#and probably doesn't want to have david tennant's schedule

[morsesnotes]

Is it sad that every month I get a little pang of disappointment that there's still no news of the next project Shaun is doing? lol

[anotheruserwithnoname]

The rare Jenna Coleman

(If you don't know what screenshot this is from, you aren't alone)

Incredible as it may sound, 2005 will mark the 20th year of Jenna Coleman's career as a professional movie and TV actress (timed from her joining the cast of Emmerdale). In that time, while nowhere near as prolific as some of her contemporaries (such as David Tennant who, for a while, seemed to have a new show out every fortnight), she has amassed a diverse body of work.

True, she has yet to score a major role in a billion-dollar blockbuster like Karen Gillan has done (Captain America doesn't count as it was only a cameo), and she tends to get snubbed by BAFTA and Emmy, but Jenna hasn't done too bad for herself.

That said, sometimes finding some of her work can be a challenge, or even borderline impossible, especially for fans who don't live in the UK.

Writing from the perspective of someone in Canada, here is a list of the Jenna Coleman performances that have become rare and difficult to see through normal channels. Some of these have circulated unofficially/illegally over the years but I won't go into that. I'm not including adverts or PSAs as they by their nature are ephemeral and usually end up on Youtube anyway (usually posted officially) so can be viewed worldwide.

Quick courtesy break for length...

Emmerdale: This was Jenna's first big role. In her 4 years on the show she appeared in something like 440 episodes (this per an Emmerdale fan site; some counts are far less). Although MANY clips of her from the show have appeared on YouTube, no full accounting of her appearances exists online, the 2005-2009 era of the show I do not believe is available for streaming outside the UK (if anywhere), and no DVD release exists obviously (Dark Shadows remains the only "soap opera" with a complete-series home video release). A fan site once had a rather big collection of Jenna clips, including from the "infamous" pantomime episode, but these were taken down long ago. Also impossible to find is the musical number the Emmerdale cast did for Children in Need on the same night Tennant had his first minisode as the Tenth Doctor.

Room at the Top: Jenna's first major role after Emmerdale was in this two-part miniseries that was infamously pulled from broadcast a few days before its scheduled 2011 airing due to last-minute rights issues; it eventually aired a year later (after Jenna's Who debut). Although it was at one point available for streaming in North America I don't believe it is anymore and unlike Jenna's other productions from her post-Waterloo Road/pre-Who era, this never got a DVD release, likely due to those rights issues. If you just want to see her topless scene, I guess it's everywhere, but the full movie is not easily obtainable.

The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot and Doctor Who: The Ultimate Guide - while not impossible to find as I believe they got official Youtube releases at one point, if you want to see these two 50th anniversary productions you pretty much have to obtain the expensive Matt Smith Years Blu-ray box set (North America didn't get a 50th anniversary set like the UK which I think had them). Another Who-related rarity is the short Songtaran Carols which was uploaded as a joke leading up to broadcast of The Snowman. It was also viewable on Youtube, but may not be anymore. It has never had a home video release in North America (nor has the Strax Field Report videos).

Lego Dimensions: Jenna has a cameo in the Doctor Who portion of this online video game. The game I believe has now been retired so you can probably find clips of her part online, but if you want to play the game itself, it may or may not still be playable if you can find it. As far as I am aware the two Xenoblade Chronicles games and DLC she did a voiceover for are still available. You can also find Youtube videos featuring just her bits, which is cheating but at least they're archived.

Victoria: The PBS Version. With the exception of the Christmas special (which was severely edited down instead), most episodes of Victoria aired on PBS in the US with several minutes of additional scenes - a number of which feature Jenna. These versions were available exclusively in the US on the PBS website, but for DVD/Blu-ray and rebroadcasts outside PBS, the ITV commercial edits have been used (which is good news for anyone wanting to see Tom Hughes' butt in the infamous skinnydipping scene). The extra scenes haven't even turned up on Youtube. There was also a PBS edit of Death Comes to Pemberley but I never saw it so do not know if any extra Jenna footage was included; the DVD/Blu-ray once again used the UK version.

All My Sons: National Theatre Live streamed a performance of Jenna's production to cinemas in the UK; the North American "broadcast" was delayed by months but eventually happened a couple of weeks before COVID lockdowns began. During COVID the broadcast was made available for a time on NTL's streaming service, and people with access to university library accounts may still be able to view it online through an archive service, but generally speaking it's hard to find these days. Don't even think about seeing her play Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons. Despite a fan reporting a performance had cameras recording it, NTL never streamed it so, if you couldn't afford to travel to London a few years back, you're SOL.

