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Pfft. No news updates since the 26th of last month. Who says we’re losing our touch? Never mind - hopefully my web development business will take off - then I can spend all day at home updating G&T instead of working.

So, DJXIII has been announced - and it’s later than usual, on the September 22nd - 24th. We’re also back in Peterborough - same place as last time, but now renamed the Holiday Inn. First person to scale the front wall of the hotel and add “Ganymede” to the sign wins a sticky bun. Although you probably wouldn’t want to accept a sticky bun from me.

I do hope the event goes rather better than this year’s. I feel slightly guilty complaining - mainly because G&T didn’t do a report this year, and you can’t really complain about things unless you actually tell people what you think should have been better. So, for the record:

• Despite Howard Burden being late, I really wish his Q&A had been rescheduled, instead of just left. We get the same stuff with the cast year in year out - this was a perfect chance to have something different. And from the way he judged the costume compo, he would have been great value for money.
• The VFX guys (Tucker, Tyler, etc) didn’t get nearly long enough on stage. Again, you get the cast members coming year in year out - here was a chance for something different (only Tucker was there the previous year - here was the whole gang), there’s four of them, as opposed to one, and the audience wasn’t getting bored in the slightest. They deserved at least double the amount of time on stage.
• So, how do you make this extra time? Well, without wishing to be rude… please, please cut down the amount of time spent on the auctions. They dragged like fuck. Even more so when the auctioneers forget who is bidding for what and for how much, but even without that it would have been tedious. Can it be kept down to an half an hour at a time? Pleeeeeeease?
• I was really looking forward to seeing The 10%ers and Captain Butler - the first for the actual comedy value, and the second for pure interest. I’ve seen neither since first transmission. Sadly, they weren’t shown - which I wouldn’t have minded so much, but there was no warning about or explanation given for their absence. When you’ve been looking forward to something so much, it’s galling when it doesn’t appear.
• Also, it would make the whole event look far more professional (and, erm, understandable) if the booklet had fewer mistakes. These mistakes would be very easy to correct, and plenty of people have offered to proof-read it this time round, or even help with writing it. With the fanclub team obviously having lots of other stuff to do with organising the event, perhaps they could take advantage of the help offered?
• It’s also a bit of a shame that we’re back at the same place as last year. Personally, I find Moat Houses/Holiday Inns and the like not very good at all - the drinks are expensive, the food is awful, and they have no character. I can think of plenty of places that would be far more exciting to hold the event at. But as I understand it, insurance is the issue here. (Drunk science fiction fans = expensive.) Nonetheless, the problem with the hotel used at Peterborough is that it’s out of the town centre - so you can’t escape elsewhere for a while to buy better food and cheaper drinks like the previous year in Bedford. Possibly this should be considered for DJXIV?

I don’t mean to sound negative about everything - I’m still intending to go, it’s great to see everyone there, and the guests are always good value. And I certainly don’t mean this as any personal attack on the head of the fanclub James Bull - a nice guy, who very kindly got something I won in an auction signed by all the guests. (It was the first draft of the VIII video covers, if you really want to know - I’ll scan it in at some point.). But it’s infuriating that DJ could be so much better than it is.

Still, the logo is a good start…

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