Wales Comic Con November 2021 Panels – Doctor Who, Stargate, Buffy, Charmed, Cosplay & More!
Wales Comic-Con made its return to takeover Telford once again this month, and brought with it their usual ridiculous array of guests from across the geeky spectrum. This marks only my second time at Wales Comic Con: Telford Takeover but they did a truly wonderful job bringing some much needed Con-joy to the area.
General Impressions
Despite being called Wales Comic-Con, the organisers moved the event to The International Centre in 2019 having outgrown their previous venue in Wales itself. Whilst I’m not sure how the Welsh people feel about this, for me, it means the event is now only 30mins away from my house now, which makes it much easier to get to… or it would be if the traffic around The International Centre wasn’t quite so horrific… So that would be my first bit of advice – leave more time than you think you’ll need to get there if you’re going by car… Getting inside was also a little tricky as no one seemed entirely sure where I was supposed to pick up my pass, but after a few circuits of the building, I did eventually find the right entrance and desk! The general admissions queue outside did seem quite long, although was also moving pretty quickly, so I was told.
As with the last time, I mainly came for the excellent panels at this Con, but did have a bit of time to wander around the main floor. The layout consisted of two large halls, filled with artwork, posters, comics, toys and all the usual wallet-draining geeky paraphernalia you would expect from a convention. It did seem a little larger than last time, but I’m not sure if that is my memory playing tricks, or whether they were running a reduced capacity due to COVID, so it was a little easier to move around. This is a Con that focuses much more on the guests than the store though, and they did have a superb line-up this year, who were placed around the edges of the halls, greeting fans and signing autographs. One nice new addition this year was the “Live Stage”, which sat on the main show floor, in addition to the “Main Stage” which was a separate room upstairs, which allowed them to double the number of people that could interview, and they were spoilt for choice!
The Guests
The guest line-up at Wales Comic-Con is one of the best in the UK, with people from across tv and film (along with a number of WWE wrestlers thrown in for good measure) there to meet fans, take photos and sign autographs. This year that included various cast from ‘The Lord Of The Rings’, ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Stargate’, ‘Red Dwarf’, and ‘Torchwood’, five of the Doctors from ‘Doctor Who’, Mary Addy from ‘Game Of Thrones’, and Mark Sheppard from… well… basically, nearly every genre show! There were also voice/mo-cap actors such as the ‘Red Dead Redemption’ cast, the ‘Gears Of War’ cast, the ‘Overwatch’ cast, Veronica Taylor from ‘Pokemon’, the legendary Troy Baker, and many more. It really is an insane lineup they get every time they put on this event!
The Panels
The main event for me at Wales Comic-Con are the panels, and we had a great selection this year. All the panels below are from the main stage. I didn’t manage to catch all of them, but the ones I did were just wonderful.
Mark Sheppard Panel
First up, we have the always insightful and interesting Mark Sheppard, who is probably best known for playing Crowley in ‘Supernatural’, and currently starring as Willoughby Kipling in ‘Doom Patrol’. However, you may know him from (deep inhale) ‘Battlestar Galactica’, ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Warehouse 13’, ‘Leverage’, ‘Chuck’, ‘CSI’, ‘White Collar’, ‘Dollhouse’, ‘Firefly’, ‘Burn Notice’, ’24’, ‘MacGyver’, or any of the other hundreds of shows he has popped up in over the years! I love listening to Mark talk, as he has a wonderful perspective on life and the world. Annoyingly I missed the start of the panel due to the aforementioned traffic, and he was wandering around a lot, so the camera work isn’t great, but still well worth listening to!
Doctor Who Panel
Next, we have the ‘Doctor Who’ panel, which brought together Paul McGann, Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker and Peter Davison, aka Doctors Five to Eight. They were just glorious, and a joy to watch, particularly the bickering and joking by Sylvester and Colin. An extremely fun and entertaining panel.
Charmed Panel
Now we head back to the original ‘Charmed’, and a panel with Holly Marie Combs, who played witch Piper Halliwell, and Brian Krause who played Whitelighter husband Leo Wyatt. They were so funny, and hilariously still act rather like an old married couple! Holly also has a wonderfully dry sense of humour, and Brian was just charming. It was so fun seeing them playing around and bouncing off each other on this panel.
Lord Of The Rings Panel
‘The Lord Of The Rings’ Panel brought together Billy Boyd (Pippin), Sean Astin (Sam), and John Rhys-Davies (Gimli), and was less of a panel, and more watching three friends who hadn’t seen each other in a while sit and chat about the old days. I think there was only one, or maybe two questions asked in the entire panel. The rest was just them telling stories, which led to more stories and anecdotes. Just magical for any fans of those movies to see these three chat and play around together.
Buffy/Angel Panel
We now come to the Buffy and Angel panel, which featured Charisma Carpenter & James Marsters talking about their time playing Cordelia Chase and Spike across both shows. They talk about how they love Cons, coping in the pandemic and what they did about it, and take questions from fans. Just two lovely people chatting about life and their work.
Stargate Panel
The last panel we have is for the brilliant ‘Stargate’, featuring Michael Shanks, aka Daniel Jackson from ‘Stargate SG1’, with Joe Flanigan and David Nykl, aka John Sheppard and Radek Zelenka from ‘Stargate Atlantis’. These three were great together, with so much teasing about the “rivalry” between the shows, thoughts on a reboot or return, and what they stole from the set. Really wonderful to see them together, and just makes me want more Stargate on our screens!
Wale Comic-Con Cosplay Masquerade
Lastly, we have, not a panel, but the Cosplay Masquerade. As you may know from our MCM Comic-Con coverage, I would usually take a bunch of cosplay photos, which you can find over on our Instagram. However, as I spent most of the day in the Main Stage recording, I didn’t have time, so I thought I stay where I was, and let the best of the cosplay come to me instead! I’m particularly fond of the brilliant Venom cosplay, and the Grinch was also hilarious, but amazing work all around.
If you want to know more about Wales Comic-Con, you can find their website at walescomiccon.com. It’s a really fun event I can totally recommend, and well worth a visit if you can get to Telford (which, to be clear, is not in Wales). The next one is in April 2022, and I would urge you to go and get tickets!
