LOTNA Review of 2013

by Caz Rudd

2013 was another fun, busy year for LOTNA with tons of events and activities for our members. This year we also marked two very special anniversaries, 15 years of LOTNA and 50 years of Doctor Who.

Thanks to everyone who organised events for us this year, and those who organised quizzes Chris, Steve L, Victoria, Kelly, Jackson, Penny, Janine, Mark M, Ed and Alan. Special thanks to Sue for producing LOTNA today and to the King's Hand Janine for all the superb organising she does for us.

The highlights of the year don't include the regular trips to the Geekatorium, various other film screenings, theatre trips, other conventions, signing events at places like Forbidden Planet, calendar shoots and random get togethers!

Throughout the year the BFI ran a series of events celebrating each Doctor. A screening of a story or a couple of episodes followed by a Q and A with actors and production staff. Starting with An Unearthly Child in January. The events were so popular the tickets had to be allocated by ballot to members, however, several LOTNA people managed to attend them throughout the year. The first and only Writer's Group meeting of the year was held this month, hopefully next year we can have more! The month ended with Science Museum Lates a regular monthly event attended throughout the year.

The first event in February was several LOTNA members going along to the recording of Elvenquest at the BBC radio theatre. The 30th Picocon was held over 2 days inclduing the infamous Destruction of Dodgy Merchandise! The first Book Club book of the year was Temeraire by Naomi Novik. A large group of LOTNA members travelled up to Coventry for the Redemption'13 convention. Another great geeky weekend with extra excitement for Mark and Me because we were made rival Drazi leaders. Though the greens tried very hard to cheat their way to the top, the glorious purples led by me were victorious! Space Stig also returned to help with the Starship Cool Wall.

March was busy with 3 meetings in one month! The first one was our 15th Anniversary, with a very special guest Shane Rimmer and we produced a booklet to celebrate our 15 fabulous years. The second meeting was a snowy social evening and the third an extra evening for the premiere of Doctor Who. The snow also gave an extra dimension to Wolfsbane; the UNIT live action role-play game.

April's book club book was John Dies at the End by David Wong. Kelly's Call of Heroes Freeform game threw us into a mythical land where good defeated evil. Sci-Fi London kicked off with the costume parade and our Gail and Anne dressed as Andorians had their photo featured in The Metro. LOTNA members saw several films over the weekend and a few brave souls went to the all-nighter events! On the Monday two teams took part in the pub quiz, House Reynolds took 2nd Place and the Manly Muppets were 4th. An away team saw this year's top Christmas movie, Iron Man 3.

In May, the paparazzi were out in force for the Star Trek into Darkness premiere, so were LOTNA members who managed to get themselves in a lot of publicity shots! And of course there was a cinema trip to see the latest Star Trek film. Another anniversary, this month it was 10 years ago that Firefly first aired in the UK. The Syfy channel was the first one in the world to air all the episodes and in the correct order. The month ended with the laser tag weekend, Dropzone.

June's book club read was Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. The BFI had a screening of Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing. Paul and a few others had an afternoon doing artistic things around London before the LOTNA meet. Man of Steel was this month's film outing. A large group of LOTNA peeps survived the zombie attack in deepest Hampshire!

In July there were two trips to see the hilarious Scottish Falsetto Socks! We had another successful weekend at the London Film and Comic Con. 2,400 flyers were handed out and our very own Kaylee; Maggie was a lovely addition to the stand. Film outings this month were Pacific Rim and World's End. We had an afternoon playing the card game Munchkin. The first issue of our new magazine LOTNA'Verse was published.

Our book in August was World War Z by Max Brooks that everyone agreed was way better than the film! A new doctor was revealed! Exhibitions visited include Visions of the Universe at Greenwich and the Radio Times covers - at the Museum of London - which included a Dalek. The cinema trip was to see Elysium. We held our first informal mid week Thursday night gathering with 14 people attending. The month's LARP had a theme based on the show Supernatural.

In September we joined the Londinium Browncoats for a charity screening of Serenity. It was a mighty fine shindig!Those jolly chaps the Fitzrovia Radio Hour were in town, so spiffing that we went again in November.The second issue of LOTNA'Verse was published even bigger than the first! Many of us travelled to Oxford, where with the help of Boris we thwarted an alien invasion and a zombie attack- the CRISIS freeform game. Probably the most anticipated series of the year, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD premiered- how did it do in the LOTNA awards? Find out here! The month ended with the LOTNA Auction! 220 auction items which meant loads of money was raised for club funds. For the first time we had the same number of Davids as Steves in the room!

In October Starbase 24 held their Klingon Banquet Missing episodes of Doctor Who were found The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear. The book club book was Gateway by Frederic Pohl - read a review by Kelly in the second issue of LOTNA'Verse. At the second Sci-Fi London event of the year the Octoberfest, again several brave souls went to the Mystery Science Theater 3000 all-nighter and still managed to make the next day's pub quiz run by Ed and Chris. After watching the brilliant Morgan and West, there was photo shoot for a very special reason. LOTNA has been sent into space! We also enjoyed a second Edinburgh Fringe show, BLAM! The month ended with another fantastic Halloween Party, some very inventive costumes and some fun party games.

There were three film trips in November, Thor 2, Gravity and Stalled. Last year Marian Call came to London and some of her live album was recorded with us at The Mad Hatter. We were pleased to have her back again for another very enjoyable geeky concert.The big event of the month was the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary. We took over The Mad Hatter who really looked after us with special decorations and Dalek cup cakes. Our biggest ever attendance, over 100 people watching The Day of The Doctor. A special Doctor Who issue of the LOTNA'Verse was published. The month ended with a trip to Camden to see the Christmas Falsetto Socks!

Now into December our Christmas Party, with a very special Middle Earth Secret Santa and the very exciting grand unveiling of next year's LOTNA Calendar! An outing to see the new Hobbit movie the next day and our New Year's Eve Party finished off the year.

Back to Our Stories