After the amazing Wee Beastie revelation of the Costumers Reception Panel we all headed to the main hall for the Opening Ceremonies. The ceremony was simple and to-the-point. Shaun Lyon, the organizer, came out to introduce the many guests of honor. And may I say, the lineup this year was absolutely incredible. Katy Manning, Tommy Knight, Georgia Moffett, Graeme Harper, Louise Page, Deborah Watling, Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines, John Levene, Bob Baker, Andrew Hayden-Smith, Nicholas Briggs, Phil Ford, John Fay, Colin Teague, Alice Troughton, Rob Shearman, Paul Cornell, Gary Russell … and oh so many more. Shaun welcomed quite a few of them on stage, letting the fans see what they looked like in real life (or IRL, though I’m not cool enough to use internet acronyms and not sound totally lame), and giving us all an opportunity to welcome them for coming.

After some descriptions of what was going on, we were treated to some fantastic video hellos from well-known members of the DW family. Shaun was vague about the first one, but I totally nailed it! The conversation went something like this:

Me: I wonder who it is?
Iko: Well it wouldn’t be anyone in the new series … maybe DT?
Me (ignoring what she said, clearly): Matt Smith?
Iko: Naw … RTD?
Me: I bet it’s The Moff!
Iko: He’s way too busy for that …

Then the video came on and it was Teh Moff! What a lovely man!

Absolutely fantastic. And let me say here that I am not ashamed in how TOTALLY F’IN EXCITED I AM FOR MATT SMITH/ELEVEN/TEH MOFF. WOO!

Ahem.

There was also a fantastic video from Peter Davison, with guest appearances that I’m sure you’ve all heard about at this point. I don’t have video for that one, because I didn’t get the chance. Sorry! Look it up on youtube or something. It’s pretty funny!

Afterwards we did a lot of wandering around, hung out and depressurized in our room, then headed out to the Titanic Party. Which was brilliant. The room was decked out with props, toys, accessories, and posters remeniscent of the Xmas special “The Voyage of the Damned.” The hosts/hostesses were dressed in tuxes and maid dresses similar to those in the series, and there was a mock control panel made from an old touch-tablet PC.

Life Saver

Touch screen control

Who turned out the lights?

Guests of honor

A guest from the 51st century

Arthur Dent stopped by

If you don’t know who Arthur Dent is … well … you need to go find out. And I give you a giant bracket frown.

:[

After that, Iko and I headed over to the Casino to see what was going on. Iko grabbed some chips and sat down at a blackjack table.

Blackjack with The Master as dealer

I can’t imagine it went well, what with The Master dealing. They did confront each other afterwards …

The Master and Eleven face off

After retrieving Iko from the casino I believe we went up to our room and crashed. We were knackered. And that was only after the first day …

Up next, Saturday!

We knitters sure know how to spice things up!

Where my stitches at?

The Knitters were out in full-force at Gallifrey One this year. Tara Wheeler, known for her amazing Fourth Doctor scarves and her life-sized TARDIS replica, commandeered half of the Philadelphia room at the Los Angeles Marriott Hotel and Conference Center and claimed it for her TARDIS and for Ravelry.com.

Practically a 24/7 stitch 'n' bitch

As soon as the doors opened on Friday morning there was a group of knitters in the TARDIS room, helping Tara mind her TARDIS, offering to take pictures of people with said TARDIS, and showcasing amazing scarves and Doctor Who-related knittery. One brilliant knitter even shared her fantastic illusion-knit Doctor Who blanket with us. From straight-on, the scarf looks pretty much like a bunch of garter stitch stripes.

Fantastic illusion-knit Doctor Who blanket

But at an angle, you can see Cybermen, Daleks, the letters W H O, and a ?. Simply stunning.

What the illusion knitting illuded to ...

And on Saturday the proud participants of the GOTSCARF Traveling Fourth Doctor Scarf KAL got together for a picture with the finished scarf and the TARDIS:

The Scarf KAL knitters (can you find me?)

We put the scarf in the auction on Sunday, which raised $250 for charity! Go us!

