk going into the process. I try to mitigate by
arriving early and investing more time standing in line and skipping sleep.
Once the doors opened at Alamo City, I got in the non-VIP line for David. I was about 50 people back in that line. The
VIP line was long. After 30 minutes, and seeing the VIP line continue to grow,
the convention people warned us we might not get autographs. They explained the schedule for David. He had 2 hours of signing. Then photo ops. Then
I think a panel. More photos ops. Then done for the day.
David was only scheduled to appear on Saturday.
Considering I didn’t have much sleep and didn’t eat very
well, I had some heart burn. I waited. I watched the VIP line continue to grow.
David arrived about 15 minutes early. Yeah! The line started to move. Well, the VIP line. An hour passed and a lot of people were pushed
through the lines. Then the common
unwashed line moved to the end of the VIP line.
There were still lots of people in front of me.
Once I got to the point where I could clearly see David smile
and hand back photos, I thought I was safe. There was about 20 minutes before
he needed to leave and about 50 people in front of me. That is when more VIPS
started showing up. Either they were coming back for a second helping or they
were busy somewhere else.
This is always confusing for the fans and staff. The situation
is always tense. Often heated words are exchanged. As the ‘new’ VIP line grew,
they were led in front of us. My progress stalled but the clock continued to tick. Once the new batch of VIPs were processed,
the commoners inched closer as the countdown clock inched down to zero.
Finally I got to the table. I was asked if I wanted my photo personalized.
I said no but wanted a quote added. The first handler was confused and passed
me forward. The next handler said they
could add the quote (which I had printed out) but he didn’t take the quote when
I gave him my photo. Rushed, David looked up and smiled. We exchanged about 6 words. He signed my
photo and handed it back to me. The
handler remembering I wanted the quote told David he forgot to add it. David smiled and said okay. We know David didn’t’
forget, he didn't know about it. He just went
with the flow. I handed over the quote. David
read it. Looked at the photo again and added the quote. David mentioned ‘It fits’.
As I left, with a few minutes before zero on the countdown
clock, I noticed 100’s of people still in line. My heartburn eased.
As the day progressed, David did make a second signing
appearance. A roar rocked the convention
center as he sat at the signing table.
Hopefully he was able to see most of those people.
AH
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