Lisa is the First Officer or XO of Starbase 410 and her blog like Emma's is mainly about stuff she's done that month and her Sci-Fi observations. Lisa and Emma tend to be the club members (along with their partners) that catch the most new sci-fi.

March 2008
For those of you who watch Futurama, you will be hugely amused to know that we had a visitor to our Healthcare department called Dr Zoidburg.  For those of you not familiar with Futurama, this will go straight over your head but probably time you started watching.
A good thing that happened is that the Radio Times which we buy every week was offering ‘Life on Mars’ series 1 for subscribing for 26 weeks.  Needless to say we subscribed.
As a fan of Charity Shops I do look around for good quality raffle prizes among other things.  A couple of weeks ago I got 2 DVDs, First Contact for £2.50 & Nemesis special edition for £3. (These won’t be going in the raffle!) This was great as we cleared out all our videos so the Star Trek film video box set had gone out which was the first film up to First Contact.  All I need now is the Wrath oh Khan & I’ll pretty much have all the Star Trek films I actually like!
Having watched Torchwood on BBC3 last night, (12/3) we started to watch the programme that followed it called WEST 10 LDN.  This was written by and starred Noel Clarke (Mickey in DW if you didn’t know) and was based around the culture of young blacks in London today.  Although I couldn’t stay up & watch all of it, it was quite fast paced & amusing.  James had trouble keeping up with how they speak but for me it was like a day at work as I’m pretty used to the ‘youf black cultcha innit’ as we have a few black gang members & drug dealers in the department. A slice of reality as opposed to sci-fi but certainly worth a watch as it was fun.
On 1^st March, I went to the most badly organised Con ever & I would expect far better from 10^th Planet than this.  We have been to Invasion many, many times & this was its 3^rd venue change, not that the venue was poor as it was quite nice & the guest list was good too.  What really hacked me off was having paid £40 for a day ticket & when I say ‘day’, I expect to be entertained at least from 10am – 5pm.  Not the case at all, it wrapped up at 1.30pm & the only thing to do was get autographs & if you didn’t want any, day over!  For a start there were 700 people queuing for 3 hours & we worked out that each guest would have to sign at least 4 autographs a minute to get through it! Unsurprisingly, several guests complained & we actually left long before the queue had reduced down to being about 500 yards.  The good thing was that we met up with quite a few friends that we hadn’t seen for quite a while so lots of hugging & kissing ( not Torchwood style may I add despite Jason & Pete being dressed as Capt Jack)! Interestingly, there was a transvestite Martha Jones & I have to say he looked pretty good. (scared the pants off Jason)!  James went dressed as Harold Saxon but no-one noticed but then again hardly anyone was in costume.
10^th Planet monopolised the dealers’ area, nothing new or different & prices inflated.  There was an artist called Steve Caldwell who had lots of interesting prints so I bought a rather good Capt Jack but this was pretty much it.
Tom Baker did a hysterical 30 minute turn & was well worth seeing, don’t think we will see him again as he likes to stay at homes these days.  I will be dropping an email to 10^th Planet though to express my ‘feelings’ on the event.
Convention number 2 of the month was the Heroes convention ‘Eclipse’ in Northampton.  Despite the dodgy half hour where Emma & I were on the verge of tearing the heads off the organisers at which point James & Andy did a runner it was actually well organised & well thought out. The registration pack contained official Heroes photographs of all the guest present, 3 Heroes badges & other bits & pieces.  Have to say best reg pack I’ve ever had & I’ve been to a lot of cons.  The Friday night party was a Prom night with lots of Cheerleaders (surprise) & a live rock band even though they looked 12 they were quite good covering tracks from Blink 182 to Good Charlotte etc.  Saturday morning & Emma had planned a photo session with Santiago Cabrera for my birthday treat – this is where we got a bit cross (ha!) complete disorganisation, nobody new what queue was for what, if it was their turn to queue & the stewards were rude & hadn’t got a clue, although we did eventually find a woman who had a vague idea. In the end we joined to queue for the photo session regardless of whether it was our turn or not, once we got there we didn’t care about the hassle anymore as Santiago was just so good looking we couldn’t concentrate.  We also managed to secure 3 out of the 6 guests’ autographs.  Saturday evening we went to a restaurant called Aroma which was a Chinese buffet style place & eat as much as you like for a set price.  (I think Andy ate for all of us & James didn’t do too bad either!)  After that, we went to the Saturday night con party which was ‘The Nathan Petrelli Campaign Inaugural Ball’  There were red, white & blue balloons everywhere, more ‘vote Petrelli’ badges lying about than Emma & I could possibly cram into our handbags & the entertainment for the evening was ‘Mickey J’ a Michael Jackson & ‘she’ was really good!  It was like my very own birthday party so I nicked a few balloons & downed a couple of Petrelli punch cocktails. Probably the best con party I have been to.  Sunday started differently, I had registered to take part in Sport Relief Mile so needed to be up at Radio Northampton for 11am.  James, Emma & Andy came with me, laughed while I had to do the 15 minute aerobic warm up (despite the long walk to get there) & partly escorted me around the course.  Andy timed me & said I did it in 13 minutes which is pretty speedy for someone with an arthritic hip in my opinion!  We returned cold & wet to the hotel & Emma blitzed our way through the remaining autographs.  We weren’t staying another night so decided to leave late afternoon.   The organisers plan to get all the actors from Heroes over to cons & there is another Heroes con in November also in Northampton.  I am tempted but forgoing ‘Asylum’ & ‘Bad Wolf’ due to lack of funds so will have to wait & see.