Other Fourth Doctor scarves were found all over the place during Gally. I saw over a dozen different versions, though most of them were either season 12 or 15 from what I could tell. When the wonderful Mr. Javier Grillo-Marxuach (creator of The Middleman, writer/producer of the first two seasons of Lost, etc.) arrived on Friday he was sporting his own (bought, based on the tag I remember seeing on it) Fourth Doctor scarf:

Michelle/Michelf with Javier GM!

Ravelry members also at the conference got our own ribbons, which were plotted on the Who Knits? forums and brought by Nancy/tigereye:

The Ravelers of Rassilon

Our hang-out spot in the Philadelphia room was also the “official” meetup spot for the lovely gentlemen behind the Doctor Who: Podshock podcast:

Unofficial DW podcast meeting spot

James Naughton, pictured on the right above and one part of the international Podshock crew, was sporting a lovely Fourth Doctor Scarf-inspired tie which I believe was made for him by Tara:

James and his ScarfTie

We even dominated the latest episode of The Happiness Patrol, a DW podcast co-staring the aforementioned Tara Wheeler!

The Happiness Patrol, ep. 15: “Gallifrey 21″

We also got a great shoutout (a few, actually) on the Gallifrey One edition of the 2 Minute Timelord podcast:

2MTL 106: Gallifrey One Wrap-up with Shaun Lyon (TIME DILATION)

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The knitting love was all around at Gally this year. And it sounds like nearly all of us will be back again next year, ready to share the DW-inspired knitting love in 2011. I’m already plotting to make a knit Eleventh Doctor bowtie …

Check back soon for part 2 of my Gallifrey One: 21 recap!

This year I was fortunate enough to head out to Los Angeles for the annual Gallifrey One convention. It’s the largest Doctor Who convention in North America, and boasted one of the largest and most diverse lists of guests, panels, and activities out of any convention I’ve ever seen before. It was my first convention, so I latched on to people I knew were going: the lovely ladies of the Who Knits? group on Ravelry. I roomed with the super awesome Iko, who is also the generous soul that hosts this website for me. *waves*

I arrived on Thursday evening, and as soon as I got to the hotel the Ravelers were in the lobby, knitting away. A whole echelon of Tiny!TARDIS travelers were in the lobby to greet the con goers.

The Tiny!TARDIS Committee

I got to meet some kindred knitting spirits, mooch off of other people’s food, and have visual confirmation of the arrival of Graeme Harper, one of the directors of both Classic Who and New Who episodes.

Podshock Meet-and-Greet with Graeme Harper

(Graeme Harper in the middle, James Naughton of the Podshock podcast on the right, not sure who’s on left … if you know please comment!)

As soon as I saw him I immediately emailed my professor to brag that I was standing just a few feet away from Graeme Harper. If I remember correctly, my email stated something about it being “magical.” I picked up my name tag that night, so that Friday morning I could wonder around, check out the dealer’s room, and see Tara’s TARDIS in person for the first time.

Tara's TARDIS

The first panel I went to was the Gallifrey One Interview of Frazer Hines (Jamie) and Deborah Watling (Victoria) at 1pm in the Main Room. Frazer Hines is an absolute hoot. He had hilarious stories about working on the show, did his fantastic impression of Pat Troughton, talked about working on the audio dramas, and was a total gentleman to his compatriot Deborah Watling. Who was also brilliantly funny and full of fun stories and eye rolls.

Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling, interviewed by Ken Deep

After a trip out for lunch, I headed over to the costuming panel with Louise Page, lead costume director of seasons 2-4 (and the four 2009-2010 specials), and Aimee Steinberger, costumer, artist, and assistant director on the Futurama series currently in production. There were heard about the fabrics and costumes designed and fabricated by Louise Page, including the illusive material behind the Tenth Doctor’s duster. Apparently, when David Tennant tried it on he remarked at how soft the material was, and referred to it making him feel like a “wee beastie.” So now, whenever the duster-in-question is mentioned it is called The Wee Beastie. Some of my costume-geek friends managed to get small snippets of a fabric sample from the jacket, and these pieces are also called wee beasties.

Stay tuned for recap part 2, where I talk about Friday night! And here is my flickr photo gallery for Gally, Day 1.