The ConventionsLondon:1999 2024
The Conventions
The convention hotel was the Renaissance London Heathrow. It was originally planned for the Radisson, 5 minutes across the road, and several of us stayed there. The convention had about 200 attendees.
The National Film and Sci-Fi Museum was opened on 26 August 2021, in a location next to the central Milton Keynes shopping centre, and easily accessible by public transport from London. It is normally open on Fridays, Saturday and Sunday, but was opened specially for the convention group. Among the many original props is the original Moonbase Alpha, and a full-sized replica moonbuggy.
On registration, attendees got a lanyard, purple tote bag, and a folder with three pictures suitable for autographs.
Most of the sessions occurred in conference rooms; this was the opening ceremony by Jack McKenzie. There were video messages from Johnny Byrne's wife Sandy and by Barbara Bain, who was deeply moved by the recent death of fan Rosie Badgett, who had been involved in running conventions for 40 years.
There were mostly two streams of programming, one for guest panels, the other for more fan-oriented activities.
Jamie Anderson showed the prototype of the Zika/Giant Leap Toys giant Eagle, which was revealed and went on pre-order at the convention.
Anderson also launched their new book The Armageddon Engine with author James Swallow signing copies on Saturday. Fanderson launched their new Destination Moonbase Alpha soundtrack, plus a set of Year 2 cards
Some of these were based on Martin Landau's ITC tapes plus recreated edits
The "Theatrical cut" was a widescreen version including all the cut scenes audio (usually accompanied by still photos) and some cut SFX scenes (from the "this episode" sequence and DVD/Blu-ray deleted scenes extras). While Gerry Anderson repeatedly said the original version of Breakaway was 90 minutes or even 2 hours long, this 70 minute version was the longest it could have been. It is actually somewhat longer, as includes both the original scenes (such as Koenig watching a TV report at the start) and the re-shot version (Koenig talking directly to Simmonds on the screen).
The theatrical cut was followed by a short film (generic space scenes) narrated by Anton Phillips titled "Return to Moonbase Alpha" following on from Message From Moonbase Alpha. It was conceived by Robert Wood and Warren Friedrich, and endorsed by Christopher Penfold and Sandy Byrne. Later a version with new visuals was posted on YouTube with additional shots from the series, digitally enhanced space scenes and a short "epilogue" with the Meta signal.
The auction on the final day included binders of Martin Landau's personal paperwork, Landau's personal tapes of the series, original scripts from Johnny Byrne's widow, replica and original computer panels, framed photos and replica models.
