Gallifrey One has come and gone, but the experience is still fresh on everyone’s minds. Especially after Monday night, when Chris Hardwick (“Nerdist”) appeared on Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show to show what went down at the convention. He brought Bridger, the intern, to the con to teach him the ways of Doctor Who fandom. And it was glorious.
Bridger and Hardwick filming a bit for the LLS
Thanks to the powers of the internet, you can watch the whole clip here:
So, Gally has come and gone. It was a really great weekend. It’s like having 1000+ best friends for three days! On Sunday I was a co-panelist on the music panel:
Murray's Gold: The Music of Doctor Who
Afterwards my co-panelist Michaela and I were interviewed by the wonderful boys of Radio Free Skaro. Here are the show notes:
With the 2011 edition of Gallifrey One over half over, the Three Who Rule were still hard at work bringing you interviews with tremendously interesting people at the convention. Torchwood: Miracle Day is keenly discussed with writers Jane Espenson and Doris Egan, and the music of Doctor Who, specifically Murray Gold, was discussed with music scholars Emily Kausalik and Mikaela Schubert. Also joining us for the fun are our good friends Eric from Mostly Harmless Cutaway and Sean from Tardis Tavern. Enjoy, everyone! Only one more day to go… Show Notes:
So. I’m not sure where this idea came from, but wouldn’t it be fun to have a bingo card to carry along at Gallifrey One in February? You know, with each square containing a crazy thing, a costume type, a panel type, a guest, an autograph to get, a vendor to visit… kind of like a more fun way to keep a checklist of all the cool and crazy stuff that inevitably happens at Gallifrey One every year?
It’s already been suggested that the free space be a fez or a bowtie. Both awesome suggestions. Or maybe a piece of celery?
So something like this:
Doctor Who "The End of Time (part 2)" Bingo Card
… but for Gally stuff. Like “take a picture of a live Dalek,” “hang with the knitters,” “take a picture with a TARDIS,” “survive Lobbycon,” “collect 20+ badge ribbons” …. or whatever. I think it’d be fun!
Post your suggestions here and I’ll throw together one (maybe more if the suggestions are super awesome) bingo cards that we circulate at Gally!
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 …
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)
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!
