Doctor Who Utopia in Milton Keynes – Utopia 2025 Reviewed!

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to spend an entire weekend with Doctor Who fans and actors/contributors from the series, then THIS is the blog post for you. If not… well you can probably extrapolate this post and relate it to something that you like or relate to. Probably.

I’ve been to a few events over the years Doctor Who related, as regular visitors of the blog will know, but this was my first time at a multi-day event where I booked accommodation and so could enjoy a sort of ‘buzz’ the whole time.

Well, ‘Utopia 2025’ was that event for me, in the sunny town of Milton Keynes. Yes, we are now on my England blogs from last year, I arrived after recovering (mostly) from acute Sinusitis in Romania and was basing myself at Northampton due to a friend living there. Milton Keynes was an hour and a half or so down the train line.

I wasn’t 100% that’s for sure still, my body was getting better, but I was still needing rest. So I had to pace myself a bit. Utopia was held last June over three days, a Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The venue was Kent’s Hill Park, a conference centre with a lot of rooms attached, so I booked around October 2024 because the event sells out every year, and I could only get Bronze or Gold tickets then as 9 months in advance Silver tickets were sold out and Gold was almost done too.

The cost? A LOT to be fair. And look, there are so many guests it’s not a surprise. I also booked two nights at the hotel, which was great because a lot of Doctor Who guests would mill around and actually spend time with those who came to see them.

Friday I arrived in the early afternoon and checked into my room, and then there was registration for the event. Kent’s Park Hill was also hosting a couple of other events, and was unsurprisingly on a hill, needing an Uber to get there, so it was not near any shops (ie a walkable distance). There was a dining hall and included in my board was dinner, which was a buffet. The food was okay, nothing super special but there was usually meat, soup, a vegetarian option, sometimes a pasta sauce depending on the night. And mostly everyone mingled which was great.

The rooms were pretty spacious and from memory I think there was a bath! And being able to retire to your room whenever you wanted was really handy. The days were full of panels – the guests talking and taking questions about their time on the show and their life in general as well, lining up for autographs, lining up for photographs and then in the evening there were different panels with a bit of a comedic bent and the best of all – trivia! One night we all participated in trivia, the second night there were two teams of three guests each going head to head. This was probably the highlight of the event.

It was/is run by Fantom Publishing who began by publishing books on Doctor Who but somehow slowly morphed into setting up events, and if you’re favourite show is Doctor Who like me the best chance to meet the stars of your favourite show is in the United Kingdom, the home of Doctor Who where most of the people who have appeared in the show from 1963 to the present day live.

Unfortunately a couple of the guests I was most looking forward to seeing had to cancel last minute. They had a couple of others lined up as replacements though including Graeme Harper who is regarded as one of the best directors in the show’s history. Highlights included Anita Dobson who wasn’t just in Doctor Who (last year) but also Eastenders and many other things, but she is also famous as she is married to Brian May from Queen. Annette Badlands, who appeared in 3 episodes in 2005 is pretty well known too for her role as barkeep in ‘Ted Lasso’.

From Doctor Who’s Classic era there were loads of people, special mention to Mathew Waterhouse who played Adric in the early 1980s and Wendy Padbury who was Zoe in the late 1960s, both were clearly having a good time and joking around with the fans, and when on stage were really entertaining. I got to have a long chat with Paul Vanezis too who works on the team that has restored old Doctor Who episodes for DVD and Blu-Ray release and also knows a bit about missing episodes and film collecting. And there was plenty of merch to buy as well, I met a few other fans (although these days I don’t meet people as easily as I did when I was in my 20s) and genuinely had a great time. I really recommend it if you’re a Doctor Who fan, because you get as close as you can to the guests and there are just so many, some for one day, some stay overnight and are involved for two days.

Others included but not limited to: John Levene, Sophie Aldred, Frazer Hines, Barnaby Edwards, Gareth David-Lloyd, Frances White, Michael E. Bryant, Nicholas Pegg, David Troughton and many many more! SO yes, it’s a wonderful event, and even if Milton Keynes is generally the butt of many jokes in the UK, the venue itself is perfect for the event and Milton Keynes is central and generally easy to reach. Kudos to Fantom Publishing for running such an awesome event.

The only downside for me was that it was busses replacing trains for the journey back to Northampton. Mind you, it did make me feel at home it’s a regular occurrence in Melbourne! Anyways – that wasn’t quite the end to my Doctor Who related adventures. I would visit the town where the classic 1971 story ‘The Daemons’ was filmed (a genuine pilgrimage for Doctor Who fans) and see a couple more Doctor Who stars on a short visit to Swindon. Plus there was more of the UK to explore with days in London, Manchester and Liverpool, and they are all coming up on ‘the BLOG’.