The SB410 committee (now known as Torchwood 5) meeting was a four hour brain storming session & big changes/plans are afoot so watch this space.  Despite what you may think we do work quite hard of thinking up & organising activities, writing the newsletter & updating the website & it would be nice if members could actually make contributions to help out.  Just tell a committee member about an idea you have, organise an activity, write a paragraph or two.  I don’t accept ‘I’m too busy’ because I’m too busy too but I make time as do the rest of the committee.  So, get off your butts & do something, it’s your club & if you want it to work you have to make a contribution coz what you gonna do when the committee burn out??

February 2008
Has anyone noticed the Bold 2 in 1 advert?  It’s nice to see that ex Doctor Who assistants can still get work!  Nicola Bryant (Peri to Colin Baker’s Doctor Who) is the mum doing the son’s dirty washing in protective gear.  Also, has anyone realised that Tosh in Torchwood made her debut in acting as Saffy’s dippy mate in Absolutely Fabulous?  
I had to laugh last night while watching the Weakest Link, the question asked was what show was voted the best comedy in sci-fi.  I think we all know the answer to that is Red Dwarf, however, the contestant, after a lot of thought, gave the answer as Blakes’ 7.  Oh dear!
Been invited to go to the Doctor Who launch party again although the date isn’t set.  Should be the 5^th or the 12^th of April & keeping our fingers crossed it’s isn’t the 5^th as we are going to a Dinner & Dance run by the Bedford Masons that night so currently practicing our dodgy handshakes!
Primeval drew to a heart stopping close this month, totty value Stephen was killed off, however, Emma thinks that Helen will manipulate the timeline to get him back – I DO hope so! Other great TV still showing:-
Supernatural, Sundays on ITV2 at 9pm.  As the trailer says, ‘scary just got sexy’ & when you see the Winchester boys you know why I watch it!  It’s all about ridding the world of Demons plus a few twists & turns & can be a bit nasty at times but all done in good humour.  On a par with Angel but a lot darker & nastier – big brave grown ups only!
CSI New York, Saturdays on Five round about 9pm (tends to vary).  Who is phoning Mac at 3.33, what is the significance of the number 333 which is cropping up in various ways to intrigue him, is he being stalked or is it a deadly game?  Keep watching & you’ll find out.
Crime Scene Investigation, Tuesdays on Five at 9pm.  Sarah has now left the department (& the show) leaving a heartbroken Grisham behind, although he doesn’t show it. Last Tuesday’s show was a bit odd as it seemed a little like role playing but I think it was supposed to be light hearted to balance out the build up to Sarah’s departure. 
Torchwood, Wednesdays on BBC2 at 9pm.  Seems to improve with age although I still maintain I could do without all the snogging.  Greatly improved by the appearance of Martha Jones for 3 episodes whom I thought was a breath of fresh air for Doctor Who & quite sad that she departed.  Hope to see more of her in both shows.  I wonder if Owen will start to decompose??
Ashes to Ashes, Thursdays at 9pm on BBC1.  Despite being the huge Life on Mars fan that I am I haven’t got to watch any of this yet due to a busy social life & forgetting to set the video!  I’ve heard that it isn’t quite as good as Life on Mars but I will reserve judgement until I get round to seeing it.
Looking forward to a couple of Cons next month, Invasion – Doctor Who Con run by 10^th Planet on the 1^st March in Dagenham.  Quite a lot on the guest list but I’ve had them all already!  Will be meeting up with some of the Lords of Time, namely Jason, Maureen & Garren whom we haven’t seen for quite sometime plus I imagine Cathy, Alison & Janet will be there from the Bedford Mine.
Eclipse – Heroes Con run by Massive Events 14^th-16^th March in Northampton (my home town).  We will be going with Emma & Andy to this one so sadly missing the club meeting but hey, it’s my birthday on the 15^th & I get the opportunity to get my hands on Mohindra & Isaac!
That’s it for now, watch this space next month for more useless info & Con reports.