Inside No. 9: Jenna's guest appearance is widely available in the UK on DVD and streaming. But not in North America where Inside No. 9 is not a thing. (Her other TV guest appearance on Thunderbirds Are Go is not available on home video in North America but the show is syndicated over here and I think is on streaming too).

A Separate Peace: See image at top. During lockdown Jenna and David Morrissey starred in a live-streamed Zoom-based production of a play. It felt like something out of Black Mirror and was meant to be the first of a series of plays that never happened. It has never been restreamed or released in any other format. Officially the only way to have seen this was to have been registered to view the Zoom stream on the day, as I was. Other than unrecorded stage plays this will probably remain the rarest Jenna performance.

Jackdaw: It's had some limited festival exposure, and they keep promising to put it on streaming. I've yet to find any indication of this film actually being made available in North America. Doing an online search I got a conflicting message as to whether her other recent film, Klokkenluider, is on streaming in North America or not. Outside festivals it never got a theatrical release either.

All of You: This one is still pretty new but so far no indication of a North American release/stream yet. Searching for this one is complicated because there is another film of the same title that is streaming, so searches for Jenna's film often bring up the other one.

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It remains to be seen if Control, the project Jenna completed early in her pregnancy, gets a wide release. Series 2 of Sandman will be easy to find (Season 1 even got a Blu-ray release). Her other recent streaming shows are still pretty easy to find on streaming (and DVD in the case of The Cry, though North America did not get a DVD release for The Serpent like the UK got).

[radwolf76]

Ah, DragonCon. The first thing you need to know about DragonCon is that the elevators are over capacity nearly all the time during the convention. That scene from the Hunger Games movies where District 13's forces are rappelling down into the Capital's Tribute Training Center to rescue Peeta? That was actually filmed at the most central of DragonCon's five host hotels and it's the secret dream of DragonCon attendees to be able to vertically traverse that building with such ease. The adage is "you've got to go up to go down, and down to go up," meaning your only concern when the elevator doors open for you to get on is not whether it is going where you want, but instead whether there is still any free space for one more body. This has nothing at all to do with David Tennant, aside from the fact that DragonCon elevators will make you too feel like a madman in a box.

Now as for your actual question, it'll be hard to answer with specifics this far out. Unlike other cons like San Diego Comic Con, DragonCon is mostly run by fan volunteers, under the direction of a handful of paid employee executive board members who handle legal contracts for venue space and stuff like that. Because of this, details about things like schedules are often not finalized until two to three weeks out.

Also, because it's a fan run con for fans, most celebrities aren't there at the behest of some studio publicist because they're contractually obligated to promote their last project and getting paid a salary to do so.

So instead, they make up their travel costs through autographs. DragonCon facilities this by having one of the ballrooms be set up as a "walk of fame" where the celebs each get a table to sign from. The stars won't be at the table all the time, but this is usually where you would get your chance to stand in line to meet them.

In the past, the biggest celebs have been broken off from the main walk of fame for line control, but it's not clear if David would qualify for this (he's sort of right on the border of being big enough). Also, in the past, when stars have been broken off like this, there is sometimes an extra fee/ticket involved too.

Another wrinkle is that there is a professional photographer who contracts with many of the celebrities to let fans get photo ops in front of a portrait backdrop, with same day digital prints. Most of the time, if a star signs up for this, the contract specifies that they can't offer selfies at the autograph table. On the other hand, if multiple stars from the same show are there, there will also be group shots available, something that's not always possible on the walk of fame.

At past DragonCons, I've watched my household drop upwards of four figures for these kinds of pro photo ops, and in my experience, if Tennant opts into this, a solo shoot with him would probably run in the $100-$200 range.

Ultimately you'll just have to keep checking the DragonCon website, and their photo op photographer's website for updates. The DragonCon mobile app is another source of info but it doesn't update any faster than the others.

Okay so I have a question for anyone whose met someone famous at a convention: David Tennant is coming to DragonCon this year and I want to try and go for one day so I was wondering: how does that work? I’ve met smaller (no shade lol) celebrities at conventions and usually you line up and pay for whatever it is you want (selfie, autograph, etc) but since David Tennant is, well, David Tennant do I need to do anything special? Like do I need another kind of ticket or RVSP? Or do I just line up and pay like other cons?