Switches Gathering 3. Part 10 Au Revoir

Having written about all the panels, there were some stories that should be shared. Things from the Saturday Chill Night, or the fan meets or the autograph sessions. Clearly, these are just what I experienced from the table I was at or the fan meets I went to or when I happened to be in which autograph room, other people may have very different stories. Recollections may differ. And because I didn’t use any of these in blog 9, I am using photos from the closing ceremony for this blog.

So let’s start with Ashley at the Chill Night. There were vegetables on the table, including some tomatoes. Of course one of my table had to ask Ashley to recreate her classic line ‘that bitch just ate my tomato’. Staging agreed and props organised, Ashley got into role and as the tomato she was reaching for was taken by somebody else, she took a moment and then, in full Abigail mode ‘that bitch just ate my tomato’. Round of applause.

Then Ashley was asked about locations, a couple of us had visited a number of the Vancouver locations. She was asked about the Marshall’s Hotel from 3.05 – that was one of our location failures, we didn’t find it. Ashley said that the interiors were filmed at the studio, but the exteriors were filmed elsewhere but she didn’t know where because she was driven there and was asleep in the car.

She asked us about our favourite location. I said Riverview. Ashley was ‘Seriously?’ I was serious, It’s Magical. So she asked if we had visited it at night, which we hadn’t. So she has a point.

Conventions were very much the talk of our table. Lyne talked about Witchbomb last year and saying that they needed to diversify the guests, that they should have Ashley and Demetria and others. The response, quite rightly, was that there was a limit to the number of guests that the ticket sales could support. So Lyne said that she would stay at home this year. So she wasn’t at Witchbomb 2025 because she wanted other people to have the chance to experience that convention.

And then there is Citydrop. At the start of the con a couple of the cast seemed to be aware of it, but by the end of it ALL the cast were aware of it. Some of the American fans made it their mission to draw this to the attention of all the cast. Every single one of them was ‘If I’m invited, I’m coming.’ They want to be invited, they want to be there.

And there is rumour of an email having been sent to someone on the cast, but no details…

Then there was the boxing match between Cat and Demetria in the Sunday autograph session. Photo taken from a post by @Witchplague. The two boxing balloon gloves had been used in a photoshoot and were now brought to the autograph room to give to Cat and Demetria. Cat had first choice and chose the blue ones. Then Demetria got hers and got up and charged the length of the room to Cat and they had a friendly boxing match in the room, including chasing round the table. Demetria won, she managed to take one of Cat’s gloves. They were like this all weekend, great friends and rivals.

At Taylor’s fan meet, she was asked about Magic, the film with Taylor and Dom PC. So far the short film has only been shown twice, both in the UK and there is a 3^rd screening in London coming up. She was asked if she could help to get screenings in the US and in Asia. Clearly she can’t decide that, but we asked her to talk to Dom about it.

Taylor has clearly become good friends with Dom. They have been discussing music, politics, campaigning, and learning a lot from each other. Including trying to get Taylor to master a British accent.

We were sorry that Taylor wasn’t going to be with us on the Sunday. But she said she would be on an early morning train and this was giving others the chance to be there.

Cat was asked about Witchbomb and leading the singing at the costume competition. Was it planned or spontaneous? She said it was spontaneous. Then she was asked if she knew the cultural significance of that song to the English, she didn’t. It is the anthem of The Lionesses, the England women’s football team. The weekend before Witchbomb, the England Lionesses had played in the European Cup Final and won. That song was everywhere, so we all knew it and were used to singing it as a crowd. It’s nickname is ‘the halftime song’ because that is when it is usually sung, and she sang it at ‘halftime’ in the costume competition. It couldn’t be more perfect if she had spent hours planning it. It was suggested she might want to reframe that story.

She was asked about Eliot Laurence and the fact that he seems to have disappeared. She said that they didn’t see much of him anyway. The Custodians of the Canon were Brian Studler and Amanda Tapping. They were the ones who oversaw the writing and the continuity.

I didn’t really realise until this convention, just how much the conventions mean to the cast. I have been to a lot of conventions over a lot of years. Yes, most actors enjoy cons, although some don’t. Yes, they can make sure the audience have a good time, but then they go back to their lives because it is a job. But the Motherland cast are the exceptions, they love cons just like we do. They want to see the other cast members and be part of the community too. They make the effort to get to know us too. They get a lot out of conventions and want to go to them.

This is the last Switches Gathering. Nevastalgia are closing the business in a few weeks. But they are sad about not having another convention as well. They have taken the Switches and the Motherland cast into their community too.

But this journey is strong. So it is Au Revoir, not Adieu. Until we meet again